E-News 
from Human Systems

Human Systems is currently adding value across many sectors of the commercial world. To get a flavour of the industries our members come from please click here. The following companies have recently joined us and will now be targeting improved practices by working closely with their local Networks.

Bombardier Transportation – www.bombardier.com
Barclaycard – www.barclaycard.co.uk
Suncorp Metway - www.suncorpmetway.com.au

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Human Systems’ expertise spans many skills and disciplines and we use many different routes to fast track organizations towards their capability goals. Benchmarking sets the critical baseline and then a variety of knowledge management and assessment techniques can be employed to ensure that a client’s next benchmark shows evidence of their targeted progression.

Examples of projects include:

• Creating a series of master classes for a key government department, involving invited external speakers and targeting improved knowledge and skill levels.
• Helping to create an internal knowledge sharing network for project leaders in a large organization.
• Planning and facilitating workshops for sponsors and SROs (Senior Responsible Owners), targeting a deeper understanding of the scope & responsibility of the role and the behaviours needed to support project success. Human Systems’ experience with sponsor coaching workshops covers both public and private sectors.
• Extending the scope of the Corporate Practice Assessment so that it can be applied outside the client organization, incorporating the views of key customers and suppliers on the PM capability of our client

To find out more about these and other services to help fast track your organization’s capability improvement programme, contact your local Human Systems office.

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Visit us in Atlanta
6/9 October ‘07

And don’t miss Human Systems’ experts speaking in the
following Congress sessions:

Is There Anything New Under the Sun? How is Project Management Changing?

Presented by Dr Terry Cooke-Davies and Tony Teague

A senior project manager at a reputable European project management association was recently heard to remark, "There is nothing new under the sun where project management is concerned." But is that true? There is certainly massively growing interest in the topic; new standards appear each year, and more and more people are obtaining increasingly varied qualifications. But what is truly new? Are the core messages changing, or simply the packaging?

Find out more

OPM3® - The Path to Organizational Achievement of Strategic Business Improvement

Presented by Dr Terry Cooke-Davies with Claudia Baca, Larry Bull and Søren Porskrog

In today’s global competitive environment, organizations are seeking methods that improve their ability to deliver on their strategy. This paper will demonstrate how the use of OPM3® will help an organization improve its performance. It will outline a progression of practical steps to demonstrate how the foundation of organizational project management maturity in the structure and execution of project management helps an organization translate its strategy into successful outcomes, consistently and predictably.

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Human Systems is pleased to be fully involved in the 1st APM Project Management Conference, entitled ‘The Business of Projects’, on 30-31 October 2007 at The Brewery, London. This event promises to be very different to others, in that following each presentation, delegates will have the opportunity to debate and vote on key questions relating to the session's topic.

The conference panel is chaired by Dr Terry Cooke-Davies, APM Monty Finniston Award Winner and Executive Chairman of Human Systems International. Tony Teague, Managing Director of Human Systems Europe is speaking on the afternoon of Day 1. Don’t miss the opportunity to debate the issues raised by his presentation ‘Which organizational project management capabilities matter most in the drive for competitive advantage?’

Tom Edwards, from Human Systems' Network member Watson Wyatt is also presenting Five fallacies of portfolio management.

Further details and conference booking
       

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Helen Wilderspin

Helen has 28 years’ experience in the financial services sector, having undertaken a variety of roles from branch management to project and programme office management.

Over the past 8 years, Helen has specialized in the management of strategic change projects and the set up and management of programme offices. This has included the delivery of a wide range of project management tools and techniques. She is a skilled facilitator and a strong communicator and is proficient at running workshops for senior management.

In a key role, Helen was responsible for all aspects of resource management for a pool of 250 project management staff; from recruitment, through performance management, mentoring and coaching to the design and delivery of assessment centres for career progression. She has also designed and delivered an internal marketing process to ‘sell’ the benefits of a new central pool of project managers to directors across Abbey National Group, raising sponsor and stakeholder awareness and generating greater support.

During the previous 8 years, Helen was a lead project manager delivering a wide range of projects across her organization, including major systems implementations, cost reduction exercises and change projects. Her responsibilities included the management of project teams and all aspects of planning, monitoring and control, risk, finance, stakeholder management, communications and implementation.

Before joining Human Systems from Abbey in 2006, Helen facilitated workshops to help define strategic projects for the HR Director, and introduced project management techniques to senior managers in the HR division.

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6TH ANNUAL GLOBAL WORKSHOP

Optimizing Capacity and Managing Complexity

19 & 20 November 2007, Crowne Plaza Hotel, Dubai 

Human Systems' 6th Annual Global Workshop for senior executives from member organizations will take place in Dubai on Monday 19th and Tuesday 20th November. This Global Workshop will be based on current research, led by Human Systems, into the relationship between project complexity, productivity and the delivery of results.

Organizations are continually challenged to increase value through improving productivity. An ability to manage complexity to optimize capacity is key to meeting this challenge.

This high profile event will include the following speakers:

Charlie Pellerin - best known for nearly a decade’s successful leadership of NASA’s Astrophysics Division.

Norman Haste OBE - former Chief Executive of Heathrow airport's new Terminal 5 and Crossrail, the planned rail link between east and west London. He is  now CEO for Laing O’Rourke’s Middle East business based in Dubai.

Dr Falah Mustafa - currently managing the $US30 billion Al Reem Island development in Abu Dhabi, one of the largest projects currently underway in the United Arab Emirates.

Volker Stroenisch - Vice President Project Management of  Bombardier Transportation at their headquarters in Berlin.

Topics covered will include:

• What is the nature of complexity in projects that makes so-called 'complex projects' more difficult to manage than other projects?
• What are the specific skills required of the managers of projects with a high degree of complexity?
• How can an organization be sure that it will have sufficient people with the right level of skill to deliver the projects and programmes necessary to implement its chosen strategy?
• How can an organization develop these people?  How can it take people who are competent to manage 'painting by numbers' projects, and develop the necessary skills and abilities to manage and lead projects with a high degree of complexity?
• From personal experience, what was it that changed in their lives for people who could demonstrate a track record of the successful leadership and management of projects with a high degree of complexity?

This workshop is offered as a part of Human Systems' Network membership. Travel and accommodation will be the responsibility of individual delegates.

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What did you miss?

Even if you haven’t been able to attend a workshop, you can catch up on the presentations and output that resulted from the event through the Human Systems intranet. Output from the following recent events is now on the intranet and can be accessed by members - click here.

If you have any problems accessing workshop output, please email phillipsr@humansystems.net

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The following workshops are coming up soon. If you haven’t reserved your place, please email info@humansystems.net for booking details.

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Human Systems experts speak regularly at professional conferences and meetings:

PMI Central Sweden Chapter

Tony Teague, Managing Director - Human Systems Europe, presented and facilitated a workshop on ‘Benchmarking - does it make any difference?’ (pdf file - 1MB)

PMI UK Chapter

Glasgow, Half Day
September 10th
Radisson Hotel - more details

Dr Terry Cooke-Davies, Executive Chairman, Human Systems International, presents
‘New Ways of Thinking about Projects - beyond the Lifecycle Model towards Complexity Models’ - Read more