Future Animation Studios: November 2010

Awareness, flexibility and responsiveness are key to all of our interventions. Key in the sense of both how we operate and how we encourage the people we are working with to deepen how they engage with each other. This focus on process is aimed at challenging people to rebalance “what” they do with “how” they do what they do. We apply this approach across all of our services. The stages we work through are:

Discovery
- understanding what the client wants (making no assumptions)
- identifying what the client needs (through objective and subjective enquiry)
- reconciling the two in dialogue with the client. Ensuring we have identified the problems not just the symptoms. Since opportunities for adding value are often people related they have usually been experienced as too dangerous to bring into the light. We pride ourselves on animating these shadows.
Innovation – with the context always in our awareness we apply a series of creative approaches to re-frame the problems, risks and opportunities. With an exciting vision for what can be achieved and an appreciation of the inevitable resistance to all change we develop realistic and realisable plans. With clarity about what must be done, when and how: we work with you to fully engage with all participants.
Execution –with our deliberate focus on such areas as short term wins, the management of perceptions of success of stakeholders, a focus on re-invigorating as required, we use every opportunity we can find to model best project practice.
Value – anchoring the change in the ways agreed in the Innovation stage enables sustainable change. Subjective and objective measures of success are identified and shared.

Success is when the people we work with don't need us for delivering the next change!

Matt

TA Research

We are actively involved in a range of research projects:

What makes an excellent PM. While standing firmly by our belief that what makes an excellent PM is context dependent, there is much we can learn from:
- An analysis of our “ Best from rest” process
- Feedback from hundreds of PM’s at presentations and talks
- Gathered data from a range of academic and commercial sources.
As part of the APM policy unit we are involved in the research on the subjective nature of “Success and Failure – different sides of the same coin?”. We are presenting a paper on the impact of this at the 2008 APM Conference.
The vital importance of the subjective experience of the Customer and Stakeholder. Working in collaboration with Insight Consultancy with their in-depth analysis and substantial data base. This has resulted in presentations at events like Project Challenge and the Major Projects Association in 2008, copies of which can be found in our resources section here.
Team Animation recently sponsored the work of Stuart Murray, an Honours student, which explored the impact of soft skills on the learning and development of project managers. 16.5 hours of telephone interview formed the basis for a qualitative and quantitative survey which reached over 200 respondents. Follow this link through to see Stuart's results and some of the big issues raised.

TA Models

We make use of a number of our models in the work we do. These include:

newPM® was created to identify how PM leadership can be understood from the dimensions of the individual, team and organisation. How these elements interlink and how there are some key issues that need our focus if we are to raise PM to board attention and contribute to top PM’s making the transitions through the glass ceilings they are currently experiencing even in project led organisations. To read the related RICS article click here.
PM Transition Model™. This model is key to gaining the understanding of all involved in the need to challenge and support PMs to make significant shifts in “how” they need to change as they move through PM roles. It also support the key organisational challenge of how to plan and manage the whole development of a PM leadership pipeline so important to organisations dependent on top end PM skills for their success. To view a one page summary of the Transition Model click here. To read about how this is built into our PM Leadership Development Programme click here, or alternatively read about it in the Aug / Sept 2008 Project article which can be read here.
PM Competence Model. This provides a framework for identifying gaps and opportunities for individual development. It clearly links with the PMTransition Model™ above and can be seen as a way of providing the next layer of detail.

Tools we use

Team Animation has selected four of the best, internationally recognised, psychometric tools to utilise as part of our PM Leadership capability offerings. We would typically consult with clients to advise and agree which tool would be most suitable to achieve your objectives and link with any current HR offerings to maximise the overall value. The information from these tools is used to deliver blended learning solutions that are either delivered as stand alone workshops or as part of one of our offerings, for individual, teams and organisations for:

awareness raising
diagnosing
assessing potential
checking against frameworks and models of competence

SDI
The Strength Deployment Inventory (SDI) helps identify personal strengths in relating to others under the conditions:

When everything is going well
When individuals are in conflict

Suggesting ways people can use their personal strengths it can help people to improve their relationships with others. SDI also indicates changes in motivation and is used by us for conflict awareness, prevention and management. Donnie MacNicol has completed the SDI Level 2 certification course to supplement his prior experience of applying the tool in PM contexts.

Insights
A powerful psychometric tool with good visual presentations that encourage buy-in from all involved. It has been particularly supportive in helping individuals and teams in focusing on their interpersonal behaviour. It is ideal for raising issues like communication, trust, self awareness, conflict and change.

MBTI
This tool is particularly useful for individuals and teams who need to adapt quickly to new and/or changing environments. Supporting people to understand their personal preferences and then applying these to the team encourages and increased appreciation of the value of diversity and team performance. Ideal for supporting individuals and teams through transitions.

Torbert

Recognised as one of the best tools to focus exclusively on leadership. It offers insight into a well researched leadership models and enables people undertaking it to identify opportunities to enhance their leadership performance.

Thought pieces

OR things we just haven’t had time to progress yet!

What is the difference between general and project management? While there are many similarities there are some specific differences that we need to address if we are to maximise the benefit of undertaking a PM approach.
The role of the Sponsor and how they can aid the success of the PM.
How to help customers become “great customers” OR what customers really need to know about PM that could benefit everybody – including the PM.
Importance of Brand to projects, project managers and project sponsors