Agitator-Aggregator Role

The benefits realization community has a wide variety of experience and I would appreciate your thoughts on promoting a current role as an ‘Aggregator-Agitator’.

The role is to pull multiple sources of needed information together (aggregator) yet drive and challenge people to achieve more (agitator). When the role of Benefits Manager includes the behaviors of an Aggregator-Agitator then the following challenges are addressed.

The Challenges

Typical programs and portfolios cry out for benefits realization to help them achieve more with less and sooner. However, common data and people challenges can reduce its  success and make it much less fun:

Data challenges:

1.     Overloaded and overwhelmed: Models created are kept simple to reduce information overload and to avoid overwhelm. They lose rigor and value as a source of knowledge in complex and fast changing situations.

2.     Too much from everywhere: With too much information from many different sources to take on and connect together using most modelling styles and tools. Very simple and incomplete models used in decision making and governance miss out on opportunity value.

3.     Richness lost: Simplifying and separating information can mean the richness of connections and relationships can be lost. Their potential to provide transparency and insight is held back.

People challenges:

1.     Blindness, bias and assumptions: People can show unintended blindness, bias and hold invalid assumptions that are left unchallenged. What is achieved is only a fraction of what could be.

2.     Being safe and certain: People can fear certain levels of risk and uncertainty. Healthy levels of conflict and debates are often avoided in many organisations and needed questions not asked/ honesty is withheld.

3.     Let’s rest awhile: Without a push it’s hard to keep groups innovative and producing ideas beyond the early honeymoon period. They don’t perform to a high standard and the potential satisfaction of members in seeing brilliant results is lost. Inertia and stagnation close in.

These are some of the reasons why benefit realization is more than a process. Don’t get me wrong, you can achieve a great deal with a good benefits realization process and standard roles. To drive superior performance in complex situations then I believe that more is required. Part of this ‘more’ is the Agitator-Aggregator role.

The Agitator-Aggregator role

There are two sides to this role, firstly the Agitator.

This requires a persistent drive to:

1.     Challenge and Plug holes: Get others to fill in gaps in knowledge, understanding, reduce confusion with clarity and add detail to vague areas. Question and challenge.

2.     Shout about it: Share information, make it interesting and attention grabbing where possible to build awareness across everyone involved.

3.     Chew through assumptions: Surface, clarify and ‘burst’ assumptions where-ever and whenever you can. These help reduce risk.

4.     Don’t stop moving: Create a sense of urgency, engage people and don’t let things settle. Momentum and agility are priceless and support success.

5.     Personal selling: 'Sell' the value of involvement to each individual and role – appeal to their rational, emotional and political needs.

6.     Resource fighting: Make the case and secure the needed time, energy and attention on benefits realization.

7.     Point and amplify: Draw attention to where it is needed most, agree priorities and ensure action is taken.

The other side of the role is that of Aggregator. This has a different personality to the Agitator but they fully support each other.

This requires persistent focus to:

1.     Be a match-maker: Connect people and information by pulling them together and keep meaning intact, when possible. Highlight new connections.

2.     Break and share codes: Understand and make sense of information and situations and help others understand them too.

3.     Level noise: Balance the level of detail to that needed by the situation. Some data will be detailed and others high-level, so use judgement in bringing together.

4.     De-clutter: Remove duplication, summarize and use visual modelling to simplify difficult concepts and ideas.

5.     Clean cause-and-effect: Pull together different aspects of the program/ portfolio and align them to expected benefits. If they can’t be aligned then don’t force them – they may not be of value!

6.     Agreement through iteration: There will be multiple iterations and improvements over time – incremental crafting is one way to describe the development of a model. Each iteration builds understanding, quality and agreement.

7.     Attention grabbing framework: Build a shared framework/ model that is applicable to as many stakeholders and experts as possible – by ensuring many groups understand and value it then it has greater chance of keeping attention and changing behavior.

I hope this helps set the expectation of how exciting and interesting benefits realization can be for all those involved. Finding an individual to fill both sides of this role can be hard so why not split the role between two people?

With all the information and engagement needed then I’m afraid that Visio, PowerPoint and Excel can leave you wanting as support tools. Help to make benefits realization practical in complex environments was one of the drivers behind the creation of Realisor (www.realisor.com) - we didn't want to just support the simple benefits realization processes but give people powerful tools to drive significant additional value.  

(Many thanks to Suzanne Felber of Felber Consulting for the help in clarify ideas)

(c) Trevor Howes   2013.

Realisor Philosophy and Principles > BRM

It all started with an feeling that so more more could be achieved on programmes. A philosophy was developed that led to the creation of BRM Fusion Limited and Realisor.

This philosophy is summarised below and helps set the scheme of why Realisor is more than software to help implement a benefits realisation process. It is much, much more than that.

Here is a summary, followed by greater detail.


SUMMARY

Realisor is based on a simple philosophy of the importance of communication, explanation and end-to-end understanding and control.

• Communication – working together to get the job done
• Explanation – why are you spending - what do you seek to get out of it?
• End-to-End – from concept to completion of investment returns

The philosophy is underpinned by six guiding principles. These are essential characteristics of Realisor as a product and approach.

1. We are all benefits led: you invest or change only for the benefit it gives

2. Not all benefits are created equal and not everyone agrees on importance

3. Benefits and costs need to be considered ‘through-life’

4. Benefits from investment only flow when Capabilities are changed or sustained

5. Quantitative and qualitative information must be transparent to decision makers

6. Only the right things with the right resources need to be done

ADDED DETAIL

Realisor is based on a simple philosophy of the importance of communication, explanation and end-to-end understanding and control.

Communication – working together to get the job done
BRM Fusion strongly believes that you get greater results when enterprises share, discuss and pursue joint outcomes (rather than a customer versus contractor relationship) . Good software and method design helps enterprises work together to get the job done.

Explanation – why are you spending - what do you seek to get out of it?

Our approach is centered on being clear of what results are needed. Being able to explain to others what is required gives a common focus and challenge for people to respond to. Ideas and designs have increased value and there is a greater chance of getting what is sought.

End-to-End – from concept to completion investments

We understand that the best investments are those that are right through-life, from conception to completion. Having a seamless view over time helps you make good investment decisions and enables the expected returns to be made a reality.

The philosophy is underpinned by six guiding principles. These are essential characteristics of Realisor® as a product and approach.

1.We are all benefits led: you invest or change only for the benefit it gives

–Rationale: there is always something driving action, to gain a benefit or reduce a dis-benefit.

–Implications: benefits and dis-benefits need to be identified and agreed.

2.Not all benefits are created equal and not everyone agrees on importance

–Rationale: there is subjectivity and ambiguity around relative weightings and priorities and these change over time.

–Implications: need to make implicit thoughts and feelings explicit so they can be understood and ‘good enough’ views agreed. A process of re-tuning and realignment is needed. The amount of precision and agreement will differ depending on each situation and context.

3.Benefits and costs need to be considered ‘through-life’

–Rationale: there is a flow of benefits and costs that give the net impact on benefits and dis-benefits. This flow is in three parts those initially experienced, those that then happen over time and those that happen at the end.

–Implications: need to consider benefits and costs over all three parts of an investments/ changes life.

4.Benefits from investment only flow when Capabilities are changed or sustained

–Rationale: An enterprise or person has to be capable of doing certain things if benefits are to be gained/ dis-benefits reduced. It must also do what it is capable of. To increase benefits delivered then the enterprise/ person needs to either change what it is capable of or perform differently.

–Implications: Capabilities needed to get expected benefits must be identified and agreed. This includes the level of benefit they deliver now (baseline), that expected after investment/ change and what the needed investment/ changes are.

5.Quantitative and qualitative information must be transparent to decision makers

–Rationale: to make informed decisions measures of  benefit must be made explicit and values estimated. These explicit values are key to creating and comparing the attractiveness of options.

–Implications: measures and the units of measure must be defined, even using an ‘order of’ quantitative range of value. Current and target performance can then be estimated and the impact of new/ changed capabilities understood.

6.Only the right things with the right resources need to be done

–Rationale: resources and changes must add enough value to be included in plans.

–Implications: Justify inclusion by aligning resources and changes/ investments to the Capabilities they impact. Likewise, align all the capabilities to benefits/ dis-benefits that they impact. Remove and reduce any that do not add any, or too little, relative value.

Six Outcomes - Benefits Management and Realisor

I was given a challenge: to show the essence benefits management in 6 outcomes or less.

Oh, and I needed to make it applicable to not just projects, programmes, portfolios but also bids, sales and relationships.

The result is below: what benefits management and Realisor could mean for you.

Some may say I've cheated with extra comments and a short story beneath but in my defence I would say they just provide additional context!

Note: The circles are outcomes and the lines show contributions.

This creates a simple story:

• Get clarity and agreement of what success looks like - start with the end in mind.
• This, aided by software, helps you plan, focus and make decisions on what's most important.
• Waste and confusion is also reduced as a result of clarity and agreement.
• An ability to better plan, focus and decide give greater control of results.
• With this greater control, lower waste and confusion then Customers can be more satisfied. 
• More customers and a greater control of results leads to business performance improvement. 

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If you find this diagram helpful, feel free to re-use, alter and reproduce it as you feel fit.
The diagram was created and can be edited (for free) in a visual programme mapping tool called Realisor.

Links:

• Get Realisor Free Edition to edit the map
• Download the map shown above and open with Realisor - let me know if you'd like a copy by email: trevor@brmfusion.com