How to deliver strategy through projects with integrated governance webinar

On the Friday 11 October, the APM Governance Interest Network hosted the first in a series of events aimed at emboldening PMO / P3 Governance Professionals to step into the gap between strategy and delivery.

The webinar provided insights into the key issues impacting strategy delivery, especially those from a P3 Perspective, including the gaps typically between support for strategy delivery and support for portfolios, programmes and projects (emerging out of the APM PMO Conference.)

It not only inspired P3 professionals to learn how to elevate their roles in driving organisational success, but provided a language to use with others in the organisation trying to bring strategy to life through effective governance.

The webinar, presented by David, Greg Krawczyk and Martin Samphire highlighted the challenges organisations face in delivering strategies effectively.

This was particularly from the perspective of project management and governance professionals who provided dozens of reactions (which we are in the process of sharing) and offered a framework within which to develop operational solutions.

Agenda

The session included:

• some positioning statements regarding the process of strategy delivery, the complexity related to making it happen, and noted the success rates organisations are getting in strategy delivery
• an interactive section to introduce typical strategy delivery pain areas (e.g. Communicating), then invited attendees to chip in their viewpoint live. This produced a word cloud of opinions from an audience of over 360 people)
• immediate, live reactions from the presentation panel on the key points
• a quick introduction to the Business Integrated Governance Body of Knowledge (BIG BoK), which provides the connection of all parts of the organisation, integrated governance, accountability, information and data, business support & assurance and leadership.

Issues in strategy delivery

This quickfire session posed a series of challenge statements, and asked people to retort with their comments/viewpoint. This enable us to build a word cloud, including:

• Clarifying and communicating strategic objectives effectively
• Cascading strategy into actionable sub-objectives with clear accountability
• Prioritising objectives to optimise resources, leadership time, and funding
• Monitoring progress and performance through integrated governance
• Providing the data necessary for quick decision-making.

Access audience engagement analysis, the submitted questions, and a video explanation.

Response

This section provided a brief introduction to the BIG BoK with the intention of whetting attendees appetites to find out more.

The session urges PMO and governance professionals to rise to the challenge of improving the connection between strategy and delivery, integrating governance, and thinking bigger to meet both current and emerging demands. We suggest Governance & PMO Managers, step up to apply what you do to projects to the organisation.
PM's - reach out and connect with strategy delivery to offer these services more broadly.

Overall conclusion
The event highlighted several recurring challenges that organisations face in strategic planning and execution, particularly around alignment of purpose to objectives, governance, data integration, prioritisation of objectives, and empowerment. While many organisations are aware of these issues, there remains a gap between strategy and execution, often due to cultural factors especially lack of ‘one team’ focus, siloed information, poor accountability, inconsistent processes, and lack of effective tools. However, there was a strong interest in adopting frameworks like BIG (Business Integrated Governance) to address these gaps and a general optimism that with the right focus on governance, accountability and technology, organisations can improve their strategic outcomes.

Webinar resources

The panel have very kindly allowed their presented material to be made available for viewing. The slideset on Slideshare, audience engagement comments on Mentimeter and the webinar recording on YouTube, are now available in our APM resources area and also embedded below for reference.

This webinar content is suitable for project professions with an intermediate to advanced level of experience.

Previous presentations and webinars can be viewed on the APM Slideshare and YouTube channels.

The Q+A ended the webinar was answered during the broadcast, and AI has been used to analyse the audience engagement, the submitted questions and a video explanation provided.

Engage with the series

• Thursday 14 November webinar writeup: How to deliver strategy through projects with integrated governance - Knowledge
• Thursday 12 December, virtual meetup: Connecting project and strategy management through integrated governance - Ability (no resources available from this interactive workshop)
  
  

Presenters

David Dunning, Greg Krawczyk and Martin Samphire.

 

APM Body of Knowledge 7th edition reference
Section	Description
1.3 3.2.5	Establishing governance and oversight Organisational culture