Engage System™

"Well, the first rule is that you can’t really know anything if you just remember isolated facts and try to bang ‘em back. If the facts don’t hang together on a latticework of theory, you don’t have them in a usable form. You’ve got to have mental models in your head. And you’ve got to array your experience, both vicarious and direct, on this latticework of models."

Charlie Munger

Optimally solving a problem requires a deep understanding of the System in which one operates. This is achieved by engaging in the System.

The first mastery of business capability teams is Engage System™.

"A System is any group of interacting, interrelated, or interdependent parts that form a complex and unified whole that has a specific purpose."

Daniel Kim

Critical aspects of engagement include:

  • ●
    Continuous engagement between business, capability, IT, and relevant external organizations and teams before, during, and after projects is necessary to realize the optimal benefits of project and capability investments.
  • ●
    Successful capability and project teams navigate and influence the System they operate within.
  • ●
    Influence the System by acting on feedback, managing risks, issues, and decisions (RID), responding ASAP to warning signs, communicating clearly and often, verifying and validating, and constantly realizing reality.

Engage the System Constantly

  • □
    Influence the System
  • □
    Engage in Relationships
  • □
    Engage in Process
  • □
    Engage in Requirements
  • □
    Say No!

How's My IT?

  • □
    Address the Inner Orbits of Your System
  • □
    Divorce My IT
  • □
    Engage My IT
  • □
    Engage My Business
  • □
    Love My IT

Act on Feedback

  • □
    Dialogue for Direction and Feedback
  • □
    Dialogue with Purpose
  • □
    Dialogue for Lessons Learned

Manage Transitions

  • □
    Manage Transitions Effectively
  • □
    Transition to Design

Manage Risks, Issues, & Decisions

  • □
    RID Your Project of Unpleasant Surprises
  • □
    Manage Your PMO

Act ASAP to Warning Signs

  • □
    Develop & Execute Roadmap to Recovery

Communicate Clearly & Often

  • □
    Conduct Five Critical Conversations
  • □
    Manage Expectations
  • □
    Enforce Plain Talk
  • □
    Trust, but Validate

Realize Reality

  • □
    Avoid Culture of Fear
  • □
    Understand Project Health
  • □
    Measure Performance
  • □
    Communicate Status
  • □
    Assess Project Health