Tài liệu Creating the project office 3 docx

Office manages and integrates all aspects of the 264-project, $530 million upgrade of Aviano Air Base, Italy. He has been a deputy base commander and support group commander. Operational assignments include duty as a Minuteman launch officer. Staff assignments include duty as a major command inspector general team member, as a missile operations staff officer, and as a political military plan- ner at the Pentagon. He earned a B.A. degree in political science from the University of Maryland and an M.A. degree in public administration from the University of Northern Colorado. He is also a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Air War College and the NATO Defense College. Among his numerous military awards are the Legion of Merit and the NATO Medal for his role in the air combat campaigns in Bosnia (1995) and Kosovo (1999). LaGassey frequently presents at PMI Symposiums about his project office experiences. Robert L. Storeygard, PMP, is an advanced project management specialist and is the 3M Traffic Control Materials Division (TCM) Project Office. He authored the extensive 3M Project Leadership Curriculum and teaches a number of project management-related classes at 3M. He is also the past chair and current interna- tional outreach chair of the 3M PMSIG, representing three thousand project managers and leaders throughout 3M worldwide. Storeygard works extensively in 3M’s International environment, helping to deploy PM best practices through- out 3M’s Latin American and Asian subsidiaries. In addition, he works with nu- merous St. Paul, Austin, and other plant sites, departments, and divisions to teach, consult, and help deploy PM in their business and technology areas. He is a member of the Project Management Institute and a PMP Certifica- tion Instructor, served as the Minnesota vice president of professional develop- ment and the National PMI Education Specific Interest Group (SIG) co-chair. Storeygard speaks at many U.S. and international conferences on project and portfolio management, as well as the project office, and his work and writings have been published in numerous articles, presentations, and several books. Storeygard has B.A. degrees in education and attended postgraduate courses in project management. He suggests, “If you need internal support for your PM efforts and project offices, you need to read Chapter Five, because without it you will be pushing rope uphill!” xx The Authors and Contributors CREATING THE PROJECT OFFICE PART ONE CREATING THE CONDITIONS FOR CHANGE W e write this book from the point of view of advising a small group of people, call them change agents, who are attempting to implement a project office to make the organization more project-friendly. Not all readers will be directly charged with implementing organizational change. However, since most readers are involved with project management, they will be involved with assisting in that change. Peo- ple involved in change processes often find them chaotic and seemingly without logic. Understanding the entire change process from the point of view of the change agents directing it helps all participants better understand what is happening and why. Understanding the motives and logic of the leaders helps create better partici- pants and followers. Each individual can also apply these steps to personal projects. To move along the path of organizational change, we break the journey into three segments, comprising creating the conditions for change, making the change happen, and making change stick. The first one, creating the conditions for change, is covered in the next five chapters. Figure I.1 illustrates the complete journey. Figure I.1 depicts a small group of people, the team of change agents, be- ginning a trek from the lower left corner. They are in a storm. Visions of a sunny paradise (upper right corner) feel like fantasy but still capture their imagination as something they want to achieve, something much better than their current re- ality. Not quite revealed to them yet is the complex journey they face. Each step along the twisted path is a chapter in this book. Y Since the mission is to implement a project office as a vehicle for organiza- tional change, the first step on the journey is to discover the processes necessary to lead an organization to change. Following the process outlined in Chapter One, the team identifies many clear dangers. Some of these dangers may lead to side- tracks or discontinuing the journey. To go onward the change agents need to cre- ate or identify a sense of urgency for the change among other members of the organization as well as determine how their efforts will add value to the organi- zation. Once they figure this out, the team realizes it has little chance of success without developing some clout to deal with powerful political forces. The change 2 Creating the Project Office FIGURE I.1. THE PATHWAY TO CHANGE. 1. Leading organizational change 3. Powerful forces 4. Focus 5. Tell the tale 6. Contact 7. Implementing 8. Keep moving 9. In or out? 10. Looking forward 11. The tale we tell Refreeze Change Unfreeze 2. Clear danger Pathway to Organizational Change agents understand that few people will listen to them just because they have a good idea. So the next step on the journey is to develop political acumen, a powerful sponsor, and a coalition of organization members that help guide them on their journey. With backing from that group, they proceed to focus on what functions the project office will perform, how those functions will add value to the organi- zation, and how they expect those functions to expand and grow. This vision and strategy is put into a succinct plan and a language that others in the organization understand so that the team of change agents can tell their tale—harness inter- nal support—to enlist the help of the entire organization. This period spent creating the conditions that will enable change is critical to the success of the entire endeavor. Project managers recognize this time as akin to the preparation of a project plan, which indeed it is. It is also the honeymoon period for the project team, for during this time—while the project office is being discussed—it will not yet affect people’s lives. That being the case, the project team can expect that serious opposition will not yet be formed. This is analogous to the “hundred days” that new U.S. presidents typically have before serious opposition mounts to their policies and programs. The change agent team can expect seri- ous opposition to arise after this part of the journey is completed. Not known yet is what awaits them in the middle section of Figure I.1. Implementation usually requires invading new territories or jungles—other functional areas or businesses. Sensing invaders, the lions, tigers, and bears emerge from hiding places in the for- est, ready to attack. For the change agent team to be ready for this opposition, they need to develop political acumen while time is available. Since the first part of the journey is a planning period, the team can expect the usual problems associated with project planning. Some will say the planning is a waste of time. Some may press for quick results and eschew the entire idea of planning. Others may agitate to quicken the process and get into action sooner. But project and program managers know better. They know that planning is es- sential for success and can easily take 40 percent of the entire time allotted to a project. For those who insist on skipping this first phase and taking a shortcut, we offer two cautionary tales. Cautionary Tales Lands beyond the bounds of the known world tantalized the imaginations of an- cient scholars, inspiring visions of a lush empire far to the south. Maps, drawn from supposition and mysticism, identified this area as Terra Incognita, the unknown land, newly discovered but not yet fully known. Only centuries later when brave sailors traveled south did they discover the world was much different. As we now Part One: Creating the Conditions for Change 3 know, the maps were incorrect, and their assumptions were false. However, what lies beyond boundaries is always mysterious and awaits discovery. The emptiness tantalizes us to explore and conquer this space. Organizational change agents exploring the future of project management face similar challenges as the earlier explorers. Misconceptions abound about what is possible. Newly discovered fads drive managers to launch ill-conceived projects or initiatives. Modern explorers also face unknowns, resistance, and chaos. More recently, in the spring of 1846, a group of immigrants set out from Illi- nois to make the two-thousand-mile journey to California. They planned to use the well-known Oregon Trail. One part of this group, the Donner party, was de- termined to reach California quickly and so decided to take a shortcut. They trav- eled with a larger group until reaching the Little Sandy River. At this point the larger party turned north, taking the longer route up through Oregon and then to California. The Donner party headed south, taking an untried route known as Hasting’s Cutoff. Since no one, including Hastings himself, had ever tried this cut- off, they had little idea of what to expect. Their first barrier was the Great Salt Lake Desert, where they encountered conditions that they never imagined—sear- ing heat by day and frigid winds at night. A more formidable barrier was en- countered in the Sierras. After a severe snowstorm on October 31 blocked the trail, the party was forced to camp in makeshift cabins or tents just to the east of the pass that today bears their name. The majority of these unfortunates spent a starving, frozen winter—the worst ever recorded in the Sierras—trapped in the mountains. The few survivors of that camp, who wound up resorting to canni- balism to make it through the winter, reached California long after the other mem- bers of the original Illinois group—and in far worse spirits. The first conclusion that can be drawn for the project office team is that many have gone before you with a journey of organizational change. Their collective experience forms the equivalent of the Oregon Trail, a process showing a known way to reach the desired goal. Although this path may seem long, ignore it at your own peril. Second, although the Oregon Trail was well known and well traveled, it was not necessarily easy. There were many difficulties along that trail and no doubt some people died even though they were on the known route. So taking the Oregon Trail is no guarantee of success—but it seems to greatly increase the chances. Finally, taking a shortcut leads into unknown territory like the Great Salt Lake Desert or Terra Incognita—the unknown land—as illustrated in Figure I.1. The route may look good on the map, but the map is not the territory. The best advice we give those considering a shortcut is from Virginia Reed, a Donner party survivor, who said, “Remember, never take no cutoffs and hurry along as fast as you can.” 4 Creating the Project Office This chapter begins by describing the project office concept and introducing the idea that the mem- bers of the project office need to think and act as organizational change agents. This is followed by a discussion of the idea of planned organizational change and the role of the change agents in that process. The change theme is then further developed by detailing the steps involved in im- plementing a project office aimed at leading the change process. The steps include establishing a sense of urgency, developing political acumen, creating a guiding coalition, developing a vision and strategy, communicating the change vision, developing short-term wins, developing broad- based action, consolidating the successes, and making the change stick. These steps will allow you to develop a project office that can lead the change to a project-based organization. 1. Leading organizational change 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. Refreeze Change Unfreeze 2. Pathway to Organizational Change 7 CHAPTER ONE LEADING ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE Abandon despair all ye who enter here. D ante’s Inferno opens on the evening of Good Friday in the year 1300. Trav- eling through a dark wood, Dante Alighieri has lost his path and now wan- ders fearfully through the forest. The sun shines down on a mountain above him, and he attempts to climb up to it but finds his way blocked by three beasts—a leopard, a lion, and a she-wolf. Frightened and helpless, Dante returns to the dark wood. Here he encounters the ghost of Virgil, the great Roman poet, who has come to guide Dante back to his path and to the top of the mountain. This book is your Virgil—a guide for all those involved with project man- agement and the move toward project-based organizations. It depicts the journey or process of changing an organization to be more efficient and more profitable by developing an organization-wide project management system, often called en- terprise project management. The enterprise approach to managing projects is a managerial philosophy based on the principle that company goals are achievable through a web of si- multaneous projects that calls for a systemic approach and includes corporate strategy projects, operational improvement, and organizational transformation, as well as traditional development projects. The concept is based on the idea that prosperity depends on adding value to business, and that value is added by sys- tematically implementing projects of all types across the enterprise. If those projects are managed effectively, then the company’s bottom line will be greatly enhanced. Y . can.” 4 Creating the Project Office This chapter begins by describing the project office concept and introducing the idea that the mem- bers of the project. rope uphill!” xx The Authors and Contributors CREATING THE PROJECT OFFICE PART ONE CREATING THE CONDITIONS FOR CHANGE W e write this book from the point of