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Projects and initiatives that help bring out the best in your people
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Workshops to help people gain the skills they need
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IT-Business Alignment
Only 34% of CIOs are actively involved in driving most major business decisions. Twenty-six percent of CIOs are brought in only after decisions have been made (Forrester in Optimize, 2007). The results can be devastating: missed deadlines, disappointment when high expectations can’t be met, and erosion of trust and respect.
Aligned IT shops, on the other hand, enable new revenue streams more than two times as frequently as non-aligned shops (CIO, 2007). Who wouldn’t want to be aligned? Unfortunately, many IT shops struggle to achieve to alignment since they’re stuck in fire fighting, reactive mode.
Break the cycle with IT-Business Alignment. We facilitate a process to connect IT and business leaders in collaborative, mutually satisfying planning and decision-making processes. Through our work, you get what you need:
- A clear, agreed upon value proposition
- Identification of your IT shop’s core services
- A solid strategic direction and goals
- A joint IT-business governance system to make decisions, manage your portfolio, and resolve competing priorities
- An organization structure that supports IT’s value proposition, core services, and strategic direction and goals
- Measures and review systems
We supplement these services with optional executive coaching from business-savvy, IT-experienced professional coaches who help you navigate politics and complexity to make the right decisions for your organization. For more on this process, please
email.
IT Change Management
IT is at the forefront of change. Everything IT does involves change: introducing new systems, updating old systems, designing new processes, and creating new interfaces. Yet, change management continues to stymie many IT organizations. In fact, only 38% of change initiatives completely or mostly successful improving performance, according to McKinsey.
We work with you to develop an actionable, pragmatic change management practice in your organization. The specifics depend on your context. We can help you design a program and train your staff so they can embed change management techniques into every project. Or we can serve as change management specialists on a large technology implementation, strategic change, or culture change. Either way, you get what you need: change expertise that aligns human behavior with the new way of doing business so your organization achieves its return on investment.
We bring a unique perspective to change. We believe that
informal networks are critical and often neglected levers that organizations can use to drive change. We use network knowledge to help accelerate the change process. For more information, please
email.
IT Collaboration
Introducing new IT solutions takes collaboration. Yet, amidst competing priorities, looming deadlines, and impatient customers, IT staff often follow the critical path and loses track of collaboration. The costs: reinventing the wheel, awkward handoffs, tasks falling through the cracks, and organizations stuck in ruts they can’t escape.
We work with you to design a collaboration strategy that works for your unique culture and context. We start with an assessment that pinpoints critical barriers to collaboration and identifies easy leverage points. We work with you to translate those results into action plans and then support you during their execution. The result: a more collaborative, effective organization that learns from its mistakes, shares knowledge, and works together to achieve its goals. For more information on our assessment process, see our
KnowledgeWeb PDF.
BUILD SKILL
All Together Now: Building Support for Projects and Change Initiatives
Today's project managers are at the forefront of change in their organizations. They implement new technologies, lead process improvement efforts, reduce business costs, and enable innovation. All of these activities have significant change-management components to them. Yet only 7 percent of IT leaders are confident in their change management skills, according to CIO's 2007 State of the CIO research.
In this interactive workshop, we discuss what it takes to lead projects successfully in the context of your company. We identify the behaviors of successful change leaders and the practices that they employ to help their projects succeed. We explore methods for managing resistance to change and for developing change leaders. Participants take away:
- Increased understanding of what it takes to help people change
- The role of the project manager in leading change
- The costs of not paying attention to people during a project
- PM practices that can help project stakeholders adjust to change and embrace a new solution
- Assessment of current project manager strengths and areas for improvement
- An action plan for applying change management best practices in their projects
For more information, please
email.
Project Management Skills
Sometimes, what an organization really needs is to build its project management skills. If people need to learn how to make a Gantt chart, estimate project time and costs, manage project scope, or improve quality, we recommend Boston University Corporate Education Center’s
project management classes. We know these folks well—Partnering Resources founder Maya Townsend used to teach in their PM Certificate program—and know that they do good work and provide great customer service.
Photo Credit: Kirtaph at www.flickr.com/photos/kirtaph/