Professionalism demands that project delivery processes are comprehensive and robust.

That creates the right foundation for delivery jazz — situational agility and innovation.

The delivery principal must hold the tension in a fundamental balancing act between:

• systematic and thoroughgoing processes on the one hand, and
• situational agility with space for improvisation and innovation on the other

This gives us another C to add the three we've covered in part 1:

• Calmness
• Confidence
• Consistency, and
• Creativity

Over-boiling process that throttles creativity can be tragic for experts and specialists in delivery teams, creating a flight risk that puts projects and businesses in peril.

But beware of the trouble with delivery principals who see themselves as solo jazz artists or thunder gods — the tamers of chaos.

You know the type — those always adapting on the fly, whose processes and practices aren't well structured but flexed to suit business and client’s needs or expectations

They thrive in chaos, so they keep creating chaos in order to thrive. But that's problematic for growth — they will bristle, and may even choke off the growth business itself.

As the business matures, it stretches forward towards greater professionalism. We talk about the three Cs that are the aim of professionalism:

• Calmness
• Confidence
• Consistency

We talk about the essence of professionalism:

• Capturing 'our ways of working'
• Making sure there's always value delivered — for customers, and for the standing of the business
• Ensuring efficiency — removing unnecessary overheads
• Giving clarity
• And making the best client experience possible

And we talk about how hyper-growth can jeopardise a lot of that!

Professionalism demands that project delivery processes are comprehensive and robust. In the second half of the episode we talk about the 'why' of processes — why they're there:

• they're the way you do things, adding to the distinctive character of the business
• they're reliable, replicable practices — and that can lead to automations
• they're clear, and can be explained easily to customers

But processes should also be separate from the person themself, like a product for the business.

Lastly we talk about the hazard of processes that over-boil!

Communication is a key skill in all jobs, right?

Well, clear and coherent communication is of a different order for a Chief Delivery Officer — unusual excellence in communication is a fundamental requirement of the job and an essential skill that should be particularly well developed.

The CDO is responsible for effective communication between all parties on projects: clear communication is vital to achieve outcomes. The CDO determines what and how a business communicates with customers and stakeholders. And so the CDO should show distinctive leadership in this key area.

In this episode we discuss the astonishing breadth of modes and contexts for communication for a CDO, verbal and non-verbal, in meetings and events and ad hoc, in big groups and small groups as much as one-to-one, both in person and asynchronous, and all manner of other ways.

We talk also about how a deep and practical understanding of multiple intelligences and personality types can be a giant power-up for transformative and effective communication.

In the second half of the episode, we look more practically at communicating with customers and with colleagues, and how a CDO should be conscious of how the mode and manner of communication needs to adapt according to context and needs.

Find out more at deliverthatpodcast.com