FOUR LESSONS FOR WORKING WITH NON-EXECS

I attended a rather excellent presentation by Paul Marett at the invitation of Marbral (marbraladvisory.com) and whilst I would not normally name drop in a blog the presentation was good quality, confirmed some of what I suspected and challenged a few preconceptions and therefore in my opinion was an excellent presentation worthy of the mention even if readers outside Jersey have no idea who Paul Marett or Marbral are (details below).

Four things occur to me about the presentation

STANDARDS
There are some excellent national and international standards, models, guidelines which businesses can call upon to guide their thinking, benchmark their performance and health check their operational processes.

GUIDANCE
There is clearly a need for non-execs to have a user friendly guide or health check guide to IT or ICT business-as-usual and projects because whilst every non-exec has an opinion on human resources, marketing or property they are too willing to hands-off on the technology on which their business relies and this disadvantages them in realizing the opportunities as well as scrutinising the management. Following a highly interactive session from a very knowledgeable audience I am pretty confident that IoD and Chamber of Commerce can look forward to a publication from Marbral Advisory Limited in due course.

LEADERSHIP
There has been of late many catastrophic IT or ICT project failures, and the papers are quick to publicise the problems of public sector initiatives which tend to be monolithic in approach and share the same fate as proportionally sized dinosaurs. But the problems of project failure are neither limited to IT or ICT, nor the public sector. Stephen Carver BSc MSc CEng EurIng AMBA MAPM of Cranfield School of Management recently spoke to a conference of Programme Managers and said that less than 30% of projects actually “succeed”. Having a good structure (scope, goals, roles, tasks and controls etc) is extremely important. However projects tend to stumble due to people, politics, and messy and changeable circumstances which rely upon leadership and communication rather than structure and control.

ENGAGEMENT
The reasons I liked the presentation are outlined above, and it made me think would I have been as accepting of the opinions if some did not confirm what I suspected or offer a few challenges to make me think. Radical proposals without any foundations to build upon can be really challenging and often rejected, whereas the clever balance of building and developing from accepted wisdoms tends to be a better way of coaxing the audience. I am reminded of Graham Daldry, Creative Director at Specsavers, speaking at The Meeting of the Minds Unconference when he said the first objective must be to engage the audience because until you have their attention and confidence you cannot hope to convey your message. Successful change management or getting non-execs to look as deeply into the technology as they would audit or remuneration is going to demand first getting that attention and confidence.

About the Presentation

Presenter: Paul Marett, Independent IT Director
https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulmarett

The management, quality and effectiveness of IT can make the difference between success and failure for a business. We will explore how you can be assured that the risks are being managed and that adequate controls are in operation. IT must support business as usual but also deliver step changes, advantage and growth; how this is managed and reported to the board is crucial for success. By the end of this session you will be better equipped to ensure
that your IT is fit for the business today and tomorrow.

About Marbral

Marbral Limited and Marbral Advisory Limited
http://www.seaeyetraders.com/team/
alexsis@marbraladvisory.com


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THE AUTHOR

Tim Rogers is an experienced Project and Change Leader. He is founder of www.ciChange.org and curator for www.TEDxStHelier.Com . He is Programme Manager for the commercialization of Jersey Harbours and Jersey Airport. He is also Commonwealth Triathlete and World Championships Rower with a passion for teaching and learning and is a Tutor/Mentor on the Chartered Management Institute courses.

Email: TimHJRogers@AdaptConsultingGroup.com
Mob: 07797762051 | Twitter @timhjrogers | Skype timhjrogers