Digital Transformation; Essential but Hard

Recently I presented a webinar along side Tom Lynam where we discussed digital transformation and some of the systemic challenges currently faced by organisations. While I got some early feedback that this topic already had a lot of content available, I wanted to write this post to share some of the key items we [...]

Meeting-free Projects – how to put productivity through the roof

Late last year I wrote a blog about a simple way to double the transformation and implementation capacity of the APS overnight. I would now like to offer another way to dramatically increase productivity – by never having any meetings on your project. Meetings defined A quick Google search gave me the following definitions: [...]

By |2019-11-25T05:54:54+11:00February 28th, 2019|Leadership, Project Management|0 Comments

A simple way to double the transformation and implementation capacity of the APS overnight

A recent survey of over 800 state and federal employees recently conducted by Professor Peter Shergold and highlighted by The Mandarin suggested that nearly three-quarters of public servants believe the public service is too hierarchical. I agree. There is a very simple way to translate this disquiet into a dramatic increase in management capacity [...]

By |2019-11-25T05:55:10+11:00November 29th, 2018|APS, Leadership, Program Management, Project Management|0 Comments

Building APS Implementation Capability

I believe there was a lot of good stuff in the 2016 report “Learning from Failure” by Professor Peter Shergold AC. But that was two years ago, so everyone has moved on from then, right? I sincerely hope not. In his review Professor Shergold identified 10 key lessons to be learned, the first one [...]

By |2019-11-25T05:56:21+11:00August 30th, 2018|APS, Leadership, Project Management|0 Comments

It is time for public sector governance to change

I’ll cut straight to the point here: the way Federal government departments and agencies implement policy and reform isn’t good enough. Well-intentioned public servants operating in entrenched bureaucratic structures and traditional ways of working is failing the taxpayer. It is high time we had a serious crack at doing things differently. Does the APS [...]

Is your team having superficial conversations?

I was running a client briefing recently, and something wonderful happened: an unstructured conversation broke out, and I was left standing in the corner as a spectator. I abandoned the remainder of the briefing slides, and joined the conversation where I thought I could contribute. Afterwards I reflected that this should be the norm, [...]

As an SES officer do you lack confidence in benefits delivery?

Last month I wrote a blog alluding to the treatment of benefits as a side order. I spoke about how some individuals and companies seem to want to make benefits management a black art, and advocated the need to go back to benefits basics. To me the most important of these basics is to: [...]

By |2019-11-25T05:57:45+11:00November 23rd, 2017|APS, Leadership, PRINCE2, Project Management|0 Comments

Would you like some Benefits with that?

“Hello, welcome to the ICT area, may I take your order please?” “Hi there, I’d like a large digital transformation, with big data, plenty of agile, and I want it now” “Would you like some Benefits with that?” “Errr, sure, why not – get someone to cook them up and put them in a [...]

This is what the Minister wants

“This is what the Minister wants – that’s the business case”. I wish I had a dollar for every time a senior public servant has said that to me. It is almost invariably provided as the explanation as to why the project they are directing doesn’t have a business case. It is also almost [...]

By |2019-11-25T05:58:38+11:00September 19th, 2017|PRINCE2, Program Management, Project Management|0 Comments

How to stop government projects failing

This blog won’t be for everyone. If you’re not on a government project, it won’t be for you. And if you’re working on, or responsible for, a government project that is a raging success, it probably isn’t for you either. Everyone else can read on. What I’m going to do is describe a hypothetical [...]

By |2019-11-25T05:58:50+11:00August 15th, 2017|APS, Project Management|0 Comments
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