May 1, 2014 in Blog by PMforward

In 10 Minutes the CIO Will Decide Whether to Fire the PMO!

With the appropriate array of skills and techniques, you can impact the decision and avoid irrelevance!

Communication – Make sure your communications are always…

• Complete
• Accurate
• Clear

Transparency – Never hide a dead fish in your desk…they do not age well.  The same goes for project problems!

• Red Is Real.  Report reality, not a forecast that can only come to pass if the stars and moon align and Sean Connery joins the team…
• Never Let the Boss Be Surprised – Executives *hate* when problems are beyond their ability to impact outcomes before they learn about them.
• Know Who You Are Talking To!  Talking to Executives = stay out of the weeds.  You have ten seconds to get an executive’s attention.  Fail, and you are now irrelevant.

Calm Demeanor – Never let them see you sweat!

• Problem – Problems happen.  Deal with them calmly.
• Rational Approach – Over-reactions are *always* a bad idea.
• Positive Outcome – Work towards the most positive outcome possible.

Think It Forward with effect Risk Management!

• Lessons Learned
• Research
• Mitigation
• Don’t know the answer?  –  It’s called Google….look it up

Be a Good Planner!  –  See the plan…the WHOLE plan!

• Facilitate discussions that uncover all the work
• Educate the team on how to plan and track and report
• Integrate with other plans that have interdependencies with yours!
• No Plan survives contact with reality…keep up with the changes!

Problems?   Act Responsibly!   –   How you react to a problem is more important than whether a problem occurs!

• Assess
• Cause
• Impact
• Severity
• Resolve both Cause and Symptom
• Track until Complete
• Improve via Root Cause Analysis

Be On Purpose – Happen to Projects, do not let them happen to you!

• Act with Clarity
• Service with Integrity
• Live with Intention