Oil your projects to tick: a slick business, in no time.

Projects are challenging for all sectors everywhere and have to be knitted into processes that deliver real change. This newsletter should be read by aspiring Project Managers, business leaders looking for rescue or change managers, and those facing new challenges in their careers. It sets out how a successful business should operate, digging into issues such as communication and culture which are often omitted from textbooks in this field. And then we are down to business, with a simple process "Figure of 8 Guide" on how to make projects and change work in any organisation.

This looping racetrack image visualises the 8 key steps to drive Products, Projects and Programmes towards delivery. Against a background of good Governance and a clear market assessment, the approach is supported with snapshots from real life experiences to demonstrate how each step works in practice: identifying Mission and Vision, interrogating Products and the Business Case for each, and defining a Strategy and Business Roadmap towards improvement. A section on Delivery completes the bottom loop of the Figure of 8, showing how to manage a Portfolio, deliver Projects and Programmes, into Service and drive continual improvement. This builds strong teams for success to execute real change, which embeds the culture and systems to provide resilience in times of stress, builds successful strategy and allows the business to flourish, which we know is tough.

Every organisation faces change, ranging from digital transformation to cultural improvement or project recovery to delivering against a known process. All projects use change to deliver profit. Delivering one project is a start, but how do you get all your project teams to hit targets across the business? Teams are hard to create and need great people working together. When you build the right team, you will find a mutual respect and understanding that make every cog run more smoothly. You remember the meetings, repartee, atmosphere and the odd beer fireside. We need to blend teams and make them work, with a system that brings success. Reducing the stress, getting the smile back, walking tall and feeling great with a team that knows how to, and can, get there. Such teams have the ability and control to make sure the project failures and struggles that have plagued project management since inception in the 1950s, including major Health Project failures (and many hidden ones), can be resolved.?

My next newsletters will focus on:

·????????How my figure of eight model works (including a video to make it easy to follow) to deliver portfolios, projects, ?programmes and services.

·????????How to recover programmes that are behind or broken.

·????????The characteristics of great businesses (from 20 years at 20 brands).

·????????Where are the great businesses and how do they work?

·????????Managing leading edge programmes at pace in comfort.

·????????How to become a contractor and the advantages of staying permanent.

·????????Project management as a career and where it can take you.

·????????Remote working and delivering projects in the Cloud in 2022.

·????????Managing projects in the cloud and is there any difference to on premise?

·????????Lets explore the true soft skills and their benefit.

I will be using diagrams and video and aim to have interviews with capable projects and programme managers, recruiters and CV writers.?

The aim of this newsletter is to share insights with the project management, stakeholders and business owners in our space (Brands and Government across all industries) to see how we can get better and grow.