In PM Experts we were all crazy about culture. In our free time some of us play instruments, some paint or dance. We follow cultural events and support various cultural initiatives. We simply cannot do without it. In our professional field of expertise we are also culture fanatics. Project Management Culture that is. We belief that helping our partners to develop project management excellence we ultimately assist them in developing a Project Management Culture which is a key to effective and efficient growth of their organizations.
What do we mean by Project Management Culture? We mean an organizational environment where all people involved practice reaching and sustaining agreement. We mean an organizational environment where all people involved practice cooperation among teams and collaboration in side teams. We mean an organizational environment where all people involved value honesty and trust. And by all people involved we mean clevel executives, managers and employees.
How can it be achieved?
Take a look at the attached picture. It presents the constructional elements of Project Management Culture. They all need to be addressed in order to achieve the cultural change in our organizations. They also require different tools which we use to develop each element, which I shall discuss below. First of all, however, we have to distinguish two major areas that need to be taken into account: organizational order and peoples’ practice.
In the area of organizational order we start with the development of a Project Management Process which is tailored to specific organization. It provides the organization with a standardized approach to control efficiency and effectiveness of a single project. We do it during workshops with representatives of the organization, later put it on trial during pilot projects and adjust afterwards. The following step is the establishment of the Project Portfolio Management assuring regular supervision of all projects in an organization in order to prioritize them according to organization’s strategy and available resources. It provides the top management with a standardized approach to directing organization’s development. The involvement of c-level executives is crucial to successful delivery of that element.
Standardized approach will not be sufficient to achieve all expected results.
We also need to work on individual competence level. We develop people’s skills during trainings. Higher skills allow them to more efficiently and more effectively deliver projects. Still we have observed on various occasions that after training people often go back to previously existing practices expected by their environment. In order to overcome this obstacle we need to work on people’s everyday behaviors. We aim to change group attitude and actually undertaken actions. This is done with the use of both group coaching sessions and mentoring during real life activities. It is obvious that each organization is different. So there is no single way to implement elements of Project Management Culture. Following the most fresh A Guide to Project Management Body of Knowledge, PMBOK® Guide, Seventh Edition (page 16-17) we could call it the internal project environment. Our aim is to develop the elements of this internal environment so they would support successful delivery of projects. In each case we need to go into details and prepare the necessary work together with our customer. We are happy to work on them separately if that is the case. Still we are most happy when given a chance to cover them all. It is always precious to see the end result.
If you are interested how we could develop an effective project management culture in your organization, please contact us at consulting@pmexperts.com
How to build PM Culture in your company?
In PM Experts we were all crazy about culture. In our free time some of us play instruments, some paint or dance. We follow cultural events and support various cultural initiatives. We simply cannot do without it. In our professional field of expertise we are also culture fanatics. Project Management Culture that is. We belief that helping our partners to develop project management excellence we ultimately assist them in developing a Project Management Culture which is a key to effective and efficient growth of their organizations.
What do we mean by Project Management Culture?
We mean an organizational environment where all people involved practice reaching and sustaining agreement. We mean an organizational environment where all people involved practice cooperation among teams and collaboration in side teams. We mean an organizational environment where all people involved value honesty and trust. And by all people involved we mean clevel executives, managers and employees.
How can it be achieved?
Take a look at the attached picture. It presents the constructional elements of Project Management Culture. They all need to be addressed in order to achieve the cultural change in our organizations. They also require different tools which we use to develop each element, which I shall discuss below. First of all, however, we have to distinguish two major areas that need to be taken into account: organizational order and peoples’ practice.
In the area of organizational order we start with the development of a Project Management Process which is tailored to specific organization. It provides the organization with a standardized approach to control efficiency and effectiveness of a single project. We do it during workshops with representatives of the organization, later put it on trial during pilot projects and adjust afterwards. The following step is the establishment of the Project Portfolio Management assuring regular supervision of all projects in an organization in order to prioritize them according to organization’s strategy and available resources. It provides the top management with a standardized approach to directing organization’s development. The involvement of c-level executives is crucial to successful delivery of that element.
Standardized approach will not be sufficient to achieve all expected
results.
We also need to work on individual competence level. We develop people’s skills during trainings. Higher skills allow them to more efficiently and more effectively deliver projects. Still we have observed on various occasions that after training people often go back to previously existing practices expected by their environment. In order to overcome this obstacle we need to work on people’s everyday behaviors. We aim to change group attitude and actually undertaken actions. This is done with the use of both group coaching sessions and mentoring during real life activities. It is obvious that each organization is different. So there is no single way to implement elements of Project Management Culture. Following the most fresh A Guide to Project Management Body of Knowledge, PMBOK® Guide, Seventh Edition (page 16-17) we could call it the internal project environment. Our aim is to develop the elements of this internal environment so they would support successful delivery of projects. In each case we need to go into details and prepare the necessary work together with our customer. We are happy to work on them separately if that is the case. Still we are most happy when given a chance to cover them all. It is always precious to see the end result.
If you are interested how we could develop an effective project management culture in your organization, please contact us at consulting@pmexperts.com