At QBIX, our focus is on using technology to enable and drive change. But real change always comes from people, not technology. Technology is just a tool, and without people with the desire to change, that tool will be like so many tools I have at home – it will remain in the toolbox unused!
It’s Not About the Technology
A number of our recent projects have been technology-related. In reality, transformational change does not come from replacing one technology system with another. Instead, it is about the strategic thinking, the processes, and the engagement and participation of the people involved in the implementation.
Our role as project managers and business consultants is much more than the delivery of the business goals or even the operationalising of strategy. Any business transformation project requires the requisite support of people and process change. Success is about how we engage and support those people to be the architects of change. Not just for this project, but for the next ones too.
It’s About the Capacity, Drive, and Desire
Most projects seek engagement through Product Champions, Super Users, Ambassadors, or Key Influencers. These are individuals working in the business to help design and support the delivery of organisational change. However, to treat these people as labourers rather than foremen or architects is a missed opportunity.
As Project Manager, Coach, Consultant, and Mediator, these are some of the interventions that we might recommend for a project.
Personal Productivity
For successful change, you need time in your diary and headspace for thinking. For one major project, we required the business leadership to create 50% capacity in their diaries to accommodate the change and gave them 3 months to do this.
By being ruthless with Do, Ditch, Delegate, Design, and Develop methods, we created capacity for the leadership and upskilled the competency of the management. Both were essential for what became an IoD Award-Winning Transformation Project.
If you want to learn about goals, process, performance achievement, and time management, ask an athlete and get a coach.
QBIX’s Time Saving Tips
We have many “time-saving tips” that are useful for Product Champions, Super Users, Ambassadors, or Key Influencers who need to better manage their week to accommodate business-as-usual and project commitments.
Here are some:
- Tip from the QBIX team: If you have many platforms, e.g., Outlook, Yammer, WhatsApp, etc., set the out-of-office or status to say “Contact me on MS Teams” (or whatever your preferred platform is) so that everyone sees this whenever they send a message. It’s like dog training… they will learn soon enough.
- Tip from the QBIX team: Use the out-of-office to tell people when you are available and when and where they can contact you (or who else may be better to answer their queries), so that you manage their expectations and urgency as well as your routine.
- Tip from the QBIX team: Think about A-time (when you are most productive) used for A-tasks (things that are most important), B-time for B-tasks, and C-time (less productive) for C-tasks (less important). Don’t waste your best time and talent on meaningless tasks. If you are most productive first thing in the morning, don’t waste this time checking emails. In sport, it means don’t do a Personal Best at a pointless competition – save it for the World Champs!
- Tip from the QBIX team: Switching between tasks wastes time and energy, with accumulated fatigue meaning we make poorer decisions. Instead of being hyper-responsive (100 emails), be proactive (1 scheduled meeting).
Setting aside the benefits to the project of creating capacity, and to the people creating capability, there are real benefits to the business. If you can save just 60 minutes per week, over 48 weeks for 20 people, that’s a saving of nearly 1,000 hours! If you are charging these people out at £100 an hour, that’s a potential additional £100,000 of revenue per annum. Scale that up to a business of 200 staff, which is our typical client, then you are talking about an additional £1m of chargeable time available per annum.
We’ve worked on a few projects using Lean and Six-Sigma type thinking on the premise that if we cannot identify £25,000 of savings in 2 weeks, the client does not have to pay us.
Project Understanding and Thinking
We believe it is important to offer simplified guidance on the key elements of a project. We provide details of the steps at each stage, the underlying reasons for each, and the necessary documentation for communication, control, and audit.
Have the Right Tool for the Job
Using a car analogy, the aim is not to turn drivers into mechanics. However, a basic understanding does make you both a better driver and also able to communicate with the mechanics. It also helps if you know which tools are appropriate for which task. This can be a critical benefit in addressing risks, issues, and challenges in a project.
Additionally, understanding what is going on can reduce email volume and focus on a small selection of consensus documents and decisions. This will reduce bureaucracy and increase clear, concise, and complete communication.
The objective is not to make everyone a project manager, but to help them understand the value and benefit of the project process.
Project Skills and Abilities
Often, some of the Product Champions, Super Users, Ambassadors, or Key Influencers may become Business Analysts or even Project Managers, reducing the need and cost of external support.
We have found that offering tools, templates, training, and techniques ranging from traditional waterfall (based on PRINCE2) to Agile, can be as interesting as seeing how a magician does a trick and then practicing it for yourself.
People like being valued, and often, training is a low-cost way to support them, build loyalty, and improve outcomes.
In an expanding business, the staff being developed today will become the project leaders of tomorrow. We have worked on many projects where staff seconded into a project team for a new strategic project rarely go back to their old job. Identifying and nurturing the latent talent in the organisation is a key role of the leadership team. We can help in this regard.
Method of Change
Where there are a number of Key Influencers across the business, we can run weekly virtual or physical workshops, or lunch-and-learn sessions to have everyone working together.
With the right facilitation, this will not only help personal productivity but also help the necessary communication and coordination between the influencers. This can be a very positive cultural and collaboration experience.
If there are only a few Key Influences, we can then take a Coaching/Mentoring approach, possibly underpinned with a formal coaching agreement based around goal achievement or measurable improvements against objective criteria.
People or Projects?
If you want to develop your project capability, think about how you are going to develop your people first. Real change comes from people, not technology. Arrange a call with us, and we’d be happy to help you develop the necessary skills and techniques.
