PPM 101: Portfolio Communication

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The original blog post for this video is: acuityppm.com/ppm-101-the-off...
Portfolio communication is the real heartbeat of project portfolio management. Strong communication keeps the organization aligned on what is most important. This thought is exemplified by Patrick Lencioni’s classic quote, “If you could get all the people in an organization rowing in the same direction, you could dominate any industry, in any market, against any competition, at any time.” That’s powerful. Since project portfolio management is all about strategic execution and maximizing business value delivery, strong portfolio communication is an essential ingredient of organizational success.
Sadly, in practice, very little attention is given to portfolio communication. According to Patrick Lencioni, communication is a basic practice that most organizations overlook. Moreover, one of the critical success factors of effective communication is to over-communicate. Employees need to hear a consistent message shared again and again by their leadership team in order to really receive and believe the message.
At a fundamental level, communication is “simply the act of transferring information from one place, person or group to another” (Skillsyouneed), it is “the imparting or exchanging of information or news” (Google dictionary). Leaders need to be careful, because a one-time transmission of information can be the illusion that communication has actually occurred. As Lencioni highlights in his book, The Advantage, leaders need to be “Chief Reminding Officers” who need to over-communicate a message in order for it to be received. In other words, don’t rely on a single all-hands meeting or posting a presentation on your intranet. Ongoing portfolio communication requires real time and effort in order to keep everyone rowing in the same direction. This will also prevent any miscommunication as well as sustain the portfolio management process.
For the remainder of this post, we will dive into the five critical areas of portfolio communication and share what you should be communicating to your organization and why it is important. We will conclude with developing a solid communication plan.
Communicate portfolio value: refers to the communication of portfolio value, what work is in the portfolio, project value, and overall value delivery by the portfolio management process.
Communicate portfolio risk: refers to the communication of portfolio risks, portfolio risk tolerance, project dependencies, and organizational impacts.
Communicate portfolio performance: involves the communication of both project and portfolio performance, the current roadmap, and project completions.
Communicate portfolio decisions: involves communicating governance decisions across the organization
Communicate portfolio process: includes the communication of how the portfolio process operates, how to initiate projects, governance and prioritization processes, etc.

[@elenacatalina9813]

Very useful, thanks a lot!

[@AcuityPPM]

Thank you Elena!

[@AnnaWeltmanPsychForSport]

very helpful and well presented, thank you!

[@AcuityPPM]

Thank you, Anna.

[@aminata2422]

Great content! Thanks so much

[@AcuityPPM]

Thank you, Ami! We're glad you found value in the content. We have a lot more great content on our blog as well: acuityppm.com/blog/