Issue

In 2020 a large Pacific Northwest public sector agency was in its second year of a multi-year Program Management (PgM) transformation. While training in the new PgM methodology was already in progress, this agency called on Onit to assist its Projects and Programs Delivery (PPD) organization to more effectively adopt the new approach.

Strategy

Onit developed an approach including Organizational Change Management (OCM) initiatives aligned with Prosci’s ADKAR methodology, and hands-on coaching and mentoring techniques designed to develop peer SMEs among PPD staff. With different PPD programs undergoing PgM training at different times, Onit formed the groups into cohorts, to build a sense of community and camaraderie despite the teams working remotely. In recognition of the PgM Initiative’s foray into new spaces, the cohorts opted to name themselves after NASA missions, with the Mercury cohort piloting the new PgM methodology and materials, and the Mercury cohort validating the completed training curriculum.

Crafting a Solution

Onit created communications channels including a Microsoft Teams site and a monthly newsletter to anchor the project.

With a desire to center the expertise and experience of the Program Managers and Project Control Engineers, Onit also created a PgM Blog and a monthly “Community Meeting”, leveraging both to showcase PPD subject matter experts (SMEs) and facilitate peer learning opportunities.

Onit worked with PPD SMEs to align PgM Blog and Community Meeting content with each cohort’s training schedule, highlighting practical PPD applications of theories covered in PgM training, as well as facilitating discussions of best practices and opportunities for future implementation.

Over the course of the engagement Onit created a library of easy-to-use reference materials, including themed articles and videos posted to the Teams site, “one-pagers” highlighting PPD use of PgM approaches, and best practice PowerPoint decks.

Onit then packaged these materials into a comprehensive “playbook”, writing narrative text to connect the sections and provide guidance on using the PgM tools and templates. timesand locations, broadening the pool of presenters and allowing for more creative presentations.

Results

At the conclusion of Onit’s engagement in July 2022, the client team had the confidence and expertise to take its continuing PgM journey in-house, continuing to build on the foundation laid by the Onit team and the PgM cohorts.

PPD plans to continue many of the innovations introduced by the Onit team, including Community Meetings and peer-to-peer support.