This bulletin focuses on the increasingly topical Benefits Management.  For many organisations this has always been one of those “important” but not “urgent” issues which they never quite get around to.

Despite much talk and rhetoric about it’s importance, our work in undertaking P3M3 maturity reviews of organisations has shown that only a small minority manage to even make it above Level 1. There are many reasons for this, but lack of any structured guidance or frameworks is the number one reason which means all benefits management activity is likely to be ad-hoc at best. KPMG in 2005 concluded that less than 20% of projects deliver their benefits, shocking but probably a reality still.

Contrast that with Finance Management which normally scores close to a Level 3 in maturity which is reflecting it’s importance, most organisations have a Finance Director, none (as far as we know) have a Benefits Delivery Director

As the reality of the new economic policies are hitting our customers, one of the few courses that is selling really well is Benefits Management, because it is now becoming essential that organisations understand how their benefits will be realised and what they are worth – this is the only way they will be able to justify the continuation of their initiatives. We are also working on two Benefits Management Framework assignments.

William Cowper was once quoted as saying – “Absence of proof is not proof of absence”, which is quite a sobering thought in this context, you are probably delivering benefits, but not the ones that were described or even wanted, whilst the one’s we promised have slipped into obscurity.

One of the big challenges is how to categorise benefits and then measure them. To help with this we have captured our current ideas and those of the other thought leaders into this article that we hope will prove really useful , MSP Sound Bites – Benefits Categorisation

We can also offer you one of our podcasts, this bulletin we have Rod Sowde, the MSP lead author talking about benefits management in a MSP environment

We can also offer an in-house Benefits Management course for organisations that want to start the journey to improvement and enjoy facilitation from some of the thought leaders in this area.

Benjamin Disraeli is reputed to have said “What we anticipate seldom occurs and what we least expect generally happens”.  In these unpredictable times those words may resonate with many of you.

In this bulletin we are focusing on Change Management.  The one thing that is certain is that things are about to change for all of us, but how well prepared are you as an individual, as a team or as an organisation?

It is amazing how many organisations freeze in the face of change, many of our public sectors clients have just stopped functioning, not knowing how the cuts will affect them.  This in turn is already putting private sector suppliers out of business as they have stopped spending money, Parity Training being a high profile recent example.  The banks and lending institutions are arguably still frozen in the state they were 2 years ago.

There is an interesting change management theory that defines the stages individuals go through when faced with severe change, namely  Shock, Anger, Depression, Acceptance, Hope. It’s often called the Valley of Despair or the Psychodynamic Curve and was defined by Kubler Ross.

Even worse, a guy called Maslow outlined a set of hierarchy of needs that all human beings work for. When peoples jobs are at risk they quickly move from ambitious and self attainment (one of the highest levels) to the most basic level, the need for security, the lack of which is very scary.

So what we can see at the moment, is many organisations frozen in shock and fear, teams do not have clear direction on how to react to the challenge, managers do not have the skills to handle the new circumstances and individuals go through an emotional turmoil as they try to come to terms to the new reality, or lack of it.  Organisations are therefore now performing at far less efficiency than they were doing 6 months ago. Becoming competent at change takes practice, have a look at this article on change management maturity for an insight.

The one message that comes across consistently is that organisations always underestimate the cost and impact of change, whether it is by choice or not.  Programmes and Projects often leave the true costs out of the business case as the numbers are too scary, which means that change isn’t really being planned for, which is why chaos ensues.

If we look at the evidence from P3M3 maturity assessments, every organisation we have looked at so far has been weak in the area of Benefits Management and many are weak in Resource Management.  KPMG research a couple of years ago estimated that less that 20% of organisations deliver their benefits, which based on our statistics, may actually be a bit on the generous side.

The APM Group recently released an article on Change Management which we think may be of interest to you and introduces their contribution to the challenge with their qualification course which is currently proving very popular.

There is no silver bullet to solve this problem, but having well trained teams that are prepared and knowledgeable about the effects of change is a good starting point.

We offer the APM Group Change Management courses as well as a one day introductory event which may be of interest.  Here are the details and if we can be of help please drop us a line at enquiries@aspireeurope.com

Once again, we will be taking a full and active part in the proceedings and sharing a stand with our partners at Outperform and co-hosting the workshops

The Showcase is unique because all the main seminar presentations are case studies, supported by the customers involved. There are also unique and informal round table workshops on a specific topic (called Birds of a Feather) which are hosted by a supplier on topics that are hopefully of interest to a broader community.

MSP® 2010 – the cloak is removed.�
MSP®2007 was a huge success and has transformed the way people across all sectors view change programmes. It is now coming up for  its 3 year refresh, which is giving opportunities to address some of the issues with this minor update. Rod Sowden, Lead Author for the 2007 version and the Mentor for the 2010 version will discuss some of the issues, the way they are being addressed and taking your feedback.
Training - delivering the performance dividend
The P3M3™ reviews are highlighting a range of weaknesses in organisation and individual skills and capability across many sectors. With so much investment in training in the last 15 years it begs the question what happened to it. This session with be look at the challenges faced by organisations and individuals and a possible Landscape for Success. If you missed the article in our May newsletter on this topic, you can find it by clicking here
P3M3™ – being average is not best practice.
For the last 10 years the PPM industry has been promoting Best Practice. The P3M3 reviews are starting to throw up evidence that Best Practice may not be appropriate, but that Right Practice may be the way forward. This workshop will be hosted by Rod Sowden, OGC lead author of P3M3™ 2008 and Andy Murray lead author of PRINCE2® and PRINCE2® Maturity Model, both are widely recognised for his expertise in maturity modelling
Portfolio Management – Delivering more for 20% less, sound familiar?
Portfolio Management expert, Mike Ward, will lead a debate exploring how portfolio management can help with the spending cuts that are now a reality for many.  The session will include simple practical tips that can make a big impact on your portfolio of projects and programmes.
Beyond PRINCE2® 2009 – One year on, what have we learned ?
In the 12 months since PRINCE2® 2009 was launched on 16^th June last year, lead author Andy Murray has been working with numerous organisations helping them get the most from PRINCE2®.  This session will explore what organisations need to have in place to gain consistent successful project delivery (and that’s more than just PRINCE2®)

Aspire Europe’s Australian subsidiary has just been awarded a place on the Australian Governement Panel to deliver P3M3 assessments services to Government departments.

AAP was only established 12 months ago to this is a great coup and hopefully the start of great things.

Rod Sowden and Andy Murray of Outperform UK Ltd attended the Houses of Commons on the 8th March to listen to the Parliamentary Accounts Committee review of the report.

Much time was spent on the  concerns raised by Rod and Andy that the cross cutting dependencies were not fully understood, that there was no single controlling “mind” for the current phase of the programme and the success depended on concensus, should this fall apart (due to Govt cuts after the next election) the situation would not look so rosey.

 For those students of Managing Successful Programmes, the Olympics is a classic programme that is morphing. In the manual it highlights programmes that impact on three different areas, Specification Led, Business Change and Societal and Cultural - the Olympics is moving through these types. The build of the arenas, the readiness or operation and ultimately the legacy.

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 James is now accredited to deliver consultancy services to clients for PRINCE2(tm), MSP ™ and general Programme and Project Management consultancy services.

James is also accredited to undertake P3M3(tm) assessments for our clients.

It’s also James’s birthday today- so congratulations and happy birthday James

Our lead trainer is Julian Hood, a great guy who has been delivering courses for around 5 years. He’s not one of the old school of grey suited trainers - he delivers a real fun event.

As a result of this accreditation we have joined up with a Polish organisation to challenge for an upcoming IT Service Management contract with the Ministry of Justice in Poland/

Rod Sowden, Managing Director of Aspire Europe said “Working with the Outperform team over the last 18 months has been great fun and we have been very successful in delivering better and more innovative solutions to our clients, so it seemed right that we formalised it”

The agreement covers a non competition agreement, sharing of IP and joint access to tools to support both organisations customers.

Claire Rookes, Operations Director at Aspire Europe said “Having two Lead Authors at our disposal is better than one !”. 

In fact with Rod being a double lead author, Andy Murray in Outperform, Sue Vowler working with us on P3O. Craig Kilford working on Portfolio Management - we technically have 5 lead authors working with us now - a full set !

The contract is now in place and training delivery begins in February with a range of PRINCE2 and MSP courses across the country

We already have a number of clients that take similar executive training services from us, including Home Office, Ministry of Justice, South West Regional Improvement and Efficiency Partnership and Bristol City Council.