Knowledge and Skills for Strategic Alignment

0:00If you're studying for the PMI's program management professional certification, then there are going to be a few things in the domain of strategic alignment that you've either spotted on the exam content outline or in the standard for program management that might be making you think to yourself, "Hmm, I think I need a bit more information here to help me prepare for the exam." And I didn't want to side track us too much on this extra information when we were looking at strategic alignment generally in the last skill, but that's what this skill is all about. Starting off with some analysis techniques that we might use in the strategic alignment performance domain, including the ones that I vaguely wafted in front of you when we were talking about the business case and the environmental assessment elements of the domain.

0:43And the particular techniques I would like us to consider in varying degrees of detail are the ones that you can see appearing here. And it is a lot, yes, but we will talk about each one and then we're going to build up this slide with a summary of each one so that you've got an overall summary to take away with you. And I'm going to start you off gently with the feasibility analysis. And I say starting off gently because we've kind of already talked about this, haven't we? Because this is sounding remarkably like the business case. So the business case is a documented economic feasibility study, of course.

1:13So we have talked about that and we also know that it's going to be including some kind of cost benefit analysis. So that's what that little, the scales graphic there. We're weighing up the costs that we're spending with the benefits that we expect to achieve. And here's a reminder of that slide we saw before for those different measures for cost benefit analysis. And in the interests of this skill being all about giving you a bit more information to help you with the exam, what I have done, and I've given you this document in this skill, is created just a little cheat sheet for you.

1:45Because I'm very aware that I didn't want to sidetrack too much on giving you all the detail and all of these different financial measures for possibly relatively few questions in the exam where you might have to calculate these. Some of you will know this already from having studied for the PMP. But if you're not feeling very comfortable with this, you might be thinking, oh , well, if I was going to put a bit of effort into learning something to help me with these financial measures, what should that be? Well, that's what this cheat sheet is all about. This is kind of what I think is the minimum that you should perhaps be studying if you did need to fill in a few gaps around these financial measures and whatnot.

2:17So you've got that document to work through if you need to. But what I would like to draw your attention to ready for the next analysis technique is opportunity cost. So do you remember we talked about that as being a consideration in our cost benefit analysis because we do have to consider what are we giving up in order to invest in this one or what are our people not doing if they're doing tasks related to this initiative. So there's an opportunity cost that's always there to be considered. So hold that thought because next on our list for analysis techniques is comparative advantage analysis.

2:51Now comparative advantage is an economy's ability to produce a particular good or service at a lower opportunity cost than its trading partners. Now you'll notice I haven't written up that definition for you and you might be thinking, oh, that has blown my mind. But don't worry, this is a term used in economics. But for us though, I just want us to think of it as a tool that might be useful to supplement a feasibility analysis. So it does lead us on quite well from the feasibility analysis. And if you're wondering why I've got a picture of a man painting a house here, well that's because I'm going to skip straight to an example to explain the principle of comparative advantage rather than trying to give you an economics lesson.

3:33So I've gone to the investor PDA website here. I highly recommend this if you want more background information and I have given you this link. It's a fantastic resource for anything to do with finances and investing and economics and whatnot. And I really did like the article on comparative advantage. So this is your resource if you do want more background information. But I am going to hop straight to the example because I thought this was really rather brilliant and I thought to myself, well, rather than trying to dream up my own example, why don't I just use the one that's explained really rather well on this website.

4:05And in fact, let me just zoom in a bit to the actual text so that I can talk you through this. So first paragraph here, as an example, we're going to consider a famous athlete such as Michael Jordan. So as a renowned basketball and baseball star, Michael Jordan is an exceptional athlete whose physical abilities surpass those of most other individuals. So therefore Michael Jordan would likely be able to say, paint his house pretty quickly, owing to his abilities as well as his impressive height.

4:36So that's why I had that little graphic of a man painting a house. So what we're saying here is that Michael Jordan could of course paint his own house pretty well. He would do a perfectly good job at painting his own house. And because he's an athlete, he's going to have the physical stamina and the height to actually do a rather good job. But if we look at the first part of paragraph two here, so yes, let's say Michael Jordan could paint his house in eight hours, but in the same eight hours, he could also potentially take part in the filming of a TV commercial, which would earn him $50,000.

5:12So yes, although he could paint the house himself, in the same time it would take him, he could actually earn loads of money. So that represents a really high opportunity cost, doesn't it, for Michael Jordan? So if you move on to the second part of this second paragraph. So by contrast, Jordan's neighbour Joe could paint Jordan's house in maybe 10 hours, so he could pay Joe to do it. And in that same time period, Joe could have worked at a fast food restaurant and earn $100. So that's what Joe would be missing out on.

5:42If he painted Jordan's house for him, you know, that's what he would miss out on. That's the opportunity he would be foregoing. If he painted Jordan's house for him, he'd miss out on that $100 wage for working at the fast food restaurant. And that is a much lower opportunity cost, isn't it, than Michael Jordan's opportunity cost. So therefore, this is where the idea of comparative advantage comes in. Joe has a comparative advantage due to his lower opportunity cost. Despite the fact that Michael Jordan could possibly do it faster and better.

6:14So the best trade would be for Michael Jordan to go ahead and film his TV commercial to earn all that money and pay Joe to paint his house. But here's the clincher. As long as Michael does indeed make the expected $50,000 and as long as Joe earns more than the $100 for the work he's missing out on, then the trade is a winner. We've got a win-win situation here. So that's comparative advantage. And so for us, as I say, don't let it blow your mind when we hear the definition talk about trading partners in an economy.

6:45No, for us, this kind of analysis is going to support the cost benefit analysis in the business case. So we understand our opportunity costs. We understand what work it makes sense to outsource, that kind of thing. And speaking personally, when I was a freelance trainer and copywriter, I'd be doing all sorts of odd jobs on a freelance basis for lots of different clients. I would always be considering, well, okay, this particular work I've been offered on, this particular date, that will pay me a certain amount. I traded off against other work I might get offered. It's a useful way to understand what work we should take on, what work we should not take on, and what work we could outsource.

7:21And looking at the time, I think we should take a pause there and wait for the next video to talk about the next couple of analysis techniques.

0:00Having looked at feasibility analysis and the idea of comparative advantage in the last video, in this video I'd like us to tackle SWAT and PESTEL. Now the SWAT analysis is going to be really useful to help us assess various internal and external factors or forces that are having an impact on our program and certainly in the context of risk analysis we're going to be using a SWAT analysis to help us identify risks and what they might mean to us and the SWAT analysis will also absolutely be on our list of tools when it comes to performing the environmental assessments that we talked about in the strategic align domain skill.

0:36But also the SWAT analysis will play an important part in putting together the business case. So let's take a look at it. So SWAT SWOT comes from these four words here, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. So we're examining factors which represent these four areas here. And strengths and weaknesses tend to be described as things internal to our organization whereas opportunities and threats tend to be things external to our organization. You'll see some examples in a second.

1:08While the left-hand side, the strengths and opportunities are seen to be things that are positive, you know, they're going to help us out when it comes to our program and then the right-hand side are the negatives. Those are the things that could be causing us a problem or could be holding us back. So let's look at a few examples. So when it comes to looking at strengths, we're asking ourselves, "Well, what gives us a competitive advantage? What have we got on our side here that's going to help us with this program or this initiative?" So it might be something like, "Yay, we've successfully delivered two other very similar initiatives."

1:39You know, that's a strength. We've got form. We've proved that we can do this. But that also could lead us to understand what weaknesses we might have. So having understood, yeah, that's a good strength. We've done this before. We might then realize, "Hmm, perhaps we're too reliant on certain key team members." So our weaknesses are all about properties to our internal environment that might cause us a problem. So yeah, we might be reliant on some key team members and if they were to leave , that is going to cause us a problem. So that's a weakness. Opportunities, however, is where we look at what situations or trends or circumstances around us, you know, outside of our organization, you know, what other things are going on that might be a reason for us to pursue this particular initiative and, you know, have a good outcome with it.

2:22So it might be something like, "We've identified an opportunity whereby, if we qualify as an educational program, we might get funding." So I was using this example. I mean, let's imagine we're putting together a language learning app and let's say our local government does have grants available for people putting together learning resources. You know, we might qualify for that extra funding. That's an opportunity that could help us out if we decided to pursue this particular initiative. Whereas threats, of course, are negative things. They are things that might be happening in the world around us that could cause us a problem.

2:54So something like, " Potential new legislation could slow down our processes." There might be changes to the way we have to do things that are going to cause us a problem, that's going to threaten our productivity, it's going to threaten our profitability, it's going to threaten the success of our, you know, of our initiative. So as you can see, the SWOT analysis is a tool to help us organize important factors into these four categories here. And these four categories are really useful indicators of success or failure of a business initiative. So it's a way for us to establish a clear and common understanding of various categories of influences that are going to impact the success of our program.

3:30And it's a really useful technique that we can use to get a brainstorming session flowing when we are trying to identify risks or trying to understand whether this is indeed a good business opportunity to pursue. But we do need the right people in the room to do that brainstorming session and it certainly needs to be well facilitated. So that's probably the program manager that's facilitating this session. So it needs to be well run. We also need to make sure that we are honest when we do our SWOT analysis, particularly when it comes to, for example, looking for our weaknesses, looking internally at ourselves. What are our weaknesses in terms of considering whether this is a good initiative to pursue?

4:04So we have to be honest. And although the SWOT analysis is really common at the very beginning of a program when we're initiating it, we should also repeat it periodically when the program is underway to assess what's changed and therefore what that means for our program in terms of strategic alignment. So that's our SWOT analysis. Next on the list we've got PESTLE analysis. And again, this provides a mechanism or perhaps framework is a better word for analyzing the environment from many different angles, six of them to be precise.

4:35And this will be a perfect technique to use for our environmental assessment element of the strategic alignment performance domain. And it is a mnemonic PESTLE to help us remember these six categories of external factors, which of course we shall go through. So the P stands for political. So this is where we're looking at things like government stability and how that might impact our program. We're looking at any political policies such as trade deals. In fact, here in the UK, when we left Brexit a few years ago now, that had a big impact on businesses in terms of how they could actually trade with the European Union.

5:10And it's going to be things like any taxation changes. Different governments might have different opinions on how it comes to taxing different industries and whatnot. And of course that taxation changes suggestion leads me on to the E and the E is for economic. So this is where we're talking about inflation and economic growth. You know, it's going to be things like interest rates and currency rates. All of these kinds of things happening around us in terms of the economy and finance might have an impact. It's certainly worthy for consideration when we're looking at a particular initiative or a program.

5:41The S stands for social. So this is where we will be looking at population trends. We might be looking at demographics of our audience, of our customer base. We're going to be understanding cultural trends. We'll be taking a look at lifestyle changes. The T is for technological. So of course, this is where we're looking at advancements and innovations that are happening around us that might impact how we go about doing our business, how or if we go ahead and do this program. It's also going to be helping us to understand what new capabilities could either help us or compete with us when it comes to putting together whatever service or product we're trying to put together.

6:17And also what trends in the field of technology that we might need to understand or to support. So for example, things being cloud based people expect to be able to access services from their phones from from any device. So therefore, that's a trend in the world of technology that we should consider supporting in whatever product or service we're putting together. The second E of our list here, well, that stands for environmental. So this is going to be things like sustainability and our carbon footprint. It's all about climate change and responsibility and respect for the world around us in terms of the environment and, you know, our waste disposable or recycling efforts.

6:52And this could apply to either our processes internally and or the product that we are producing. The L, well, that stands for legal. So this is where we're talking about things like data privacy policies or it could be health and safety policies, anything like that that's going to impact how we do work, how we carry out our business, how we capture data, how we implement our processes. It could be other consumer rights or even labor rights. And yes, that is how we spell labor here in the UK. And there are going to be other industry or local regulations that we need to abide by as well.

7:25But many of these factors here will be interrelated. So for example, political policies might drive the industry and local regulations that we have to abide by, which in turn might set standards for how we perform our waste disposal and what particular carbon footprint we should be trying to achieve or a booming economy might drive certain lifestyle changes. So they are interwoven, but very much like a SWOT analysis, the PESTLE framework does give us a good framework for brainstorming. So this is going to be invaluable for our environmental assessments and for risk identification.

7:58But again, like the SWOT analysis, these sessions need to be well facilitated with everybody understanding the purpose of the brainstorming session and we need to have the right people in the room as well. So there we go. That's SWOT and PESTLE. Stand by for the next video where we will tackle the last four of our list.

0:00Okay, we've checked the first four off our list here and I reckon the last four here we can tackle all in one video. So we shall begin this video then with assumption analysis. And this is where we explore the validity of any assumptions made. So let's consider this, starting by making sure we understand what we mean by an assumption. So an assumption is something that we consider to be true for planning purposes. But critical in that sentence there is that we consider something to be true, but it's not actually necessarily true. We don't have any proof or confirmation that it is actually true. I mean it might be true, but you know, we're not certain that it is. But why do we need assumptions?

0:38Well, the idea is we make assumptions in order to fit in the gaps when information is not yet available because at the early stages we might not have all of the information that we need to be able to have definitive figures and values and the effort spent in confirming or proving something might outweigh the benefit of actually having it, whatever it is. So we use these best effort judgments to help us move forward with our planning because we don't want to hit a hard stop just because we don't know for sure exactly how much something is going to cost or exactly how long something will take. Sometimes we just need to make an intelligent guess and use that guess as a basis for further planning. That's an assumption.

1:18So for example, when we're putting together our business case, you know, we need to have some kind of cost estimate. Well, that is just a cost estimate. And as part of putting together that cost estimate, we will have made certain assumptions such as assuming that we need for developers costing however many dollars, then we estimate the cost is going to be whatever it is. Or what about when we're putting together our draft financial framework? Again, we're making assumptions. We might say assuming that we do continue to receive funding as an educational provider, blah, blah, blah. You know, that has certain implications as to how we expect the flow of funds to actually pan out throughout the life cycle of our program.

1:58But here's the thing about assumptions. They might be wrong. You know, it's something that we are considering to be true, but without any proof or confirmation. And so the point, therefore, of assumptions analysis, well, actually, it's twofold. So firstly, because we have an assumption, what risk might they introduce if that assumption turns out to be wrong? So the assumption I gave you as an example a second ago, so assuming that we continue to receive funding, blah, blah, blah, well, that is just an assumption. So therefore, there is a risk that that assumption turns out to be wrong. And therefore, we don't continue to receive funding. So that is something that we need to consider as part of our risk identification and risk analysis. So that's the first element of assumptions analysis.

2:42What risk might they introduce if they turn out to be wrong? But secondly, as we progress through the program, are these assumptions still valid? So we might have originally assumed that, yeah, we think we need four developers costing a certain amount of money. Well, actually, now we've got more information. We now realize that we need six developers costing, obviously, a slightly larger amount of money. So how does that change things? What impact does that change have because the underlying assumption has now changed? Next on our list, though, we have historical analysis. And this is where we examine the outcomes of similar previous initiatives. So if we just take a take a look at that then and see why that might be useful. So as I just said, this is where we take a look at other similar past programs. And this is going to help us out in two ways. So outcomes of similar previous programs can help with both decision making processes and with planning. For example, at the business case level, we might be able to illustrate to management that this wonderful program that we did, you know, a few years ago turned out fantastically. And this new program we're proposing has got many similarities, blah, blah, blah. It can illustrate to management that there's some repeatable success that we could put into play here. It could indicate that we have a greater chance of success

3:58of successfully completing this other similar program. And in terms of planning, if we look at other similar past initiatives, then it can help us understand what went well and what didn't go well in those other similar programs. We can learn from those lessons learned documentation to understand what unforeseen events occurred, where were the budget overruns, just as an example, why did they happen, what can we learn from that, how can we avoid those pitfalls in this program in order to make it more successful. With trend analysis next on our list here, well, this is where we forecast future results based on actual results that we have evidence for. So at the simplest level, it may be that let's look at a little chart here, we've got some actual results . Now, these might be from quality checks or whatever, but we've got some actual results that are happening right now.

4:47And then as I said, the simplest level, we might simply draw a trend line through that to anticipate what the future results might be if they were to follow the same trend. So at the simplest level, as I said, you're simply sticking a trend line on a chart there. The actual textbooks will say this much more grandly, they'll talk about using mathematical models to continue trends. But in the context of strategic alignment, this is going to help us look ahead for potential areas of misalignment with a view to giving us the opportunity is a bit of a heads up to correct any undesirable trends in order to minimize the impact of them. So, you know, we can take action to get back on track as it were. And then finally scenario analysis. So you can see here, this is all about the evaluation of possible scenarios in order to predict their effect. And I tend to think of scenario analysis as kind of like a game of what if. So we're asking ourselves the question, what if the situation represented by scenario X happens? And that scenario X is basically any risk that we've identified as something which might happen, which might impact our program.

5:53So yes, scenario analysis is an approach that we will use in our risk management activities. And the reason for the crystal ball and the fortune teller here is that scenario analysis is considered to be a forward looking approach because we consider a range of possible future outcomes based on the current uncertain conditions. The point being, of course, having peered into our crystal ball and considered these possible future outcomes, we're better able to develop effective risk management strategies in order to deal with them. So, there we go. That's all eight analysis techniques which we could be using in the strategic alignment performance domain.

0:00If you're preparing for the program management professional certification from the PMI, then you've probably got an eye on the exam content outline to give you guidance on what you might need to know for the exam. And indeed, in this video, I'd like us to pick up on some skills and knowledge listed on that outline and see how we might apply them to the performance domain of strategic alignment. And so if we just quickly look at that outline now, I'm going to pick up on one or two things from this list, which are listed as being specific to the strategic alignment domain, one, and you might notice that we have already covered most of these, and a few things from towards the end of this document as well, so some core skills and some other areas of knowledge.

0:39But I should also say, though, if you are not preparing for certification, then don't worry, I'm not going to be harping on about the exam. We're simply going to be exploring the strategic alignment domain from a slightly different angle and seeing how we will apply a variety of skills to it, all with the goal of improving your program management mindset and bolstering your understanding of what's involved in this domain. Now, when we discussed some aspects of the role of program manager, and one of the introductory skills in this course, we did see that in order to be effective in the program manager role, you had to have some really good business and financial know-how, and this was the slide we saw back then, but having that good solid business knowledge is a really important part of the role, especially when we see the number of entries on the exam outline to do with business.

1:25So let's run through some of these that I plucked from that document I showed you a second ago. So we need a good solid understanding of the business strategy and the business objectives for our organization. Otherwise, how can we ensure strategic alignment? I mean, our goal, of course, is to understand and to manage the way that our program plan fits in with the strategic plan of the organization and to ensure that we maintain alignment with that strategic plan. And it is such a shame, I think, sometimes when a program manager just gets given a program to manage in apparent isolation, you get this sometimes in very large businesses, somebody gets hired as a program manager to simply oversee and execute a collection of projects as it were.

2:09And I think that's a real shame that they don't get an opportunity to add the strategic alignment side of things, because I think this is an area where a program manager really can add value. You'll also see I've got business environment on the list here, so of course, we need to be continually monitoring the business environment that we are operating in. And there's quite a good little business catchphrase that you will sometimes see here, which is "vuka vuca". And this is a bit of a trendy buzzword, which basically means that our environment might be volatile, that's the V, uncertain, that's the U, the C is complex and the A is ambiguity.

2:46So sometimes when we are working in these vuka environments, we need to continually monitor them to understand its impact. And of course, we talked a little bit about some tools that we might be using to help us understand that, to analyze the environment, such as SWOT and PESTLE and what not. When it comes to business models, well, we're talking things like, you know, we might be operating with a subscription model or a retail model. It's understanding what the model is that our organization is using to do business. So of course, we need a solid understanding of our business model. But also, I think a general understanding of different business models as part of our business know-how in order to be effective in our role.

3:23Having an awareness of other business models can give us a greater depth of understanding as to what exactly makes a business tick. And then finally, business ethics. Well, when it comes to talking about ethical principles and moral or ethical problems that could arise in a business environment, well, it's all about doing the right thing, isn't it? And it is tricky because we've got to focus here on strategic alignment, so therefore canceling a project might be necessary in order to maintain strategic alignment . But that might mean people losing their jobs.

3:54And so we do need to act morally and ethically in these tricky business situations. But next on my list, I've got executive level presentation. And let's think of this in the context of presenting a business case or getting the programme charter approved. And this might be your only shot to present to senior management. So you've got to get it right. They are busy people. If you mess it up, they're not likely to say, oh, don't worry, come back and have another go next week. So we need to make sure that we talk their language as it were.

4:25We need to show them how the programme contributes to the organisation's mission and vision. And if you think about this, as programme managers, we are uniquely positioned to link the business strategy to the programme's outcomes. We need to be crystal clear on why senior management needs to consider this programme. And once we have clarified the why and, you know, that they're bought in, the first question they're going to ask is, well, how much is this going to cost and how long will it take?

4:56So you need to be ready with those answers. You need to be clear and succinct. They are busy people. You've got to cut the chase and provide the top level information that they need in order to be able to make a decision. But do be ready to provide backup information if required, but equally be ready to summarise if you do get drawn into another level of detail. You've got to be really sensitive as to whether lengthy side tracks are really what they're interested in or not. And an important part of all of this will be managing expectations.

5:26And of course, the skill of managing expectations could be exercised at any time throughout the programme lifecycle in many different ways, and it will apply to all domains. But in the context of the business case and the charter, we need to manage expectations around the level of detail we're able to provide at that early stage of the programme. For example, we might get a senior executive saying, I can't authorise this programme until I know exactly how much it's going to cost. And so yes, we need to set some expectations here because those estimates are going to become more accurate as planning progresses.

6:03And there is a cost associated with the next level of planning, isn't there? You know, we need the thumbs up to go ahead and plan a bit further before those estimates will become more accurate. So it's about setting expectations that at this early stage, these are just estimates. And we need to be very clear about what assumptions that we have made. And we need to reassure them that, yeah, we will revise and review these assumptions. Remember that assumptions analysis that we talked about in the last video, I think. We need to understand that different stakeholders will have different priorities, so therefore their expectations will be different. And they'll have different requirements that have different priorities in their minds.

6:36They'll have different appetite for risk, for example. And therefore we do need to be very transparent about risk. We need to explain those high level risks. And we also need them to understand that we're going to be expanding on this initial risk assessment in order to build a robust risk management strategy. And that risk is going to be monitored and managed throughout the entire programme lifecycle. But at this stage, we've just got high level risks. But anyway, I sidetracked onto this managing expectations skill after talking about executive level presentation. But in addition to that, we do have listed presentation tools and techniques.

7:11And of course, we could have a whole separate course on presentation tools and techniques, but just a few points to note here. So firstly, be prepared. Practice really does make perfect. Even experienced presenters should run through the presentation in advance because great presentations don't happen by mistake. And it does take time to put together an effective presentation. For example, if you're putting together slides, then you need to put time aside to create those slides. And don't forget you don't have to use slides at all. There are other ways of giving a presentation.

7:41Consider what your audience needs to know. Be careful about having just one generic status update presentation that you use for everybody. Different audiences will want different levels of detail. They'll have different priorities. So consider the needs of your audience. Make sure you are familiar with the tools that you're using so it could be as simple as using PowerPoint effectively. But if you're using some sort of video conferencing tool, then you need to be confident sharing your screen and making sure that you can share your slides. If you're using equipment in a presentation room that's using a projector or a microphone, then you need to make sure that you are prepared and you're organized and you know how to use the kit.

8:16And then finally, use visual representations rather than text wherever you can. And I was messing with you here. But look at this slide. How did you feel about what you were looking at while I was talking just now? Because there was no animation nor any visual indicators as to which bullet point I was talking about at any one time was there. You couldn't help it read ahead could you? And not only were there no visual markers on this slide to keep you with me, but there's nothing on here to differentiate this slide from potentially 10 other slides of plain text bullets.

8:48Well, not until I added the little laughing face anyway. And if you've got lots of slides that look like this, then you really do have death by PowerPoint. But it does take time to put together an effective presentation. You know, choosing the graphics, creating diagrams, using animation. Believe you me, my manager sometimes asked me, why did that skill take you so long? And I can honestly say that creating my visuals was a big chunk of the time taken. That's one reason why we use the scribbles so extensively on our slides and our chalkboards. It's a really time efficient way to add some visual interest and to keep you with us as we're explaining stuff to you.

9:21And when I was talking through this slide without using anything extra, I had to really sit on my hands to not add the extra scribbles while I was talking through this boring slide. But anyway, for us, a good example of a visual representation rather than text is going to be the roadmap. So this is clearly a visual representation of how the components of the program might map out and where the milestones and the key decision points might be. So compare what you're looking at now to a text based version of a similar thing. I mean dreadful, absolutely dreadful.

9:51And to illustrate the problem of having lots of text based slides one after the other, well, this is all about the program roadmap, supposedly. There's that original slide about the presentation tools and techniques. If I just go back to the roadmap one, back to the presentation techniques, they just look the same. There's nothing that makes them stand out. So slides like this are horrible. Next on my list though is facilitation. Now presenting is a different skill to facilitation. So what we mean by facilitation is well, we're not presenting, we're not in broadcast mode, we're facilitating some kind of collaborative session such as running a meeting or a brainstorm or a problem solving workshop or a focus group, et cetera.

10:32And again, we could have a whole separate course on facilitation skills, but just to get you thinking, first of all, prepare. So make sure that you do invite the right people and consider the room layout of the place you're going to run this session, whatever it might be. So theatre style, for example, might be suitable for presentation, but not for a session where you're expecting interaction. So something I think like this would be much better, a U-shape configuration like this where people have got desks to write on, particularly if you've got activities for them to do during the session.

11:03And if you have got activities that you want them to do, maybe you want them to write stuff off on flip chart paper or write things on post-it notes, then you need to have those props ready. You need to, again, be comfortable with the tools that you're using, whether they're electronic tools, maybe for an online session, and you need to have decided on the timings and the agenda and the structure of the session in advance. We also need to make sure everybody is clear on the goal of the session. So you've gathered everybody together for some kind of interactive meeting, whatever it might be. Well, you've got to be really sure that they know why they are there.

11:35What is the problem we're solving? Or what is it that we're supposed to be brainstorming on? We need to understand why we're there. And depending on the type of session it is, you might need to set some ground rules. So if it is a problem solving workshop, then potentially tensions might be running high. We have to help people behave in a way that's going to be productive. So maybe you say, right, no phones in this session, or maybe we say, look, you never disregard somebody else's input. We respect everybody's contributions. And then when we're facilitating any type of collaborative meeting, we need to actively manage participation and interaction.

12:10So who needs encouragement to share their view and who needs to shut up? You know, it's up to us to manage that. If there is somebody that's talking too much, if they're stopping other people from talking, then we need to say to them, you know, thank you for your contribution, Wendy. I think Lula actually has got something to say now. We need to be brave enough to do that. And all of these facilitation techniques will apply when it comes to brainstorm ing, which is yet another thing from our list of possible skills. So brainstorming, of course, is an efficient way of generating a wide range of ideas from a variety of different perspectives.

12:44And I think we can safely say that the SWOT analysis and the PESTLE analysis is going to be very much examples of brainstorming we might do in the strategic alignment domain. And an example of a ground rule that you might want to set as per the fac ilitation tips would be this, forbid the NO-BUT response to an idea. Let's imagine you're running a brainstorm to try and solve a problem. And somebody says, hey, how about we do this? And then somebody else says, oh, no, but that'll never work. We need to forbid that type of response because it means that the poor person that just tried to contribute then, you know, probably isn't going to say anything else again for the rest of the session.

13:23Because this is the type of interaction that we want in a brainstorming session . Every idea, any idea is a good idea. And we need to bounce ideas off each other rather than saying, oh, no, that'll never work. And then finally, we need to potentially be inventive about how we can encourage participation, particularly in the case of HIP-O. Now, have you heard of HIP-O? So HIP-O means the highest paid person's opinion. So the danger of having senior executives in a brainstorming session means that their opinion wins.

13:53I mean, if a chief executive says, oh, I think we should do this, well, who am I to say? Well, actually, I think it might be even better if we did that. So we need to be quite careful about this and be aware of the different people in the room. We might need to get inventive about how we get people to share their ideas. Maybe we get them to write things up on flip charts. Maybe we get them to write things on bits of paper anonymously. Lots of different ideas we could use to ensure participation from everybody. My goodness, that was a bit of a mammoth video. I am well aware that we covered a lot of ground there.

14:26So I'm not going to go through all of these again on the key takeaways. But just take a moment to reflect on this list here of the things that we talked about. And just remind yourself in your own mind as to how we might apply these skills and knowledge in the strategic alignment performance domain.

0:00Okay, let's run through the answers then. Starting with task number one, perform an initial program assessment by defining the program objectives, requirements and risks to ensure program alignment with the d-d-d-d-d-d-d-organizations strategic plan. So hopefully that was quite an easy one. Number two here, establish a what kind of roadmap. Well, it is going to be high level. I mean, it's certainly not detailed. I suppose draft might have been kind of correct, but high level is the term that we do tend to use in this context. Number three here, evaluate the program's what to develop, validate and assess the program objectives, priority , feasibility, readiness and alignment with the organization's strategic plan. Now your clue here was feasibility, because you might be thinking, oh, you know, is this the charter, is this the business case, but since you see feasibility, then that means we're talking about the business case. So that was the answer that I was after. Number four here, estimate the high level what and non-financial benefits, blah, blah, blah. Well, this was the high level financial framework.

1:03That's the term we see in the textbooks. You will remember from the last skill that this maps out the expected flow of funding for our program. And we will be creating this in the in the early stages of the life cycle. It's high level at this stage, but we will build upon it. And also, one of these tasks do mention benefits. For example, this mentions non-financial benefits. Now we 're going to come back to talking in more detail about benefits because there's a whole separate performance domain on benefits. So if you wonder why I've glossed over, glossed over benefits, then don't worry, we're coming back to that. But task number five here, my goodness, you had three gaps to fill in. So the first gap, obtain organizational leadership, what approval for the program by presenting the what? Well, it's the charter that we present for approval. And that means we get authorization to initiate the program. And I bet you are looking for the word begin or start or even plan from the list of choices in the quiz question. But this task has been lifted directly from the PMI exam content outline. And yes, initiate is the word that they used. I hope this has been informative for you. And I'd like to thank you for viewing.