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Stimulating Ownership

Project portfolios can be faced with a tricky problem: lack of ownership. So far, there is no magic formula
available yet that solves the problem easily. However, approaches exist that can help. Hereby a quick
review of some that are worth to be used as inspiration, as long as they are applied with a critical mindset.

Best practices and Hybrid approaches

Plenty of project management methodologies are available to get projects, programmes or portfolios
structured and delivery secured. In traditional waterfall methodologies, Prince2 and PMI/PMBOK are
often cited references. Similarly, agile environments praise Scrum, Kanban or the likes to deliver
according to clearly defined rules, in order to have the project fulfilled, and have all stakeholders happy.

In reality, making things happen requires often a hybrid approach - or at least some shaping that takes
into account the change reality, the cultural identity, the maturity on PPM level and the internal priorities.

Lack of Ownership

Despite all of the above, project and portfolio management can be faced with a tricky problem: lack of
ownership. Literature refers often to the impact of a lack of management support. In practice, the latter
is essential. Less discernible but at least as impacting, however, is the lack of ownership by other project
stakeholders: process managers, team members, business members or IT development teams.

Other than continuous perseverance or HR profiling models (MBTI, Team Chemistry), there is no magic
formula that solves the problem from a project angle. To enrich the PPM toolbox, several approaches can
be highlighted. The aim is not to provide a univalent solution. They are rather a series of approaches
worth to be analysed and used as inspiration, as long as they are applied with a critical mindset.

Johnson Vickberg, M., Christfort, K. (2017). The New Science Of Team Chemistry
Mankins, M., (2017). The Best Companies Dont Have More Stars They Cluster Them Together
Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myers%E2%80%93Briggs_Type_Indicator

1. Review processes. Define roles & responsibilities

The most traditional approach is to bring structure and clarity, if the lack of ownership is (partially) due to
a lack thereof. In essence, this involves a review of project processes (including the related governance),
and the clarification of project related roles and responsibilities. This may imply a collaborative review of
matrix organisations at the crossroads of organisational R&R and project related R&R.

Practically, this can be done based on common sense


and shared knowledge. Frameworks are also available
to support such initiatives (eg. APQC).

Before starting such reviews, it has to be evaluated if the


lack of ownership is really related to a lack of clarity on process and roles. Over-engineering should be
avoided. Similarly, before using best practice based frameworks, it has to be evaluated if the granularity
it focuses on fits to the issues at stake.

Lastly, once the reviews are done, it is essential to foresee quality time to communicate interactively on
it to the concerned stakeholder groups. It is only by doing so that the potential of the initiative can unfold,
and influence the ownership accordingly.

2.APQC: https://www.apqc.org/

JRGEN JANSSENS
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2. Co-create with internal & external customer(s)

In some contexts, the purpose of the work is not clear, or, even worse, people dont perceive any value
brought by the project or by their own work. At first, it may suffice to put additional emphasis on better
communication and change management. A more structural approach may be to focus on co-
creation/co-development. In this approach, requirements are jointly defined with internal or external
customers. This makes the end value more apparent and valorises the
individual's involvement.

Contrary to the first approach, this approach is not applicable to all


types of stakeholder groups. Also, environments with a less flexible
scoping approach might see limited value in it. In that case, it is worth
to put additional efforts in communication and interactive exchange.

Projects that do desire to apply this way of working to increase ownership and motivation need to pay
attention for the risk of oversizing or skewed scoping. In agile contexts, for instance, working with a fluid
approach and dynamic requirements is only possible if combined with focused guidance.

3. Drive the Purpose: Teal

Another approach is the so-called 'Teal Organisation'. It assumes that people are longing for better ways
to work together and for organisations where talent and aspirations bloom. The approach wants to go far
beyond the recent waves of NWoW (New Way of Working), by developing a culture of self-management,
wholeness, and a deeper sense of purpose.

Although this approach might seem hard to reconcile with corporate targets, it is, just like the earlier
mentioned NWoW, quite potent as such. To put the change in motion, some elements can be introduced
separately, like encouraging people to show more of their true selves, or asking self-managed teams to
determine, in a peer based process, which targets could be changed. Obtaining the full benefit is highly
dependent on the extent to which the entire organisation embraces this approach on a structural level.

To reap the benefits on a project / programme / portfolio level, it is advised to initiate this approach in
collaboration with individual team leaders, on the one hand, and/or in close collaboration with eventual
organisational dynamics.

Kleiner, A., (2015). Ellen Langer on the Value of Mindfulness in Business, s+b
Laloux, F., (2014). Reinventing Organizations: A Guide to Creating Organizations Inspired by the Next Stage of Human
Consciousness, Nelson Parker
Laloux, F., (2015). The Future Of Management Is Teal

4. Digital Ownership? Nurture the Human!

Generally speaking, people need to be nurtured to fully embrace ownership. This is especially true in
digital projects: managers need to learn to talk digital. They do not need to know everything, but should
be able to ask questions to their teams, however, and understand the answer. A manager showing
sincere interest creates respect to a passionate soul and will cascade to other employees.

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Closely related to the above, it is important to hire people with a passionate enthusiasm about digital and
seasoned to think beyond the traditional silver lining. At the same time, management of skills disruption
is an urgent concern in the Digital Age, and the rate of skills change accelerates across old and new jobs.

Consequently, companies need to look as well for project members that fit, as, increasingly, for people
with a high level of adaptability. As high performers have a beneficial influence on delivery and
potentially on other colleagues, it is thus important to think upfront about how to retain them. With
predictive HR management, expectations can be anticipated and needs for mentoring identified.

From a project perspective, sound selection and involved guidance can thus make a difference, as well as
strong HR collaboration to benefit from or jointly shape dynamics compatible with a matrix organisation.

Bushnell, N., & Stone, G. (2013). Finding the Next Steve Jobs: How to Find, Hire, Keep and Nurture Creative Talent (pp.
8387). Headline Publishing Group.
Janssens, J., (2017). Digital Transformation journeys in a Digitized Reality,in: Khosrow-Pour, M., (2017). Encyclopedia of
Information Science and Technology, IGI Global.
Schwab, K., & Samans, R., (2016). The Future of Jobs: Employment, Skills and Workforce Strategy for the Fourth
Industrial Revolution, Global Challenge Insight Report, World Economic Forum.

5. Millenials: guide, collaborate & create opportunities

Another aspect of increasing ownership is taking into account the generational traits of the teams. This is
a recurring concern - and can somehow be tackled through reinforced situational leadership - but has
raised importance with the growing share of Millennials in project ecosystems.

In essence, workplace satisfaction matters more to Millennials than monetary compensation and work-
life balance is often considered essential. They are less likely than previous
generations to put up with an unpleasant work environment. On the other
hand, satisfied Millennials are often advocates for the organizations they
work for. They are therefore quite potent change agents.

To have them motivated and really own their work, they expect to be led,
rather than being managed in the traditional way. In practice, this implies:
emphasizing feedback; focusing on the team, not on the project only;
offering them independence and inspiring them.

From a project point of view, it might be challenging to apply each of the above, while respecting time,
budget and other constraints. Applying one or more, however, may already help to increase involvement,
motivation and therefore ownership.

Bradt, G., (2014). Trying To Manage Millenials Give Up And Lead Them Instead
Situational leadership (Hersey & Blanchard) http://situational.com/
TechTarget, (2015). Millennials Generation

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6. AI & other Technology Leaps: Inject Realism

Ownership often implies a professional attitude and personal motivation. Hence, it is normal to empower
and motivate the troops to deliver the project. Overdoing this, however, can lead to people losing faith in
the project ambitions. This risk is likely to happen in environments working with innovative technology,
or contexts with an important gap between the existing reality and the expected to be.

With AI, for example, organisations tend to expect magic coming out of the black box, delivering
unprecedented performance in a jiffy without having to skill-up competencies. In reality, many
innovations take far longer to be deployed than people in the field and outside the field imagine, and
with extrapolated targets that are downscaled to a more stringent reality. Moreover, AI is not only driven
by technology. Exactly as in financial investment - where ambiguity tolerance still beats artificial
intelligence - AI and Data Science projects require a significant share of professional expertise.

When working with skilled people, it is therefore important to find a balance between aiming for the sky
and daring to state the reality. While it might temper the motivation of some people, it will strengthen
the project focus towards targets that might remain aggressive, but that are perceived as more realistic.
Doing so will create a climate of ambitious trust, that can motivate people to fully take up their work.

Brooks, R., (2017). The Seven Deadly Sins Of AI Predictions


Schuller, M., (2017). Ambiguity Tolerance Beats Artificial Intelligence

7. Or Come back to the basics

Notwithstanding the importance of the human factor, it might sometimes help... to come back to the
basics to stimulate ownership: set focus and manage. Some people get a lot of motivation out of targets,
KPIs and clear project goals. Similarly, rather than relentlessly reviewing governance and adapting
management approaches for the sake of change, it is worth to turn up
the sleeves to build towards maturity.

In essence, this means showing the short and medium term value of the
approach that is in place, managing the project more firmly, shaping it
and emphasizing that everyone has to do his/her fair share of work.

This approach might be perceived as less caring, less adaptive, less


empathetic and less based on the most fashionable trends. It probably is. But having a clear framework
can be stimulating, as some people need to be reassured that the bigger picture is under control to
motivate themselves to take full ownership of their project work.

When doing so, it is advised to put sufficient time in explaining the bigger picture. This will answer the
need of people that need extra information to function well, and might stimulate others to take more
transversal ownership by looking also at what has to be done earlier/later in the delivery stream.

Conclusion

Experience shows that stimulating ownership and integrating it the project DNA is very challenging.
Overall, it has been illustrated that increasing ownership in PPM ecosystems can be done in many
ways and on several levels. The goal of this analysis was not to provide an exhaustive overview of all
the latest buzz words and other trends - Google and others are available for that.
Rather, the aim has been to reinforce the bigger picture with some critical notes. What really
matters now is to make it happen in reality, in a specific context.
All comments and other experience sharing are welcome!

JRGEN JANSSENS

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