Better Information Leads to Better Results

Execution issues are plaguing project organizations. At the project level, communication of information such as status, obstacles, priorities, and risk is a constant and never-ending challenge.  Higher in the organization, Program and Portfolio Owners are often faced with situations where they have either too little or too much information. The quality and timing of the information provided can be subjective, and is usually dependent on the person delivering it. Business outcomes that drive C-level strategic metrics (results like lowering costs, shorter project durations, and higher on-time delivery) are fundamentally a function of an organization’s ability to execute well. So, if better execution is a goal, and effective communication is the top challenge in execution, it follows that improving communication should lead to better execution.

Most Communication is Ineffective

Looking around project organizations today, you see that people are glued to their mobile phone, tablet, or laptop.  They are in meetings.  They are giving presentations.  They are generating reports or sending out e-mails.  They are entering information into various business systems.  With most of our clients, we find that project team members spend more time communicating with other members of the organization than they do actually conducting project work. With all this communicating happening, and its importance evidenced by the amount of time invested in performing it, why is it that project managers and executives continue to list communication as the top challenge? If you look at the basic process of communication, regardless of the media used, someone codes information and then transmits it. The recipient of the transmission then decodes, processes, and extracts the information that is relevant to his or her function. What you find within this process is that there are losses due to omissions (intentional or unintentional).  There is ‘spin’ put into the information from the transmitter.  There are language challenges. There is noise that distracts the recipient.  There are decoding errors. There are gaps in the receiver’s understanding.  There are countless things that get in the way of effective communication.  Probably worst of all, valuable time is lost coding, decoding, and searching for information.

Visual Project Portfolio Management Speeds Communication

Pinnacle Strategies has developed a solution to the communication issues your organization is facing. It’s called VISUM.

Visum is the Latin word for vision or a visual or mental image.  It is a well-known truth that human beings are able to faster process and better remember information that is presented in a visual format.  VISUM, the first web-based software product designed specifically for Visual Project Portfolio Management, leverages this truth to speed and simplify the communication processes up, down, and across project organizations.  It does so by providing visibility of project execution against an organization’s processes in an objective, intuitive, and easily digestible format. With shared visibility, comes shared understanding.  Project team members are able to more effectively communicate, because they share the same objective viewpoint.  Project stakeholders are afforded real-time access to key project and portfolio information and people spend less time coding (or reporting) information like status, obstacles, priorities, and risk.  The information is presented visually and objectively which removes spin or bias, and also reduces language misunderstandings from those that need the information to perform their functions.  At its essence, VISUM enables faster and more effective communication, which in turn, leads to better execution.

See Visual Project Portfolio Management in Action

Visit the ViewPoint VISUM Website at http://viewpointvisum.com or click here. For a demonstration, contact us at info@pinnacle-strategies.com.