PMO Flashmob celebrates its fifth birthday with the PMO Book Club

2. • Embrace the wobble
• Say thanks
• Mistakes are OK

4. podcast
Extra resources

6. “INFLUENCE: THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PERSUASION” BY
ROBERT B. CIALDINI
Reciprocation
Commitment and consistency
Social proof
Liking
Authority
Scarcity
Shane!

8. • Debunks popular myths
• Tells you how to apply BRM to
projects, programmes, portfolios,
and organisations, wherever you
are in the project / programme
cycle
• Tells you the most important bits
to apply if you have limited time /
resources (and who doesn’t?!)
• Don’t just remove budget; truly
enable benefits delivery
• Name project after the outcome
• Beware focussing on NPV / ROI
• Consider risks to benefits delivery,
not just TCQ
• Not cheap (£80) but lots of
knowledge / insights
Pragm atic
PMO

10. • The value of models in PMO
thinking (GP analogy, p.150)
• Play with ideas, use as tools
• A mini-MBA, leading to…?
David Packham

12. • My first PMO Start-up
• Embrace challenges
• Never stop learning
Renel Holland – VA Synergy

14. Chris Walters
Getting Things Done - David Allen -
https://gettingthingsdone.com/
Getting Things Done (popularly abbreviated to GTD) is
method of near-cult status amongst the Geekerati that
fundamentally frees your brain to think in
unencumbered mode.
The central premise is that "your mind is for having ideas,
not holding them"
GTD collapses it all down into some simple-to-action steps
in a one-page workflow that even kids can follow
Focus is a state that is hard to achieve, but is necessary for tasks of
any complexity, and where PMO people excel is taking complex data, processing it
and maturing it through to actionable insight and then delivering real business outcomes -
wouldn't it be great to have a tool that helps you to park the clutter and get into that
state of "flow" necessary to be that PMO superhero?

15. Chris Walters
Getting Things Done - David Allen -
https://gettingthingsdone.com/
Getting Things Done (popularly abbreviated to GTD) is method of near-cult status amongst the Geekerati that fundamentally frees your
brain to think in unencumbered mode.
The central premise is that "your mind is for having ideas, not holding them" - in today's culture of too much information leading to
analysis paralysis, we need a way to clear our minds of clutter and noise before we can use it to its best effect. The human brain is a
monotasking device in the conscious mind, and so when we have a lot of things "on our mind", it is hard to even be logical in decision-
making, let alone be creative, as so many PMO problems demand.
Does that sound familiar to you as PMO people? It should!
The constant drum-beat of operational calendar-driven activity mingling with crises and "can you just" requests means it's actually quite
hard to prioritise effort and then focus. Focus is a state that is hard to achieve, but is necessary for tasks of any complexity, and where
PMO people excel is taking complex data, processing it and maturing it through to actionable insight and then delivering real business
outcomes - wouldn't it be great to have a tool that helps you to park the clutter and get into that state of "flow" necessary to be that
PMO superhero?
GTD collapses it all down into some simple-to-action steps in a one-page workflow that even kids can follow - my son uses GTD to great
effect to help him deal with school work, career development (yep - he's actively already doing this!) and managing his kayaking training.
There are many ways to implement your own GTD system in software (Evernote, a myriad of To-Do applications, Outlook, the list seems
endless), or on paper, or even a combination of the two. What is critical is that you build a system that your brain recognises it can trust
and therefore stop worrying about whatever thought is currently or fleetingly front and centre. Yes, it takes discipline, like any
new habit. But there are so many materials, articles and stories out there from evangelistic GTDers that if you want to make the habits
stick, it's not too hard.
The simple steps are.... no wait, I'm not going to tell you, because you really need to read the book and immerse yourself in the thinking
and method. Grab a beer/wine/G&T and settle down in you favourite comfy chair for a couple of hours and invest in your ability to Get
Things Done and gift yourself with the uncluttered mind you deserve.

17. PMOs exist within a wider organisational
ecosystem. Understand how this challenges your approach, tools
& techniques that may have worked very successfully elsewhere
The smallest building blocks of strategic
execution are the individual, moment-by
moment choices of what to work on, what not to
work on and what level of excellence to bring to
the task. This applies to you and those working on projects and
programmes.
Creating a sense of shared purpose is far more
important than the sharing of lofty thoughts (or
reports) in the executive suite

19. Nice portrayal of portfolio management in action
• Gandalf:
• Portfolio Manager and sponsor
• Commissioned lots of separate “projects”, all
aimed at delivering something that will save
Middle Earth from evil
• He flits from one to the other keeping them
aligned
• Sam:
• Project Manager of the “get the ring to Mordor
and destroy it” project
• Manages Frodo (needs a lot of help)
• Aragorn:
• Project Manager of the “Unite Elves and Men
against Evil” project
• Distracts Sauron to enable the “get the ring to
Mordor and destroy it” project
• Gollum / Sméagol:
• Stakeholder who keeps trying to screw things
up and provides a bit of light relief
• Hobbits generally and the whole of Middle
Earth:
• Stakeholders who for the most part are
completely unaware of their predicament, and
mostly initially unwilling to help
Pragm atic
PMO

21. Organisations need new and
better ways to go beyond
lessons that are superficial
This is what happens in systems
populated by humans; there are
unintended consequences
Six phases of a project – 1.
Enthusiasm 2. Disillusionment
3. Panic 4. Search for the Guilty
5. Punishment of the innocent
6. Rewards for the Uninvolved
Test Early;
Adapt Rapidly

23. http://static.duarte.com/Resonate_Sample30.pdf

25. “I’m sure
everything will
be alright”
Be brave. Be topical
Talk about the real issues.
Be multi-lingual
Speak the language of the business as
well as PPM. Make things accessible
Dialogue, not lecturing
Help people to talk, participate. Foster
personal and professional connections.

27. I am not able to attend the PMO book
club birthday, but wanted to share
something that made me stop and
think about behaviours of mine and
those around me. It’s the book
“Leadership and self-deception” by
Arbinger Institute. Very nicely written, it
provides a clear explanation of why
many interpersonal things go wrong
and how to change that. Hopefully you
can share that and others can enjoy it
too.
Dee

32. Project Leader’s 8 ‘Lookings’
Look upwards: managing your sponsor
Look outwards: managing the client
Look internally: aligning the vision for the
organization & its stakeholders
Look externally: aligning the vision for the
client & their stakeholders
Looking backwards: monitoring progress
Looking forwards: anticipating the future
Looking inwards: monitoring your own
performance
Looking downwards: checking the
performance and health of the team
Jonathan Norman

34. 1999 2001 2007 2008
Strengths Based Leadership

35. The greatest improvements can be made in the
areas where you are weakest
The greatest improvements can be made in the
areas where you are strongest
Key Message

36. The 34 Strengths

37. How this helps PMO Managers
Surround yourself with the right people, put them in
the right roles and invest in their strengths
Recognise their strengths – i.e. treat them differently
A leader can’t be good at everything, so lead using your
strengths