I believe that it is important for organizations to develop competence at translating marketplace and macro-environmental changes into appropriate changes to better serve stakeholders. No easy task, especially considering the "noise" that we all face in this era of accelerating change, time compression and growing complexity.
It was a tough week for blogging. A perfect storm of business and personal schedule challenges conspired to keep me from spending quality time on the blog. OK, and the fact that I have been holding steady at 99 posts for a few days, and somehow it seemed like I needed to create something truly remarkable for the milestone, 100th post. I'm over the "need for remarkable" part, but thought I would take a few minutes this Saturday morning to reflect back on what I've learned in this half year of blogging about all things management, leadership, strategy and project and product management.
Chances are if you are like most of the business professionals that take the 10 question Leadership Culture Index below, your organization can use some improvement. A lot of improvement.
The Carnival of Human Resources, Installment #32 is live today at the Maximize Possibility blog. One click leads you to 27 great blog postings on all things people, leadership and business. Go ahead and check it out. You will be glad that you did. Thanks to Jake Flanagin for running my post on "Strategy Bursts." It's in some great company with thefeatured bloggers.
Saying "No" to new projects and "No More" to projects in process are difficult for the best of firms and impossible for organizations without a clear strategy and the supporting processes. The participants in strategy-starved organizations have no context for decision-making and unless that context is created, are destined to founder and likely sink while the crew focuses on constantly rearranging the deck chairs. Armed with the context of strategy, project portfolio management is still a difficult task requiring unceasing commitment from the executives and constant vigilance at the project management level. If you are currently running around with a deckchair in your hands, it's time for you to look at the captain and officers and start asking the strategic questions.
Leading is more than just being the person in charge. It's about selecting and developing talent, providing direction and motivation, creating the effective working environment and providing consistent and timely feedback on performance. The "direction and motivation" component comes directly from the leader's understanding of the firm's strategic environment (market forces, competitors, customers) as well as the direction and strategies (goals/actions) that have been selected by an organization's management. Strategy is context that gives meaning and purpose to individual roles and group activities and goals.
It's critical for leaders to recognize that organizations that broadly understand their strategy and employees that specifically understand how their activities and decisions impact strategy execution are going to defeat less-enlightened competitors. Strategy is not an abstract concept reserved for the deep-thought thinking sessions of senior leaders. Strategy is a powerful leadership tool to engage the hearts and minds of associates and to fuel performance.
The most challenging leadership positions are the informal roles where an individual leads based on his or her credibility and capability without the backing of a formal reporting structure. These positions are often characterized by a high-level or responsibility for results with little direct authority over the people doing the work. The role of Project Manager matches this description perfectly, with organizations increasingly looking to the individuals charged with project or program management to play key roles in executing on strategic priorities. Unfortunately, in many organizations, the role of Project Manager is inappropriately disconnected from the strategy process and is often viewed and treated by executives as a mid-level or administrative role. This is wrong. Senior executives would be wise to tap into the unique skills, insights and capabilities of the best Project Managers as they look to build out their leadership teams and to propel their organizations faster.
Organizations that learn to work in “Strategy Bursts” are able to learn, adapt and refine their strategic activities faster than more plodding competitors, but this new style requires learning and internalizing a new approach to strategy management and execution. For many leaders and executives, succeeding with this new model requires letting go of old strategy habits and biases.
As professional project management practices (and project managers) grow in importance to a firm's success (see my post: Struggling With Strategy? Think Project Management), it is critical that top leaders learn how to support the process rather than beat it into submission. And because as the saying goes, "it takes two to tango," Project Managers need to learn how to "manage" their executives to minimize unproductive involvement or outright interference.
