Managing Benefits from Projects

Hugo Minney PhD

The Social Return Company

Who am I to talk?

• 1990 – PhD and Computer Salesman • 2000 – Cap Gemini • 2004 – NHS Modernisation Agency • Followed by South Yorkshire Improvement Academy,

various roles nationally, regionally, locally, with arms length bodies in NHS

• Interspersed with For profit and not-for profit NHS and social care facing roles

• CURRENTLY: Company Secretary of GP-led federation with 170,000 registered patients

• AND: The Social Return Company lead consultant

Benefits Management

Benefits management is the identification, definition, planning, tracking and realisation of

business benefits.

• The WHY of projects • Knock on effects • Who are the stakeholders – who gets the benefits? • Do we know what success looks like? (does everyone

agree?) • People make decisions, not organisations. What do

they want?

Where does BM fit in Project Management?

John Thorp – The Information Paradox

capability

Four stages when you apply Benefits Management:

– WHY – business case, sponsor, stakeholders

– WHAT & HOW

• Project planning, measurement schema

• Project delivery, decisions to maximise benefits

– HANDOVER – handover capability, plus motivation

– ONGOING

• Measuring and reporting

• Tweaking and adjusting for even better outcomes

Define Benefits

Case for Investment

Quantify and

milestones

Decisions to

maximise

benefits

What benefits

deferred and how

to monitor them

Ben

efi

ts

Fra

mew

ork

Idea

Initiation

Define

Deliverables

Milestones

Resources

Project monitoring

Project delivery

Governance

Clo

sedow

n

Pro

ject

Man

ag

em

en

t

Handover

Benefits Management and PRINCE2

Business as Usual

Reporting & tweaks

WHY WHAT & HOW HAND-OVER ONGOING

A special form of Benefits Management

Social Return on Investment (SROI)

• Stakeholder Mapping and real Engagement

• Value is only what is described by stakeholder

• 2nd and 3rd level measurements – what does this mean?

• The problem – and solution – of attribution

• Using reliable (and defendable) numbers

• A trusted methodology

Example: Third largest employer – The UK

National Health Service (NHS)

A Health Economy in Northern England

• 160 initiatives for change – “projects”

• £60 million per year spent on change

• Professional carers resist change – all change represents risk – “what we’re doing now is safe”

• Management targets divorced from both the knowledge, and the need (sometimes)

Benefits Frameworks

• Part time for 4 months

• 7 workstreams,

• Three workshops – Context: what you are doing, what the need is, where

are the gaps? What does success look like?

– Measurement: what means improvement, where can we get that information?

– Delivery: how are you doing? What are you changing because of measurement?

• coaching between workshops

Benefits Mapping

… means People getting involved

… means common sense

Staff Motivation

• “I can tell my grandchildren ‘I did a good job this week’ “

• Lower Sickness/ Absence

• Easier Recruitment/ Retention

• Getting much more done

• Engaged with corporate objectives – even to MAKE MONEY

Driving improvement

• We (the people who talk to the client/ do the work) see the need/problem first!

• We know what to do about it (have the most experience)

• We can inspire*

• We won’t resist our own design for change

• (a new problem – managing configuration)

Malcolm Gladwell – Tipping Point

Other success stories

• IAIP (Improving Access to Information Project) – Government requirement: no turning back (*) – Direct access to team leaders, who developed their own Benefits

Profiles as well as Roll Out Plans (Resistance is Futile) – Nobility

• COPD (lung disease in former mining areas) – Wide engagement, facing up to vested interests – Years of discussions, recognising and owning problems – Compromise, but with a vision and drive – The NIKE factor

• Community Gynaecology – Pilot rolled out rapidly – Patient (and GP) choice – Instant benefits – cost effective & better for patients

Class work

Stakeholder Mapping

• Pick a current project

• Identify the stakeholders

– The people directly involved in the project

– Others on the table

– the next table / room

• Why the differences?

• How minor is “minor involvement”?

WIIFM

• For each 3rd stakeholder on the list, identify 3 personal goals

• How much in common?

– How much in difect opposition?

– Create KPIs / measures of success for the goals

• Could you summarise in 5 measures / KPIs or less (without losing each person’s goals)

Benefits Mapping

• For each of 5 KPIs (work in pairs with someone who thinks differently to you) – KPI on the right

– What must it look like (ideal state)?

– What do you need to do?

– Are there any dependencies and critical paths?

• Share your results and look for common components of Ideal State and common actions

Lessons to take away

When do you start? When do you finish?

• 4 stages of Benefits Management:

– WHY – business case, sponsor, stakeholders

– WHAT & HOW

• Project planning, measurement schema

• Project delivery, decisions to maximise benefits

– HANDOVER – handover capability, plus motivation

– ONGOING

• Measuring and reporting

• Tweaking and adjusting for even better outcomes

Professionalism

• Like Project Management – follow a tried and tested process*:

– don’t just make it up as you go along

• The right tools for the job

– iBE.net includes Project Management, Time and Billing, EVA; Benefits Management to follow shortly (one time entry, used many times)

– Try it out at www.ibe.net

* PwC 2012 Project Maturity

When the best leader’s work is done, the people will say:

“We did it ourselves”

Lao Tzu

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