Personal and Organizational Growth

Practical Tips for Organizational Development

Here are some ideas to help you help your company mature into a more effective organization:

Model good behavior: Lead the way by modeling the practices you would like to see adopted throughout your organization. Start within your immediate circle of influence - the individuals you work with on a daily basis, the teams you belong to. Good ideas can be contagious, especially if people see them in practice and experience their benefits.
Develop a shared vision: Collaborate with like-minded and motivated colleagues in your organization to develop a plan for leading project management growth within your organization. Stay focused on changes that will deliver value, not processes that are ends in themselves.
Apply what you've learned about living order: Think about what you've learned in this course and make a list of ways you can use your new understanding of managing projects in living order to benefit your organization. Add this to your "key take-aways" for periodic review.
Compare your organization to other organizations: People often complain about their jobs, implying that no one does anything right. But that's rarely true. Benchmark organizations that are similar to yours. How does your organization compare? You may find that your organization actually does many things better than the competition. If that's the case, use your insights into your organization's strengths as an impetus to improve in those areas even more. Learning from others outside your industry is another way to grow as an organization. Project management is a key skill that is used across different end markets, products, and processes.
Be mindful of the needs of your specific type of organization: Every organization is in a different stage of its development. A new start-up has different needs from an established company in a key industry. If you go to work for a new organization, you might find that basic project management processes and tools are nonexistent or immature. Indeed, entrepreneurs sometimes pride themselves on building hyper-flexible organizations in which fixed procedures and processes have no place. But as Wanda Curlee argues, "processes and procedures are not the antithesis of entrepreneurship and flexibility. In fact, project, program, and portfolio management can help a startup manage growth".
Don't focus on one project maturity model too early: Review multiple models for project maturity development. Compare their visions of project maturity, identify areas of growth that would improve your organization's ability to consistently deliver successful project results.
Experiment: Learning through small experiments allows trial and error without significant negative repercussions. Piloting ideas for a project is one way to experiment.