Transcript PMO: Agent of Cultural Change September 1, 2004

PMO: Catalyst for Change
Dr. Gary J. Evans, PMP
CVR/IT Consulting
Topics
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Why we establish a PMO
PMO implementation causes change
Cultural Factors
How to deal with “Unwritten Rules”
Recommendations
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Establishing a PMO:
• Why do we build Project Management
Offices?
• You will hear lots of reasons, but they all
come down to this:
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Establishing a PMO
• Something needs fixing!
• OR
• We think we’re OK, but we want to be a
LOT better
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Establishing a PMO
• Fixing something or making it better
implies CHANGE.
• In the case of a PMO implementation, some
of the changes we might consider for an
organization may be obvious to someone
from a Project Management background:
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Establishing a PMO
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Project Management training
Formal Project Management Methodology
Improved Project Management practice
PM tools (e.g. templates, PIM)
Staff dedicated to conduct of projects
Introduction of Program Management concepts
OPM3® assessment
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Establishing a PMO
• All of this is good, and most organizations
would benefit from improvements in these
areas.
• However, in the case of a PMO
implementation, focus only on these more
obvious areas may miss the mark
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Establishing a PMO
• The reason: we generally introduce these
improvements with the assumption that the
organization’s staff are ready and willing to
accept all that the PMO would bring
• In addition there is the assumption that the
organization’s culture is one that can readily
adapt to change
• These assumptions are seldom true
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Cultural Impact
• So the first thing to realize about creating a
new PMO is that:
– PMO Implementation projects are
Organizational Change projects
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Cultural Impact
• Consider some typical reasons for
establishing a PMO:
– Improve PM expertise in staff
– Improve Project Success (i.e. lower cost,
shorter timelines, better quality)
– Establish a Projects Portfolio Management
System
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Cultural Impact
Improve PM expertise in staff
– This goal suggests there will be a need for
training, coaching, mentoring, establishment of
improved PM procedures and introduction of
useful tools (e.g. templates)
– This may require a substantial change in the
way staff view their jobs, their careers and their
profession
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Cultural Impact
Improve Project Success (i.e. lower cost, shorter
timelines, better quality)
– This goal suggests that there will be need for improved
project planning, better cost and time estimation,
perhaps the introduction of a Quality Program
– This may require a substantial change in staff skill sets,
intra- and interdepartmental coordination, and perhaps a
wholesale change in the way the organization thinks
about what it produces
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Cultural Impact
Establish a Projects Portfolio Management
System
– This goal suggests that senior management will
be intimately involved in the selection, review
and management of the organization’s suite of
projects and programs
– This may require a complete change in how
senior management understands its role with
respect to projects
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Cultural Impact
• In every example, the end result could not
happen without significant change in the
thinking, attitudes and behaviors of
individuals throughout the organization
• This does not happen easily!
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Cultural Impact
• So before we begin the job of PMO
implementation, it is necessary that we
understand the ways in which we may
become involved in Organizational Change
• In other words, we must understand our role
as Cultural Change Agent
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Organizational Change
• There is a rich literature on the topic of
Organizational Change Management
• It describes many of the factors that come
into play when individuals are faced with
Change
• In particular, there is substantial emphasis
on recognizing and dealing with
“Resistance to Change”
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Organizational Change
• Resistance to Change may be characterized
as:
– “Some of the Customers are not yet convinced
of the great value of this project and would
sooner that it go away”.
• Many of us have managed projects where
Resistance to Change has been a prominent
factor
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Organizational Change
• Resistance to Change can take many forms.
For example, you might hear the following:
– “I don’t like this new process. It sounds like
too much work”
– “We don’t do things that way here”
– “They tried that 20 years ago and it didn’t
work”
– “They’ll never get me to do it that way”
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Organizational Change
• Almost every guide to Organizational
Change Management will tell you to learn
where your customers are coming from, and
then to speak to their fears and to their
aspirations
• This works to a point
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Organizational Change
• What is not often mentioned is that there
may be deep cultural factors at work behind
those words of resistance
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Organizational Change
• Definition of Corporate Culture:
– The beliefs, traditions, expectations and values
shared by an organization’s members and
transmitted from one employee to the next.
The culture sets norms (rules of conduct) that
influence the behaviors and attitudes of its
members.
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Unwritten Rules
• There are many aspects to Corporate
Culture, far too many to try to cover in the
first part of this talk
• However, there is one aspect that is of
special importance to implementation of a
PMO. That is the concept of “Unwritten
Rules”
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Unwritten Rules
• Many of the beliefs, expectations and values
held by an organization are encoded in a set
of “Unwritten Rules”
• These rules guide behavior and attitudes
throughout any organization
• They may be beneficial or detrimental
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Unwritten Rules
• There is no intent here to decide if a specific
Unwritten Rule is “right” or “wrong”.
• Rather, there is only a question of whether
or not the Rule engenders behavior in the
organization that is contrary to PMO Goals.
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Unwritten Rules
• These “Rules” are largely unarticulated and
almost never discussed as such
• They may even be dutifully followed
without conscious awareness that they exist.
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Unwritten Rules
Nonetheless, Unwritten Rules hold
unbelievable power over the
workforce, and may be responsible
for much of the ineffective
behavior we see in organizations
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Unwritten Rules
• Let’s consider a not uncommon Unwritten
Rule:
– “It is dangerous to report bad news.
Find a way to make it sound OK”
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Unwritten Rules
• It may be difficult for any given employee
to tell you that this rule exists
• Even if they are aware of it, they may find it
difficult to explain how they know that this
rule is in force
• But they will know it in their bones if this
Unwritten Rule is at work in their
organization
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Unwritten Rules
• The implications of this Rule for a Project
Manager can be discouraging:
– How can you ever hope to get an accurate
measure of project status if no one can tell you
bad news?
– How can you hope to deal effectively with your
Sponsor if you have to be “careful about what
you say”?
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Unwritten Rules
• An organization with this rule in place may go on
for some time thinking that all is well with a given
project, only to have the roof cave in when the
staff can’t actually hide the truth anymore
• Further, this kind of rule puts people in a position
of having to compromise their integrity,
sometimes on a daily basis.
• This can have a negative impact on morale,
attitudes, productivity and much more
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Unwritten Rules
• There may not be any Unwritten Rules that
are universal. But there are some Unwritten
Rules at work virtually everywhere.
• Let’s consider some other Unwritten Rules
that might have particular impact on
projects:
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Unwritten Rules
• “Turf must be respected, even at the
expense of cost, time and quality “
• “Your time should be spent on building the
product, not on planning. Planning is seen
as a waste of time”
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Unwritten Rules
• “Asking for more money is “like walking
through a wall of fire on cut glass.”
• “You should always state a lack of
resources or risk losing what you do have or
getting more work “
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Unwritten Rules
• “Never challenge authority”
• “Never take risks. Even one mistake can
cost you your job”
• “The Customer of a project can choose to
not participate in the project, but they can
still complain if the project does not turn
out to their satisfaction.”
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Impact of Unwritten Rules
• These rules are bad enough in the context of
a single project
• Imagine their impact when multiplied by all
of the projects and on-going work in a large
organization!
• The sum total of all these rules can be a lot
of very counterproductive behavior
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Impact of Unwritten Rules
• The dysfunctional behaviors driven by
Unwritten Rules may be a major player in
the difficulties any given organization is
having with its projects
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Impact of Unwritten Rules
• And this collection of Unwritten Rules and
the dysfunction they can cause is precisely
what you may be running into when you are
asked to implement a PMO to “fix things”
or “make them better”
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Impact of Unwritten Rules
• This is all the more difficult because, as
stated earlier, the “Unwritten Rules” are just
that, unarticulated and generally not
discussed
• So if you are new to an organization, you
may be totally unaware of what is at work
and no one may know to warn you
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Impact of Unwritten Rules
• When these rules are encountered, the most
common reaction is to simply acquiesce,
since what can be done about them is not
readily apparent
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How to deal with the Rules
• I propose that these Unwritten Rules are one
of the major reasons a new PMO may not
have the impact that was hoped for at its
inception
• If we can find a way to deal with these
rules, we should greatly enhance the success
rate of PMOs
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How to deal with the Rules
• The good news is that there is something
you can do
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Step by Step
• 1. Find out what the rules are in your
organization.
– Get permission from Senior Management to do
this work. Remember, they may be the subject
of some of the rules!
– Work with your Organizational Development
Officer, or
– Hire an Organizational Development consultant
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Step by Step
• 2. Share your findings with the workforce
– Involve the organization’s staff in elucidation of
the Unwritten Rules
– Let them know what you’ve found
– Be open about what impact the rules may be
having on the organization
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Step by Step
• 3. Do Not Fight the Rules!
– It will do little good to tell someone “You must
tell the truth now” if an Unwritten Rule
enforces the opposite. Asking and employee to
break the Rules will simply put them in a
difficult position. Generally, the Rules will
win.
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Step by Step
• Unwritten rules live deep inside of us. If
you try to go head to head with them, you
may simply cause the people around you to
turn away from your efforts.
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Step by Step
• Remember Maslow’s triangle: Security is at
the base. If people feel threatened, it can be
difficult for them to focus on higher matters
• A direct attack on the Unwritten Rules can
result if significant feelings of insecurity
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Step by Step
• Since any direct attempt to change the
System is not likely to work, one must
consider another way
• Fortunately, there is another way.
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Step by Step
• It is a general principle of Systems Thinking
that “If you change the Rules, the System
will change itself.” So…
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Step by Step
• 4. Change the Unwritten Rules!
– Again, we are not likely to be successful in a
direct attempt at this. Instead, I recommend
two approaches:
• Work through a Risk Response Plan
• Work at the level of Corporate Values
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Risk Response Plan
• First, be clear about what you expect out of
a successful PMO. Articulate the Goals.
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Risk Response Plan
• Second, look at the behaviors of the
organization that result from its Unwritten
Rules. Identify those behaviors that present
significant risk to specific PMO goals
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Risk Response Plan
• Third, take these elements and construct a
Risk Response Plan. For each PMO goal:
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What is the risk?
How likely is it to occur?
What would the impact be?
How will you know that the risk event(s) are
happening (or are about to happen)?
– What steps can you take to avoid this?
– What steps can you take once they occur?
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Risk Response Plan
• Fourth, get signoff on your Risk Response
Plan from those individuals who are
relevant to the risks.
• Last, involve those individuals who are
relevant to the risks in monitoring your Risk
Response Plan
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Risk Response Plan
• This approach effectively uses a Risk
Response Plan as the basis for changing
counterproductive organizational behavior
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Risk Response Plan
• The Contingency Plans, Mitigation Plans
and Response Plans provide new and
beneficial behavioral paths for the
organization to follow.
• Underlying these behaviors are new
“Unwritten Rules” that are incompatible
with the old, ineffective ones
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Risk Response Plan
• By buying into the Risk Response Plan, the
organization is, in effect, changing its Rules
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Corporate Values
• In parallel with the Risk Response Plan,
there is another way to approach the
problem.
• This involves identifying and promoting
Values that simultaneously promote
beneficial behaviors and discourage nonproductive behaviors associated with
Unwritten Rules
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Corporate Values
• For example, if the Unwritten Rule is “Do
not report bad news”, a suitable CounterValue would be “Integrity”
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Corporate Values
• If the organization can successfully adopt
“Integrity” (with all of its ramifications) as
a Core Corporate Value, there would be
little room for hiding bad news
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Corporate Values
• Note that adoption of a new Core Corporate
Value is another way of implicitly changing
the underlying “Unwritten Rules”
• One could imagine that the corresponding
Unwritten Rule for Integrity might be “We
value those who tell it straight. Always tell
the whole story.”
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Corporate Values
• Any change in Corporate Core Values will
generally require involvement and active
support of senior management.
• If your organization has an Organizational
Development officer, that individual would
likely be a key player as well
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Corporate Values
• If you wish to engage in organizational
change at that level, be prepared to “be” the
values that you choose to promote
• That you are a living example of the values
you hold sends a powerful message to
everyone around you, and is a key aspect of
being a successful leader
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Conclusion
• To summarize, there are significant cultural
factors that must be considered in any PMO
implementation
• Among those, one must be especially aware
of Unwritten Rules that may drive
counterproductive organizational behavior
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Conclusion
• Unwritten Rules may be dealt with by
introducing different Rules that promote
beneficial behaviors
• This may be done by obtaining buy-in to a
Risk Response Plan that promotes those
beneficial behaviors
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Conclusion
• In addition, it may be possible for the
organization to adopt Corporate Core
Values that will effectively displace
dysfunctional Unwritten Rules
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Useful Materials
• The following templates are available from:
http://www.cvr-it.com/CVR_Templates.htm:
– EPMO Charter (Instructions and Example)
– Organizational Change Management Plan
– Risk Response Plan
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