Connecting projects to strategy

completion of their projects.
It is common for them to give excuses such as “I did not have the executive support I need”, “My budget kept getting cut” and “My resources keep getting pulled on to other projects”.
Sounds familiar? I am sure it does.
Why do we continue to hear and experience these outcries even as we get better at project management?
The purpose of this article is to shed light on the root cause of this situation and talk plainly about what executives, sponsors and project managers can do to ensure we are all fully aligned and enabled to implement corporate strategy through projects.
In order for us to be successful we need to understand the basic nature and context of strategy. We also need to agree on some basic tenets.
Once we have established this we will move right into a more in-depth discussion on precisely what you can do to achieve the goal of being continuously aligned with the corporate strategy.
We will also talk about what action you can take to review the strategic fit for your project after reading this article.
Context
Strategy is a plan of action in response to the objectives set out by the company.
Strategic planning is not only a prerogative of profit-oriented organisations, even Government departments and non-profit organisations must have clearly documented directions of how they intend to articulate strides towards their vision.
Loosely stated, corporate objectives can be organised into three high-level categories with strategy associated to each one.
We need to have a clear and defined understanding so that we can successfully respond to the strategies.
Category 1 – Financial
The first element of strategy is financial, essentially improving the profit margin.
Category 2 – Innovation
The second major element of strategy is that of innovation, the essence of which is growth or advancement.
Category 3 – Adherence
The third component of strategy is adherence, typically to industry standards, specifications and regulatory aspects.
In most cases this is considered a requirement rather than a strategic component, however, we have listed it here for the purposes of visibility.
In many business sectors, the aspect of adherence has almost equal weighting to finance and innovation.
We also need to establish some basic tenets that are vital to our success in order to successfully pursue the strategy.
Tenet 1 – Communicate the Strategy.
The strategic plan needs to infuse your organisation. Executives and sponsors need to communicate it often and clearly.
Be creative, but effective. I know one organisation that printed their five major corporate strategy points on mouse pads and distributed them to the entire organisation.
You can be sure everyone knows the corporate strategy. Survival hint: Beware of situations where the strategy cannot be communicated “at this time”. That is a portent of failure.
Tenet 2 – Partnership
Moving strategy to business results is a partnership between strategists (executives, senior management) and delivery (portfolio, programme, project managers). This partnership has the responsibility to translate the strategic plan into a course of action (a.k.a. projects).
Tenet 3 – Its business, not projects!
This is about business benefits NOT projects; this may be hard to swallow, for project managers but your company is not in the project business. Projects are a means to arrive at a particular business benefit. This mindset is pivotal for being truly successful.
Taking Action
Assuming we now understand the theatre of strategic operation and agree with some fundamental truths about strategy and projects, how do we ensure that the “right” projects get the resources required and the “wrong” projects are not even started? In the case of the project managers, how do I get on the “right” projects?
Start at the beginning . . .
The first place to focus is at the submission and screening stages of the project or at the very least the activation stage.
Bear in mind, however, that the activation stage is the last best opportunity for you to influence the direction.
Remember Tenet 2, above, this is a partnership. As project managers, we need to help our sponsor by highlighting the linkage between the project request and the corporate strategy. If it is not linked or is linked very weakly, there is every probability that you will run into resource allocation issues, budget setbacks and basically become a victim of the infamous “prioritisation” beast.
As a result there is a very strong likelihood that the project, and therefore the sponsor, will not be successful.
Everyone wants to look good and succeed. That includes the project requester (executive, sponsor) and project manager.
We do not knowingly initiate something where we are convinced that we will look bad and not achieve our goals.
Make sure you know the linkage
If you were not involved in the submission, screening, registration or activation of the project but you are managing a project, programme or portfolio, make sure you know to what strategic component your project or program links.
Artifacts like a business case, requirements document or needs assessments are valuable tools to gain this understanding.
Your Project Charter should start with a statement about how the project links to the corporate strategy.
This should come straight from the Business Case. If you are still having difficulties clearly understanding the connection, start tracing the steps of the project back to submission and find out!
It may be a labyrinth, but no one wants to have an active project that is going down a rabbit trail.
Don’t forget the team!
Your team members also need to know the connection to the strategy and business.
This is an excellent team-building and motivational enabler.
Remind your team members often about the strategic component that is being driven out by way of their project.
Conflicting Priorities!
When the “conflicting priorities” beast rears (and it always does), speak in business terms about the problem.
Assuming for a moment that all active projects are clearly and strongly linked to strategy, you need to ask the question, “which strategy is more important or takes precedence”.
The pitfall is speaking in project or technical terms that will not be effective at resolving the issue.
For example, if two projects are challenging each other for resources ask the executive sponsor, which one is more important, the financial objective or the innovation objective?
Be aware, also that the response will differ based on the timing of the question and the current position of the organisation.
Keeping your project(s) strongly and clearly connected to strategy and business benefit because these are the strongest enablers for addressing the lack of executive support, budget, resource, and even prioritisation challenges.
We have all heard the popular mantra “think globally, act locally”. Well it certainly applies here.
A project not aligned to the corporate strategy is not only tragic it is in fact a “stragedy”.
In the next instalment we will focus on some of the key competencies of a project manager.
Meanwhile, South African-based PRINCE2 trainer and PMP Mr Jurie Smith will address Zimbabwe project managers on the above and other issues at the PMIZ mid-year dinner meeting on July 1 at a local hotel.
l Peter Banda is the Secretary-General and Chief Executive of the Project Management Institute of Zimbabwe (PMIZ). Send your views and comments via email; [email protected] website link www.pmiz.org.zw