Managing Successful Programmes

Having surfaced after summer holidays, a trade show visit and various bits of work, I’ve realised that the new October dates for the MSP course are only three weeks away - so time to get back into the pre-work!

With only a couple of loose pages of notes so far, it already looked like I was well on the way to a paper meltdown, so I’ve taken the time to dissect the pre-course exercise book and stick the pages into alternate pages of a wire-bound notebook - thus leaving plenty of white space for my answers and notes about related material.

This might sound very basic, but for me the physical act of putting together a study log has already started to make it feel as if I have the material “at my fingertips” (the power of metaphor!)

I had a good example the other day of the potential of the Stakeholder Power/Impact Matrix .

I was discussing with a colleague the framing of another potential programme, and quite informally drew a rough matrix in front of him. I explained the meaning of the two axes and then with him discussed our first impressions of who should appear on the chart, and where they should be placed.

We found the exercise illuminating, not least because the small discipline of deciding where each person or group should go triggered us to articulate some deep-seated and potentially difficult issues around certain individuals.

I’ve placed a mindmap of the main book chapters on the relevant wiki page. As I build up my notes I will add hyperlinks to this mindmap.