Change Management for Project Managers

If you happen to work on project or programme management and you like to excel at what you do, you almost certainly concluded long ago, that you cannot focus just on the triple delivery constraint of scope-time-cost. 

As a Project Manager - you did everything right but your project was considered a failure. Countless project managers have delivered their projects on time, on track and on target, and still they were not applauded by their top management, who considered the project to be a failure.

This is extremely frustrating for project managers, who in such a scenario, would have done nothing wrong.  Their line managers, whether programme managers or sponsors, have the obligation to continuously monitor the desired project output, ensuring it remains relevant and a contributor to the expected programme outcome.  

It is worthwhile stressing that, typically, projects deliver outputs and programmes deliver outcomes – read benefits realisation.  Obviously, large-scale transformation projects, set up individually and not integrated in a programme, can also deliver outcomes, but these would not be a majority. 

For programmes to deliver the expected outcome and realise the desired benefits, they must be fully aligned with the strategic objectives set out by the organisation.

Two decades ago, Strategic Planning would define 5-year objectives and roadmaps. Things have changed significantly, and Strategies are now “living organisms”, that continuously morph and adapt to ever-changing challenges and new predators in each sector.

What then, is the impact of programmes, caused by this dynamic of change?  How can programmes cope with the new strategic requirements?  What is the impact on defining the expected outcomes, and qualifying and quantifying the desired benefits?

The obvious response is “agility”.  No, you did not read “all projects must become Agile”. Agility is a mindset, not a manifesto or a methodology.  It is simplifying processes and flattening governance structures, and not eliminating them altogether. Agility is working together, at all levels and in all functions, to make the whole organisation nimbler, and more malleable. Resilience is also a very important factor to endure permanent change. 

This is where portfolios come into action.  The portfolio management function works back-to-back with the core leadership of the organisation, to understand strategies and objectives, and ensure these are translated into operational guidelines for programmes and projects.

Portfolios scrutinise, assess, measure, estimate, etc, and ultimately sift the programmes and projects selected to implement the strategy.  Are project's outputs contributing to programme's outcomes, and programme's outcomes aligned with the strategy?  Do projects and programmes have the elasticity and ductility necessary to react, pivot and transform, to ensure continuous alignment to (everchanging) strategies?

Portfolios are responsible for creating the conditions and setting up the scene that allow programmes and projects to flourish and strategies to be brilliantly implemented.  Through Maturity Assessments, portfolios map out the existing Company Culture and Governance and Assurance Frameworks.  Similarly, Capability Assessments determine the current aptitude of the resources available, to undertake strategy implementation. A gap analysis exercise will determine the effort and time required to evolve from present to future states.

Hence, if Portfolios are responsible for preparing People and Organisations for change, how can they actually do it?  None of this is easy but, still, it is easier to prepare organisations for change, than People.  There are a number of assessment models and approaches available, but I personally recommend the Praxis Framework and, specifically on Business Integrated Governance, the model developed by the CoreP3M Data Club,, also featured in Praxis.  

The million-dollar question is: “How can leaders work with people, to grow the company-wide agility mindset and nourish the resilience to change of all elements in the team?”.  This is not an easy ask. People don’t mind change, they just don’t want themselves to have to change along with it. But the fact is that they do. Oh yeah, they certainly do. So how can leaders lead people to change?  How can leaders drive people into scenarios of permanent mutation?  How can people trust change and feel safe again? What are the new foundations of individual and family stability?