BBC 2017 Speaker Series – Consultants: Dr. Penny Pullan

In anticipation of her presentation at Building Business Capability in Orlando, Nov. 6-10, 2017, we asked Dr. Penny Pullan, Director at Making Projects Work Ltd., a few questions about pursuing business excellence. Check out her interview in relation to her BBC presentation entitled, Virtual Leadership: Practical Strategies for Getting the Best out of your Virtual Projects and Virtual Teams.

Q: In what ways do you help your client organizations handle business transformation?

A: I help organizations who are grappling with tricky change: involving lots of risk; ambiguous and changing requirements; disengaged stakeholders and, of course given my BBC topic, virtual teams! Often it’s about supporting this tricky change by helping people in organizations remember that we’re all humans and improving tools and techniques. By tapping into our shared humanity, we smooth the path of change, making things more effective, plus much more fun. That’s always a bonus!

Q: Can you describe the challenges you face or have already overcome in establishing more robust business transformation capabilities for your clients?

A: When I started my consultancy over ten years ago, the focus tended to be on the processes to follow. People sometimes thought that the sort of work I did was a bit fluffy. I find that people are much more open to working on the human side of change now. I think it’s becoming more and more evident that these techniques work and are powerful enablers of change.

Q: What are your top suggestions for companies looking to become more agile?

A: Remember that agile isn’t about applying a particular methodology along with all of its terminology! It’s about having an agile mindset, throughout the organization. It can’t just be top down or IT pulling the business…

Q: What’s the most valuable thing you’ve learned in the past year?

A: it’s really only just sunk in deeply that, really, everything I do is about leadership. You’d think I would have realized a bit earlier, having written: ‘Business Analysis and Leadership’ and then ‘Virtual Leadership’. It’s all about getting the best from people. Doh!

Q: What do you see as the most important goal or trend for business analysts and other professionals to keep in mind? 

A: In the midst of all your brilliant BA tools and techniques, remember we’re all human and use that to your advantage to become outstanding at business transformation.

Q: If you could go back 5 years in time and give some professional insight or advice to yourself, what would it be?

A: ‘Don’t think that you need to conform to fit in with everyone else. Aim to be the best version of yourself, Penny.’ (At that time I’d only written one book – now I have four, so I guess I took this advice.)

Q: What’s one question you wished you were asked in this interview but were not? And how would you answer?

A: ‘What’s your next book going to be Penny?’ Nice of you to ask! I’m currently writing a book with the title ‘Making Workshops Work’. Workshops are such a key tool for us business analysts, both when people are in a room together and when they’re remote. Please do get in touch if you have examples or stories that you’d like to share. I will acknowledge anyone who helps me to make this a really useful book for BAs, through our community’s stories and experiences.

Q: Sneak preview: Please tell us a take-away that you will provide during your talk at the Building Business Capability (BBC) conference this year?

A: I will be proving all sorts of ways to bring your Virtual Leadership to life, ranging from how to draw live graphics in virtual meetings to tapping into neuroscience to keep virtual teams engaged, and lots, lots more! Plus I’ll be providing blindfolds… (That’s left you guessing I bet? Come to my session and see why!)

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Don’t miss Penny’s presentation, Virtual Leadership: Practical Strategies for Getting the Best out of your Virtual Projects and Virtual Teams, at Building Business Capability on Tuesday, November 7, 2017 from 9:00 to 12:00 pm. Click here to register for attendance.