{"id":205,"date":"2007-02-20T19:02:54","date_gmt":"2007-02-20T19:02:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/?p=205"},"modified":"2019-08-07T14:39:51","modified_gmt":"2019-08-07T21:39:51","slug":"creating-the-project-office-part-two-making-change-happen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/?p=205","title":{"rendered":"Creating the Project Office – Part Two – making change happen"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"jungle\" Part One creates conditions so that change could happen.\u00a0 In Part Two, change the emphasis from planning to doing.\u00a0 Now is the time to make contact with those people in the organization who must actually carry out the planned changes.\u00a0 A military dictum asserts “no plan ever survives contact with the enemy.”\u00a0 The members of the organization are not the “enemy” in the classic sense, but they can be expected to respond in ways that are perhaps not expected, not planned, or not even imagined.<\/p>\n

Here are some observations:<\/p>\n

\u00b7\u00a0Be flexible – a plan is a metaphor, not a law.\u00a0 Treat the organizational change plan as a guide to behavior and not as an imperative.\u00a0 This is the essential idea in another military dictum that “a plan is nothing, but planning is everything.”<\/p>\n

\u00b7\u00a0Beware – things may go easily at first.\u00a0 Change agent teams often report that initial efforts are met with easy acceptance.\u00a0 This often instills a false sense of security, an idea that things will continue without much resistance.\u00a0 However, what it usually means is that the opposition has been caught off guard.\u00a0 It is an easy time to prevail until the opposition gets organized.<\/p>\n

\u00b7 Be alert – unforeseen opposition could arise at any moment.\u00a0 The path may seem clear but there are lions, tigers, and bears hiding in the bushes.\u00a0 Develop a political plan and implement steps to approach the jungle proactively.<\/p>\n

\u00b7 Be ready – to improvise and make changes in the plan to adopt it to reality.\u00a0 There are three choices for every step in the plan.\u00a0 First, exit that step, leave it if it does not seem to be working.\u00a0 The second choice is to modify that step, making change based on the reality encountered.\u00a0 The third choice is to push on if the step seems to be working as planned.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Find a small project that is in trouble, show how standard project management methods can help the project, generate a “win” from this project, and then use that win to develop legitimacy and move on to larger projects.\u00a0 The project office team may suddenly find themselves involved in the huge, highly visible, bet-the-company type project.\u00a0 This case requires a radically different approach, an obvious change in plan.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Some suggest that to develop broad-based actions towards a project office should begin with project manager training and then develop expertise so it can eventually help in project portfolio management.\u00a0 However, it may be that assisting in portfolio management is the first task that the project office members are requested to do.\u00a0 A change in plan would be needed.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Contact with the organization often results in situations that seem chaotic.\u00a0 There is no clear cut organized approach to respond to chaotic situations.\u00a0 Consult your map, and push on.<\/p>\n

Adapted from Creating the Project Office:\u00a0 a Manager’s Guide to Leading Organizational Change<\/a><\/em> <\/strong>by Englund, Graham, and Dinsmore.
\n– Randy Englund, www.englundpmc.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Part One creates conditions so that change could happen.\u00a0 In Part Two, change the emphasis from planning to doing.\u00a0 Now […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[51,90,38,89],"class_list":["post-205","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-leadership","tag-change-management","tag-political-plan","tag-project-management","tag-project-office"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/37"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=205"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13668,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205\/revisions\/13668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}