How do we give a voice to the youth of today?

Tonight I went along to a speaking competition organised to allow teams from local schools to display and improve their public speaking skills.

Teams ranged from age 13 to 18 and were pretty good actually! What really impressed me though, as it did last time I attended one, is the depth of thinking and perception being presented.

Subjects included “we’ve lost the Olympic spirit”, “dieting is bad for you” and “do we live in a free country” amongst others. What surprises me is the insight these youngsters have and how well developed their ideas were. They have a clear view of the challenges modern life (and society) present them and are not short of ideas on how to address them.

Given the overriding portrayal of modern youth in the media is one of sullen destructiveness, I wonder how we can give a balance voice to this upcoming generation.

If we don’t do something, then there is a real risk the negative image commonly portrayed becomes a self fulfilling prophesy.just remember, when you and I are retired and need “looking after” (say 20-30 years time) this generation will be the “power base” of our economy and government. Sobering huh?

The Future of the Project Management Profession

Venue confirmed as Television Centre, London. Book here: http://www.apm.org.uk/event/future-project-management-profession

On the evening of Tuesday 6th March next year I am hosting a session for the London Branch of the Association for Project Management on the subject of “The Future of the Project Management Profession”.

So, depending on who you talk to, the discipline has been around for between 50 and 3000 years but I would suggest the “profession” is a modern evolution, perhaps even as recent as the last 20 years.

Regardless of how long it has existed though, what is its future? I have my thoughts but what are yours? Leave your comments on this blog and I will incorporate them into the presentation on the evening. I will post details on attendance and logistics nearer the date, and if you can’t make the event I will post up my presentation here so you can see my conclusions.

So, now it’s your turn……. rosy, uncertain, irrelevant, confusing – what do you think the Future of the Project Management Profession looks like?

Trust matters

Last week I spent some time with the team at FranklinCovey exploring Stephen M R Covey’s book “The Speed of Trust”. Excellent book and a very useful and informing day.

The basic premise is that low trust organisations cost more to run and operate more slowly than high trust organisations. Seems logical really, think of the places you have worked that have low trust, remember having to fill forms in triplicate, 27 layers of review and authorisation? Or perhaps you didn’t “trust” the motives of your colleagues on the management team so spent ages second guessing them or making sure your backside was protected? How much did all that extra effort cost you in terms of time and money?

Covey’s premise is that the opposite is true in high trust organisations – you can significantly reduce cost and increase speed. Again sounds logical – I think of the work we do with high performing project teams and conclude that one of the reasons they work well is because they trust each other to deliver!

Challenge is, most people think trust is binary – you either have it or you don’t! Actually trust can be earnt and learnt – and Covey has put together some really nice frameworks for understanding this.

If your interested in discussing this further ping me here or have a look at www.speedoftrust.com

Cheers, Paul.

Values Matter, People Matter

Welcome to my new blog and the first entry here. I hope you find it interesting and at times challenging, please feel free to join in the discussion here or visit our main site at www.managementframework.com

So why do values and people matter so much? Mainly because I believe they are key to sustainability in our organisations – not sustainability in the “green” sense – but sustainability in building an organisation that can survive, or even thrive, in the medium to long-term

It seems to me that we have had a history over the last 20 years of organisational based on MAXIMISE, where we look at one key measure – typically profit/earnings – and seek to maximise this at the cost of all other measure. Personal or corporate greed become the prevailing behaviour and short term-ism (especially when satisfying the financial markets demands) become the prevalent approach.

So what is the alternative? I believe we will see organisations both large and small begin to adopt an approach perhaps best described as OPTIMISE, where we start to be concerned with balancing performance across a range of measures. It might sound a bit “Kaplan & Norton” and harking back to balanced scorecards (which would be no bad thing in my opinion), but I think it is more than this in that this move will start to place a much higher emphasis on our people and our values.

What does this mean? The comment “our people are our most important asset” is usually closely followed by an explanation of how much an organisation spends on training per head, but emphasising our people and values has to be much more than this. It must be an intentional approach to understanding our values, culture and how these are exhibited through the behaviours we accept (or encourage). It must see these as a key part of organisational strategy and a driver of competitive advantage. If we place the right emphasis on our values and culture we will start to see how important our people (and their behaviours) really are to organisational success, and start to invest in these key stakeholders for a medium to long-term return.

Maximise or optimise – which does your organisation favour?

Fantastic venue for a team offsite or weekend break!

 

Frozen Ettington Park

Spent a couple of days last week at Ettington Park near Stratford on Avon. Have used this hotel (part of the Handpicked group) for many years and never been dissapointed. Great venue and great service with spectacular scenery especially when it is -5 !!!