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Avengers and Enablers of Project Management

Strategies to Transform Organizations

Abstract ID: PMIBC-17-1-032

Project Management Practitioners’ Conference 2017

www.pmibanga lorechapter .o rg

CONTENTS

Abstract .................................................................................................................................................................. 3

Introduction ............................................................................................................................................................ 4

The Avengers and the Enablers ........................................................................................................................ 5

The New Age Stakeholder ..................................................................................................................................... 6

RACI in the new world order .............................................................................................................................. 6

Stakeholder Management: The Way Forward ................................................................................................... 7

Collaboration is the New Competition ................................................................................................................... 7

Collaboration: The Imperative ........................................................................................................................... 7

Collaborative Project Management ................................................................................................................... 8

Gamification ....................................................................................................................................................... 9

Go Social ........................................................................................................................................................... 9

Transformation at the Speed of Change ............................................................................................................. 10

The Key Drivers ............................................................................................................................................... 10

The New Project Management Narrative ........................................................................................................ 11

Dealing with the Disruptions ................................................................................................................................ 12

Readiness ........................................................................................................................................................ 12

Responsiveness .............................................................................................................................................. 12

Two Stage Gap Analysis – Tracking Value in the Making............................................................................... 13

Conclusion ........................................................................................................................................................... 13

References .......................................................................................................................................................... 15



ABSTRACT

Exponential evolution of technology, the advent of millennials and rapidly changing geopolitical equations

necessitate a re-evaluation of the project management landscape.

With increasing speeds of business and rise in project complexity, project managers need flexible, adaptive,

self-learning tools suited to current project planning, management and reporting requirements. AI and machine

learning based tools help bring efficacy to the PM's role by automating non-cognitive tasks and better analytics

of project metrics. Increased remote collaboration is possible due to lower cost of telecommuting requiring the

PM to be adept at managing virtual teams.

The advent of millennials as stake holders, both internal and external, has made it imperative to review and

refine traditional (RACI) models of stakeholder management. Millennials have characteristics and preferences

quite distinct from their previous generations. They prefer collaboration over competition, adopt technology to

communicate and collaborate remotely, expect to be rewarded frequently, have slight disdain towards

micromanagement and are conscious of their responsibility towards the environment both as producers and

consumers.

Hence, traditional hierarchical project management practices need to be replaced with flatter organizations that

foster teamwork and cooperation and incorporate strategies for sustainable growth.

Uncertain geopolitical environment with increased supplier constraints, changing entry barriers, stealth

substitutes and regulatory requirements has further increased the need / ability to shift gears from retrospective

to a more proactive risk identification, planning and mitigation.

Therefore, through this paper, we explore the specifics and nuances of project management keeping in mind

the aforesaid drivers and aspects of changing business landscape.



INTRODUCTION

"It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most

responsive to change." —Charles Darwin.

The relevance of Darwin's theory is not lost in context of current day business environment. It would be clichéd

to say that the world has changed more in the past decade than several others preceding it and the success of

any organization depends on its ability to deal with the multitude of parameters of change.

This is an era of constant connectivity. Terms like digitisation, artificial intelligence, cloud and big data are no

longer restricted to technology journals but have become part of the common parlance. Remote connectivity

has blurred workplace boundaries. The modern-day workforce spans four generations with the millennials

making up nearly half of it. With their affinity for collaboration and dissolving workplace boundaries, yearning

for recognition, appetite for taking responsibility and accountability, complete ownership of each endeavour and

at the same time their care and concern for the environment, millennials are a generation set out to redefine

the basic principles on which current day business environment functions. While the world does recognize the

benefits of globalization, recent geopolitical developments indicate a growing sentiment around protectionism

and governments favouring populism. The boundaries of geopolitical influence are no longer limited to state

boundaries but are defined by ideological and economic impact. The traditional distinctions of domestic/

international or physical/virtual have become obsolete.

This paper seeks to understand the implications of these disruptions to the business models and the

Exhibit 1 : Change indicators of past decades. Source: A World of Change (International Monetary Fund, Finance and

Development)



organizational practices and processes. It further aims to explore the way forward in terms of managing the

stakeholder expectations, adopting a collaborative mindset, transformation strategies to be deployed at

organization level and dealing with these disruptions.

THE AVENGERS AND THE ENABLERS

The conventional models and practices are not adequate to

deal with the ever-mounting disruptions. We need a new

breed of models, methodologies, practices and tools – the

Avengers and Enablers of Project Management:

• Communication Strategies

• Excellence in a Collaborative Environment

• Unification of Cause, Sponsors, Enablers and Players

• Readiness for change

• Responsiveness to change

In order to counter the multitude of business disruptions, it is imperative for these strategies to combine forces.

Precedence must be accorded to value creation for the end consumer over near-term benefits to the

organizations. PM professionals need to don the hat of "Enablers" who shall drive the change in

communication strategies, bring together diverse perspectives through effective collaboration, ensure the

team's willing and seamless adaptation to change.

Research

In course of research for this paper, we

have conducted a survey amongst

professionals with diverse

organizational roles and

functional backgrounds with

the key focus in areas of new age

stakeholder management, collaboration

for driving projects / transformation. The

results of this primary research have been

highlighted in the appropriate sections of

this paper.

In addition, references and exhibits used from secondary research of case studies, research publications have

been leveraged and highlighted with attribution to the source in relevant sections of the paper. All of these

sources have been included in the references section.

Exhibit 2 : The Driving Forces of Change and Strategies for Organizational

Transformation in the New World Order



THE NEW AGE STAKEHOLDER

Stakeholder Management is at the heart of Project management. With the changing world order, it is important

to revisit the tenets of traditional stakeholder management model.

RACI IN THE NEW WORLD ORDER

Responsibility and Accountability

With the evolution of flatter management structures, responsibility and accountability have come to

complement each other. In the new world order, both responsibility and accountability need to be shared. Each

team member completely owns their piece of work and there is a joint accountability towards the end goal.

Collaboration Partners

The changed project management landscape demands that project sponsors, subject matter experts and other

stakeholders collaborate with the project team and have an effective communication exchange. Every

stakeholder is a contributor as well as a consumer for the project information. Consultation in its new avatar is

more of collaboration through SME Groups, Forums and Crowd Sourcing of information with enterprise /

project management social platforms playing a pivotal role.

Democratization of Information

The appetite and the way of consuming, contributing and leveraging information / data have changed

drastically. The traditional method of disseminating project information through exclusive reporting does not

suit the bill any more for the continually evolving and increasingly complex project and project stakeholder

needs. Therefore,

project information

needs to be current and

available to all

stakeholders at all

times. The “push”

method of

communication needs

to change in favour of

“pull” / On-demand

methods. Interactive

project dashboards,

updated near real time

is the ask of the day.

The responsibility of

updating these Exhibit 3 : Stakeholder Management Existing Vs. in the New World Order



dashboards should not lie with the project manager alone. Each member of the team should be empowered,

engaged and accountable to ensure that the dashboard reflects the true and most recent status of their unit of

work. (Please refer to Exhibit 3)

There is also a need to eliminate the disparity in access of information about the project for various

stakeholders. All stakeholders need to have uniform and simultaneous access to information.

STAKEHOLDER MANAGEMENT: THE WAY FORWARD

Typically, project managers spend more than half of their time in

gathering, collating and publishing project information. Increasing

project complexity and the requirement for faster turnaround

times necessitate the adoption of technology for automation of

these “non-cognitive” tasks. The primary function of a project

manager is to bring together the varied elements of the project

landscape and bring about a harmony amongst the same in order

to realise the project objectives. The gathering of project information, updating project metrics and dashboards,

dissemination of information to stakeholders are all tasks that can be automated, leaving the project manager

time to concentrate on the deductions from these dashboards and plan and execute further course of action.

It is essential to transcend the traditional project management

tools and adopt collaborative project management tools that

incorporate intelligent resource allocation and project scheduling,

real time project dashboards. These tools leverage technologies

such as AI for not only automating regular administrative tasks

but also for analysis of project performances and making

decisions and recommendations based on these analyses.

Millennials are fast becoming key decision makers, project leaders and consumers of product/project. They are

no longer just ‘contributors’. This mandates better transparency, increased participation and speedier response

to feedback.

COLLABORATION IS THE NEW COMPETITION

COLLABORATION: THE IMPERATIVE

The current complex and turbulent business environment combined with an increasingly digitized economy,

make it almost compulsory for competitors to collaborate and work towards a defined objective. At times, even

the best of the efforts and resources of individual organizations are not sufficient to satisfy customer

requirements completely. In such situations, it is advantageous for all parties involved to leverage the collective

wisdom of the group and find more holistic solutions to problems, thereby, effectively meeting customer needs.

Exhibit 4 : Research Response – Project

Management Effort

Exhibit 5 : Research Response – Project

Management Tools



Sustained success in the changing times demands shifting the spotlight from near term and immediate

stakeholder benefits to a “Cause” as the driving force for the business. Businesses that thrive on a sustained

basis seek to solve problems for the end consumer. Often, organizations try to win the race by trying to run

faster than the competition, typically relying on first mover advantage, information asymmetry and market

inefficiencies for their success. This approach generally leads to early, but non-sustainable success and

ofttimes late adopters do better than first movers over time. Realising that the business cycle time for most

industries is nearly 5-7 years, organizations need to work towards increasing profitability via impact. Long

surviving products of the future will be the ones that create long lasting impact on lives. Thus, it is essential to

apply better thought and execution for maximum influence.

COLLABORATIVE PROJECT MANAGEMENT

In times of unprecedented disruption and rapidly emerging opportunities when the fundamental rules of the

game are changing rapidly, the need for swift response to change is escalated. More than just “managing”

these disruptions, the project manager needs to bring together the divergent perspectives and amalgamate

them into a collectively harmonious thought process. The key here is to deploy techniques of collaborative

consumption, blurring the distinction between the consumer and the provider of information. With faster than

ever before advancements in technology, viz. cloud computing, artificial intelligence and with the ever-

expanding use of social media, conventional consumption with no input from the consumer ceases to provide

much benefit. On the other hand, in collaborative consumption, stakeholders are both consumers and

providers of information and services. This need is accentuated with millennials now occupying significant

position across the project stakeholder spectrum – from producers to consumers.

In order to capitalize on what the World Economic Forum terms as the “Fourth Industrial Revolution”,

organizations are getting into strategic alliances to further their businesses. Here again, it is important to

transcend parochialism and take an objective view of the “cause” behind the collaboration. The efforts of each

of the partners must be streamlined in order to ideate, innovate and create solutions to problems that would not

be possible alone deferring the short-term interests of the individual organizations. The commitment to the

“Cause” needs to be

driven from the top levels.

These leaders must act as

visionaries who provide

direction and help to weed

out issues created by self-

interest of individual

organizations. These

collaborations need to be

continuously monitored,

their progress tracked and assessed and course corrections made.

Exhibit 6 : Collaboration - The Imperative



Collaboration, in both its forms described above,

mandates sharing of the lessons learnt and the

best practices. The ubiquity of internet ensures

that the information, though delayed, does have a

good penetration and sooner or later, and the late

entrants catch up with the first movers.

GAMIFICATION

The question that arises here is as to how then

should a firm protect its own interests? Here, it

must be remembered that even though killing the

competition may look like a lucrative option, in the

long term, competition harbours exclusiveness

while collaboration promotes inclusiveness.

Since, businesses are always in pursuit of

profitability, there is a need to devise

methodologies wherein collaboration does not

compromise the interests of the individual parties. This is where gamification steps in. Gamification opens up

a level playing field for all participants with a reward and

recognition mechanism that ensures that everyone is a

winner. Here the competition is with one’s own self. The

endeavour is to evaluate existing processes and

practices and benchmark the same against the industry

and to improvise upon the same. In a team setting, the

goals of the individuals are aligned with the end project

objective ensure team members work with each other

and not against each other. For collaboration amongst

organizations, the organizational goals are aligned with

the bigger, more significant cause. This ensures an

inclusive environment where the efforts are directed

towards maximizing benefits for all.

GO SOCIAL

Social Platforms are ubiquitous. They are making their

presence felt in the workplace. Most enterprises seek to

engage employees through Enterprise Social Platforms

by encouraging discussions and exchange of work

Exhibit 7 : Integration of social tools into day-to-day work. Source:

McKinsey Global Institute – Survey: How social tools can reshape

the organization

Exhibit 8 : Expectations from Enterprise Social Platforms.

Source: McKinsey Global Institute – Survey: How social

tools can reshape the organization



related information.

However, there is a great untapped potential here. Research

indicates (refer exhibit 7, 8 and 9) that while a majority of

enterprises do create such platforms for employee

engagement, these are yet not used for pure play project

management activities and not integrated into the day to day

work at large. These platforms present a unique opportunity

for bringing together project personnel, subject matter experts and other stakeholders for finding better

solutions, getting real time feedback on all project activities and for faster resolution of issues.

TRANSFORMATION AT THE SPEED OF CHANGE

The world today is experiencing a technological revolution. The speed of change in current times is

unprecedented. Organizations need to adapt to these changes in a swift manner.

THE KEY DRIVERS

Diversity of Workforce

The workforce today is becoming increasingly diverse with respect to age, gender, religion, nationality,

language, etc. In addition, “acquired diversity” the diversity acquired by people due to their education, work

experience and other behavioural and lifestyle traits must be given due importance. It must be remembered

that true benefits of a diverse workforce are attained only through inclusiveness.

The Impact of Millennials

Millennials occupy a prominent position on the project landscape as not only contributors, but also as key

decision makers, project leaders and consumers of the project /product. They are highly committed individuals

who have great affinity for workplace diversity, appreciate when their efforts and experience are recognised

and rewarded, have great work ethic, seek to be in thick of things and be always informed. Managing

millennials requires project managers to act as enablers and to move from “Hierarchy to Holacracy”.

“Holacracy is a social technology or system of organizational governance in which authority and decision-

making are distributed throughout a holarchy of self-organizing teams rather than being vested in a

management hierarchy.” Responsibility and Accountability need to be shared. Collaboration and complete

democratization of Information, the mantra to keep these new age stakeholders engaged.

Disruption in Technology

The Fourth Industrial Revolution, as the World Economic Forum puts it, is on its way to raise global income

levels and improve quality of lives. Powered by the exponential increase in computing prowess and with the

ability to process petabyte sized data sets, Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, Cloud Computing are opening up

endless possibilities leading to long term gains in efficiency and productivity. The impact of these technologies

Exhibit 9 : Research Response – Adoption of

Enterprise Social Platforms for Project Management.



on the Project Management landscape is already being felt with the emergence of AI and Cloud based

Collaborative PM tools. However, only a small fraction of the PM community currently make use of and benefits

from these tools.

Market Dynamics

There are two main areas influencing tectonic

changes in market / supply-chain dynamics i.

Changes in geo-politics / increasing protectionism

and ii. Shorter Business Cycles and Stealth / New

Competitors. Therefore, the project management approach / narrative needs to go through paradigm shift the

new world order.

THE NEW PROJECT MANAGEMENT NARRATIVE

In order to deliver long term value to

the end consumer, a fundamental

focus shift is required from the

traditional success triad of on time, on

budget, on schedule to innovative

solutions and value addition to the

customer. In the networked, flat

organization structure, the PM

practitioner needs to don the role of a facilitator who helps to keep the various nodes of the network connected

and keeps the information flowing through the network.

In the traditional model, the focal point of

any project is the business strategy. The

strategy is devised by the enterprise

leadership and they ensure the goals of the

project are aligned with this strategy. The

project manager oversees the work done

by the project team and ensures that the

project meets its objectives. Going forward,

it is the "cause/ idea" that will drive the

business value delivered. The focus needs

to be on the problems that are being

solved and the sponsors/leaders needs to

provide direction. The project manager must

be a facilitator and enabler and the team needs to be the players, putting their best foot forward, taking

complete ownership of their tasks, end to end.

Exhibit 10 : The New Project Management Narrative

Exhibit 11 : Transformation at the Speed of Change



DEALING WITH THE DISRUPTIONS

Dealing with the dynamic business equations and managing projects in disruptive times require the PM

practitioner to don a twofold responsibility:

I. to ensure that the team is aware / ready for changes in business environment

II. to ensure that the team is able to respond to the turbulence around them

READINESS

An organization's change readiness is a function of the organization’s

awareness towards changing business dynamics and willingness of its people

at all levels to embrace and implement change. It depends on the collective

and willing commitment of the group towards implementing organizational

change and also on the group's collective ability to execute necessary actions in

event of a change. It is important to highlight here the emphasis on "collective"

commitment ad ability as any large, complex change cannot be dealt without joint actions of interdependent

units or individuals.

Typically, strategy and change related decisions flow down the hierarchy with the project manager and her

team left to fend with the change management. In this case, the project manager acts as a receiver for change

information who decides on the course of action thereafter. A more proactive approach suited to flatter and

networked organizations is where the project manager takes up the role of a satellite that both receives as well

transmits information. While the project team is heads sunk deep down in their work, the project manager stays

with heads up, on the lookout for signs of change, anticipating change and readying her team for the same.

RESPONSIVENESS

Responsiveness is often used interchangeably with adaptability. There is, however, a fine line separating the

two. While adaptability is the ability to adapt to change, responsiveness is about the speed at which one reacts

to the change or the situation at hand. Responsiveness has a direct correlation with readiness for change. It is

a state of mind and must percolate at all organizational levels. It is the critical differentiator that puts the

organization ahead of its competitors.

The project manager's role is to cultivate a culture that is centred around willingness to adapt to change and

inculcate skills that make her team nimble and adept at responding to all new business situations with ease

and speed. This responsiveness has to be ingrained at all levels in the organization. Organization leaders,

project sponsors should be nimble and agile with respect to strategically decisions and providing guidance

around course correction in response to business and market changes. At the same time, project teams must

be able to swiftly manoeuvre there processes and practices in accordance with these directives.



TWO STAGE GAP ANALYSIS – TRACKING VALUE IN THE MAKING

Therefore, leveraging the benefits of effective readiness and responsiveness, a 2 stage Gap Analysis is

recommended as the key towards ensuring prudent “Tracking of the Value in the Making”. As illustrated in

Exhibit 12, it would be a continual process to benchmark the value in the making throughout the phases of the

project both via comparison with the end objectives and via mark to market exercise. This is all the more

beneficial for large scale, multi-year project / transformation programs where it is equally important to keep

detailed track of the Market / Business as substantial energy is spent inwards to drive transformation through

organization(s) (viz. Inorganic Ventures, Transformation).

CONCLUSION

Forceful disruptions such as advent of millennials, unprecedented advancements in technology and volatile

geo political equations make it necessary to rethink some of the existing project management paradigms and

theories.

In the “always connected” world, response to business disruption needs to be speedier than ever before. With

millennials now occupying key positions as consumer of the project / product, sponsors and decision makers,

the way business is conducted will have to undergo phenomenal change. Flatter, networked organizations that

leverage enterprise social networks for project management would be the norm of the day. Therefore, as

recommended in the paper, i. Stakeholder Management / Communication Approach, ii. Collaborative

Methodologies iii. Transformation Strategy and iv. Agility and Nimbleness towards change have to be the

four key pillars of driving organizational strategy in this new age world order.

Exhibit 12 : Two Stage Gap Analysis



As mentioned, managing the stakeholder expectations would require adopting a collaborative mindset,

transformation strategies to be deployed at organization level and methodologies to deal with these

disruptions. The new age RACI would have to appreciate a unified approach in driving Responsibility and

Accountability, leverage Collaboration Partners and benefit from Democratization of Information. Collaboration

is becoming the new competition. Organizations must make best use of enterprise social platform for

collaborations and at the same time use gamification principles to ensure core ethos on being competitive

remains utmost priority.

Value is added only via projects and ventures that seek to solve problems for the end consumer. Therefore,

focus has to shift from the project success triad of on time, on budget, on schedule to the value created for the

end consumer and the problems that were solved due to this endeavour. Ability to “Track the Value in the

Making” in terms ‘readiness’ to change and ‘responsiveness’ to change will emerge as the two most important

aspects that will influence the operating culture and differentiator of the best in class organizations.



REFERENCES

i. Ben Hecht [January 2013]–Collaboration Is the New Competition (Harvard Business Review)

ii. Brian Burke [November 2012] – Gamification2020: What Is the Future of Gamification? (Gartner

Research)

iii. Brooke Boyarsky, Will Enger, and Ron Ritter [March 2016] – Developing a Customer-Experience

Vision (McKinsey Marketing and Sales)

iv. Joanna Barsh, Lauren Brown, and Kayvan Kian [February 2016] – Millennials: Burden, blessing, or

both? (McKinsey Quarterly Report)

v. Karen Butner, Digital Operations Thought Leadership, Institute for Business Value, IBM [December

2015] – Operatingin the fourth industrial revolution

vi. Kathleen B. (Kitty) Hass [2015]– The Future Is Now: The 21st Century Enterprise Project Manager

vii. Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman, World Economic Forum [January 2016] – TheFourth

Industrial Revolution: what it means, how to respond (World Economic Forum report)

viii. M. Ayhan Kose and Ezgi O. Ozturk, [September 2014] A World of Change (International Monetary

Fund, Finance and Development)

ix. McKinsey Global Institute [May 2016] – Survey: How social tools can reshape the organization

x. Perry Keenan, Jeanne Bickford, Jennifer Bratton, Annabel Doust, and Jennifer Tankersley [February

2016]- Winning Through Project Portfolio Management: The Practitioner’s Perspective (Boston

Consulting Group)

xi. Robert L. Cross, Roger D. Martin, and Leigh M. Weiss [August 2006] –Mapping the value of employee

collaboration (McKinsey Quarterly Report)

xii. World Economic Forum [2012] – Young Global Leaders: Circular Economy Innovation & New Business

Models Dialogue

xiii. World Economic Forum [2017] – The Global Risks Report 2017 (12th Edition)

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