Projects are fundamentally all about innovation. Project Managers are ‘agents of change’ – facilitating what hasn’t been done before. They solve problems to get things done. Taking a project management approach to business is about changing the way things have always been done.
Every new initiative or program implementation needs to start with a strong business case with identified and measurable benefits to be reaped rather than “pie in the sky” statements about the way things ought to be.
From there, organisations should focus on outcomes and not prescribe specifications or inputs. Allow providers of project management services the flexibility to distil innovative ideas into new ways of delivering results, rather than locking in archaic approaches based purely on the justification that it has always been done that way.
To be truly innovative in project management teams will need different types of people with a different set of skills – not just how to implement PRINCE2, but – how to achieve outcomes through innovative thinking and practice.
So think outside the square and create an innovative culture in your PMO.