Our way of working is   Check – Think –  Plan –  Do – Learn -

Check: ensure that we understand the context, the vision, the goals and the reasons for the next iteration, stage or project

Think: choose the right options for the agreed challenges

Plan: plan the project, stage or iteration around the critical success criteria

Do: deliver, knowing the risks and showing early evidence of achievement 

Learn: use the experience to improve for next time 

This is a project and decision-making cycle, as opposed to the usual 'production' cycle of PDCA.  

See also OODA: Observe - Orient - Decide - Act

 

Horizontal and Vertical Communication

Horizontal communication or “transversality” entails working across functional boundaries, which means respecting each other’s perspectives, priorities and constraints, and understanding how to achieve synergies and to synchronise work.

Vertical communication requirs transparency and governance in order that actors at different levels refrain as much as possible from hiding information from each other, and instead seek the trust that allow information to flow from source to outlet fluently and fluidly.

 

The T Skills

Your career skills develop in the form of a T.  The bar of the T represents the general skills that you need in order to flourish as a member of a team. The root of the T represents the expert skills that you need to feed your credibility and understanding.

 

The “Unknown Known”

Usually, we know less than we think we do, individually; and more than we realize, collectively. 

Often,  information known to someone else - that we don't know - makes the difference between success or failure.  

 

Know and Show

Understand and demonstrate how success is being achieved (or else No Show)

 

Strong Vision, Flexible Execution

The most successful organisations have a clear idea of their purpose and the value, results and outcomes that they need to achieve; meanwhile they provide a great deal of flexibility with regard to how to go about attaining the vision.  Unsuccessful companies do the opposite.

 

Stoke Energy, Reduce Stress

A project leader ensures that the team works in conditions that stoke energy and reduce stress. The team wants a manager that practices “kick up and kiss down” and not the reverse.

 

Ask Why, Explain Why

Always clarify and verify the purpose. Explaining why provides motivation and ensures that we know we’re doing the right thing and doing it right.

See also the 5 Whys that help you to get to the heart of a problem.

 

Say what you’ll do, Do what you said, Say what you did

Whichever method you choose, say what you will do, do what you said and be able to prove what you did. That way you will be irreproachable for an audit; you also have to satisfy the customer, of course.

Quality is in the eye of the Beholder

Quality depends upon the public and the stakeholders for whom you are providing the product or the service.  It needs to be measured, planned and built in to the solution with good faith and integrity.

Our Values in Action

1) Familiarity with project management and change management

    Project management is an approach with important strategic implications for organisations.  Actions are most effective where the deciaion makers are implicated and motivated, not just informed.

2)   Experience of managing projects

     It is important to apply a pragmatic and operational project or development framework.  Managing projects using a goal oriented, team-based and cooperative approach delivers advantages both to the contracting organization and to the client. 

3)   Experience of competitive, international  and high technology industries                  

    Innovation in product development and process improvement can offer significant competitive advantage. Consequently, products, processes and even organizations should be distinctive, fit for purpose and change tolerant.

4)   Understanding of the most influential contemporary trends in technology development, business processes and team facilitation 

     Management methods are evolving quickly and constantly.  Knowledge of best practice is more widely diffused than ever from a variety of sources, but special effort and flair is requird to encapsulate this information in a form that can be used in each situation.

5)   Emphasis on innovation, imagination and quality of the work environment                                                                             

    Technology can be used to enhance the quality of work.  Improving the project management process and speeding up the introduction of technologies develops the skills of each individual as well as building the capabilities of the organization. 

6)   Service view of quality                                                                                            

    When providing a service in a highly competitive business it is not enough to satisfy.  Contacts must be customized as well as being positive, productive, and rewarding to all parties. This requirs a flexible and pro-reactive way of working.  

7)   Creative approach to training                                             

    Learning is most effective when it is involves participation and when it appeals to different learning preferences.  Activities, simulations, case studies and role-plays   engage the participants in different ways and enhance the learning experience.

8)   Knowledge of tools and methodologies                                                                      

    Modern project management and systems development processes have adapted to the latest technologies, and vice versa.  The tools and methodologies should be accessible and helpful to the teams that are responsible for achieving results on the project.

 

Two Vital Rules for Business

1) Don't run out of cash; cash is like oxygen to a business and in its absence a business will choke. 

2) Satisfy your customers.  If you fail in rule one, you’ll fail rule two.

 

Cost ≤ Price, and Price ≤ Value

It’s easy to forget, but although cost can be greater than price for strategic reasons, price greater than value (to the customer) is not sustainable.

 

Uncertainty is Costly

Time, complexity and uncertainty generate cost.  When uncertainty persists, then the business has to provision contingency that increases the cost of investments and reduces the return on investment.

 

Measure what is Important

In business as in life the easy measures are not necessarily the most important and the most important not often easy to measure.  Nevertheless, unless we are doing art or poetry what is important has to be measured in order to be attainable.

 

Theory of Constraints

Look for the biggest obstacle, roadblock, show-stopper or constraint.  That’s what you have to cure, remove or overcome in order to reach your next business goal.

 

Business Models and Process

The smallest difference to the way that business is carried out with customers, suppliers, processes or systems can make all of the difference to a business surviving and thriving.

 

Unique Selling Proposition

There’s something that you do that justifies your business, makes it distinctive and makes it worthwhile to customers, to employees and to other stakeholders.  The art of your craft is to know what it is and keep making it better  

 

Commitments, Experiments, Improvements

Committed staff members feel ownership and have a transformational rather than a transactional relationship with their work.  Although experiments are necessary and do not always work out, constant improvement and the ability to share learning is a critical contribution.