Building Resilient Learning Cultures

Case StudyA European wide tailored accredited programme forthe development of Project & Programme Managers

Process Impact Sustainability

Our Solution included selected ingredients from all these areas of our Driving Success Model

Introduction and contextThe client organisation is a leading multi-national Tier 1 global supplier of automotive components and systems.Following a successful European roll out across project teams in various sites to raise awareness of the urgent needto use the in-house digital project data management system, the Project Management Office saw a new developmentneed. Now that people in the project teams were more aware of the business systems and how they were crucial inthe ability to monitor and control projects globally, a new focus developed.

The roles and responsibilities, skills and qualities of Programme Managers were now seen to be vital in ensuringboth that the project teams continue to feel supported, as well as that Programme Managers themselves had a feelingof belonging to a professional learning community where issues could be openly discussed and shared, leading togreater efficiencies, avoiding silo - working reducing the likelihood of repeating the same mistakes in varyingcontexts. They now wanted to develop Programme Managers who worked across different projects and locationsacross Europe.

Needs Analysis – The Challenge and Desired Outcomes

The Needs Analysis highlighted some key and fundamental areas for development.

• To ensure that projects were completed on time and within the agreed budget.

• To create a Project and Programme Manager Team– mindset. Many Programme Managers were working on their own on their individual projects, with little awareness of common issues across the organization, or any supportive framework.

• To develop a Self - supporting learning Team and learning community to help develop peer- mentoring and support and build relationships with people who they can relate to and share common issues with.

• Raising the awareness of communication across teams and within different cultural settings was identified as astrong need, as well as implementing a method for managing a wide range of stakeholders.

• A great need for Self-development and Self-knowledge was apparent as well as Team learning, Team support, leadership development and continued learning and sharing.

• To develop a shared meaning of the Roles and Responsibilities of the role of a Programme Manager across Europe.

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The Solution

The Engage Programme for Project and Programme Managers

• This programme was designed specifically for Programme Managers so that the specific needs of that role was targeted, and content was highly relatable and relevant. Programme Managers are a very specific group of peoplewho need a specific set of skills and qualities. Therefore we decided to create a version of the Engage Programmespecifically for this group.

• This programme consisted of face to face Team workshops as well as an online platform, to enable the participants to share experiences and expertise across the various projects they were managing.

• We discussed the merits of an accredited versus a non-accredited programme and it was decided that the standardisation for all, the quality mark as well as the ensured application of learning, would be a motivator and help to create a sense of a shared goal for all involved.

The Core Content

• Understanding Self & Others

We used psychometric profiling so people could understand themselves, and their qualities and traits, as well ashave the data to compare Self with others and explore the implications this has for effective management of stakeholders, and communication styles.

• Psychology of personality and communication to understand the need to adapt our styles in order to be heard and to ensure that our communication is effective

• Qualities and traits to be an outstanding Project and Programme Manager

• Understanding Self and leadership qualities not only for how individuals are able to lead different project teams,but more importantly how to recognise own behaviours and be able to adapt to meet the different personalities,work environments, and changing requirements within their projects.

• Stakeholder Management tools, processes & real life implementation

• Project Management Fundamentals and planning techniques

• Self and Team development plans

• Strategies for the application of Learning & Making the Learning last

As the programme was to be rolled out with people who worked across Europe, all independently on various projects, we also ensured that strategies were suitable for various contexts and cultures with many varying typesof stakeholder challenges.As with all our programmes and solutions, the programme was developed to minimise impact on the business. Workshops were run in different locations across Europe to allow Project and Programme Managers to attend and dates and timings of these workshops were carefully planned around project cycles.

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Impact and Outcomes

The Team learning which came about as a result of getting all the Programme Managers together ensured that theseindividuals who were who were usually dispersed throughout Europe, working on separate on projects, had theopportunity to connect, learn and share experiences and deep learning specific to their work. A lot of these peoplehad previously never met each other. It developed a whole new network and learning community.

Some key Impact and Outcomes:

• A greater awareness of Self and Others• The tools and techniques provided standardised frameworks, and a new shared language, which supported Self

and Team reflection, and the ability to be systematic with through which to stakeholder planning and communication

• More regular Self-reflection which many said was not something that is usually taught in business, especially ina firefighting environment

• Improved planning in projects

• Recognizably improved Stakeholder Management skills

• Better listening skills and seeing the value of learning together

• More developed ability to see things from each other’s viewpoint

• Tools and techniques of how to manage people and apply their learning to others

• Greater awareness of how own behaviours can influence outcome

• Greater accountability

• An understanding of behaviours and the psychology of communication and how to apply it during project priorities and to varying individuals

• New habits starting to form of how to adapt their skills effectively to varying personalities and situations

• A new supportive Programme Management community

• Working with the Programme Managers across Europe, we increasingly realised the positive impact of the conscious application of a tried and tested processes, to people’s behaviours and communication styles. Peoplereported feeling more confident and secure in their interactions with people, in particular with regards to projectplanning and managing communications around specific outcomes.

• The learning of Stakeholder Mapping and Stakeholder Management techniques twinned with understanding some key principles of human psychology and communication, helped Programme Managers to become betterat risk managing the people element of the project, as well as learning some practical hand on approaches of how to deal with everyday human challenges.

• Through careful and planned consideration of the stakeholders involved in a project, Programme Managers became far more able to plan the eventualities that may happen in relation to the desired outcome they were seeking. They had the tools to manage risk more effectively, pro-actively dealing with issues that may evolve, asa result of dealing more carefully and managing stakeholders who may be potential blockers in the process.

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• As people learned about the psychology of Self and Others combined with a bespoke Stakeholder Managementprocess, people increasingly reported feeling more effective in their communication and results with key projectstakeholders. Having a commonly understood process and some shared knowledge, underpinned by an online platform that all had access to, supported the feeling of community and learning.

• Spending time together within the workshops and taking part in some engaging activities brought a greater understanding of common issues and the formation of strong bonds. Being able to recognise the individual strengths of individual Programme Managers has increased the sharing of ideas and information across the team, also enabling the start of a Lessons Learned culture.

• The relationships between the Programme Managers and the European Project Management Office strengthened, the conversations became increasingly meaningful as people increasingly used a common languageand projects were reported as having improved

• Programme Managers reported a greater sense of engagement with the role and that a whole new world had opened up for them leading to increased motivation, focus and productivity.

Sustainability - Maintaining Long Term impactA key challenge in any Learning and Development programme, is keeping the learning and behaviours alive, whilstcontinually evolving and dealing with everyday eventualities. This can only be done with conscious and regularSelf-reflection.

Establishing the Engage online platform allowed for key information to be stored and shared across the projectteams and used to quickly build relationships with stakeholders when starting new projects. This platform ensuredthat people continued to apply the techniques and that there were recognised standardised processes that all couldnow relate to and share. It provided a new common language.

Peer-mentoring was encouraged to ensure that people continued to learn and develop their Self-awareness together,whilst also developing a Self-managing supportive network of people.

Self and Team development plans ensured that people would continue to ask themselves questions and be reflective. We advised as usual that the only way that learning and application of learning can be maintained into the futureis through a long term commitment to continuing the learning, dialogue and having processes which ensureopportunities to connect and share together. Changing habits takes time, but this certainly created the foundationto make this possible.

Feedback years later from individuals confirmed that their individual learning was profound and long-lasting andchanged their approach to the roles. The Team learning led to new discoveries and efficiencies ensuring that mistakeswere shared, and risks were mitigated more pro-actively and much sooner than had otherwise been the case.