Only 41% of Organizations Felt that Their Enterprise PMO was Aligned to Their Strategy Transcript

Ross Martin:

Yeah. The ability to execute change is really going to be the new competitive advantage. Yeah. All right, our next topic is from PMI produced a study that said that only 41% of organizations felt that their enterprise PMO was aligned to strategy to their strategy. I mean, first of all, what I find so surprising about that, and then I'll talk about why it's not completely surprising, is the whole point of an enterprise PMO is to have a PMO that is driving forward your strategy across the enterprise. So how could it be that less then a majority of them are aligned with the strategy. My first thought on that is, well, I think it partly relates to the fact that PMO traditionally, leaders of PMOs, even e-PMOs, have traditionally still not even often been at the VP level and are often not included in the strategy formation of the company. And even in one case where I was the head of the EPMO at a company and I was in the strategy group as were the rest of the EPMO, the fact is we were still seen as kind of a cross-functional execution team and not a strategic team. And so we were, I wasn't, I was sometimes, but not always in the room when these sorts of things were being discussed.

Idris Manley:

Yeah. Yeah, no, I would agree. I think probably the biggest reason is the disconnect between strategy and the plans that are formed to execute on those strategies. Right. And so If you think about the hierarchy, the ideal or the optimal hierarchy, you have an initiative, then you have programs, which are in a portfolio, and then you have projects that roll up to the program. And then you may have sub-projects even, right? But you have a natural hierarchy in terms of how you roll up and you group the work that's being done and how it rolls back up to the initiative that it supports. And of course, the initiative then supports the strategic objectives that have been defined. But if you're finding that executives are defining strategic goals and then they're expecting PMO to come in and work on specific projects that they're defining for them, then you're going to find that there's a disconnect, right? Because if you're coming to a project manager or a project management organization, you're saying, hey, these are the projects that we need you to perform without allowing them to really think through what is the best way to roll up the work that's needed to achieve the outcome and allow them to sort of define the structures that supports that. Then you may find there's a disconnect between the projects that are being executed, not taking into the full context of what's needed in order to ensure that the strategies themselves are being supported.

Ross Martin:

Well, and as we're advocating for modern project delivery to think of the business outcomes at all times through initiatives and programs and projects, that connection between the original thinking around the strategy, the outcome that's desired, and the initiative that's been handed down is lost if it's handed down, right? you really have to have the ability for at least the leader of the EPMO, if not the people in, you know, and is the some of the specialists in the EPMO as well, to be part of the formation of the strategy in order to really be able to, to keep that connection in place.

Idris Manley:

Yeah, no, they have to understand that context. Yeah. So you can't just expect a team to implement a project with a specific deliverable that's expected and not understand the context of the business outcomes or the strategy behind it so that they can self-organize or they can actually contribute. Um, you know, if the project is, is not necessarily achieving that or, or it's being misguided, they can, at least they have the ability to recognize when that is happening and make recommendations and suggestions. Um, you know, inspect and adapt any way that you can adjust and pivot while you're still executing on the project versus realizing the disconnects at the end of the project, once the outcome has not been fulfilled.

Ross Martin:

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. So I think, you know, I find it interesting, like I said, it was surprising to me, because it's supposed to be a strategic execution function. But it's not surprising to me. Yeah, yeah.

Idris Manley:

But it, you know, the back to our earlier conversation, I think that's gonna have to change very quickly. Yeah, because as delivery becomes more strategic and more critical to the business's success. Because as we said earlier, like operations is continuing to automate. Yeah. That teams, you know, companies are going to have to figure out how to address these gaps in delivery. Um, such that they can have greater confidence and ability to achieve the outcomes that they need. They're, you know, the change management function to, to achieve.

Ross Martin:

Yeah, absolutely. And one of the reasons we would like to continue to try and talk about instead of PMOs, like value delivery organizations is to try and constantly reinforce the strategic nature of where project management needs to go in order to serve companies in the future. Absolutely.