David Cotgreave
Written Articles
Empowerment, autonomy, ownership – these buzzwords have rattled around for a few years now in relation to IT Project talent.
Most project managers, business analysts (etc) would agree that they have the power to schedule their own time, track their own progress and tasks and choose how they work, to some extent. It usually leads to improved performance – after all who knows how to do a job better than the person who does it day-in, day-out?!
What if you could take this improved individual performance and amplify it across your whole project or portfolio?
Interesting perspective from a Chief Experience Officer, Sandy, on how her organisation is making decisions – “we’re like a car that’s forgotten it has a steering wheel and more than one gear”.
I love this metaphor. I can see the car missing turn offs and short cuts and the noise and smoke from driving along in first gear!
What she means is that when the project team faces a challenge, or has a strategic decision to make, instead of weighing up what the problem really is and what would be best, it is culturally beholden to the in-house resources it already has at its disposal.
Sandy thinks it may be a hangover from the pandemic.
I suppose we all managed with what resources we could lay our hands on, became insular in our thinking, even adopting a scarcity mindset as we adjusted to the changing reality.
Despite the slow economy and provisional estimates which suggested lower mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity at the start of 2023, there were 365 mergers and acquisitions involving UK Companies during Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2023 according to the Office of National Statistics.
There were inward M&A (foreign companies acquiring UK companies) in Quarter 1 2023 was £12.7 billion; and the total value of outward M&A (UK companies acquiring foreign companies) in Quarter 1 2023 was £2.9 billion.
David writes blogs based on his many years in Project Management and also on ideas from the team here at Stoneseed. Light-hearted, insightful and funny, David’s blog cover all things Project Management, Leadership, Best Practice, PMO, Business Analysis and of course Project Management as a Service.
Most IT Project Management teams are masters of the technical aspects of the project – all the i’s are dotted, and the t’s are crossed, the business case is clear and delivered (on paper at least) but what about the people who you need to implement your project on a day-to-day basis?
Is Accountability Strangling IT Project Innovation? Why is it, with VERY public IT projects, that when they fail everyone seems to want to wash their dirty laundry in front of all to see? Accountability, apparently. Public interest. It’s public money. The public has a right to know what went wrong. From Public Health IT to […]
Failure Is the new success. Here are five ways that you can embrace failure and enjoy its unexpected benefits. Knowing when to say enough is enough and kill an IT Project must be among the hardest skills to learn. I’m not sure any of us ever totally master it either. When your sponsor has invested […]
by David Cotreageve – Stoneseed Ltd In 2020, the Project Management Institute (PMI) Pulse of the Profession reported that less than half (36%) of organisations achieved high alignment of projects with their organisational strategy. Projects that are not aligned to your business strategy are wasted investment. Reflect on that for a moment and then re-read […]
Six Lessons IT Project Management Can Learn from Spitting Image
With the UK economy stuttering, businesses are having to react and become more resilient, leaner and more efficient. We are seeing a growth in the number Business Change projects, stoking demand for Business Analysis skillset.