PROJECT MANAGEMENT CONSULTING STREET CRED, AND THE TALE OF TWO PROSTITUTES

Transcription

1 PROJECT MANAGEMENT CONSULTING STREET CRED, AND THE TALE OF TWO PROSTITUTES Interviewee: Leonie Kelly Interviewer: Jamie Dunn Interview Date: 13 Sept 2012 INTRODUCTION OF INTERVIEWEE: Our guest today to talk on Street Cred is Leonie Kelly. She has over 26 years experience in the industry. She is one of the most experienced and respected Program Managers having assisted develop and run major capital works portfolios since the early 1990s long before the new language of PMO and 3PO and P3M3. Not only that, she is an experienced practitioner in the delivery of turn key developments such as residential, commercial high-rise, aged care and retirement to name a few. She has often been brought in to recover distressed projects and turn these around. She has experience in the general construction, transport, infrastructure, resource, power, education, health and defence sectors. She is described by many as a problem solver, an out-of-the-box thinker, highly driven and very passionate about her trade. She is a co-owner and Director of an independent wholly Australian owned Strategic and Project Management consultancy firm, Tracey Brunstrom & Hammond (TBH). TBH was established in She has taken the Queensland operation from being a niche planning and scheduling and claims assistance service provider to a multi-disciplined Portfolio, Program and Project Management service provider. She is now in WA assisting to develop PM capability in their west coast operations. She does this in the after-hours, during the day, she is onthe-clock working in a Program Management support function for the $10B Iron Ore project for Roy Hill, which has mine, plant, rail, port and infrastructure developments in the Pilbara. TRACEY BRUNSTROM & HAMMOND PTY LTD Level 1, 50 James Street, Fortitude Valley QLD 4006, Australia Tel: (617) Fax: (617) ABN

2 WELCOME: Sounds like you are a very busy lady Leonie? Yes Jamie we have offices around Australia with over 180 full time professional experts providing Project Management services. operation. Our business has been built predominantly on repeat clients over its 47 years of INTRODUCTION OF TOPIC FOR TODAY: Our topic today is Street Cred. So for TBH to be successful over that long period of time you would have to say TBH has Street Cred? Jamie I believe so. Leonie, for Project Managers, what do you think Street Cred is? Jamie in my mind, Street Cred marks the difference between those with proven trustworthiness and expertise from others who spruik it you know, those who are only able to talk-the-talk-but-still learning-to-walk. Proven trustworthiness and expertise, that s the real key to Street Cred I think. I am intrigued Leonie what is this tale of the two prostitutes? Jamie I recently holidayed in Queenstown New Zealand and learnt of the tale of an 1860 s Irish prostitute who provided services to the gold miners of Shot Over River. Liquor provision and Prostitution were very competitive services back then as it was pretty remote and undeveloped in those areas. According to the tale, this Irish prostitute was a fiery loud red head who was larger than life, her name was Meg but she was nicknamed Roaring Meg. Well Meg had a sister, in the same profession, who was also very well known. I think her name was Alice. She was reportedly the quieter type, but equally as good at her profession as her sister Roaring Meg. The reputation of those two women had spread so far and wide that the news reached the extent of the West and East Coasts, long before mobile phones, LinkedIn, Twitter, and the TV medium. Both sisters were in high demand for their services. Page 2

3 Leonie, do you realise you are saying these two sisters had Street Cred? Yes Jamie that is exactly the theory I am supporting. Upon hearing the tale, one could conclude, that in their profession, in the 1860 s, they had Street Cred.that in the provision of their services, they were proven to be trustworthy (let s say reliability in this case) and had expertise. The news of their expertise had travelled, they were in high demand, even today Roaring Meg is famous. Hey Jamie, do you think the technical universities will change their student reading literature now? Leonie, you are making the point they had proven trustworthiness and expertise...but what about PM today?... Sounds like a catchy name would help too? Jamie remember the first pod-cast interview with Dion Kahn. He spoke about Winning Tenders, and talked about how clients often include in their selection criteria proven capability and expertise or depth of experience as a required attribute. Well for the provision of Project Management services, that is right. Having and maintaining those attributes is street cred. I have sat in on many high level procurement strategy meetings, both private and public sector, where the line between price over proven capability and expertise is debated. Going hand-in-hand with these you would have to add approach or methodology. In that first pod-cast Gary Brown spoke about gaining an understanding of your client s project delivery objectives and needs. A winning tender and indeed Street Cred is about that proven ability to satisfy these. Jamie you need proven capability and expertise in order to gain Street Cred. It is a reputation thing. Page 3

4 Jamie indulge me for a few minutes, let s go back to the tale of the two prostitutes. Roaring Meg was loud, larger than life, let s say gregarious her sister Allison was the quiet type, let s say the quiet achiever. Both clearly had different styles. Let s for argument sake call these styles, dress styles. Both had Street Cred, both had differing dress styles. The theory I propose, is that you need to wear the right dress for the right date. Jamie, where I am heading is that in order to sell your Street Cred aka proven capability and depth of experience you may deploy two marketing styles and be successful with each. Gregarious and the quiet achiever. My observation of TBH s success over its 47 years is that we may deploy a gregarious style or the hot dress for the first date when we are targeting a specific project in a highly competitive market, or plan to gain deeper penetration into an existing market, enter a new market or launch a new service. In order to communicate our Street Cred to those we have not had strong dealings with, we leverage off our previous successes. We do it loud and proud in those times. When you don t have that relevant experience with that type of project say you are experienced in commercial high-rise, but are targeting desalination plant, it is about convincing your client that your skill set to manage process and achieve outcomes in other markets is equally applicable to theirs. This approach to Street Cred allowed me to move between successfully applying Project Management planning and delivery techniques to the Premiers Department working with the Policy Advisors on legislative requirements and policy implementation. In the same way I apply Project Management planning and delivery techniques to $10B major resource projects that supports the Australian economy and global resource issues. However on the flip side, when we are in leaner times, such as the GFC or bottom swing of the construction boom cycle, we may deploy a quiet achiever approach or the dress that the mother of your first date would approve of. Clients in these leaner times are looking for value for money together with Street Cred. The quieter more conservative approach can prove more successful in these times. When clients are in leaner times, the way you might pitch to deliver projects is through an integrated approach working as an integral part of their team or perhaps offering to have one of their staff shadow you. They are looking for value and they will highly prize your offering an alternate innovative strategy to achieve the same result of better. You know what I mean? They will appreciate a bigger bang for the same buck. Our various markets have their boom and bust cycles, your track record will be light or strong, so I believe you need to adopt a style of touting your Street Cred. Jamie you need to wear the right dress for the right date. Page 4

5 Ok Leonie, so we are starting to build a hit list to successfully achieving Street Cred and how to use it. What else? Remember in my opening I stated I believed that Street Cred marks the difference between those with proven trustworthiness and expertise from others who are only able to talk-the-talk-but-still learning-to-walk. How do you achieve this Street Cred? Trustworthiness. What is Trustworthiness? Its gaining ones confidence through dependability and reliability. How do you do that? You do that with the right systems and the right staff. You need to build reliability in project delivery through simple yet robust Project Management frameworks and governance. Give staff the right tools. Support reliability through systems. You need dependable staff as they interact with the client, the broader multidisciplinary team and key stakeholders.. You need clear thinking staff who are solutions focused. You need a HR framework that is capacity building that attracts, trains and retains high calibre staff. Support dependability though high calibre staff. Look Street Cred is created through your dealings and performance; it spreads by word of mouth. Every client will talk to other potential clients; every team member will talk to other new potential clients and other project team members. Project team members will talk to others in their profession. Everyone loves to be a part of seeking a successful. Street Cred and your interactions on projects can be like pyramid selling without the contracts. People joining the celebration of success and spreading the news aka Street Cred. STREET CRED WRAP UP: Leonie is it true history about Roaring Meg? Or is it the case of never letting the truth get in the way of a good story? I would have to say yes Jamie, I love a good yarn! In fact I will just finish this by saying that in the preparation for this interview, I tried to validate the Roaring Meg story only to find that there was little research published on it, none-the-less the tale is being passionately told by many travel guides and tourist operators. In fact there is a hydro power station at Shot Over, a wine range by Mt Difficulty wines and a Queenstown Restaurant keep this Roaring Meg s tale alive. I hope our listeners will visit Queenstown and think ahhhh Roaring Meg and the tale of Street cred. Page 5

6 Leonie we need to warp up, what are your top 5 tips for gaining and retaining good Street Cred. 1. Build your track record to be able to confidently demonstrate proven capability and expertise in order to gain Street Cred. 2. Build reliability through simple yet robust Project Delivery framework and governance. Give staff the right tools. 3. Support reliability through attracting, training and retaining quality Project Delivery staff. Ethics and competence are king and queen. 4. Wear the right dress for the right date adopt a marketing style that suits what you are targeting and the market conditions. 5. Reputation is everything. Protect it. Listeners, Street Cred and how to build it is not a black art it takes planning, precision, dedication and determination. Your success will be underpinned by the simple discipline of understanding your client and their requirements, even if they don t offering solutions to enable them achieve success. So, work to a plan for your market target, go check out your wardrobe, get out there... CLOSE. Page 6