Support System: Empowering Project Professionals to Find Better Ways of Working

STEVE HENDERSHOT

You can’t get too comfortable. The need to adapt is constant in today’s shifting project environment. Things like emerging technologies or business and cultural trends can impact everything from workflows to communication. And all of it puts project professionals on the spot again and again. So today we’re talking about how to make sure you choose the right ways of working for your projects—and how empowering project leaders to make those decisions can increase value for companies and reduce friction for teams.

In today’s fast-paced and complex business landscape, project professionals lead the way, delivering value while tackling critical challenges and embracing innovative ways of working. On Projectified®, we bring you insights from the project management community to help you thrive in this evolving world of work through real-world stories and strategies, inspiring you to advance your career and make a positive impact.

This is Projectified. I’m Steve Hendershot.

Project leaders devote a lot of brain power to figuring out how to make the most of the work their teams do. But here’s the thing: New options emerge virtually every day—whether it’s leaning more into hybrid, turning to distributed teams to close talent gaps or testing the limits of AI. And that means project professionals not only need to wring more efficiency out of existing approaches, but they also need to understand which new ways of working make sense—and when to adopt them.

You can learn more about how choosing the right ways of working can boost project performance in the latest PMI Pulse of the Profession® report. But today, let’s zero in to determine how project professionals can gain the autonomy and know-how to choose what’s right for each initiative. And here to help are leaders of two project management offices, or PMOs.

We’ll start with Christine Lowe in Wilmington, North Carolina, in the United States. She’s the senior manager of the project management center of excellence at IT solutions company CDW. She talked with Projectified’s Hannah LaBelle about how continued education has helped project and program managers develop the skills they need to adapt and thrive in today’s project environment. Plus, she explained how companies and their project management leaders can encourage greater autonomy for project professionals.

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HANNAH LABELLE

All right, Christine, let’s start off by talking about the PMO at CDW. Give us an overview of how it supports the organization and its project professionals.

CHRISTINE LOWE

Within our services PMO, our team really focuses on delivering outcomes for clients, and we help deliver a variety of implementation technologies, services or support for them. Over the last several years, our PMO has really evolved. We went from being decentralized to centralized. And today what we have are PMO communities of practice. And supporting those communities of practice is our project management center of excellence. We felt the structure has really allowed for the [project and program managers] to gain deeper technology knowledge, collaboration between pre-sales and delivery teams, as well as having our team, the center of excellence, providing them the foundation for best practices, governance and an overall enablement for the PMO community.

HANNAH LABELLE

What ways have you seen this change help enable and develop project professionals within the organization?

CHRISTINE LOWE

Being in our centralized model for many years, it really turned it around to having to focus on a consistent customer experience, whether you were in [the] manage services practice area or within our larger professional services organization, if you were working only in the east region or the west region. The customer and the stakeholder always felt they were getting a very similar experience. So that was one really big benefit, driving that consistency and standardization across the organization and really helping us develop, taking the best of the best and redefining our practices and tools and templates. And it shifted how we focus on customer and stakeholder experience.

In addition to that, what I really enjoyed, as we brought folks together, was the knowledge sharing and collaboration. And then we really started to see a lot more partnerships amongst our teams. If they were working with that same customer, they really found a way to come together and make it kind of very seamless for our customers. It also allowed us to align and adapt where we saw some gaps in our delivery experience.

It really brought some structure to our career development, our roles within our PMO. What did that career journey look like for a project manager? We structured career development for the team. We started to really think about what kind of training and mentoring, and how do we help them advance along their career journey? Sometimes people don’t always want to move upwards in their career path, but it allowed us a lot of cross-training and building different skills for PMs. We put a very solid governance and quality structure in place to really ensure that people were using the right tools and templates. We were delivering that quality to our customer. And then for the folks that are in doing the day to day, they had a feedback mechanism into our governance and quality. We called it our moments of genius, right? But they were able to put their input, saying, like, “Hey, I’ve done this, and this worked well.” And it was able for us to then shift it and perhaps deliver it out to the larger PMO community.

HANNAH LABELLE

So continuous learning is a big part of helping project professionals have the necessary knowledge for decision-making. What are some upskilling opportunities you offer to project professionals, and how do you choose which skills to focus on?

CHRISTINE LOWE

I’m a big fan of continuous learning for the variety of project management and program management roles. For us, it’s really shifted over the last several years what this role means. I feel strongly that our project managers and program managers are leaders who must bring adaptability and agility to our client projects today.

For us, it really started to think about what does a good program manager or project manager look like? We brought in several of our stakeholders to assess—what did they need? What were we doing well? Where were some of our opportunities? And from that assessment, we were able to identify gaps and determine what our core competencies were for each of the roles that we have within the organization. And we built an enablement roadmap, and that roadmap went down to all our roles, whether you were just starting out in your career as a project administrator or associate project manager or you were a program manager. We rethink it every year, but it provides us tailored training programs to address the different needs of the project management and program management roles that we have. What does certification look like for those roles? What is the technology? Where are we headed for our customers? What are our soft skill gaps? And what are emerging trends in project management that we need to kind of incorporate and think about?

HANNAH LABELLE

Let’s take this year as an example. What are some of the skills you’re looking at to make sure your folks are empowered to navigate the project landscape for the rest of 2024?

CHRISTINE LOWE

We’re focused on really thinking about how AI is going to shift the role of a [project manager], and what can that alleviate from an administrative burden? And what kind of education do we bring to the team around AI? We’re also looking at certification paths. PMI is now offering some new CAPM® [Certified Associate in Project Management] training, which really helps in our associate and project administrator-type roles. We are also looking to see beyond agile; do we need some organization transformation training, change management training? As well as identifying deeper technologies in our practice areas.

And for our program managers, who are more holistic, from a customer perspective, what is specific perhaps to some of our business verticals that they may be working in? What does a healthcare program manager need to understand about that piece of the business? And how that translates down as they’re helping a customer across our many practice areas.

HANNAH LABELLE

So how do you give project professionals this flexibility on their projects while still instilling that strong organizational culture, the quality and governance structure that has been created, different things like that?

CHRISTINE LOWE

For us, it begins [with] very clear guidelines and expectations on how we deliver to our customers. And even though we have those best practices in place, we also understand that one size may not fit all. We may need to allow the [project managers] or program managers to have the flexibility with working within certain parameters to ensure, “Hey, this aligns not only to meet our business needs, but it also adapts to what the client’s needs are as well.” So we really do kind of give them some leeway when it comes to that and how they deliver because, again, a customer need is going to be more important to us.

And then we encourage them to take ownership. Lead the project. You are a leader. Maybe it doesn’t fit directly in your project management or program management title, but you’re a leader within our organization, and it’s really helped foster a sense of accountability and commitment to that customer as well as where the business is going. They have a lot more power than they think they have, right? They have the power to stop a project, bring folks together when things aren’t going well and really develop what’s that strategy to get it back on track?

HANNAH LABELLE

Have you ever faced any sort of pushback internally when it comes to giving project managers and program managers greater decision-making power? How did you overcome that? Or how did you build buy-in and get greater support for them to have that autonomy?

CHRISTINE LOWE

I certainly have. Who hasn’t heard of “I’m not sure I need a project manager for this engagement”? Or I’ve heard “I have such a strong relationship with this client, and I’ve been working with them for such a long time that it probably doesn’t make sense to put a project manager or program manager on it. I can handle most of it.” That’s when I like to turn the tables and ask, “Tell me a time when a project went perfectly. And what is your plan if this one does not go that way?”

What I’ve found is having to address it in a couple ways: Really communicating what our project managers and program managers bring to the table, what that seller or leader can expect by putting that role in place, and the benefits of having them deliver on the project. This has, over time, allowed us to build some buy-in. It slowly builds trust, which is not easy, and it takes a lot of effort. I feel showcasing what an empowered project manager or program manager can do over time slowly brings down the barriers and we eventually gain some support.

I always tell my project managers or program managers, “Show them what we can do. Show them what good looks like.” Because when you start to do that, that resistance won’t be there next time. I feel very strongly about having our project managers and program managers see themselves as project leaders and that they really do have a lot of power when things aren’t going well. I feel as a leader, we have to support the project managers or program managers to feel that way. And once they start to do so, it really enhances that project outcome, it encourages them to think about new ideas, share that new idea, because it can have an impact across the PMO community and really gets them more engaged with us as an organization.

HANNAH LABELLE

What other benefits are you seeing with empowered project professionals?

CHRISTINE LOWE

Well, I’ve seen that our project managers and program managers have a stronger sense of accountability, and they take ownership of their projects. They really are invested to ensuring that the delivery team is successful, that they’re meeting the expectations of our stakeholders, that the stakeholders feel heard and listened to. Then we have more successful projects. And that customer often will allow us to expand our footprint. And being a project manager or program manager working with the clients a little bit more directly, sometimes in the throes of a project, really allows us to uncover new opportunities within their environment and only helps our sales team kind of think about what that customer’s journey is next and where we can help deliver that.

Allowing the project managers flexibility to work in the right way for them, and how they can quickly respond to what’s changing within their project or within the practice, in turn it brings back to the center of excellence a new way of doing something. We’ve taken a lot of their feedback, and we’ve been able to pivot on our tools, our templates, some of our best practices, really trying to make life a little bit easier for those project managers or program managers.

HANNAH LABELLE

What’s your top piece of advice to other PMO leaders on how they can empower the project professionals in their organizations?

CHRISTINE LOWE

Delegate and trust, which I think is really hard to do sometimes as a PMO leader, especially knowing that most of us have come up as project managers or program managers. It’s really hard to let go of that control. But I have found everybody else has a lot better ideas than I may have. And so I can step back, hear what they’re saying to me, really take it in, make an informed decision and figure out: How does that fit in the greater community going forward? Trusting and delegating to others, bringing it together, you’re going to get a lot of good ideas that you wouldn’t have thought about alone.

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STEVE HENDERSHOT

It might be tempting for project professionals to grow so attached to a new approach, work style or technology that they make it mandatory for everyone. But when I spoke with Rafael Cardoso Alicrim, head of engineering project management offices at aerospace giant Airbus in Toulouse, France, he explained how to break free from a one-size-fits-all mindset. Rafael’s PMOs support the engineering department in systems, airframes, flight tests and more. He says the key to success is to go deep into the context of each team and then figure out the specific ways of working that are likely to fit well in their toolkit, rather than pushing out a formulaic set of good practices.

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STEVE HENDERSHOT

Rafael, thanks for talking with me today. When you joined Airbus four years ago, you changed the structure of the PMO. So, tell me, what does it look like now?

RAFAEL CARDOSO ALICRIM

In terms of a PMO approach, I’m following the new instructions from PMBOK® [A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge] Version 7, which talks a lot about tailoring, about making the project approach really customized to the reality and not following the same recipe all the time. So what we are doing is encouraging and supporting the teams to understand why they are doing the project, how to break down the project structure and how to animate all this evolution of the project lifecycle to do the best fit, and having really a lean approach to do what is needed but not overprocessing the projects.

STEVE HENDERSHOT

How is that different than what the PMO was doing before? Why did you think this approach would better suit what the company needed?

RAFAEL CARDOSO ALICRIM

What I see recurrently when we are working as [project management] offices to support projects, to support portfolios, sometimes we see PMOs giving generic recipes, like “These are the set steps for a successful project,” without having the empathy to understand what is the aim of the project, understanding the background and the knowledge of the project team, and just giving prescriptions instead of supporting people and coaching people to go through the approach. So what I put in place and what I try to push every time—we support different projects and portfolios—is to really understand what is the aim, who is the customer and why we are doing [it], and what are really the assets that we need to implement.

For example, when entering a project where we have a project leader which is very technical and a specialist in the engineering domain, we cannot require them to be also an expert in project management. So this is where we need to enter with a [project management] office with the supportive approach to follow, to understand the technical part also and to propose the assets that support the project leader and not bring more complexity and confusion. So really work in a partnership instead of having an approach to teach only, to work together and providing only what is needed and not generating documents for nothing.

STEVE HENDERSHOT

How do you believe PMO leaders can best support project professionals and teams as they explore different ways of working, and also give them a balance of structure and autonomy as they work to make decisions that are best for their context and their project?

RAFAEL CARDOSO ALICRIM

What I really believe [in] is a collaborative approach to co-build that with the team. One important thing is that the team is comfortable to work and to develop in this approach because if we say, “You need to go agile,” and this person worked all their life in the traditional approach, maybe it’s not going to be so productive to develop [the project] this way. So we need to start with the human side of project management, understanding their needs, their frustrations, their expectations, and then going to the product and understanding what needs to be done for the project.

STEVE HENDERSHOT

What are the top benefits of giving project professionals the autonomy to operate with this mix of PMO support and a level of independence in their day-to-day work?

RAFAEL CARDOSO ALICRIM

When the team feels empowered, the sense of belonging is increased and the willingness to deliver increases also. So empowerment, for me, it’s totally linked with trusting the team, so building trust results to empowerment. When people feel trusted, when people feel empowered and accountable, we see more engagement and better results and also, which is very much important, well-being. They are happy doing what they are doing, and they are satisfied delivering what they are delivering.

When the project leader doesn’t have the autonomy needed, they don’t feel empowered to execute what they are doing. They ask for validation and approval on every single step. We have less engagement, less motivation, and the project performance may be decreased. Also, people’s satisfaction and well-being [also decrease], so it can lead to a failure in the project.

STEVE HENDERSHOT

What do you think is the best way to balance instilling an organizational culture with standards and consistency alongside the autonomy, flexibility and independence that can help individual teams thrive?

RAFAEL CARDOSO ALICRIM

The good balance depends really on what is at stake. You cannot be flexible in dates when you have commitments and contracts. Then you need to put some elements of restriction [in place] to make it happen. But it’s always starting from as agile as we can, as much flexible as we can, and putting constraints where we have really important constraints and not over-complexifying risk management, but really trying to be smart on where we apply a more, let’s say, restricted approach and where we can apply a more flexible approach. And it can be in the same project. Sometimes we have some work packages where you need to be strict, like regulatory authorities, and sometimes you can be flexible, when you design parts in 3D software, when you are testing proof of concept and so on. In the same project, you can bring flexibility in some parameters while you’re keeping the frame in others. So it’s really the empathy to understand the project in-depth to be able to provide the best approach.

STEVE HENDERSHOT

So what are the skills or knowledge areas that project professionals need to decide which approach or communication style best fits their needs? How would you recommend project professionals develop this expertise?

RAFAEL CARDOSO ALICRIM

More and more, we have people remote. We have different cultures working from different places. So the very first thing that I think we need to have is the empathy and understanding of different cultures. Sometimes we don’t see these things in the same way. Sometimes we have different backgrounds that lead us to different conclusions.

Second one for me: different ways of working. We have different generations, different approaches. There are some people that love to work with digital and remote and other people that are not in this case, like preferring to have physical meetings face to face, to see the people, to exchange during a coffee in informal approaches also. So we need to have a very good understanding on the way the team behaves and the way they are more productive and at ease to work.

Going for hard skills, let’s say, it’s really important to not have a preferred approach as the only source of truth. That means agile approaches, waterfall approaches; we need, in my opinion, to stop thinking of frameworks and start thinking on solutions and tailoring. For me, it’s a very good approach to make what is so-called hybrid, but to customize what is the project lifecycle and be open to adapt and to change if things are not going in the right way. This is very key for me. And now if I go deeper in hard skills, knowledge of digital tools, artificial intelligence, be in touch with the most recent project management approaches and techniques, and to be curious, to continue to learn all along the life.

STEVE HENDERSHOT

How can you encourage teams to feel confident working with the unfamiliar? AI is a great example where there’s bound to be some discomfort, just because this tech is so different and potentially changes your process quite a bit. How do you work with leaders to get them to experiment in a way that they can feel safe and confident with some of these emerging tools?

RAFAEL CARDOSO ALICRIM

What is really important [is] to gain their confidence. Sometimes people are just scared of new things. When we give [it] a try, we onboard people on this and we stop this resistance. If I give an example of AI, we can do some demonstrations. We can try in a smaller parameter, less risky, and not to be so, let’s say, “I have new stuff here. Let’s change everything.” And one week after, “I have a new technology. Let’s change everything again.”

So we need also to choose when to change and which battles we want to fight, to not be in the other side of the force, just proposing new things because they are new. We need to be balanced in this sense also. But when we are convinced about a new technology, what is important is to give a try and to show some examples. And nothing’s better than success cases. When we try something and the result is good, we can capitalize on this and show [it] to the others: “See this example? Do you want to try also?” And then we evolve on the confidence, and we are ready then to propose to deploy a new solution massively.

STEVE HENDERSHOT

Thanks for listening to Projectified®. If you like what you heard, you can listen to more episodes on your preferred podcast platform or visit PMI.org/podcast. And please subscribe to the show and leave a rating or review—it’s always great to hear from you. Hope you can join us next episode!