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<u>Responses to ‘Webinar Chat’ on 25th Jan 22.</u>
Thank you to everyone who attended the MRC SIG Webinar on the 25<sup>th</sup> January, and how took part in the chat conversation during the webinar and/or the MRC SIG meeting that followed.
Some general information arising from the chat:
- Getting the Presentation Slides. Everyone who attended should have received a follow up email and survey. If you completed the survey, you should have also been given access to the webinar presentation slides.
- Continuing the Discussion(s). Some of the chat questions were answered effectively by others in the chat. The best way to find out more or to continue those conversations, please register for the MRC SIG. By doing so, you will be able to:
- Post and comment on the SIG Forum
- Attend SIG meetings
- Receive regular updates on SIG meetings and events.
- Future meetings. As noted above, if you register for the MRC SIG you will be kept informed about future meetings and/or events.
- ICCPM Cert IV. For all of the questions raised and discussed in the chat, undertaking the ICCPM Cert IV provides broad and comprehensive insights. Consider attending the course yourself, or speaking with someone who has.
What is a complex project? This topic was raised several times and there were multiple responses by others in the chat. Several themes evident in the responses are noted here. Otherwise, join the MRC SIG and pose the question in your own way to get insights from others. Response themes and ideas include:
- Projects are not just simple or just complex, although larger projects with more stakeholders and longer timeframes have greater levels of complexity than smaller, simpler projects. In every project it is possible to consider what parts of the project are relatively simple in nature and can be managed using traditional management methods, and which are less tangible, definable, dynamic and or interconnected and hence complex.
- If apparently well-managed projects are experiencing unexpected crises, perhaps this indicates complexity.
- Any project involving people, relationships and behaviours inherently involves complex factors that make decision making and governance more challenging.
- A highly complex project is likely to lead to outcomes that even in hindsight are not easy to understand.
- If you are not already, making use of sense-making models such as Cynefin (David Snowdon) can give very useful insights in any given context.
How can we deal with tiers of (complex risk)? This can relate to project, program and portfolio – and also to strategic, operational, tactical. Some comments were posted in the chat on the day. In the broad, this is a challenge that applies regardless of the level of complexity faced, except for three quite significant challenges:
- It can be difficult to document and report complex risks across levels and boundaries, if only because they are difficult to represent in ways that are easily understood and because they are very much contextual. Part of the answer is to consider whether people across tiers have shared expertise and shared training in tools and language appropriate for managing complex risks.
- The second challenge is that decision makers at different levels may demand clear, simple advice – not allowing a real conversation or sharing of complex factors no matter how well described they are. This problem is a sign of capabilities issues in individuals or (even more likely) it’s a reflection of the ways in which the organisation thinks and works (its culture).
- Finally, there is a tradition in risk management of ‘passing risks’ up and down organisations as though they can be managed in parcels. In complex environments this is a false assumption. Almost any complex risk will (at the same time, or over time) have project, program and portfolio implications that are different but inter-related. To try to manage the risk at any one level is therefore likely to be ineffective. Bring the tiers together into a single shared conversation is necessary – but may not fit with the local culture or practice!
- One way to overcome some of these challenges is to ensure that senior leaders have effective education and training in dealing with complexity (risks and otherwise). When this is not the case, senior leaders will tend to hold existing linear thinking and processes for risk management in place, no matter how well others in the same organisation are able to see, understand and articulate complex uncertainties.
