What do Sisyphus, Attila the Hun, the Quakers, and early cartographers have in common with creating a project office?
They all represent metaphors that guide modern managers to implement a project office for organizational change. You may decide to become a POO–a Project Office of One, or your organization may need a SPO–a Strategic Project Office.
Find out how these metaphors and practices can guide you as a change agent to lead the quest towards a projectized organization…or at least towards an organization more people and process friendly with regards to project based work. A project office is an ideal mechanism to lead organizational change.
These are the topics covered in the upcoming UCSC Extension course on The Project Management Office, starting December 1, 2009 in Santa Clara, CA.
Randy Englund, Englund Project Management Consultancy, www.englundpmc.com
A “Quaker” is at the opposite end from an “Attila” on a continuum of an approach to leadership. An Attila leader practices command and control and “push”; a Quaker is a good neighbor who goes about getting results that “pulls” people into wanting to know how to get similar results. Pull has more power or success rate than push. A change initiative, as well as implementing a PMO, needs both to assess where leadership is on the continuum in the current environment and where they need to get to to be successful. These are metaphors intended to get people thinking about what leadership style is the norm for the organization where they are working. That assessment then leads to better action plans about how to initiate change.
Randy Englund, http://www.englundpmc.com
Randy, I’m not close enough to Santa Clara to take this class. But you have me intrigued. What *do* the Quakers have to offer in regards to change management? 🙂
— Di