PMO Conference 2018 \\ Keynote – You Are Captain of Your Own Ship – Geoff Crane

Geoff Crane of Adaptimist Insights presents a rousing narrative about the importance of emotional and social stewardship within the PMO. Conventional wisdom for any P3M initiative favours metrics and measurements as vehicles for delivery. Tensions may still run high, however, and a “just-the-facts” approach to management can push risky emotional decisions into the shadows. Left unchecked, twitchy stakeholders and disgruntled project managers can easily call the PMO’s mandate into question. According to Crane: “Many PMO leaders get frustrated because they find themselves constantly defending their organisation’s purpose.” He continues, “It’s easy to forget that while PMOs perform their work using the language of science and analysis, their very existence is predicated on objectives with emotions at their core. Embracing and dissecting these emotions gives the PMO Manager tools to influence individual goals and objectives such that they align with those of the organisation.” Attendees will come away with a deeper appreciation of the human elements of a PMO, as well as some tools with which to steer them. If you have ever struggled to convince stakeholders why they need your organisation, or fought to pull different business units together to work towards a common goal, you won’t want to miss this keynote.

Presentation Slides

Keynote – You Are Captain of Your Own Ship