ISSUE 17: JUNE 2015
CONNECT BUILDING CAPABILITY IN COMPLEX ENVIRONMENTS
Strategy Visualisation Opinion Column: Leadership Book Reviews: • Care to Dare • Exercising Agency • PM for Research & Development
AIPM Alliance signed
First Course Deliveries
|||||| CONTACT US STAFF
CEO MESSAGE
Deborah Hein Managing Director & CEO Diane Hope Business Manager Cathy Baljak Learning & Development Manager
ICCPM BOARD Chris Jenkins, Chair Simon Henley Kim Gillis Julie Dunlap Harry Bradford Mary McKinlay Chris Deeble Deborah Hein International Centre for Complex Project Management Ltd (ICCPM) PO Box 327 Deakin West ACT 2600 AUSTRALIA Level 2, Equinox 3 70 Kent Street Deakin ACT 2600 AUSTRALIA +61 2 6120 5110 admin@iccpm.com iccpm.com Twitter: @iccpm LinkedIn: ICCPM Complex Project Management Discussion Group The views expressed by contributors to this magazine are solely their own and ICCPM accepts no responsibility or liability for these views.
This edition of CONNECT has a leadership focus. You will read the opinions of a couple of our Executive Masters in Complex Project Management graduates as well as that of Dr Jeannie Kahwajy about whether a particular leadership style is necessary to work successfully on complex projects internationally. Jeannie will also share her theory “Leadership and Interpersonal Effectiveness - The Intention of Leadership and the Science of Interpersonal Influence”. The inclusion of the opinion column has proven to be very successful and valued by our readership. Please let me know if you are interested in contributing to our column in future editions and we will put you on our contributors list. In this issue we will share our very own strategy visualisation and story with you. We will take you through the development cycle, introduce you to our fantastic artist, and finally reveal our final illustration. This will be the second time this entire process has been conducted. The first very successful activity was done to support a significant national agency who now use their artefact as a powerful communication tool and a way of focusing the organisation on the future and the transformation journey they have embarked upon. Our visualisation will show our focus on building capability globally through our education and services products to help manage complexity in the world.
events and the annual conference, contributing to a future edition of CONNECT, sending us links to interesting articles or websites, and letting us know what you are doing that might be of interest to others; or you can link directly with me and let me know what you think about how we can improve our service to you. Our membership program continues to grow and I would like to welcome our recent members from England and Australia. Finally, this month we farewell Kate Hubbard. Kate has been with us for over two years and has been an important part of our team where she performed the role of Executive Administrator. She has been studiously completing her law qualification and is almost finished. Thanks Kate for your work and effort over the past couple of years - we wish you all the very best in your future endeavours.
Our conference continues to build momentum, the speaker program will be finalised and promulgated in the next couple of weeks. If you haven’t registered yet be sure you get in soon to secure you place. I look forward to There are a number of ways you can seeing you in October. participate in the CPM community including attending networking Don’t hesitate to contact us if you are interested in finding out more about the strategy visualisation and we can connect you with our expert facilitator/developer.
© ICCPM 2015
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CONTENTS ARTICLES
FEATURES ICCPM Strategy Visualisation
BOOK REVIEWS
16 - 20
Opinion Column
- Care to Dare
21
- Project Management for Research & Development
22
- Exercising Agency
25
Thinking in Organisations
24
Leadership and Interpersonal Effectiveness 26
12 -15
EDUCATION
NEWS ICCPM & AIPM Sign Alliance
10
Programs & Courses
8
Women in Project Management Leadership 11
Complexity Awareness Program - First Course Delivery
9
10 - 11
ICCPM CONFERENCE Sponsors 5 Speakers 6 Workshops 7
5-7
LINKS & EVENTS
8-9
ICCPM NETWORK Software Spotlight - Polaris
28
Philip Crosby 30 Kate Hubbard 30 Jim McDowell 30 Keyholder 31 Kim Gillis 32
28 - 32
Food for Thought 33 Calendar 34
33 - 34
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ICCPM 6TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE
BUILDING CAPABILITY IN COMPLEX ENVIRONMENTS 27 - 29 October 2015 Canberra, ACT Australia 27 - Education Workshops - QT Canberra 28 - 29 - Conference - Australian Institute of Sport
www.iccpmconference.com
REGISTER HERE
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ANNUAL CONFERENCE
SPONSORS We are grateful to our sponsors whose generosity and support will ensure the ICCPM 6th Annual Conference is a success.
Key Sponsor: Lockheed Martin Supporting Sponsors: RiskIQ, Defence Materiel Organisation, BAE Systems and the PM Channel Lanyard Sponsor: Australian Risk Policy Institute (ARPI) Conference Dinner Sponsor: Thales Welcome Reception Sponsor: Boeing Defence Australia Contact us if you are interested in sponsorship opportunities
www.iccpmconference.com BUILDING CAPABILITY IN COMPLEX ENVIRONMENTS
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ANNUAL CONFERENCE
SPEAKERS BUILDING CAPABILITY IN COMPLEX ENVIRONMENTS Come and hear how some of the best deliver solutions to complex problems ICCPM’s 6th Annual Conference 28 - 29 October 2015 Australian Institute of Sport, Canberra, Australia
Confirmed Speakers include: • • • • • •
Jeff Wilcox, VP Engineering, Lockheed Martin, USA Jeff Worley, Complex Project Management Executive Practitioner Dr Jeannie Kahwajy, Founder and CEO, Effective Interactions Yvonne Butler, CEO Australian Institute of Project Management (AIPM) CDRE Michael Houghton, Director General Future Submarine Program, DMO Bruce Armstrong, CEO, Aspen Medical
Case study of complex transformation An updated program will be available in the next few weeks. Refer to the conference website for details
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ANNUAL CONFERENCE
WORKSHOPS BUILDING CAPABILITY IN COMPLEX ENVIRONMENTS ICCPM’s 6th Annual Conference - Pre-conference Workshops 27 October 2015 QT Hotel, Canberra, Australia
Pre-conference Workshops We are offering a number of full day workshops and a mini-conference as a precursor to the conference • Dealing with Uncertainty: a workshop for people required to make serious decisions in unfavourable circumstances, facilitated by Steve Longford of New Intelligence • Spatium, a complex project leadership simulation presented by Jürgen Oschadleus of Act Knowledge • Approaches to Uncertainty and Risk in Complex Environments facilitated by RiskIQ. Identify real, practical models, tools, methods and frameworks for working effectively on all kinds of organisational or project risk. • The Risk Policy Masterclass will consider progressing risk from the management paradigm to the leadership paradigm. facilitated by the Australian Risk Policy Institute (ARPI) • Leveraging Intellectual Assets for Innovation and Exploitation, facilitated by Dr Peter Beven, Queensland University of Technology. Firstly hear from some thought leaders in the industry and then be engaged in real time roundtable discussions during the afternoon. Refer to the conference website for more information about the workshops and presenters or to register
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EDUCATION
PROGRAMS & COURSES ICCPM delivers education programs and courses to business and government to improve organisational capability, bring about change and lead to successful delivery of complex projects and programs. ICCPM education products currently include a Complexity Awareness Program and a Systems Thinking and Complex Project Management course. ICCPM offers a variety of continuing professional development courses for complex project managers including:
• ICCPM Complexity Awareness Program (7 days) • Executive Masters of Business in Complex Project Leadership/Strategic Procurement provided in collaboration with QUT and DMO (3 years part time) delivered by QUT. • Systems Thinking and Complex Project Management (3 or 4 days) delivered by QUT • ICCPM Implementation Planning for Complex Programs • Complex Program and Project Leadership Foundations Unit • ICCPM Complex Project Management Planning Program • Complex Adaptive Leadership Foundations Course • Executive Short Courses and Workshops
COMPLEXITY AWARENESS PROGRAM The Complexity Awareness Program has been developed to aid participants to identify, assess and treat the various aspects of complexity found in any environment and is aimed at anyone who has a requirement for a foundation level of knowledge and skills within the world of complexity. Each course has been designed to provide participants with a clear set of benchmarks to support both initial competency achievement and ongoing professional development.
For more information contact Cathy, ICCPM Learning and Development Manager about your training needs: admin@iccpm.com / iccpm.com / +61 2 6120 5110
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EDUCATION
COMPLEXITY AWARENESS PROGRAM
FIRST COURSE DELIVERY ICCPM students understand how to apply complexity framework through ‘serious play’ with stackable interlocking blocks May was a momentous month for ICCPM as it marked the very first delivery of our Complexity Awareness Program to two of our Partner Organisations. Thank you to BAE Systems and ASC for valuing our education product and being the first to step onto the education pathway. This program has been in development for ten months and it is extremely exciting to see it come to life! We are also very excited to be delivering courses to Raytheon Australia in August. Participants will complete a total of four courses that provide a foundation level of skills and knowledge within the world of complexity. The study of complexity theories, frameworks, tools and approaches stimulates discussion and debate and participant’s personal engagement is fostered by facilitators who encourage participants to relate their learning to their own experiences. As participants progress through the Program they steadily build a ‘toolkit’, a list of practical ideas enabling them to reflect upon and apply each course’s learning immediately when they return to their workplace. After completing the first two courses participants told us they are now able to: correctly differentiate between a ‘complicated’ problem and a ‘complex’ problem, make better decisions when complexity is present and use strategies and tools to help make sense of and deal with complexity in their projects.
Students experience Complexity through serious play
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A student’s metaphor - Complicated vs Complex Our delivery philosophy includes providing participants with stimulating experiences that enable them to realise the value of their knowledge and skills in all aspects of their life. An example includes a game BAE Systems and ASC participants recently played that let them experience four of the five domains of Dave Snowden’s Cynefin framework using LEGO®. Yes you read it correctly, LEGO. This game provided participants with the understanding that different situations require different responses to successfully navigate them. How often have you seen someone try to handle a difficult situation in an overlysimplistic way and then be really confused when it failed? If so, they could really benefit from an introduction to the Cynefin framework. All partner organisation participants receive free ICCPM membership and access to our online discussion forum which provides them with additional resources to allow them to develop their complexity interests beyond the experiences provided within the classroom and a space to share information, ideas and resources, to discuss topics of interest and to get help from us and other course participants. Feedback from the first two deliveries has been very positive and we look forward to delivering the remainder of the program over the next six months. If you would like more information on the Complexity Awareness Program or if you are curious and want to know more about the LEGO game, please contact Cathy Baljak, Learning and Development Manager.
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NEWS
ICCPM AND AIPM SIGN STRATEGIC ALLIANCE ICCPM is pleased to announce it has formed a strategic alliance with the Australian Institute of Project Management (AIPM). This is a significant milestone for ICCPM as we agree to cooperate on strengthening the profession of project management. As part of this alliance we will: • Share research and knowledge-based assets including articles in each-others publications; • Facilitate member networking through a number of combined events in various locations each year; • Support collaboration on Complex Project Management; and • Form an online Community of Practice to promote thought leadership on ‘managing complexity in projects’ This partnership is significant in many ways, and has the potential to produce some extraordinary outcomes through the linking of the AIPM and ICCPM networks. Building on the existing relationships that ICCPM already has with project management organisations such as IPMA, APM, and APMG-International; the addition of AIPM to this group increases the coverage and opportunities available to improve how we all approach project management and managing complex projects specifically. We are very excited and hopeful that this alliance will deliver numerous benefits and we look forward to a long and successful relationship with Yvonne and her team at AIPM.
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NEWS
WOMEN IN PROJECT MANAGEMENT LEADERSHIP
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CPM OPINION COLUMN
DO ORGANISATION LEADERS COMPETING IN A GLOBAL ENVIRONMENT REQUIRE A UNIQUE STYLE?
We asked contributors to this edition’s CPM Opinion Column to provide insight into whether leaders of organisations in a global environment require a unique style to deal with the complexities present in an interconnected and interdependent environment or complex system of systems
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CPM OPINION COLUMN
“A great business leader understands that affluence comes from influence” (#Stism, 2015)
There are multitudes of experts, theories, models, publications, consultancies, and courses focussed on leadership. Some proffer old methods repackaged as new ones and some even purport to provide the ‘only’ solution to all leadership issues.
complex projects managers will help to mitigate the risks of failure or the delivery of dis-benefit or outcomes that in themselves may be worse than the problem we were trying to solve.
However, all are consistent and correct in their belief that Leadership is the key to success. The risk to those managing complex projects, programs and businesses is that some may buy into the propaganda that one particular leadership style or model is the panacea and will enable the delivery of a project or program to go without a hitch.
Having leaders with the courage and wisdom to see that the world is evolving swiftly and the need to develop the skills of PMs to enable them to deliver strategic outcomes in our globalised economy is imperative. Furthermore, if policy decisions continue to be made devoid of knowledge surrounding implementation (particularly project management) we will continue to achieve suboptimal results. We will look to address some of these issues as a community through a range of initiatives being lead here at ICCPM such as our October Conference, an international roundtable series, and online forums utilised to generate discussion, obtain feedback and build momentum.
As we know managing complex projects requires a systems thinking and multi-methodological approach to deliver successful outcomes. We learn through experience, development and education that we must match the sophistication of the problem with a level of sophistication in the solution and this is achieved using a range of methodologies that come together to deliver an appropriate outcome (using Ashby’s Law of Requisite variety as the basis). This is also true when we think about the leadership style necessary to deliver successful complex projects. Project managers must possess a range of leadership options that they are proficient in and can apply when required and flex between to gain the best outcomes from their projects. When we think about the political and policy decisions being made by governments globally that will be required to be implemented via projects it is difficult to see how they will be able to be achieved with a high level of project management capability available worldwide. This is in no way a criticism of our current cadre of project managers, more a call to arms for those in project management to obtain the skills and experience necessary to take on more complex projects. Take for example the issues caused by terrorism, with some countries now working on physically closing their borders and strictly controlling immigration to try and stem increasing levels of illegal migration, refugees and the statelessness of entire populations. Other examples are the push for investment in renewable energy sources and the need to tackle domestic violence and eradicate it from our society. All of these very complex issues will be addressed either knowingly or unknowingly through the delivery of projects and programs. In fact it is highly likely that the delivery of projects to address these issues may create more complex issues that will need to be addressed. The use of well-educated and experienced
BUILDING CAPABILITY IN COMPLEX ENVIRONMENTS
The contributors in this edition’s CPM Opinion Column come from a variety of backgrounds and locations, all with extensive leadership experience. Jeannie Kahwajy is based in the US and is CEO Effective Interactions. Jeannie’s research, teaching and client engagements focus on specific ways leaders can transform their interactions to make those interactions and themselves more effective. Steve Hein is an Executive Masters of Complex Project Managment Graduate and is Principle & Owner ACSCL. Steve has over 35 years experience in federal government. Grant Boore is the Lead Delivery Manager at Ministry of Education of New Zealand responsible for the Christchurch Schools Rebuild Programme (CSR). Grant is a Graduate of the Executive Masters of Complex Project Management. If you would like to suggest topics for future opinion columns please send them to admin@iccpm.com. If you would like to be considered as a contributor to a future column, please contact Deborah Hein with your CV, biography and an example of your writing. Please note that preference is given to contributors who are part of the ICCPM network. If you would like to join the ICCPM network and enjoy the many benefits available, please visit iccpm.com/register for information on membership of ICCPM or contact us at admin@ iccpm.com.
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Jeannie Kahwajy MBA, Ph.D.
What do leaders have in common? One answer: Followers! But what makes people WANT to follow another, especially in the midst of unfamiliarity or risk and the lack of comfort or proof? And to do so with enthusiasm, energy, and often reckless abandon? You might be surprised to learn the extent to which the effectiveness of leaders and organizations depends upon the chosen intention held by a single individual. What we are fundamentally up to is in our complete control and can be decoupled from the particulars of a given situation. When you think of those whom you would be willing to go out on a limb for, to give the benefit of the doubt to, and to support: What intention do they exude? How do they make you feel? When asking this question to multitudes of executives, an overwhelming similar response surfaces. It is not difficult to sense intention and it doesn’t seem to be something that can be faked (similar to a dog knowing someone is afraid of it despite the words “nice dog, nice dog…”). There are two fundamental intentions: wanting to change others or wanting to be changed in the interactive process. We are encouraged by those who listen to us with an intention of being modified, who do not rigidly hold pre-determinations of what our contributions will be or limit what our performance can become. Leaders look for, find, and elicit our value and are eager to question their preconceived notions because they are interested in becoming better. They are affected by us, and in so doing, they make our strengths productive and our weaknesses irrelevant. Their aim is not to agree or to disagree with us, but to get into a position to be able to do so. Leaders believe in unrealized potential and are willing to see and ready to use it. They do so by acting rather than telling and by helping rather than advising. They are ‘verbs,’ not ‘nouns’: they lead with their behaviors and allow their behaviors to update their beliefs as they pursue and fine tune what they imagine possible (their vision, the destination). And they do so by enlisting the help of others rather than pontificating on what limitations have in the past prevailed. They routinely share how they are affected (i.e., feedback not judgment) and focus on their role and responsibility for the outcomes they get. In summary, leadership requires the skill of looking for and seeing what one hasn’t yet observed or doesn’t yet know, a willingness to be wrong and readiness to change. This is receiving. And receiving invites and triggers the giving. The result? True leaders create followers while pseudo leaders merely have subordinates.
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Grant Boore
Lead Delivery Manager Christchurch Schools Rebuild Programme Increasingly our domestic boundaries are removed or blurred as we undertake business in a global environment, dealing with the complexities present in an interconnected and interdependent environment or a complex system of systems. Leaders of organisations competing in this broader domain require a unique style - or do they? A leader of any complex undertaking needs a certain style, but is this style unique purely because of a single dimension such as operating across a broad domain? – I doubt it.The question an astute leader operating across boundaries should be asking them-self is “What opportunities can I seize upon given the varying landscape of this project?” Firstly, grab the gift of mastering time. Leverage time zones to your maximum advantage, conquer time and have dispersed teams working around the global clock. Clever coordination and clear direction is essential here but challenges worked on for 24 hours a day succumb to the pressure. Bosses squeezing more out of their staff – pretty normal behaviour. Next, embrace the cultural diversity that will be readily available across domains. Some problem situations cannot be solved with a unitary perspective so unique solutions to messy problems can surface through the looking glass of various cultures. Another grand opportunity and surely nothing unique here – it is very evident that most successful endeavours leverage the power of diversity. Next is a crazy thought. Success for the dispersed team relies heavily on technology to support it, what? A reliance on technology, it’s a fad, it’ll never last (attributed to IBM) – nothing too unique in that dependency I fear – we are all slaves to this but smart technology solutions will be your friend. Reliability (or trust) is a little trickier to establish because there are no “book covers” to quickly judge. You will soon figure out who to rely on by demonstrative results – your next “go-to” person will reward your trust. As I say, it is tricky, but nothing outside of the norm for any leader worth his salt. Perhaps the key leadership trait when the teams are distributed is good communication. A sound communications plan is a key tool in this situation but so it is for any project. Is having a process in which to communicate with your stakeholders that unique? Every endeavour, big or small, local or global, has blurred boundaries. Demarcations that need to be explored and understood. The good leader assesses his domain and takes advantage of ANY opportunity that presents. The only thing truly unique in leading a globally dispersed organisation is the speed with which you accrue air miles.
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Steve Hein OAM
Principal & Owner ACSCL Let’s be a little controversial and put forward some thoughts on whether there’s a case for a unique style when leading a business in a global environment? Only a short piece but I think we can open up some of the debate. Through my lens – I see the ‘world’ market place transforming! As Friedman (2005) suggests, the world is becoming increasingly flatter. The concept of being able to operate a business in a secluded and/or contained enclave is fast disappearing. Even embryonic businesses have to consider the impact of not only their national boundaries blurring but also that some boundaries around the globe may no longer exist as they were, and importantly there’s the now very real virtual world to consider as technology now diminishes time and increases urgency. The business environment is, by all means, a complex system of systems and characterised by emergence that cannot be envisaged as one may have a century ago (or less).
Jeannie Kahwajy
In this fast moving global environment those who are part of the system will invariably have differing worldviews (culture, political stance, economic status etc). Less rigid bureaucracies; required operational agility; ease of access to global resources; and differing circumstance required to generate organisational resilience, are all contributors to the challenges facing business leaders in the global environment - there are many more. Business leaders may therefore require more than the standard leadership arsenal as overcoming the diverse range of challenges they are presented will likely involve a more diverse set of weapons and defences than in previous decades. When it comes to leadership one could see it, in general terms, being about mobilising humans. As Kotter (1996) indicates, leadership defines what the future should look like, aligns people with that vision, and inspires them to make it happen despite any obstacles. In the global environment this includes leading multiple footprints of geographically dispersed virtual teams, ensuring that technology doesn’t depersonalise interaction and maintaining organisational momentum from a distance. What does this then present? Possibly the requirement for a heightened sense of the global environment, persistence when challenged, a streak of innovation, confidence in one’s ability, acceptance of ambiguity and the ability to understand and utilise informal networks to advantage. There would also be a distinct ability to deal with increased emergence or lack of ‘control’ as opposed to predictability and order as is the case when the requirement for adaptive leadership inherently increases (Uhl-Bien & Marion, 2009).
Grant Boore
However, I feel that what is becoming increasingly important is the ability to mobilise (engage) those who may not have a direct association with the business in question. Without the ability to influence others one will not achieve what one intends, as control or even the ability to steer increasingly comes through the hands of others. Requiring a unique leadership style may be the question but one could say that rather than a unique style the discussion may be more about the evolution of attributes required of business leaders more broadly and how these evolved attributes are now becoming ‘essentials’ due to the nature of doing business as the world continues to shrink and the once distinct operational boundaries fade away as time quickly passes – the hands on the business clock move faster.
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Steve Hein
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ARTICLES
Strategy Visualisation “Engendering engagement, understanding and enabling the future” How does one understand what the future may hold? No doubt we have all been party over the years to numerous Strategic Planning days with lots of post-it-notes, butchers paper, photographed white boards or multiple reams of paper consumed in sifting through ideas that at the end of the day enable us to simply tweak what we did last year, and then we do it all again the following year. This process normally relates to what we have done in previous years and may not accurately reflect what we should be doing to achieve what we wish in the future.
Visualisation results in an illustration of people’s perceptions, in most cases contrasting the current state to the desired future, and importantly generating alignment with the organisations vision. The organisational story becomes materiel, and through storytelling (a most powerful method of engagement) leadership links with the people in the organisation to envision the future. People interpret things but where an organisational story becomes embedded as part of the culture – and people are involved in the envisioning - it will stick.
We all know that the key to executing and implementing strategy, delivering outcomes and maximising benefits is to generate buy-in, motivation and alignment of all activities from a diverse range of stakeholders. It is about having the ‘people’ in the organisation not only understand but ultimately take ownership and carriage of an organisations strategy, to have them see and feel where they are headed and how they can contribute ( ‘Heart of Change’, Kotter, 2002, HBP)
Strategy visualisation is a powerful tool in the communication and engagement arsenal. It can reinforce the journey and story of an organisation, promoting things that are done well and at the same time unearthing practices and behaviours that are unhealthy. It can also be used to discover and test assumptions around culture, processes, dysfunction, behaviours, beliefs, standards and ways of working that are either accepted or unknown.
If there is no connection between the people in the organisation and the organisational vision, inevitably linked to a strategy, then one of two things is occurring. Firstly, there may not be the correct strategy in place or secondly the people are not engaged. To be successful in execution of a strategy that contributes to a vision the key is to connect the people, both practically and emotionally, and this is achieved by involving them in a meaningful way.
“The best way to get humans to venture into unkown terrain is to make that terrain familiar and desirable by taking them there first in their imaginations” (Tichy and Cohen, 1997)
Strategy Visualisation This is where ‘Strategy Visualisation’ comes into its own. People learn in different ways, humans’ process information in many different ways with some preferring narratives or process maps while others prefer illustrations or dialogue. A well-developed strategy will utilise many different methodologies as part of the engagement and development process, and importantly after the strategy is in place use similar to continue implementation.
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ARTICLES
How do we do it?
Some benefits of Strategy Visualisation
Our strategy visualisation process when done correctly does require some commitment, both time and transparency, as well as some facilitation. To be effective the process must start and be owned by the Executive (or similar), and they must not only participate in the process themselves but they must encourage participation by their staff. It is very useful in generating collaboration regarding the strategic direction for an organisation, as well as defining roles at the higher levels. However, we have found the visualisation process most powerful in effectively planning organisational transformation.
The workshops and facilitated discussions are critical in allowing people to share their experiences, perceptions and ideas. People are provided a safe environment to express their views both positive and negative – and produce their perception of a desired future which is then brought together with all others to provide a shared understanding of desired future aligned to the organisations strategy and vision.
After some research and brief confirmation of an organisations charter, commitments and direction the facilitation process normally begins with some simple questions: •
What is the perception of the organisation in the present?
•
What is the most desirable future (structurally, behaviourally and other)?
•
What are the challenges to moving from A to B?
Importantly the entire process engenders a high level of emotional engagement, ownership and buy-in to the organisations strategy where people can see their contribution and how they fit in (what’s in it for me, and where do I fit in). The visualisation (illustration) itself then becomes a powerful coomunication tool.
The key is how we capture the information and then synthesise and interpet it – not in isolation, but using the people in the organisation! Our facilitated workshops: •
Capture information and reflect it back to participants uncensored,
•
Develop ‘rich pictures’ directly from participants,
•
Have the participants interpewt their illustrations,
•
Analyse all information gathered to form themes for further discussion,
•
Keep all involved ‘engaged’ and ‘owners’ of the vision,
•
Provide an initial draft ‘Visualisation’ drawn form all the information (an interative process),
•
Refine the strategy visualisation as agreed, and
•
Provide a ‘story’ narrative against the final visualisation
ICCPM’s Strategy Visualisation Here at ICCPM we have conducted our own strategy visualisation process and have come up with our own visualisation (illustration) to help our staff, partners and network members to better understand where we are going and how we will get there. It is provided as one example. Want to know more, please just drop us a line and we can answer question or put you directly in touch with our professional facilitator. ICCPM admin@iccpm.com +61 2 6120 5110
Reference: Tichy, N.M. and Cohen, E.B. (1997), The Leadership Engine: How Winning Companies Build Leaders at Every Level, Harper Business, London
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ARTICLES
The Future of ICCPM through Strategy Visualisation The ICCPM Vision is ‘to be internationally recognised for, building capability in organisations to deal with complex environments’. We will deliver this vision through Stakeholder Relationships, Thought Leadership, Education and Solution Services. The metaphor that we have used as the underlying theme of our visualisation is a jigsaw puzzle. Our visualisation reads from bottom to top. In the first instance we decided to depict what we as an organisation face when working with individuals and groups that are struggling firstly to recognise the complexity that they are working in and secondly the barriers that we see in their willingness to do anything about it. You will see our interpretation of the current state in which folks are simply on “auto pilot” or on the hamster wheel of process that constantly delivers failed projects, or are open to the belief that someone else can do what they can’t (conspiracy of optimism), or they just want to check out due the level of uncertainty. We then demonstrate that it is our intention to provide people with the puzzle pieces to complete the jigsaw by providing the education necessary to move from a negative perception of complexity through an educational transformation designed to change your mindset, way of thinking and way of working, to one that opens the world to opportunity and a level of comfort in dealing with complex issues. Our new world demonstrates the connections globally between people and sectors who have all become more capable and comfortable in working with complexity and complex projects. We also demonstrate that the ‘messes’ or complex issues and problems don’t go away, but our level of comfort in recognising and addressing them has changed, and conceptually they have become a smaller version of the larger “Mess”, and that this can only be achieved by people, through communication and collaboration. Ideally we would like to be glue that holds it all together, and the catalyst for others to ultimately be successful.
view of how will deliver our organisational strategy we would be very pleased to talk about it with anyone who is interested, take any suggestions that you might have, and work with you and your organisation to develop one of your own.
About the Artist: Introducing Kieron Pratt
Kieron Pratt is as colourful as his illustrations. He has a great sense of humour and is a ‘behind the scenes’ kind of person who would prefer to have his illustrations speak for him. Kieron was born in Melbourne and moved to Canberra in 1980 with his family and has been there ever since. He has always loved drawing since he was old enough to “eat his first red crayon”. Before Kieron commenced our artwork I asked him to participate in our Systems Thinking and Complex Project Management three day workshop, it was not a test of his intestinal fortitude nor a social experiment to test the ability of the PMs in the room to cope with the widest angle diversity lens I could find, it was to help Kieron contextualise what we were hoping to achieve regarding thinking, behaving and working as part of a bigger, brighter system. We believe that he got it! Thank you Kieron, fantastic job my friend.
A Self Portrait
Our logo has been submerged beneath the water to demonstrate our desire to be an enabler of success. Bearing in mind that this visualisation is our internal
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Book Review: Care to Dare
Care to Dare: Unleashing astonishing potential through secure base leadership
George Kohlrieser, Susan Goldsworthy and Duncan Coombe, Published by John Wiley & Sons UK, 2012. Reviewed by Caitlyn Baljak.
Cailtyn is a Year 11 student studying Chemistry, Modern History, English, Literature and Specialist Mathematics. She hopes to study at ANU and combine her love of economics and science into a future career. Literature on leadership and theories concerning its implementation are abundant; they litter every collection of inspirational reading material, from the workplace to school libraries. These texts, however, are often only relatable and engaging for a narrow, CEO demographic. This is where George Kohlrieser’s contribution to leadership philosophy, Care to Dare: Unleashing Astonishing Potential through Secure Base Leadership differentiates itself; through breaking down the hierarchical stigma associated with leadership and making it applicable to the every day. The text is concerned with the theory of ‘Secure Base Leadership’; the identification of people in your life who provide a sense of security and how you can provide stability in the lives of others. The creation of a secure environment, as Kohlrieser advocates is to allow and encourage ‘risk taking’; the most effective means of fostering innovation. The reader is provided with mechanisms to become a Secure Base Leader for others; providing an abundance of case studies in which this theory has been applied to benefit an individual or organisation, to which the reader can refer. There are nine steps that explore achievable character traits demonstrated by Secure Base Leaders and ways in which the reader can embody them. The text has been written to involve the reader, with several points throughout the book directly challenging the reader to self-evaluate and apply this leadership philosophy to their own life. The book is written on the basis that the reader has no assumed knowledge of leadership meta-language; only experiences on which to apply the discussed theories. This does however, lead to the over-simplification of the steps; potentially frustrating the reader by highlighting observations that seem inherent/obvious about the
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way in which people operate (or could be realised with the application of a little common sense). This leads to the text feeling excessively long and not particularly engaging, with the exception of some of the inspiring accounts in which Secure Base Leadership has been applied to achieve outstanding outcomes. This oversimplification is potentially useful to a person who is caught in a narrow thought process; a reminder to recognise the obvious which is easy to overlook. While the content of this book is applicable to any organisation, its application in an educational environment could prove particularly useful in equipping teachers, so that they can facilitate the best possible learning and development outcomes for their students. Overall, this humanistic approach to leadership philosophy invites the reader to assess their leadership style and whether or not they are Playing to Win, as well as step-by-step methods by which they can invite leadership success permanently into their organisation and lives.
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Book Review: Project Management for Research & Development Project Management for Research and Development: Guiding innovation for positive R&D outcomes Lory Mitchell Wingate, Published by CRC Press, USA, 2015. Reviewed by Phil Crosby MICCPM* Anyone seeking sound, practical advice and instruction on the shaping and management of research and development (R&D) projects will know that this area is under-represented in the project management (PM) genre, which makes this book all the more welcome. The author (Lori Mitchell Wingate) conveys an excellent grasp of the topic in this easily read, and readily applied book, complete with summary notes, exercises, and case studies (although the latter are curiously chosen and sometimes difficult to place as R&D projects). The book is aimed squarely at the innovative R&D sector rather than ‘traditional’ PM, and makes clear the important differences. Over the eight chapters (475 pages), the author takes us through a logical sequence of PM approaches, shaping, and building blocks for R&D projects, closing with an insightful section on teams and leadership, and a summary of process steps necessary for R&D project success. The book structure is logical, and while some points are made repetitively, and some parts (e.g. Section 5) are rather dense, it serves well as a reference resource. Flexible PM (e.g. the Agile/sprints method) is promoted as one approach that matches the special and risky demands of R&D projects where early stage ambiguity and uncertainty is normal, solutions unclear, and success defined differently to traditional projects. The importance of systems engineering and baseline management are well made, as is project interface control, and trade studies. Test, verification, and validation effort is given the proper prominence for development activities. Wingate introduces the ‘industrial engineering’ concept and reminds us that R&D effort, while often experimental in nature, should not overlook the future ‘manufacturability’ of the outputs.
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“A valuable read for any prospective leader, manager or even sponsor of R & D projects”
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Project communications is an area repeatedly highlighted as vital to get right, and critical to both the successful execution of the R&D project, and the maintenance of stakeholder support. Wingate also discusses the concept of a Principle Investigator (or Science Leader) as the project figurehead, and commends the notion of coupling this leadership role with a professional Project Manager, trained and competent in the programmatic processes required to deliver success. While this book is a comprehensive treatment of the subject, a notable omission is any focussed attention on project complexity. Oddly, the topic is not listed in the index, despite its frequently implied relationship to success in R&D type projects. Similarly, the reader must look elsewhere for guidance concerning mission assurance, and advice relating to unexpected external threats to project execution – sometimes termed Black Swans. Project risk is described in fairly standard (PMBoK type) terms (although ‘unknown unknowns’ are mentioned).
Examples of more empirically tested approaches for managing non-rational risk in R&D enterprises might have been more valuable, and a future edition could usefully address these matters. That said, this book will be a valuable read for any prospective leader, manager, or even sponsor, of R&D projects. It sets out the context, characteristics, and challenges of delivering projects in the risky world of technological innovation, and offers practical advice for shaping such projects. I suggest it belongs, not on the project library shelf, but on the desk of those charged with delivering project success. About the Reviewer Dr Philip Crosby is Assistant Director: Western Australia for one of CSIRO’s National Facilities. He is a business strategist and a major projects specialist, with a PhD in high-technology mega-projects. He lectures and publishes widely on this topic, and his latest eBook “Success in Large High Technology Projects - What Really Works” is published by the ICCPM and available through Amazon.
Do you have something to say about complexity, projects, programs, people, or research? If you would like to be included in future editions of CONNECT, contact us with your suggestions and abstracts. CONNECT is published quarterly in March, June, September and December. Deadline for submissions is the 1st of each publishing month. admin@iccpm.com
If you would like to sign up to receive future editions of CONNECT, please visit iccpm.com
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Thinking In Organisations ‘If you want to fail, fail to think’ As part of our professional education series, we invite you to join us in conversation for the “Thinking Breakfast Series” with professionals and leaders from the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) Canberra Alumni and the International Centre for Complex Project Management (ICCPM), to challenge your bias and perceptions in Thinking in Organisations with Mr Richard King. A published presenter in the field in Australia, Richard brings 35+ years of experience and observations from leadership roles in large organisations in the public and private sector. Richard has delivered a range of challenging programs and published numerous works challenging the status quo in the way organisations ‘think’. Richard will undoubtedly provide valuable insights and stirring comment across three distinct fields of individuals, teams and organisations.
Date: Friday 17th July 2015 Time: 07:15am for 7:30am start. Concludes by 9am Venue: EQ Café Lounge, Equinox Business Park Kent Street, Deakin ACT Dress: Business attire Cost: Complimentary for ICCPM Members $25.50 for Non ICCPM Members RSVP: By Monday 13 July 2015 Register Online Richard King (Ret.) ILPM, AFAIM
Bio: Richard has been invited to speak at international conferences world-wide on thinking and a selection of his works include,’ How the Army Learned to Plan but Forgot How to Think’(2008), and ‘Thinking in Organisations’ (2014). He holds a Masters of Management Study (Economics), is a graduate of the Command and Staff College in Thailand and is a Member of the Institute for Learning Professionals, a Member of International Association of Facilitators, and an Associate Fellow of the Australian Institute of Management. His clients include think tanks and global corporations such as the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), AusAID, Booz Allen Hamilton (USA), Noetic Group and the National Security College at ANU.
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Book Review: Exercising Agency Exercising Agency: Decision Making and Project Initiation Mark Mullaly, published by Gower, 2015 Reviewed by Deborah Hein, ICCPM This book as the author eloquently puts it is about decision making and more importantly the decision making processes that happen in real time in real organisations on whether or not to initiate a project. Reviewed by some of the most eminent researchers of the project management discipline including our good friend Professor Terry Williams of Hull University Business School in the UK it is with great pleasure that I contribute my humble opinion of this book. The findings in this book are strategically important and should be considered seriously by organisations that are engaged in the delivery of change through projects, and by definition that is every organisation. Mark commences by taking the reader through the current literature and what we already know to be true about decision making particularly around the initiation of projects and the decision making models that are currently used, successfully or otherwise. This piece of work is interesting in itself and encourages the reader to consider the mental models and paradigms that you work with now. Mark then introduces the concept of the “Project Shaper” and immediately my mind went to sponsors, champions, executives, SROs and the like. Thinking through my own experience and heuristics my point of reference (or anchor point) would be post project approval where the terminology of SRO, Project or Executive Sponsor become the norm, I found it difficult to reconcile the role of “Project Shapers” in the decision making process as different to a Project Sponsor. The exercising of agency in organisations is not a new concept however I am pleased that both the positive aspects and the counterproductive aspects of individuals exercising agency in organisations particularly around influencing initiation decisions is discussed. I have seen in some organisations an individual’s ability to influence
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the entry or listing of a project on an excel spreadsheet that has caused capital project budget blow outs of phenomenal proportions, because once listed it was impossible to remove, even with existing processes. I think I’ll provide that organisation with this book. I agree with other reviewers that this book should be read by all those involved in the decision making process whether formal or informal, in particular, reflective project managers that are looking to become the decision makers of the future. It is my great hope that our future project initiation decision makers can take the knowledge from this book, implement its findings and recommendations and initiate the right projects at the right time to deliver the strategic objectives of organisations, as is the purpose of projects.
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Leadership and Interpersonal Effectiveness Leadership and Interpersonal Effectiveness
The Intention of Leadership and the Science of Interpersonal Influence Jeannie Kahwajy, Ph.D My research investigates how people perceive and influence each other (independent of relative authority or organizational context or advantage), how they negotiate the attention, goodwill, and participation of others, and how they can break through perceptual and structural barriers within organizations, both at the individual and social levels. At the individual level, I have examined the mechanisms that update individually held beliefs and drive self-fulfilling prophecies. My particular emphasis has been on how to interrupt and reverse a negative expectancy cycle. The self-fulfilling prophecy literature has traditionally explained how higher-status perceiver (supervisor) expectations influence lowerstatus target (subordinate) performance. I focus instead on the role that targets play in perpetuating or changing erroneous beliefs that others hold of them. Specifically, I have developed a theory of “social receiving” and have identified an effective target intervention: an attitude of openness and an intention of modifiability. This targetinitiated, rather than perceiver-initiated, approach highlights motivational expectations that targets hold of themselves, rather than performance expectations that perceivers hold of targets. Hence, recipients of negative or limiting expectations can effect change and surmount social, gender, or ethnicity biases—even biases that are unknowingly held. This is how the status quo gets upgraded for the continuous prosperity of all. Results of several experiments substantiate social receiving theory by showing striking and statistically significant improvements in negotiation outcomes as well as in target and perceiver impressions of the interaction and of each other. This occurred when targets merely approached the interaction with an attitude of openness and an intention of being modified (e.g., a ‘learningoriented’ as opposed to ‘proving-oriented’ approach).
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These experiments confirmed that the proposed motivational intervention can improve interactions, especially in difficult situations. This research offers a novel approach to negotiations and a productive strategy for being heard and for managing through situations in which prevailing expectations are incorrect or incomplete. This is equivalent to turning around betrayal situations, the corrective action being initiated by the target. In essence, such an approach readies perceivers to see and value unanticipated contributions from targets that would otherwise go unrecognized and their resulting contributions unrealized. This process of updating beliefs has important applications in areas such as leadership, negotiation, teamwork, learning, innovation and integrating diversity. Current research and consulting efforts focus on continuing to understand the effects that attitudinal and motivational interventions have on changing beliefs at the social level and to distinguish and to coach approaches that succeed in achieving lasting perception changes in the eyes of perceivers.
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Identifying causal root mechanisms, rather than symptoms, helps to diagnose why certain policies achieve their goals and why other policies do not and how we may be perpetuating the very problems we are trying to solve. At the root of these challenges lie rigid expectations that we have and others hold. Our expectations determine not only how we see and interpret information, but also how we act and cause others to react. Thus, we powerfully affect one another, and we do so in ways that we are typically unaware of and would even deny. Four questions frame a solutions approach: •
(0) Would the real problem please stand up?
•
(1) What is it that we really WANT?
•
(2) WHO is in the best position to initiate action? and (3) HOW?
The answers to these questions are counterintuitive, and we have reflexes that often cause us to behave in counterproductive ways. In this systems approach to interactions, I uncover how we often get in the way of our own best outcomes unknowingly and how one person may be sufficient to effect a change.
We all face the challenge of interacting with people who come from different perspectives than our own, and breaking through perceptual barriers is the key to our success. The hardest of all barriers to overcome are not ones that are individually held or ones that we are aware of or believe are in need of being updated (e.g., I have a negative or limiting belief about a certain individual), but ones that are societally held and reinforced (e.g., race, religion, gender). Gender is one of the most prevalent and pernicious, making it an ideal application for social receiving theory. Unlike much research which describes symptoms, my approach analyzes the underlying mechanisms that cause both men and women alike to view, treat, and interpret men differently from women. Jeannie Kahwajy Professor, Organizational Behavior, IMD (2000-2004) Lecturer: Santa Clara University, Porto School of Man agement, Queensland University of Technology, Stanford University, Georgetown Business School Founder, Effective Interactions ( 2004-present ) +1 650 949 5010 (USA) jeannie@effectiveinteractions.com
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ICCPM NETWORK
SOFTWARE SPOTLIGHT
Booze I Allen I Hamilton Managment Consulting Firm
How do you gauge risk? Perhaps for the simpler tasks in life creating a pros and cons list is sufficient. Perhaps weighing the cost/benefit is an adequate solution. However, when faced with decisions on highly complex programs there may be thousands of variables to consider. So how do decision makers make timely, educated decisions when the number of variables affecting time and money are seemingly overwhelming? Booz Allen Hamilton recognized this challenge and built from its 100 years of program management experience to create Polaris™, the first real-time simulation tool to integrate cost, schedule, and risk into a single analytical model. One of the greatest challenges in managing complex programs is the lack of integration of schedules, budgets, cost estimates, and risk. Schedule growth almost always implies cost growth; cost growth almost always implies schedule growth; and risks identified as part of the risk management process often lead to cost and schedule growth. Despite the interconnection of these disciplines, it is rare when cost estimates, schedules, and risk registers are fully integrated artifacts. Polaris empowers analysts and decision makers to integrate the programmatic disciplines and, more significantly, to simulate decisions and see the rippling effect across the entire program. This integration and methodology has proven to yield unparalleled results on complex programs. NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) Program is developing a launch vehicle—the largest ever built—that will carry astronauts beyond low-earth orbit for the first time since the Apollo Program.
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ICCPM NETWORK
Space launch vehicle design is a highly complex process that requires the balancing of future capabilities against constrained budgets and schedules. The complexity this type of development introduces into SLS necessitates precise planning and evaluation to ensure a successful and sustainable program fulfilling NASA’s vision. While using Polaris and working with the Booz Allen team, NASA performed rapid what-if analysis on the project. By integrating the cost, schedule, and risk data of each SLS Element, NASA management was able to better understand the dynamics of each risk as it impacted cost and schedule, and predict the program’s cost and risk posture at various confidence intervals.
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As a result, SLS made the decision to maintain the analysis beyond the horizon of their initial milestone despite it not being required by NASA policy. This use of recurring analysis is enabling better stewardship of NASA funding, and increasing the chance of SLS delivering the next-generation of human spaceflight, on time and on budget. SLS is just one of the complex programs that Polaris has assisted in achieving cost and schedule goals, and the software is widely used across both government and industry. To see how Booz Allen’s Polaris Solution can help your complex program visit www.boozallen.com/Polaris or contact us at polaris@bah.com.
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ICCPM NETWORK
AROUND THE NETWORK Phil Crosby MICCPM, Member of ICCPM “Diversity” best describes the pathways I’ve chosen through life that have both rewarded, and prepared, me for a career among the most exciting high-technology projects. From my early training in electronics engineering, running my small industrial engineering firm, a varied midcareer in technical Standards, a regional strategist with Boeing, and now with the CSIRO, each job has built capability and confidence. Working on every continent (including Antarctica) also brings a multi-cultural understanding and a worldview of complexity. These days I divide my time between business and strategy work for CSIRO Astronomy & Space Science, and the global Square Kilometre Array (SKA) mega-infrastructure project. Building on the Australian SKA Pathfinder telescope, and the Murchison Widefield Array in Western Australia, the SKA will become the world’s largest scientific instrument; investigating profound questions around the birth of the Universe, Dark Matter, and life elsewhere. Approaching my ‘senior’ years, I join many of my peer members of ICCPM in wanting to give back some hard won wisdom of complex project management and I’ve recently reworked my PhD research into an eBook on ‘Success in Large High Technology Projects’ available through the ICCPM website. I continue to publish in Journals, write book reviews around high-tech project management, and have recently accepted a Senior Research Fellowship at Curtin University. I feel fortunate in sitting on several panels and committees both in, and outside of, CSIRO, which tackle the vexing challenges that arise in complex projects. I often remind young practitioners that “richness” at work doesn’t always mean money. Farewell to Kate Hubbard, Executive Administrator of ICCPM Kate was employed by ICCPM in November 2012 to boost the administrative capacity of the team. She quickly proved to be an asset with her sharp intellect, critical thinking and focussed approach. Kate’s contribution to the team has been significant - as lead conference organiser, responsible for website, membership, ICCPM eBook series and the CONNECT magazine to name a few. At the same time Kate was working towards completion of the Juris Doctor programme through the University of Canberra. Kate has recently secured a position working with DFAT on a new contract. We wish Kate well as she commences her new position and completes her studies. Jim McDowell, Associate Partner Jim McDowell brings a wealth of international industry experience to his role as ICCPM’s newest Associate Partner. Jim was educated in Belfast and completed his Law degree with honours at the University of Warwick before joining British Aerospace in Singapore in 1996. He became CEO of BAE Systems Australia in 2001 and later led its operations in Saudi Arabia where he was responsible for a workforce of over 5000 and annual sales of more than $5billion. Jim is a non-executive director of both Codan Ltd and Austal Ltd and is Chairman of the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation. During his long career, he has lived and worked in the UK, the USA, Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Jim has recently been appointed as Chancellor of the University of South Australia where he hopes to “bring together my experience of industry and government and my deep commitment to the value of education to support and enhance UniSA’s development as Australia’s university of enterprise,” Jim is a passionate supporter of continuing education. He has served on UniSA Council and the Business School Advisory Board and has held roles as a member of the Defence Reserves Support Committee SA, the Northern Economic Leaders Champions Group and as Chairman of the Australian Apprenticeships for the 21st Century Panel, reporting to the Minister for Education in 2011. We’ll be profiling members of the ICCPM network in this space; if you would like to appear or suggest someone for a profile in a future edition please get in touch.
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ICCPM NETWORK
KEYHOLDER Keyholder specialises in supporting Boards and Executives responsible for making complex programs succeed. Keyholder does this with a focus on program strategy, negotiations, assurance, gate reviews, the relationship between executives and the program, capacity-building in program management, supporting individual program/project managers, and supporting capabilities. “We have a small team with deep experience in large-scale systems integration projects, often with very advanced technologies”, says Andrew Pyke, founder and principal. “We aim to bring-together conventional project management, with the emerging knowledge on Complex Project Management. We take this a little further by working in the difficult relationship between projects and their business cases, and in that difficult space where project management overlaps with systems engineering – this is a very challenging area for many organisations.” Keyholder’s consultants bring experience in both public and private sector projects, advanced technologies and missioncritical products, with significant commercial challenges. Andrew regularly acts as an independent analyst and Board member for “gate” reviews of major national projects for a Commonwealth Government Department, and is a Deputy Lead Negotiator for a major inter-agency national infrastructure program in Air Traffic Management. Other Keyholder members support large programs in project planning, risk management, setting up PMOs, configuration management and Sharepoint deployments, to list a few. “Once projects are approved, most
clients are scrambling to get their capabilities set up and going – that is where we assist.” Back in around 2006-07 a number of senior practitioners from Government and industry got together to discuss how “complexity” was having a tremendous effect on the performance of projects. Since that time Andrew and Keyholder have been active contributors to the success of ICCPM as an organisation. “Practitioners with the right level of experience and interest in working in the most complex of environments are very difficult to find”, says Andrew. “This is probably our greatest challenge in applying the body of knowledge that is emerging. This is why we are so committed to ICCPM – it is only through distilling what works and leveraging it into the education and training industry, that we will be able to solve these challenges on any scale.” Andrew sees complex projects becoming more and more common, as a natural result of internationalisation, technology, speed, the demands of open government, people wanting to participate in decisions, tight budgets and often limited risk appetites. “There is no lack of demand – the problem in the industry is continuing to lift our skills and expand the number of project managers equipped to succeed in this environment”, says Andrew. “The exciting thing is that complex projects are often that way because they are doing the hard things, that really matter.”
MEMBERSHIP Welcome to our new members:
Benefits of Membership
Mark Simmonds DMO Australia
Mark Wagstaff DMO, Australia
Monthly Member Bulletin
Raphael Gabay Performa, Australia
Peter Percival DMO, Australia
Discounts on ICCPM courses and events
Adrian Wellspring Department of Defence, Australia
Hemkanth Swarna DMO, Australia
Nadeem Patel BAE Systems, United Kingdom
Mark Picot BAE Systems, Australia
Jonathan Waite BAE Systems, United Kingdom
Antonia Marzulli Lockheed Martin, Australia
Opportunity to contribute to ICCPM sponsored research
Francesca Hamilton ASC Australia
Andrew Fox DMO, Australia
Forum space on iccpm.com to interact with other members
Graham Eveille Eveille Consulting, Australia
Early notification of ICCPM events Access to research, communications and information reserved for ICCPM members Opportunity to contribute to the ICCPM eBook series Access to free books (in exchange for a book review)
Member events
Access to the Digital Gateway
How to join ICCPM Visit iccpm.com/register and follow the links to register as either an Individual Member (open to everyone) or a Partner Employee (open to employees of our partners). If you are a Partner Employee and need your Corporate Code please contact us. BUILDING CAPABILITY IN COMPLEX ENVIRONMENTS
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ICCPM NETWORK
ICCPM DIRECTOR PROFILE Kim Gillis was appointed to the board of ICCPM in August 2009. He is chair of the Governance Committee and a member of the Remuneration Committee. Kim is a founding Fellow of ICCPM and has been a part of the driving force for change in the way the world looks at complexity in projects and programs. Kim has a basic philosophy when it comes to managing complex projects and programs and that is that if you get the people part right, success will inevitably follow. He also firmly believes that no one can do it by themselves and that every successful project or program manager has a strong and knowledgeable network to draw on in those times when you can’t possibly know the answer, but you probably know someone who might have experienced the issue before. Kim says ‘it takes courage and wisdom to reach out and ask for help, it takes strength of character and humility to take advice and act on it’. Kim is Vice President and Managing Director of Boeing Defence Australia, a role he has held since June 2011. He joined Boeing in September 2010 as chief operating officer of International Operations and Compliance. Prior to this he was General Manager Systems in the Defence Materiel Organisation for two years. In this role, he led the reform agenda for DMO acquisition and sustainment in an environment of significant change as a result of major Defence-wide reforms. He also held the role of Deputy Chief Executive Officer in 2006 in conjunction with the role of Program Manager, Amphibious Deployment and Sustainment Program, which he commenced in September 2004. As a senior program manager he successfully managed and executed multibillion-dollar projects involving integrated teams of professionals in Australia and overseas. Kim has extensive project management experience in shipbuilding. Previously with Austal Ships (since 2001), in 2002 he took on the position of Vice President Military Projects. He spent 20 years with the Australian Customs Service in various roles, including Director Marine Acquisitions for the Bay Class Patrol Boats. He was the joint bid manager for the DMS/Austal SEA 1444 project and the Austal project manager for the General Dynamics design and construction bid for the United States Navy Littoral Combat Ships. Kim holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in business administration with a major in legal studies from University of Canberra. He is a qualified Master Project Director (AIPM) and a Master Mariner.
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LINKS & EVENTS
FOOD FOR THOUGHT If Every Leader Cared Linda Fisher-Thornton
Getting your teams off to a great start Mind Tools
Wonderfully Imperfect Lisa Buksbaum
Why it’s time to forget the pecking order at work Margaret Heffernan
Why you will fail to have a great career Larry Smith
Helping young people become ethical leaders Leading in Context
Identifying the roles managers play Mind Tools
Why do ambitious women have flat heads? Dame Stephanie Shirley
What do we know about signature strengths? Ryan Niemiec
Making Wise Decisions Learning from Aristotle Bent Flyvbjerg
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LITTLE BOOK OF PROJECT MANAGEMENT TIPS Alan Rossney is a Project Management professional and Chartered Manufacturing Engineer with 17 years’ experience in the Automotive, Pharma & electronics industries. He has led multimillion dollar development projects across multi functional globally dispersed engineering teams for blue chip clients. Alan has worked as a Project Manager, New Product Introduction Manager, Project & Manufacturing Engineer in both product development and manufacturing environments. Alan has written a booklet titled ‘Little Book of Project Management Tips’ a collation of prompt cards that may assist project managers with the soft skills that are not readily taught at university or in-house PM workshops. These are the soft skills of communication, negotiation, conflict resolution and leadership. His booklet is intended as something you can download to your laptop, tablet or phone and flick through before that crucial meeting or workshop that could well define the outcome of your project. You can dowload Alan’s booklet here. Alan would like to thank PMI, James Sweetman & TSS for allowing their training material to be referenced in collating this booklet.
CALENDAR 8 - 10 July Systems Thinking and Complex Project Management Course Brisbane, Australia 14 July Women in Major Projects Leadership Ashridge Business School UK 17 July Thinking Breakfast “If you want to fail, fail to think” QUT Canberra Alumni & ICCPM
28 - 29 July 6th IACCM Australasia Forum Brisbane, Australia 1 - 3 September Systems Thinking and Complex Project Managment Course QUT, Canberra, Australia
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14 - 17 September The 2nd Women in Project Management Leadership Summit Melbourne, Australia 29 September - 1 October IPMA World Congress Panama City, Panama 6 October IACCM Americas Forum Nevada, United States
11 - 14 October AIPM National Conference Hobart, Tasmania
27 - 29 October ICCPM 6th Annual Conference Canberra, Australia
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PARTNERS
ICCPM also recognises the support of the following organisations: AIPM APM APM Group ARPI CSIRO DAU Gower Publishing University of Hull
Hudson IACCM IPMA MinterEllison The PM Channel SEGroup SKEMA
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In the September edition... • CPM Opinion column • ICCPM 6th Annual Conference update • Book reviews • Member profile and much more!
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Keep connected to ICCPM through iccpm.com, find us on Twitter (@ICCPM) and participate in the LinkedIn discussion group.
