What do you do if your program management strategies are not effectively scaling and sustaining innovation?

The proposed strategic framework for innovation should focus on: • Adaptive Management: Adjusting programs based on feedback. • Stakeholder Collaboration: Involving diverse groups for better alignment. • Learning and Adapting: Using feedback to refine programs. • Risk-Tolerant Culture: Encouraging innovation and learning from setbacks. Implementation tips: • Use agile or stage-gate processes for flexibility. • Engage stakeholders and establish communication. • Incorporate feedback and data into the program. • Foster a culture that values open communication and experimentation. This approach helps sustain innovation and drive value in program management.

Success require a transparent realism and a genuine belief in the chance to succeed. For a program to flourish, you need many to drive and strive, to commit and persevere. It is essential to visualize the possibilities and goals so they are seen and believed by enough stakeholders inside and outside the program. With many drivers and stakeholders, there will be many opinions. The efforts need to be focused around aligned and mutually believed win-wins. This conviction, and the drivers wanting to achieve the results, is the basis needed long before methods, processes, tools can help, needed for changes and opportunities to be handled well enough.

Organizations spend a lot of money on Employee Engagement Surveys, but leaders are blinded by their own priorities. But, the real problem is. leaders' goals and priorities are not in lined with the organization. They are more worried about their own image and priorities, which are saving money with the hope of getting promoted. Another focus leaders have is, Key Performance Indicator (KPI). Sure, KPIs are good indicators of performance in order to set targets towards desired level of performance. But, I think leaders just need to be engaged and understand your personnel first. Knowing your personnel will give you more understanding on gaps, strengths, and areas of improvement. They are the key to the program's maturity and success.

I'll assess the program's strengths, weaknesses, and areas for improvement on every periodically. By staying rooted in vision while navigating challenges flexibly, you can achieve sustainable growth and alignment with stakeholder needs.

When program management strategies are not effectively scaling and sustaining innovation, it's crucial to take proactive steps to diagnose the issues and implement solutions. Here’s a systematic approach to revitalize your program management strategies: 1. Assess Your Program's Maturity - Maturity Models: Use maturity models to assess the current state of your program management capabilities. This helps in identifying areas that require improvement, such as governance, processes, or resource management. - Benchmarking: Compare your program’s performance against industry standards or similar organizations to understand where you stand in terms of innovation and efficiency.

When a program fails, my experience helped me develop an effective method that works for many cases (there is no silver bullet!): 1. Face the truth. Something went wrong, and it's our fault: either the innovation was wrong, or the scaling was miscalculated. 2. Talk to the sponsors of the project: a) list what was constructive and productive in your project b) honestly list what went wrong c) have ideas of how to fix it 3. Once you talk to the project sponsors, explain that from this point, you will have remote or face-to-face updates with them as much as possible. It can be 15 minutes a day to touch base or longer meetings. Be AGILE! You will stay on course through constant feedback and micro-corrective actions.

When your program management strategies are struggling to keep the innovation flame alive as you scale, it’s time to inject some agility and leanness into your approach. Pivot towards principles that favor rapid delivery of value in bite-sized pieces, allowing you to adapt swiftly to feedback and changing landscapes. Embrace the art of experimentation, empower your teams to lead from the front, and cut down on anything that doesn't add value. Shift your gaze from mere outputs to impactful outcomes. 🚀💡 This isn't just about speeding up; it's about smartening up—ensuring your innovation doesn't just grow in size but thrives in value.

Bringing an agile mindset to Innovation will help to manage ambiguity and complexity better. Few things to implement towards sustaining and scaling innovation : - Do away with over heads. Any process/documentation/ceremony that is not adding value in bringing the work deliverable faster and with better quality should be removed - Focus on the skill set rather than job titles when establishing the team. Relook at the team composition & make corrections as required to make it a self-organising team.Members will work with the final work deliverable as the single goal and pitch in whenever required rather than be restricted to their job title - Deliver the prototype / product in increments , take feedback from customer and reiterate as need be

Make sure that you adapt the critical thinking strategic framework OKR’s to translate your strategy. This is the overarching umbrella ☂️ for your programs and is in line with the agile way of working.

For effective implementation, a robust governance model is essential. This model should include defined working sessions for all organizational levels and reporting sessions at both local and global (or corporate) levels. Additionally, a reaction and escalation plan is necessary to structure information flow within the organization, ensuring both positive and negative feedback is efficiently communicated up and down the hierarchy. This structured approach ensures that innovation is not only embraced but also effectively managed and scaled within the organization.

A few enablers in building a learning culture for sustainable innovation -Fostering an inclusive environment that promotes creativity, experimentation, and risk-taking. - Providing time & opportunities for collaboration & team work - creating time & space for disruption free meetings - developing a culture of accepting mistakes as part of growth- this one is game changer.

Encountering challenges during project management is not uncommon, it usually present opportunities for growth and improvements. At times like this, the pause and reflect process comes in handy, offering a chance to step back, assess the situation, and consider alternative strategies or approaches. This deliberate pause allows project managers to analyze what went wrong, identify lessons learned, and make necessary adjustments to ensure smoother progress moving forward. By embracing this reflective practice, the team can cultivate a culture of continuous improvement, enhancing their ability to navigate obstacles and achieve success

Maybe I am biased, but learning culture is very much aligned with product mindset, in which problems are solved and learning is a must. Adopting a product mindset in managing innovation programs involves framing the program's goals around creating tangible value for users and stakeholders, mirroring the focus on solving real-world problems seen in effective product development. By fostering a culture that encourages experimentation, embraces failure as a learning opportunity, and prioritizes user needs, organizations can better align their innovation efforts with the dynamic demands of the market and their audience.

I would prioritize investing in learning and development opportunities for team members at all levels. This includes providing training on new tools and techniques, facilitating knowledge sharing sessions, and supporting formal education programs. By equipping team members with the necessary skills and knowledge, we can empower them to drive innovation effectively.

In response to filing NDA or ANDA, FDA will send a query. In the query, invariably, there will be a question or two that will be difficult to answer. For example, FDA will ask us to identify certain impurity or impurities or to justify the limits. Sometimes it is easy and sometimes it is difficult. Working with a team and having a learning culture we developed systematic internal approach to identify the impurities and how to develop justification for the limits.

Your program and project efforts may or may not require “innovation” in the strategic goals and objectives, scope, budget and schedule priorities which have been set, approved and then implemented. It is facile to assume that innovation is inherent or required in every endeavor. But where “innovation” has been identified as a prescriptive or performance goal, the mission of the team is to continuously check back and track the program and project imperatives. Since program and project work is iterative, the team subject matter experts can report in the recurring status assessments how they are meeting their innovation goals in small and large ways, and shift to improve the outcomes where those are identified.

4. Leverage Technology and Tools - Digital Tools: Invest in digital tools and platforms that support innovation and collaboration, such as project management software, collaboration platforms, and innovation management tools. - Data Analytics: Utilize data analytics to gain insights into program performance, customer needs, and market trends. This can inform decision-making and help in identifying new opportunities for innovation.

As a program manager, leveraging technology and tools is crucial for streamlining processes, enhancing collaboration, and improving efficiency. We can utilize project management software like Jira, Trello, or Microsoft Project to plan, track, and manage projects, tasks, and resources effectively also leverage communication tools such as Microsoft Teams, Slack, or Zoom to facilitate seamless communication, virtual meetings, and information sharing among team members.

Technology is not just a facilitator; it’s a game-changer. The right tools can transform how you manage your program, making processes more efficient, improving communication and collaboration, and providing valuable insights through data analysis. For example, GenAI is rapidly being adopted to improve program value delivery and to increase the predictability of project outcomes. This has been the topic of several articles I have recently written about the use of AI in project management. Some of these articles are featured on my LinkedIn profile.

Collaboration Platform: Use a whiteboarding tool to solicit feedback, voting on ideas, illustrate user journeys. Design: Use Figma or Adobe XD for User Experience (UX). Learning: LMS platforms can provide incremental training and know-how that will evolve a team, help them advance. Project: SaaS platforms such as Jira, Trello, Smartsheet, Asana enable project teams to gain access to all project information. Reporting dashboards can aggregate the data for stakeholder monitoring and transparency.

As a Project Manager, there are a few things you can do to sustain innovation in your team. Firstly, you can foster a culture of innovation by encouraging experimentation and knowledge sharing. This will help your team members feel more comfortable trying out new ideas and sharing their knowledge. Additionally, it's important to continuously evaluate and iterate on your program management strategies to ensure long-term success. By doing so, you'll be able to identify areas where you can improve and make any necessary changes to keep your team on track and moving forward.

Stakeholder engagement is not just about keeping everyone informed; it’s about making them a part of the journey. It’s about understanding their needs and expectations, involving them in decision-making, and ensuring their support and advocacy for the program. Data shows that keeping stakeholders involved throughout delivery results in more timely delivery of solutions that are better aligned with budgets and are more likely to resolve the business problem.

I think this is so critical to the success of any program- engaging the stakeholders. One caveat is to bring them all to the same level of understanding of the shared strategic objectives and goals, make them speak the same language. Effective engagement starts from the foundation across all the program cycles.

One thing I’ve consistently found to be key to successful change management effort is not only engaging your stakeholders, but you must meet them where they are. That can look different each go around- but you want it to be easy to adopt the change with less barriers. Questions I think of and solve for are: What’s the best mode of communication? When is the best time for them? Are there competing priorities? If so, how do you become priority? Or is there someone else that you should engage that can also be a champion for change?

If your program management strategies are struggling to scale innovation, it's time to zero in on stakeholder engagement. 🌐 Map out who they are—from team members to suppliers—and dive deep into understanding their expectations and influence. Articulate your program's vision and goals, welcoming their input with open arms. Bring them into the decision-making fold, addressing their concerns head-on. This isn’t just about keeping them in the loop; it’s about forging partnerships that drive innovation forward. Satisfied and supportive stakeholders are the cornerstone of a program that doesn't just grow but thrives.

I think we should qucickly take a pause, re-think the dots and it's connect. Need to boost and take internal stake holders into confidence. Side by side need to accept feedbacks with open arms. Need to keep very close eyes on competition, social mind set and nothing wrong in restrateging by adding value in product or services. Think about it!!

In my experience, to deliver innovation and change @scale @speed, leading companies adopt a responsive operating model that enables the initiative roadmap execution flexibly (by pivoting when necessary) along with facilitating their frontlines to take charge. To succeed, they (1) break initiatives down into component parts with cross-functional frontline teams executing program playbooks (fine-tuned during experimentation) (2) put in place governance structures to accelerate decision-making as well as set clear metrics and risk management guardrails within which the frontlines are free to innovate (3) ensure that senior leaders are visible program advocates while making sure that change actually takes place at the frontline

If innovation is dragging or lapsing into “pseudo-innovation” it may be time to isolate your change team. In the book “The Innovator’s Dilemma” the author shares useful examples. We had a project requirement to move a data center with effectively no added budget. We isolated a team unfettered by the “way we’ve always done it” and they pulled it off in a matter of months.

I would suggest having a research component added to any innovative learning. This will help identify the reason for success or any learnings that may require attention to scale up and sustain.

Encourage cross-functional collaboration and diversity of thought. Bring together individuals with different backgrounds, skills, and perspectives to tackle complex challenges and generate innovative solutions. By fostering an environment where diverse ideas are valued and respected, you can unleash the creative potential of your team and drive sustainable innovation. Additionally, provide opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration and knowledge sharing to leverage the collective expertise of the organization. Embracing diversity and inclusivity can lead to richer insights, more robust decision-making, and ultimately, greater success in scaling and sustaining innovation efforts.