Introduction:

This case study describes our role in helping a world-leading financial services organisation to improve enterprise programme governance while providing practical input and advice on how to accelerate alignment with the governance practices of its new parent organisation.

The case study illustrates how we can add additional value when already engaged. In this case, using practical experience to help resolve conflicting dynamics between stakeholders, other cross-functional teams as well as the advisors who are trying to help them.

The Client's Challenge:

Following their acquisition by a larger group, the client needed to significantly improve project delivery.

Their challenges included a perception of poor change performance with projects consistently being delayed and overrunning, the practices and culture of newly insourced teams felt to be a contributing factor and advisors who were struggling to gain traction in driving necessary actions.

Our Approach:

Already engaged in support of other activities with the client, we were asked to also provide a quick, independent view on how to improve the activity.

Our key actions included:

• Assessing stakeholder and governance expectations at group and business level

• Validating programme and project management practices at group, unit and insourced team levels

• Forming a view on opportunities and risks in leveraging group-level practices to accelerate improvement in light of key in-flight programmes

• Evaluating the suitability of advisors and their recommendations given the particular dynamics of the situation and the culture of the largely insourced team affected by the work

• Providing coaching to team members around collaboration issues, while encouraging would-be ‘stars’ to have more confidence in stepping up to drive the improvement

• Providing practical recommendations to simplify the improvement roadmap

• Providing customised documentation to show how alignment could be achieved in priority areas given greater leverage in group and unit-level practices

The Result:

The primary outcome was that the client was able to reconfigure the exercise in a way both group and unit teams were more able to support, including constructive resolutions to certain team dynamics that were proving unhelpful.

Tags:

#FinancialServices, #Governance, #ChangeRisk, #ProgrammeManagement, #EPO