In my previous blog, The Workberg: Structured and Unstructured Work, I explain the concept of the Workberg to illustrate the different types of work going on in your organization. Above the waterline is where the formal, structured, process-driven projects get done. Meanwhile, below the waterline is where we find teams of people cranking out day-to-day work, outside of the governed project portfolio.
In this blog, I discuss the opportunity for project management organizations (PMO) to rewire their mindset when it comes to gaining complete visibility into all work that is happening under the waterline.
The Mental Shift – Embrace the Workberg
The PMO is tasked with ensuring predictable execution through the best utilization of limited resources. Inherently, the PMO wants visibility to govern all work – both above the water line (structured work) and below the water line (unstructured work). But is this really effective? Watch the video where I explain this.
PMO leaders need to let go of this idea of complete visibility into all work. We typically see that it’s only about 10-15 percent of the unstructured work below the waterline that’s tied to critical projects where the PMO needs visibility at the portfolio level. It’s what I refer to as the portfolio overlap.
The rewire is all about ensuring predictable execution and on time delivery by choosing not to have granular visibility into all work. Instead, provide a collaborative work management solution to make it easier for teams to get stuff done, accelerating productivity of people across the organization. With this approach, by being more efficient at everyday tasks, project team members can focus more of their time on the structured projects, increasing on time success rates.
Ideally, there is an option to link the portion of unstructured work being done that is related to strategic projects directly into the project portfolio for visibility into progress. Such as a marketing deliverable critical to moving to a new website technology, or HR implementing a new financial management application that will support critical business capabilities.
The idea is to create a culture where the PMO helps everyone in the organization to get work done—no matter if it’s part of the project portfolio or not. You can think of it as moving from being a PMO to becoming a WMO—a work management office. By being an advocate of the right solution for the type of work, you’re helping the people throughout your organization become more efficient at getting work done and increasing structured project success rates. Check out the final blog in this series, “Workberg Part 3: Create a culture that helps people get work done.”
I’d like to hear from you. How is your organization supporting different types of work? Share by leaving a comment below.
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