Re-Establishing Trust with Great Project Management

Over the past decade, it has become increasingly common to hear business problems attributed to "a lack of trust." Trust between brand and consumer; between financial institutions and investors or depositors; between labor and management. It's been interesting to me to see a moral value become such a frequently-cited issue in the marketplace. I see it as a hopeful indicator of positive changes in business ethics.

Nowhere is this more true than in project management, where for too long, there was little communication (let alone trusting communication!) between the project level and the executive level.  In an interview we published in the PM Best Practices Report in January 2000, the Critical Chain guru Eliyahu Goldratt observed that lack of trust between project managers and executives was a major factor in our poor record of estimating projects.

All this is by way of background. What I'm leading up to is a hearty "Congratulations!" to The Doe Run Company, our 1st runner-up in the PMO of the Year Award. They took an environment of mistrust and failure and, through scrupulous discipline and forthrightness, restored executive confidence in project management, implemented a methodology and portfolio management, and upped the percentage of projects that achieve stated objectives to 95% ... all in less than three years. You can read all about their achievements in the ebook about the awards, downloadable on our website or viewable on SlideShare.

Tomorrow:  The 2nd runner-up, Auckland, New Zealand's City Council Programme Office.