Why I Joined The Strategy eXecution Forum - Andy Jordan

Andy Jordan - StrategyXF Strategic Advisor & Council Member

Ben Chamberlain asked me to share my thoughts on why I agreed to join StrategyXF and engage and join him on developing the community. So I did! Those of you who are familiar with my writing won’t be at all surprised by how long the following is…

It’s been a very long time since I went on a project management basics training course, but I still remember how uncomfortable it made me feel.  I never chose project management, it chose me through circumstances – the only person available to run a one-off project at the UK private bank that I was working for, and then the role with the most available opportunities when I emigrated to Canada.

But when I went on that course, one of the first things that they said was that a project was a unique endeavor – a one off.  They then proceeded to spend five days trying to teach me the one approach that I would need to know in order to manage all of those unique projects.  This was before Agile came along and disrupted things, but that never sat well with me.  How could a single approach be the best way to deliver all of those unique projects?

Even worse in my mind, having spent a good portion of those five days being told how important communication and teamwork were, how could I be as good a project manager as possible just by following processes?  And worst of all, why was I supposed to only focus on delivering work on time, on scope and on budget?  Sure, those were important, but wasn’t it more important to deliver something that actually helped my employer?

I must have been something of a nightmare to my managers and employers in those early years of my project management career, and I was (OK, am) far too stubborn to change my thinking.  But slowly, over time, people stopped looking at me sideways and started to agree with my perspective.  That reinforced my belief that my perspective was correct, that there should be more to project management, and that eventually led to a career that took me in a direction that I would never have imagined sitting in that first training course.

Projects in a business context

As I started to talk more about the importance of projects in the context of the business instead of as standalone initiatives that were somehow separate from everything else, I found new opportunities opening up.  I was asked to run a project management office (PMO) taking that approach, then to rebuild another to get closer to it.  People reached out to me to offer my perspective through articles, and in presentations at conferences.

Soon, I was being referred to as a thought leader in the project space, and while the label still makes me cringe, I wasn’t going to pass up the opportunity to leverage it.  I started my own consulting firm – nearly 20 years ago now, and started telling anyone who would listen that projects needed to be viewed as part of the larger organizational picture of how growth and strategic success happen.

At times it felt as though I was making progress, at others it felt as though I was a voice in the wilderness, but every now and then I enjoyed a success that really helped validate what I was doing.  An executive who wanted to work with me to look at improving projects, programs, and even portfolios from the top down, or that wanted to integrate their PMO function into strategic planning and delivery.  It made me feel as though there was hope for projects to become more aligned with business value, and of course, over the last few years that has been happening.

Then, a little over a decade ago, I crossed paths with Ben Chamberlain for the first time.  Here was someone who not only got the idea of using projects and related vehicles to improve strategic delivery, he was building a company based on it.  He was me turned up to 11, and he was looking far more broadly – at the entire organization and how they needed to collaborate to optimize strategic execution.

Excellence must be expected - Why I joined The Strategy eXecution Forum

We’ve been working together off and on ever since, and I like to think that we make a good team – his intelligence, my wit, charm, and good looks.  So, when he approached me with his idea for a strategy execution focused community, a group to make the village real, and to start helping organizations move strategy execution to where it needs to be – to where it should be, he had a willing listener.

I like to think that I have been able to make some small impact on my clients over the years, but there is still a long way to go.  The idea that excellence must be expected in strategy execution is still a long way from reality, and the fact that so many business leaders don’t appear too concerned about that frustrates me.  They can do better, and a community of experts willing to share and help each other to grow, can help them do better – can help all of us do better.

I believe that is what StrategyXF can achieve, it can bring the village together, it can help take strategy execution to heights never before seen, to heights never before imagined.  I am proud to be a small part of that, and I am firmly strapped in for the most exciting journey of my career as we build out this community and deliver on the principles, plays, and guidance that will help elevate strategy execution to excellence.

www.strategyxf.com

This is why I joined The Strategy eXecution Forum. I hope you join me in the community and help to elevate Strategy Execution as C-Suite imperative.