Jan-10 Connected Project Mgmt Culture

Jim Cardwell's January Educational Webinar –
“How to Build a Connected Project Management Culture”
Guest speaker, Ken Senus, SVP of IT at Navigant Credit Union.

Over the last several months, some interesting innovations have evolved at the $1.2 billion Navigant Credit Union. Ken Senus, the SVP of IT, shared some of Navigant’s innovations as a result of its growth issues – and how they have worked to resolve them.

According to Senus, while using Cardwell’s Connections Online strategy execution tool, the Rhode Island-based credit union solved many of its issues by creating a “connected” project management culture to keep appropriate staff in the loop and projects on track. Growing significantly in the last 15 years from having one branch to nine while blossoming to more than 46,000 members, Navigant’s staff needed to be “connected” to continue growing smart – ensuring projects were completed, and members were served.

Senus explained that the credit union used Connections Online to connect its project management culture by implementing these items:

1.       Intranet Resource

2.       Dialog Calendar

3.       Time Tracking Database

4.       Internal Project Management Training

5.       Core Value Submissions

6.       Budget Process

7.       Other Uses for Connections Online

Leveraging its Intranet resource, staff could see and track projects via a project management overview with pertinent links and a risk management reminder. Senus added that after reviewing “hit” statistics for its Intranet as of last week, the credit union had over 100 hits to the project management page in January 2010.

Its dialog calendar has allowed staff to set and review prescheduled organizational and project dialogs.

The time-tracking database, which employs Microsoft’s Access link, is used to track projects. Staff can use a calendar on the credit union’s Intranet to better organize their dialogs for remaining on schedule.

“We had a lot of discussion whether it would be tough for someone who is on a few projects to potentially have multiple dialogs in the same day,” Senus said. “It was decided that this actually works better versus having dialogs throughout the week.  This way the teams know when they need to focus on project management and plan accordingly.”

Internal project management training provides tips for a new project manager on how to facilitate interactive and effective dialogs. This item shows managers what they need to do to operate effectively as a project manager, such as being aware of a project’s scope, time, money, and resources. A project dialog can check in on each of these to maintain its integrity.

Core value submissions provide a way for the entire organization to submit stories of encouragement within the credit union. For example, Senus explained that if an employee notices another employee exhibiting the credit union’s set core values, this encouraging story can be discussed at the next dialog meeting to reward positive actions.

The budget process allocates a pool of funds for business line projects forcing project management methodology.

Other uses for Connections Online includes new product implementation – a vehicle to communicate if a new product is applicable or not. And why? This process feeds and prioritizes the task list to sign off on projects.

“We are just approaching our one year anniversary with the Connections Online process,” Senus said. “While it’s hard to quantify the overall benefit and cost savings, I can say we took a more focused approach to the projects we entered in 2009.  As a result, we haven’t invested in applications and processes that have not been in-line with our overall strategic objectives – thus concentrating on member-facing initiatives.  By completing the business cases and fully ‘specking out’ the projects before moving forward, we have been more disciplined.” 

Click the link to view the recorded session using Windows media player:   http://www.connectionsonline.net/docs/2010-01-28ed-web.wmv   When the recording starts, there will be a 60 second delay before you hear talking.  This recording is an audio recording.  The PowerPoint slides are available upon request.  Please email lschmidt@cardwellgroup.com for a copy of the PowerPoint.