The Opsimath

BCM? What's a BCM...?

I recently facilitated a programme management workshop, during which we considered some of the key aspects and features of best practice programme management. And if it's best practice programme management our material just had to be based on the guidance known as 'Managing Successful Programmes (MSP).

One of the principles of MSP is that a programme must have a focus on the realisation of benefits, and one of the ways in which MSP helps us to do that is through the role of the Business Change Manager (BCM).

As is often the case on our MSP Practitioner courses, this topic generated a lot of debate. Let me summarise what is often said.

We start with, "Business Change Manager - what is a Business Change Manager", as in many organisations the concept of this role is missing.

Then we move on to discuss why the role is so vital on a programme if we really want to transform the business and deliver real benefits. Delegates in our workshops often get really animated at this point, as they recognise:

1. How essential the role is, because without business involvement we will not see success
2. How we often (wrongly) expect programme managers to carry out the role
3. How, by introducing this role to their programmes, we can take our programmes to a new level of effectiveness.

It is so rewarding to witness the light bulb moments occurring as individuals and teams begin to see what has been missing in their programme organisation structure. The clarity that this discussion often brings is regularly one of the key learning points of this type of workshop.

So, if you are involved in programmes in any way, take a look at your team. Do you have any BCMs?

If not, how's it going?

Knowledge transfer or Wisdom building?

One of the aims of many people working in the field of management consultancy is 'knowledge transfer'. This is the admirable goal of being able to pass on valuable knowledge to the client, so that they are left with added value at the end of an assignment.

Knowledge transfer is an interesting concept, as knowledge can take us one of two ways. With knowledge we can go down the route of arrogance or humility. The collection of knowledge alone can easily lead to arrogance as it can centre on me simply accumulating a number of things that I know - the more I know, the better I am.

The greater route to take is that towards humility. Greater, but not necessarily easier. So how can we take that route?

Wisdom

Wisdom always leads us to humility, because it is born out of real living; real experiences; real pain and real joy. Wisdom comes from the realisation that my knowledge is oh-so-small when put in the context of, and compared to, the knowledge and the wisdom of the whole of humanity.

So I believe that we have to take our knowledge and marry it with real living. The result will be our first step on the road to wisdom building.

And maybe that will become our aim as consultants - to help our clients build wisdom.

I leave you with one of my favourite quotes: Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit; wisdom is knowing not to put it in a fruit salad.

I hear what you say...

...except that in many conversations that have taken place today, people have not heard what the other person has been saying.

For an awful lot of people, 'listening' is simply the gap between the last thing they said and the next. It is a passive thing, rather than an active experience. If we want to really engage with people, we must work at making our listening far more active. This takes determination, it takes effort and it takes care - no wonder that so many people simply don't bother. 

So what is active listening? Here are a few thoughts:

Observation - giving careful, non-evaluative attention to the person speaking and making appropriate eye contact will enable you to gauge the emotional element of the message that you are receiving. After all, there is always more to the message than the words that are being spoken.

Reflecting Facts - by reflecting back some of the information that you are receiving, perhaps by the use of paraphrases, should help turn listening into hearing.

Summarising - by occasionally summarising what has been said, we can check our understanding and thus gain clarity about the message we are receiving.

Reflecting Feelings - we have heard the words, hopefully understood their meaning and been able to reflect and summarise them back to the speaker. Now we should also consider feeding back the emotional part of the message that we have received.

If we try some of these ideas, it is just possible that we will raise the confidence level of the speaker that they really are being heard by us, and that has got to improve the level of communication that is taking place.

Active listening - give it a try!

Resolutions for (Good) Trainers

Here's my suggestions for the top 10 New Year’s Resolutions for Business and Management Trainers:

1. I am a lifelong learner, therefore I will learn from other people - include any people that I am meant to be training
2. I will not be arrogant enough to think that I know all there is to know, so I commit to using the phrase "I don't know"
3. I will treat all delegates with fairness and tolerance, seeking first to know, to empathise
4. I will always seek to try new ways of delivery - stepping outside my comfort zone
5. I will not become dependent on visual media such as PowerPoint, and I will not use it as an instrument of boredom
6. I will check the arrangements, the logistics and my materials in advance - not taking anything for granted
7. I will seek to ask questions, in a way that will aid the learning of my delegates
8. I will try to understand what people are trying to express and not just listen to the words spoken
9. I will prioritise my own development to ensure that I 'sharpen the saw'
10. I commit to adding some value to the experience of the delegates attending the course I am leading

 

Other suggestions are welcome...

Counting Penguins

You may have heard that London Zoo have recently been carrying out a stock-take.

This is Adrian Walls - counting penguins.

How was your day at work today?

(The count of more than 16,000 mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, invertebrates and amphibians is a compulsory part of the zoo licence renewal.)

Help us fill this with learning in 2012

It may not be the most attractive building in the world, but for us, and the people in Nehemiah Primary School, it's one of the most exciting.

Nehemiah School is in the town of Yei in the world's newest nation - South Sudan, and this building is the newly emerging school library.

You may think that a new school library is still not the most exciting thing in the world, so here's a few facts:

• Less than 2% of children in the country complete primary education
• 85% of adults cannot read or write (92%  of women)
• The average class is made up of 127 pupils

It is therefore no surprise to learn that education is a major emphasis for this new country. That is why we at Roots have decided to put all our efforts in to ensuring that we get this library up and running (we are told that this library will be the first school library in the country...).

We have paid for the building, which is nearing completion. We have raised the funds to equip it with furniture and fittings. Now we need to fill it with learning - books!

As a trustee of Roots my main focus for the first part of this new year is to raise enough funds to allow our friends in Yei to purchase the books they require, and to pay for someone to run the library for them.

Interested in helping in some way?

Why not drop me an email at john@rootssudan.org

Happy New Year!

Change Management - a word from Patrick Mayfield

 

Are you interested in making sense of change management? This short interview with Patrick Mayfield may help you.

Learning - it's never too late

Our final principle of programme management - #7 Learning from Experience.

This principle is one that is also found among the seven principles of the project management method PRINCE2. Both programmes and projects perform better when members of the management teams assume the attitude of being learners.

In fact, a programme can be considered to be a learning environment, where we adjust and adapt our path through the programme.

Lessons should be something that we go and actively seek out, not passively record to pass on to 'someone else'.

An organisation's ability to learn from experience speaks volumes about its level of programme management maturity - how mature is your organisation's approach...?

This is one in a series of seven programme management principles that use the programme management guide MSP (Managing Successful Programmes). If you would like to know more about MSP, why not give us a call on freephone 0800 052 1600 or go to www.pearcemayfield.com

To Be or not To Be ...

... that's not really a question for a programme, is it. We are planning to create a deliver some new or changes 'things'. We have outputs in mind, we are thinking of new and improved capabilities.

We have an idea of the 'To Be' state in our minds, don't we?

Where am I going with this?

I'm looking at another in our series of programme management principles. Now, #6 Designing and Delivering a Coherent Capability.

The essence of this principle is that we need to have a view of both our current capability (As is) and the intended future capability (To be). It is only when we have these views that we understand the capability gap that exists, which in turn helps us to determine the projects that we require to fill that capability gap.

The definition and explanation of this future capability is expressed in the programme Blueprint - a key piece of information for the programme.

Think of every project in the programme as a piece of a jigsaw. Without understanding the intended finished picture it is difficult to complete the jigsaw. The Blueprint is the picture that is on the lid of the jigsaw box.

How can we deliver a final capability that meets the needs of the organisation if we do not have a way of ensuring coherence throughout.

What is your Blueprint planning like?

What's the point of programmes?

Well, to answer that, we need to consider programme management principle #5 Adding Value.

The point that this principle is making is that to run a programme (and to run it well) costs money. Programme management teams do not come cheap (!), and the cost of them is above and beyond the cost of the various project management teams already in place.

The programme must therefore add value.

"A programme only remains valid if it adds value to the sum of its constituent projects and major activities." (MSP) Projects do not need the structure of a programme around them if that programme is simply a cost and adding no value.

How then, can a programme add value? Here's just three ideas:

• Better alignment with corporate strategy - with organisations running more and more projects it is vital that they are heading in the same direction as the business
• A programme can deliver additional benefits that any one project could not: 2 + 2 = 5
• Greater coherence across the capability being delivered by the projects. By maintaining a view of the required overall capability (the Blueprint), the programme can optimise the project mix at any one time.

Does your programme add value...?