Let's look at what's involved in taking a much more integrated systems based approach to project management. And how we can just by looking at those two dimensions and integrated and a systems based approach can significantly increase your project success. When I talk about using an integrated approach, when leading projects, what that means is that we are going to incorporate the four core competencies involved in leading successful change. And those four core competencies are effective strategic leadership. The ability to plan and implement success will change your ability to lead people through transition, and to ensure that communication engages everybody with all three of those dimensions, a balanced, connected approach to leading change. So when we think about each of these particular specific dimensions, strategy is the big picture stuff.

It's about what is this organization about? And where is this organization going. And those are decisions that are continually made in today's dynamic world. Change is about the act of making something different. things used to be that way in the old world, and we're going to put a plan together to get them to be this way in the new world. So change really is relatively straightforward.

Transition is a little less straightforward. transition is the internal reorientation that goes on inside of us individually and collectively, when we adapt to a change. And this thick green line on the screen superimposed on the change line, gives us a sense of transition. There's three phases to transition. There's a separation away from the comfort and familiarity of the old world. There is a time In between when we're not where we used to be, and we're not yet where we're supposed to be somewhat uncomfortable, a little bit perplexed, maybe a little excited.

And slowly, but surely, integration will take place. And we will start to feel like we're committed and plugged in and really connected to this new thing. That's transition. And then of course, communication is this exchange of information. Here's another way to look at these strategy change, transition and communication across a number of different dimensions. So the outcome of a good strategy should be clear intentions.

And the outcome of change should be action, people doing things differently. The outcome of transition is the experience is fulfilled, and people do indeed do the new thing. And they're fully committed to it. And communication is ensuring everyone is engaged. We can talk about the essence down at the bottom Big Picture strategy. And of course, the details is the change.

Transition is about the journey of getting to where we were to where we need to go. And communication is all about the knowing of what's going on. So when we think about using an integrated approach, ideally, we want to have equal emphasis on all of these dimensions connected together, and communication fleshed out across all of them. Unfortunately, that's rare in many organizations. This is what it looked like in an organization with a project office that I was in about six or eight months ago. So this these guys were project experts.

I mean, they knew how to do projects. The overall organizational strategy was a bit of a mystery. Nobody was paying much attention, if any at all to transition. And they were certainly communicating about their projects, but it was coming across in emails and memos and They would started to play a little bit with social media. It was all just about information on the projects. So that's a less integrated approach than something like the one that we just described here.

All of our work, of course, in terms of getting better at project management is to get it more looking like this and less looking like that. systems thinking really is very critical. In order to deal with the complexities of what's going on. We've got to see things through a systems lens. Ludwig von bertalanffy way back in the 50s, is one of the godfathers if you will of systems thinking he was an Austrian biologist, and a very elegant quote, actually, in one way or another. We're forced to deal with complexities with holes or systems in all fields of knowledge.

And systems thinking has certainly pervaded the world of organizations and management and leadership, along with many others We're not going to get too deep into systems thinking you may well be an expert on systems thinking. And that's great. If you are, I just want to look at systems thinking from two different dimensions, we're going to help you to understand a bird's eye view of all the key stakeholder groups in your organization. And also look at the side view of power and authority. Give you an example. I'm gonna ask you to draw your own here in just a second.

So this particular bird's eye view is an organization. It started the core group was the project manager was a person by the name of AJ. She was heading up to early learning group. And this was all of the other functions inside this particular school board. There were a number of other stakeholders involved in the story, parents, students, provincial government, etc, etc, etc. And the project was transformed early learning.

Now as you can appreciate, anytime you add Transform to the start of a project, I mean, that's going to be a pretty big project and it was it was Really, it was supposed to be a four to five year project, it's going to end up being at least a decade or more, maybe longer. But one of the things that AJ and her group did, which was pretty successful early was figured out if we're going to be successful here, who are the key players? Who do we need to connect with? Who do we need to keep in the loop? Who do we need to get information from? And who do we need to give information to?

So that's an example, I'd like you to find your worksheet and it's essentially a blank piece of paper. And on the top of it, it has a bird's eye view. If you're working on your own, that might be enough space. If you're working with a group of people, I would invite you to find a flip chart sheet and some pads of sticky notes. And you'll find it much easier to create your own bird's eye view. Once you've got the players done.

And in this case, it would be back to here. Think about the project you've got involved right now and then put stars Are circled or somehow highlight who are the essential stakeholders for that project to be successful. Go ahead, push pause, and I'd like you to create your own bird's eye view of that go. Second view of the system I'd like you to sketch out is the side view. Here's an example. This is essentially the power and authority chart.

This is executives for directors and managers, 22 supervisors, 255 employees, 150 contractors for the project teams. That's what this example look like. And the key things this particular group wanted to highlight was simply the fact that who are the central groups in this Power Authority in order to make this project successful, and they put stars beside the project teams and the executives and the supervisors, because they have learned over the years, that what they're trying to do with this side view is to set up the supervisors for success to set the supervisors up with the information they need about Any of these projects when they're getting the questions from their employees, find your side view worksheet. And again, you can use a flip chart sheet if you've got a few people with you, or you can sketch it out on your own. What is the power and authority stack?

Arguably, how many people in each one of those boxes? Don't worry about being exact plus or minus 10%? is probably good enough. Do you have any contractors? And do you have any project teams? And you probably do, you're probably on one of them.

And then who are the key players? And if you're going to help the supervisors get better at supervising at the local work area as it relates to your particular project so that they can add to the employees questions. How would you do that? We'll talk more about that in a few minutes. The key question here is what can you do to ensure in your organization, project management is grounded in a more integrated systems based approach. What I'd like you to do is to find this worksheet.

This is an action plan and here's an opportunity for you to to just make a note to yourself, how can you ensure project management in your organization is grounded in a more integrated systems based approach?