Working Group B: What principles are important in dealing with complexity?

[ian mack]

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Thanks Tony, an interesting read, along with a couple of the reference documents.

 

Davin – I seem to recall that you developed a transcription of the governance webinar but I could not locate it here. Can you send me a direct email so I can get to it please? And thanks – Ian

[Tony Graham]

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Last night we discussed project initiation and the need to agree “escalation” protocol upfront.

You might like this as background reading

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/993525/20210614-Project-Initiation-Lessons-Learned-Report-2.pdf

[Stephen Grey]

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I apologise for missing the meeting today

I seem to be the only one in my family who is in reasonable health and I’ve been snowed with that and work

See you next time I hope

Steve

[Andrew Pyke]

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I do apologise colleagues – I missed the last session due to COVID round-2, then just plain forgot this morning.  Still active, though!  :-)

[ian mack]

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Thanks Rob, though I do not see your comment here as per your latest email notification. There are some interesting concepts in the two referenced papers from a “designer” perspective on solving problems which for me tend to reinforce many of the ‘principles/considerations’ mentioned in terms of navigating complex projects. But I guess the real message reinforces the importance of having diverse competencies or disciplines (like system designers) onboard in your project execution team to assist in reducing risks to solution delivery? And perhaps a new consideration/principle?

Ian

[ian mack]

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Thanks Steve, but this should be buried deep in some lost forest as it is enough to scare people away from pursuing anything complex with multiple stakeholders! Nevertheless I have copied the paper and will add the guts to my relevant Deck.

Davin – The new and nuanced principle(s) you have hinted at is indeed thought provoking and I will consider how it should be integrated into the paper. From my own experience, managing and encouraging early escalation and trust in terms of emerging problems that create risks for me is best addressed by embracing enterprise-wide structured collaboration which at its core is about relationships built on trust and which is operationalized with protocols that address such things as early escalation (and no secrets or surprises). Also required is a ‘safe space’ when reporting up which is enabled by seniors with solid emotional intelligence. As for leadership, the issue of servant leadership incorporates the role you correctly identify as important. Finally it is also a part of contracting to ensure that the key suppliers in the supply chain are part of the project enterprise when boundaries are set broadly, so as to ensure the possibility for early escalation. A few sentences on my perspective – but still thinking, thanks!    Ian

[Stephen Grey]

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Thank you Davin

That is the link

[Davin Shellshear]

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Hi All,

I think the link to the paper is

https://i2insights.org/2020/03/17/fifteen-aspects-of-complex-systems/

You might also find the following to be of interest:

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Tom-Briggs-3/publication/330325141_Complex_Social_Systems_-_You%27ll_Need_More_Than_Just_Big_Data/links/5c390339a6fdccd6b5a5db19/Complex-Social-Systems-Youll-Need-More-Than-Just-Big-Data.pdf?origin=publication_detail

Cheers

Davin

[Stephen Grey]

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Some might have seen this on LinkedIn

Nothing revolutionary but a useful little thought starter and possibly a challenge for anyone who claims their work is not complex

[Davin Shellshear]

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Hi Group B

Can I please remind Group B members to consider the work to date (see ICCPM-2022-5-SIG-WG-B-IAN-PROPOSED-PRINCIPLES-V4) and post thoughts around what might yet be missing from our discussions to date.

I had earlier mentioned managing escalation of issues (or more to the point, unresolved issues) as a key means of managing risk in complex projects. I would also like to suggest Trust and Employee Engagement are also key aspects in the management of complex projects – particularly our ability to become aware of matters emerging that may present risk to the project as they grow and fester. Catching things early provides much more chance of addressing emerging issues. Early awareness of these emerging matters usually first occurs close to where the matter is emerging, and the environment needs to encourage project members to identify, care and escalate them to others.

Associated with this is the role of leadership in encouraging trust and engagement, and in providing a sense of identity and connection for members of the project team and stakeholders.

Further thoughts are very welcome.

We can discuss these possibilities at our next Group B meeting

Cheers

Davin

[ian mack]

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Hello WGB members. The fourth version of the principles (or rather, considerations) paper is attached, again with changes to the last version highlighted in red. There is a lot of detail in the paper, which once we are closer to final I would suggest that we might want to move to “End Notes” in the paper. However for now, it is easier to follow and capture.

 

I have included the PDF version, but as we gather final thoughts on other ‘principles’ at this and upcoming meetings, I suggest we revert to a Word version for all to add ‘comments’ on the paper for final edits (I have already seen some punctuation errors). Hopefully, all WG members will have time to read this version and bring along new ‘principles’ from their own experience not expressed yet for the next meeting. And once again, sincere thanks to Davin for the transcription of yet another hour of dialogue in the last ZOOM meeting.   Ian

 

Attachments:

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[ian mack]

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Thanks Davin. And to the Group, I will endeavour to get the updated version of the paper out by the end of this coming week, if you want to delay reading it until the next version is available – changes based on mining the latest meeting’s transcript. Best – Ian

[Davin Shellshear]

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Hi Group B members

Attached is the transcript from our last meeting.

Can all members review the latest update of Ian’s paper and then think about what might be missing from our discussions – to be raised at our next meeting.

Please feel free to lob you thoughts/ suggestions on the forum as it may trigger thoughts by other members as well.

Foe example, we haven’t yet talked about the importance of escalation processes in complex projects.

Cheers, happy reading, and I look forward to our next Group B meeting.

Davin Shellshear

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[ian mack]

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Andrew – Great posts that offered  a number of thoughts.

On McKinsey. one quote reminded of the impact of assumptions that are often overlooked in so much of what we do and how it can steer decision-making so badly. Another nicely highlights the importance of following risk system technique advances in the banking sector in terms of reducing the impacts of behavioural biases on decision-making. And I will get back to risk models below, though Richard likely has much to say about this too.

In terms of your comments regarding the UK’s Managing Successful Programmes framework, ‘pace’ is indeed important which in my experience is usually upended by crises that move forward progress  to ‘ALL STOP’ and can take many months to overcome – hence the importance of setting governance expectations and of embracing confidential and comprehensive stakeholder management techniques. On collaboration (as you may already know), there are a number of brands out there over the past 15 years and the creation of ISO44001 has launched this on a seriously important path; since my retirement, I have only connected to one Canadian company – Strategic Relationships Solutions – because I am convinced of its importance in navigating complexity to avoid the crises I mentioned above, and especially across the traditional contract divide (that could consume a full hour of our WG activity in terms of the need for structure and joint working protocols to be sustainable). And I looked up ‘risk universe’ on the Internet which offered many interesting schematics that suggested to me that they could be developed into sector specific (or unique corporate ecosystem) enterprise risk models that could be great guidelines.

Thanks for reading the paper on our work so far regarding important principles. For information and having by chance been there, ‘old heads on young shoulders’ was EXACTLY what the first meeting in Feb 2007 of what evolved into ICCPM was all about, in terms of defining the new purpose of the organization which has stayed pretty much true to its origin. And in terms of defining project success, you may have noticed that I am almost obsessed with the importance of setting expectations on this factor and so much more at the outset of projects within the entire governance structure.

Hope to see you on-screen later this week – Ian

[Andrew Pyke]

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Colleagues,

I have always quite liked the UK’s Managing Successful Programmes framework, but recently bought the 2020 updated 5th Edition, as at link.   I thought I would share as a micro-book review…….

There are some really positive changes, picking up practices relevant to our work.  For example:

The new principle of “Bring Pace and Value” – I really like the inclusion of “pace”.  And that does not mean “speed” – they mean the right pace for delivery of change and generation of benefits.  Nice one.

Also, “Collaborate across boundaries”, “deal with ambiguity” etc.

They advocate a pretty interesting tool, called a “Risk Universe”, which I will be looking at more closely.

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