I’ve explored a number of cloud computing solutions over the last few years, more recently for CRM, document management and project management. A common requirement for many firms is CRM as no well thought through business can optimise they marketing without CRM, whether it’s an Excel spreadsheet, Microsoft CRM, SalesForce or Zoho, etc.

For me, the benefits of a  cloud solution far out-weigh the alternative of hosting it yourself. Perhaps this is better backed up by the success of SalesForce in recent years. The move to the cloud is happening thick and fast and GMA is utilising Zoho as its CRM tool.

But back to the clouds and Gartner has cast a big heavy grey one over the survival of IT departments over the next few years. In a recent report, Gartner stated that Cloud computing is set to become so pervasive that by 2012, one out of five businesses will own no IT assets at all.

I suppose one can have their head in the clouds and ignore this prediction or take heed and embrace change. Even if it’s only to embrace the private cloud model – a compromise for the skeptics perhaps?

Ask most cloud solution providers and they will inevitably tell you that some of the main reasons to embrace the cloud include:

1. Delivers Faster Time to Value
2. Requires No Up-Front Capital Expense
3. Minimises Operational Costs
4. Requires Fewer Technical Resources
5. Simplifies Integration

Interestingly, two other Gartner IT predictions are that by 2012, India-centric IT services companies will represent 20 percent of the leading cloud aggregators in the market, and by 2014, most IT business cases will include carbon remediation costs.

On a lighter note, Gartner also predicts that by 2012, Facebook will become the hub for social network integration and Web socialisation.

In a nutshell, the CIO’s strategic initiative will clearly define the desired outcomes and those planned outcomes will subsequently provide the vision for one or more programmes which will give rise to a number of projects and their associated activities.

It is critical that desired outcomes can be realistically achieved. Planning to run the three minute mile or have a baby in four months is unlikely to result in success; regardless of how much a CIO, CEO or other stakeholders might want it. No one should set themselves up to fail. The capability, capacity and the willingness to change all need to be sufficiently available or accessible before embarking on ambitious change.

Some of the key questions that should be asked are:

1) What are the objectives of the proposed change?
2) What benefits will the proposed change deliver?
3) Does the organisation have the capability to manage and deliver such change?
4) Are there any interdependencies with other initiatives that are planned or underway?
5) How will business-as-usual be affected and maintained?
6) Does the organisation accept that considerable effort will be required to bring about change?

Once the CIO is satisfied with all of the above and other considerations, their vision for one or more programmes can become a reality.

At this stage, each programme is expected to remain aligned with the CIO’s strategy and lead change. Of course the CIO’s strategy also needs to remain aligned with the corporate strategy. The Programme Manager has a responsibility to envision and communicate a better future with a significant focus on benefits and threats to them and the ultimate goal will be to design and deliver a coherent capability and add value.

Change is always a challenge, but asking the right questions before embarking on a journey to change, will at least help determine whether the journey is achievable or not.

He discusses the importance of staying focused on the fundamentals, sharing lessons learned, and balancing new technologies with proven methods of programme management as well as the essential elements of leadership and creating a culture of success.

There are another 14 minutes to this video. You can view it all here

Portfolio management is defined within the Association for Project Management’s Body of Knowledge as:

“The selection and management of an organisation’s projects, programmes and related business-as-usual activities, taking into account resource constraints …carried out under the sponsorship of the organisation”.

When fully implemented, portfolio management can eliminate waste on unnecessary programmes and projects and can dramatically increase the percentage of such initiatives that is successfully completed. It provides a link between strategy development, finance and strategy implementation, ensuring that the organisations programmes and projects
make the greatest possible contribution to on-going success.

The booklet begins by explaining how the portfolio management discipline helps organisations to ensure that their collections of programmes and projects provide the maximum business benefit. It also explains that portfolio management provides answers to the questions:

• are we undertaking the right combination of programmes and projects to achieve our organisational strategy?
• are all the programmes and projects in the portfolio likely to deliver the expected business benefits?
• could we use our scarce investment resources better by cancelling some initiatives and investing in others?

When fully implemented, portfolio management can eliminate waste on unnecessary programmes and projects and can dramatically increase the percentage of such initiatives that is successfully completed. It provides a link between strategy development, finance and strategy implementation, ensuring that the organisations programmes and projects
make the greatest possible contribution to on-going success.

The APM is expected to publish the final version of the booklet (by Paul Rayner and the committee and membership of ProgM) in October 2009.

In one of its documents, it outlines the following critical factors for success:

• Leadership and commitment from the project’s Senior Responsible Owner (SRO)
• Involvement of key stakeholders throughout the project
• Roles and responsibilities clearly understood by everyone involved in the project, with clear communication lines
• An integrated project team consisting of client, designers, constructors and specialist suppliers, with input from facilities managers/operators
• An integrated process in which design, construction, operation and maintenance are considered as a whole
• Design that takes account of functionality, appropriate build quality and impact on the environment
• Commitment to excellence in health and safety performance
• Procurement and contract strategies that ensure the provision of an integrated project team
• Risk and value management that involves the entire project team, actively managed throughout the project
• Award of contract on the basis of best value for money over the whole life of the facility, not lowest tender price
• Commitment to continuous improvement
• Commitment to best practice in sustainability

The OGC’s respository for construction projects currently consists of:

The Achieving Excellence Series:

• Construction Projects Pocketbook
• Initiative into Action
• Project Organisation
• Project Procurement Lifecycle
• Risk and Value Management
• The Integrated Project Team
• Procurement and Contract Strategies
• Whole-Life costing
• Improving Performance
• Design Quality
• Health and Safety
• Sustainability

And …

• A Manager’s Checklist
• Common Minimum Standards
• Guide to Best ‘Fair Payment’ Practices
• Making competition work for you

These are well worth a read for anyone involved in the construction business, particularly within a Government environment.

You can access the documents at the OGC site here

Many aspects of life rely on communication. School, parenting, relationships, sport, politics, social and business are just a few. The trouble is, when communication is performed poorly or not at all in any of these areas, people and results suffer.

Programme Management is no different and although we sometimes use advanced techniques to manage risk, apply the latest processes to operate more effectively, etc, communication is more about understanding people than anything else. The guidelines set out by the OGC and other organisations are certainly very useful references, but those guidelines can only become truly effective when they are applied by a Programme Manager who understands the human element of communication. Or put simply, someone who understands people and the environment around them.

The Gower Book of Programme Management highlights the fact that a Programme is often in greater need for effective communication because it is often a one-off initiative which can face unique issues and challenges. It goes on to explain that a programme will not always enjoy the luxury of a regular set of commercial disciplines and management structures, which means effective communication is often more critical.

A Strategic Tool
Sometimes we focus on specific areas of managing a programme and as a result, items such as the Communications Plan drift into the background as other matters take precedence. The fact is, many people do not appreciate the real benefits of a Communications Plan.

The Programme Communications Plan should be seen as a strategic tool and a living breathing document, as opposed to a static document which has a few blanks to be filled in and is seen as a chore that needs to be done to get a tick in the box. When the plan is created with this frame of mind, often that Programme Manager will proceed to communicate on the fly, as opposed to according to plan. The result of communicating on the fly is often a hurried, mediocre or worse effort that will only serve to achieve mediocre or worse results. It’s almost like a Project Manager creating a detailed schedule then ignoring it. Neither is a recipe for success.

The Communications Plan should be seen as a powerful tool to help us build relationships. With the influence that both internal and external stakeholders can have on our programmes, I see that as a very high priority and one which is often overlooked. If the programme hits a problem, ideally we want informed stakeholders with whom we have already built relationships, to support us when things get tough. We are far more likely to gain support from people with whom we have built understanding relationships than from those who are strangers and know little or nothing about us, our programme or objectives. Furthermore, the better our relationships, the less likely we are to encounter problems.

At the most basic level, the failure to follow a good Communications Plan will often result in complaints such as; “I don’t understand”, “you didn’t tell me” and “where did this come from?”

Treat the Communications Plan as a dynamic tool that can be used to foster relationships and promote your programme. To do this it needs to be a living breathing high priority document which is both implemented and kept up to date.

The 5th Habit of Highly Effective People
In his best seller, ‘7 Habits of Highly Effective People’ Stephen Covey’s 5th Habit is about the principles of empathic communication and he describes communication as the most important skill in life. He writes, “if I were to summarise in one sentence the single most important principle I have learned in the field of interpersonal relations, it would be this: ‘seek first to understand, then to be understood’. This principle is the key to effective interpersonal communication”.

Similarly, in his book ‘People Skills’, Robert Bolton writes, “communication skills alone are insufficient …the person who has mastered the skills of communication but lacks genuineness, love and empathy will find his expertise irrelevant or even harmful”.

The point I’m getting to is that whether we are managing internal or external programme communications, the Communications Plan in the hands of a Programme Manager who neglects the art of emphatic communication can be likened to the baton (stick) in the hands of a tone-deaf conductor. Of course the Communications Plan alone gets you a tick in the box, but that’s missing the point isn’t it.

Not everyone is blessed with great people skills and those that seem gifted in this area have often acquired their skills from the environment in which they grew up as children and then on through adult life. Our environment certainly plays a big part in developing these skills as children and adults. But regardless of how well developed our people skills are, the more aware we are of our people skills, the more we can improve them. Robert Bolton’s ‘People Skills’ book and Neuro Linguistic Programming are just two examples of how we can enhance our people skills.

Whilst some might think that improving their people skills is a rather basic subject for professional managers or leaders, take a look at one of the most powerful leaders in the world. George Bush certainly has a long way to go to become a great communicator and although he reached the top of his business, he continues to be ridiculed by millions because of his inability to communicate well. Regardless of who or where we are in life, there are few who would relish such ridicule and fundamental failing as a leader.

Development Dimensions International, Inc. published a report last year titled the “Best Practices for Tomorrow’s Global Leaders”. The study includes responses from 4,559 leaders and 944 HR representatives from 42 countries. To cut a long story short, the most common reason for leaders to fail in their roles, according to HR professionals was due to poor people skills.

Figure 1 – Percent of HR leaders selecting the reason for failure
Reference: Development Dimensions International, Inc. “Best Practices for Tomorrow’s Global Leaders”
http://www.ddiworld.com/pdf/ddi_leadershipforecast2005_globalreport.pdf

As with many of the 35% of leaders who actually fail in their role, not every Programme Manager will boast strong people skills. For anyone lacking in that department, one way to avoid the perils of people skill failure (at least where the Communications Plan is concerned) is to leverage the skills of an internal Communications Manager or those of a Project Manager who seems to excel in communications. For the obvious reasons, most would jump at the chance of contributing at programme level. At the same time, the Programme Manager in question should take steps to enhance their communication skills to avoid becoming one of the statistics shown above.

The Meaning of Communication is the Response that you get
It’s all very well developing what seems to be a thorough Communications Plan, but the proof of the pudding is in the eating and the effectiveness of the Plan should be monitored and modified accordingly throughout the course of the programme.

What we communicate in our programmes will influence our audiences and how they react will influence us, or at least it should. Because if we are to see true two-way communications exist, we need to know how our audience is reacting so that we can react accordingly.

Encouraging feedback is always a good way of doing this because it’s how the audience perceives the messages that really counts. Failure to monitor and assess feedback can easily result in ineffective effort which might even have a negative effect on the programme.

When encouraging feedback, we naturally set ourselves up for comment, some of which might be negative. The key here is to expect it, prepare for it and be both patient and receptive. This is our opportunity to address negative comments and ask “what can we do to be successful together?” It’s the perfect opportunity to apply our people skills and convert stubborn stakeholders into supportive stakeholders – just like the good salesman who will relish the opportunity to convert a cold prospect into a buying client.

No matter what angle in life we look from, communication is about the two way exchange of information, not one way. Ignoring that basic principle is a cheap ticket to trouble – ask any successful CEO or marriage guidance councillor!

Communicating Inside-Out
The OGC recommends that that the Communications Plan should describe what will be communicated and the authority required, how it will be communicated, by when, by whom and to which audiences.

When managing a programme, whilst some associate the Communications Plan with external stakeholders only, it is equally important for internal purposes and we should tailor our efforts to both.

Introducing the Communications Plan early is always a good idea from an internal and external perspective. Not only can it act as an excellent PR vehicle highlighting early successes and raising positive awareness, but it can serve as a knowledge transfer tool and involve stakeholders sooner rather than later, facilitating greater commitment, understanding, motivation and momentum.

Internal Stakeholders
Personally, I have always seen the benefits of taking internal communications seriously, through the way in which people have quickly begun to feel appreciated, recognised, involved and informed. All this leads to a more motivated workforce which is critical for any Programme Manager. Motivational theory is a vast subject unto itself and has been studied closely by the likes of:

• Abraham Maslow – Hierarchy of Needs;
• Douglas McGregor – XY Theory ‘Authoritarian/Participative Management Style’;
• Frederick Herzberg – Hygiene Theory;
• William Ouchi – Theory Z – ‘Japanese Management style’);
• Victor Vroom – Expectancy Theory of Motivation

One of the more popular theories is discussed in Chapter 10 of The Gower Book of Programme Management; Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs http://www.maslow.com/. Maslow explains using a pyramid diagram, how our basic needs as humans are physiological, requiring things like food and water; this is shown at the bottom level of the pyramid. We then move up the pyramid to safety needs such as job and home security. Once satisfied, the next level up is the need to feel belonging, followed by the need for self-esteem. At the very top of the pyramid, self-actualisation, such as self-fulfilment, is shown as being our final need.

There are few of us who have escaped the feeling, at some point in life, of ‘being kept in the dark’, ‘not appreciated’, ‘not recognised’, etc. Some professionals can also lack self-esteem, even though it might not seem obvious. With this in mind, there should be no reason for any Programme Manager possessing an ounce of empathy to inflict such feelings on their staff. The Communications Plan can certainly help provide our teams with some of their needs and subsequently aid motivation.

Maslow delves deep into the theory of motivation as does McGregor and the others, and it’s worth doing some high level reading to gain a better understanding of the subject. However, at the most basic level, it takes only a little empathy to appreciate peoples’ needs so that we can act accordingly when managing people internally and facilitate motivation.

Bruce Tuckman’s Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing model discusses team development and behaviour in detail. Again, this material is worth reading, at least at a high level.

There are many vehicles with which to address internal communication, but more importantly is what is carried on those vehicles and how it is delivered. A list of 20 possible vehicles is included in the next section of this article; ‘External Stakeholders’.

Here are just a few examples of internal communication that can help motivate staff:

• Individual successes praised;
• Team spirit improved;
• Job security emphasised;
• Programme and project importance highlighted;
• Tools and resources made available;
• Successes celebrated;
• Overcoming challenges celebrated;
• …there are many more.

External Stakeholders
External stakeholders can make or break a programme and it is critical that the Communications Plan is sufficient enough to play its part in the game of Stakeholder Management. Whilst Stakeholder Management is beyond the scope of this article, it’s worth noting that the collective benefit of this activity is the creation of relationships which consist of understanding, trust and cooperation. Once again we find ourselves very close to the words of a marriage guidance councillor because again we come back to the fundamental task of communication and people skills.

There is a whole fleet of vehicles that we can use to deliver our messages to stakeholders, and our choice depends on the message and where it’s going. These vehicles can also be used for internal communication. Here is a list of 20:

• Announcements
• Blogs
• Bulletins
• Cascade briefings
• CDs
• Email
• Exhibitions
• Information Packs
• Intranets
• Meetings
• Newsletters
• One-to-One meetings
• Podcasts
• Press Releases
• Programme Portal
• Reports and Programme Documents
• Seminars
• The Media
• Videos
• Workshops
• Etc.

Conducting a Winning Performance
I have purposely avoided describing how to create a Communications Plan in this article. What I hope I have done, is emphasise the fact that the Communications Plan has the potential to be a powerful tool, which in the hands of the Programme Manager with strong people skills, can help conduct a winning performance that the audience loves.

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In its 3rd ‘Lesson’s Learned’ report, the OGC highlights four lessons to be learned.

Lesson 1
Poorly designed policy and/or bad initial programme set-up are root causes of programme failure.

Lesson 2
Project teams which explicitly set out to learn from past mistakes are more likely to achieve success in major new initiatives.

Lesson 3
Collaborative working is hard, but it is essential to achieve outcomes in complex programmes which involve multiple delivery partners. The PPM community has an important role in strengthening collaborative working with those leading on policy development and strategy in their departments, in order to achieve the desired benefits from high-risk delivery programmes.

Lesson 4
Assurance is beneficial from the early stages of the policy-to-delivery lifecycle. The PPM community has a key role in encouraging the take-up of internal and external assurance.

You can download the 3rd OGC Lessons Learned paper here.

More and more senior managers and C-level executives are failing to perform and losing their jobs. Others are simply stuck and find it hard to be where they really want whether that’s with their current employer or a new company. Most people “hope for change” as opposed to create the change they need to achieve their goals. Don’t live in hope. People who do, often lose out.

Secure your future – Download the FREE report that will help you perform better

According to some HR specialists, 2009 is the year of the socially skilled diplomatic character who approaches tasks with a “together we can” attitude, as opposed to the authoritarian “I want” approach.

The change that many have already embraced is from strict hierarchical vertical structures to more horizontal networks. The old manager was expected to organise, direct, set objectives, communicate clearly and enforce the hierarchy. Today’s manager needs to be a coach and an inspirational leader.

The new manager is expected to have or cultivate ‘soft skills’, relational and emotional, be a superb communicator and able to realise the best from the people that he or she manages. The need for strong communication skills has become paramount since to coach and inspire, one needs to be a convincing communicator. What now counts for at least the other 50% are social skills, assets of character, ethical and spiritual skills, which are difficult to teach and usually more naturally acquired through one’s upbringing or early education.

The latest Global Leadership Forecast is the largest research study of its kind (by leaderships experts DDI) and it examines leadership development practices among organisations in every industry and major economy across the globe. It taps the views of not only HR professionals, but also leaders up and down the management hierarchy and across all major job functions.

1,493 HR Professionals and 12,208 Leaders from 76 countries participated in the study and surveys were created in 11 languages.

HR professionals indicated that, on average, 37 percent of those who fill leadership positions fail. These leaders left their positions and/or failed to achieve their position’s objectives.

Reasons that leaders fail survey

19% Leadership/Interpersonal skills
19% Strategic or visionary skills
12% Business management skills
9% Personality/Personal style
8% Technical/Professional knowledge
6% Experience
5% Motivational fit
2% Other

The survey revealed that basic skills are leaders’ primary downfall. When asked about the primary reason that leaders fail, leaders ranked a lack of leadership skills (such as facilitating change, building a team, coaching) and interpersonal skills (such as building relationships, networking, communication) at the top of their list.

These threatening and dispiriting comments show a lack of even the most elementary principles of good leadership behavior.

Running a close second as the primary reason that leaders fail was a lack of strategic or visionary skills; inadequate business management skills was a distant third. Thus, the top three reasons for leadership failure were all skills; personality or personal style, technical knowledge, experience, and motivational fit were ranked considerably lower. Management level was unrelated to the leaders’ ranks, and HR professionals in the matched sample also agreed with leaders on the rankings.

In one respect, the fact that the top three reasons for failure were all skills is encouraging because skills can be developed. Multiple research studies have shown that well-crafted training can produce observable improvement in leadership and interpersonal skills (DDI, 2007). By contrast, the qualities causing failure at the bottom of Figure 7 are either so personally ingrained that they are extremely difficult to change (personality, motivational fit) or take a long time to develop (technical/professional knowledge, experience).

Download the full survey from DDI’s web site here