Program Management

CHAPTER 2Creating Focus

PROGRAM MANAGERS SUCCESS

These leaders are life‐long learners, and they have the foresight to use their programs and projects as the learning backdrop to continue their excellence journey. The know that experimentation does not hurt and that they could learn a great deal about customers, users, and other stakeholders that would enable stronger engaging and ultimately achieves the joint focus needed.

Creating focus is a critical muscle for the program managers, the program teams, and for the extended organization. This is what enables organizations to operate strategically and create a well‐connected entity of success partners. In this chapter, creating focus is tackled in multiple ways, yet most center around the engaging and aligning of the right stakeholders on the direction to take and then the needed steps to get there.

Key Learnings

1. Understand the role of the sponsor as the program coach and captain
2. Learn how to develop the important partnership with the program sponsor and the related political acumen skills
3. Explore the principles of effective communication and learn from a complex program example how to connect across tiers of stakeholders
4. Understand the importance of using value in program prioritization
5. Develop a strong awareness for the importance of crating time to intentionally think as a program manager

2.1 THE PROGRAM SPONSOR

Programs and projects benefit from having the role of a sponsor. Not just in the literal sense of ...