Just some of the highlights from Mint Blue Consulting’s 2021 year, this time as a video through our YourTube channel.
We all automatically plan as part of our daily lives without realising, but the level of planning required varies depending on the task in hand.
If you’re travelling, for example, shorter journeys usually need little planning other than allowing sufficient time to travel from A to B. Longer or unknown journeys involve much more thought, particularly where you have different transport options. While your plan may not be written down, there will be a list of tasks to complete including communication with suppliers such as airlines and train lines plus other people, hence why travel agents are still used by many people.
Thankfully there are good online maps and decent transport links (for the most part) these days which make planning a lot easier. However, planning the optimum route to a concert in Hammersmith recently took some thought as there were so many options. Eventually it was decided to drive to Ealing Broadway and take the District Line avoiding missing any last trains home if the concert overran. It was a route I’d wanted to try for a while and seemed the simplest solution for everyone involved.
Despite all the planning unfortunately the journey wasn’t without incident. A combination of bad traffic, negotiating yet another online parking app in the car park and unexpected tube train delays all added up. Thankfully, our contingency planning paid off and we were still in good time for the main event and a very good evening.
Our experience did however show that journeys are rarely a straight line and the unexpected always happens. To help manage the unexpected, projects are often broken down into stages. This allows checks at the start and end of each stage to finesse the next stage and reflect on what has happened to date. You can have as many stages as required depending on your success markers.
For example, taking our concert:
Looking back the issues were with the public transport which was out of our control but the other stages all went to plan. As a result (lessons learned), we’ll probably simpler to drive straight to the venue next time with sufficient contingency for travel delays.
Similarly, in business, Project Plans are tailored to the length and complexity of the required project journey. Project Plans are a great way to show the tasks, the inter-dependencies between the tasks and key milestones. Plans can also be shown in different ways, from full Gannt charts to high level flow diagrams depending on your audience.
Clients always have their end goal in mind when I first speak to them about their project but the actual journey needs planning. It’s always an interesting process working through the scope and requirements to sketch out the plan and bring together a cohesive and tailored plan that everyone involved can track. It can take time but the more you plan the more successful the final outcome. As Benjamin Franklin famously said, “If You Fail to Plan, You Are Planning to Fail” and as Antoine de Saint-Exupéry also said ”A goal without a plan is just a wish.” .
Helen runs operational projects for firms to support growing and / or changing businesses, tailored to requirements. For more information please contact [email protected].
A business associate and friend, Debbie Atkins, recently sent me ‘Who Moved My Cheese?’ by Dr Spencer Johnson, which many will remember being the ‘go to’ business book around 20 years ago. For those who have not read it, this short story is about four characters and their handling of change as they search a maze for new supplies of cheese. It’s a simple parable, but the story is just as relevant if not more so in the current climate and well worth a read.
The book’s arrival coincided with my first visit to the Proms for two years. It was very exciting to be back in the Albert Hall, but once seated I realised the environment was subtly different to pre-2020. The platform had been extended so all string players could sit individually resulting in a reduced Arena space, the coin collection at the end of the evening had been replaced by online donations and the traditional shout out for the collection didn’t happen. The changes were understandable given the circumstances, but I wonder how many online donations were missed through the lack of communication about the changes at the start of the evening.
Change can sneak up without warning so planning and anticipating are important. Not everything can be anticipated it’s true, but proactively planning (as the Cheese story demonstrates) helps manage and control change. The impending change may be obvious to those involved but to the wider business and clients it can be an unwelcome surprise. Whether it’s integrating companies, replacing technology or improving processes, communicating to stakeholders and those affected from the start pays dividends later on with acceptance and adoption, particularly with those who are reluctant to change. There is nothing more challenging than implementing new technology and processes to find there is little take-up, even with insistence by Management.
Communications plans are a great asset for any project to help with the wider change journey and should be included at outset. For instance, training is usually towards the end of a project but is critical to the project success and relies on people being engaged in the process. Early and ongoing project communication minimises the surprise when people are asked to attend the training and they are more ready to engage. Running projects over the past 20 years I’ve found ongoing communication often prompts additional people asking to be involved in the training and which is an even better outcome.
This approach also works well in office moves. I’ve worked closely with dedicated consultants on previous moves who liaise with the affected teams to identify and manage their biggest concerns such as travel changes and the look and feel of the new office. It’s a great result when you see someone who has been dreading a major work change enthusing about it to colleagues and see how quickly people adapt once the move has happened. Likewise, on a more recent project to streamline processes to benefit the customer, early and ongoing communication strengthened the adoption of the final solution and helped managed any concerns early on in the process.
Communication plans are even featured in the latest FCA Operational Resilience rules which come into force from March 2022. This is an output of the project which requires enhanced SM&CR firms to create a communication plan should an identified key business process fail. Once created the plan will need to be reviewed and updated regularly in preparation for any emergency.
Significant change can be a challenge for any business and project frameworks are a great way to help you to structure, plan and control both the change and communication for everyone affected. This in turn helps your employees and clients adapt more quickly increasing the implementation success.
Helen structures and runs tailored operational projects for firms to support growing and changing businesses, freeing up people to do what they do best. For more information please contact [email protected].
With many thanks to Roland at Time4Advice for the opportunity to talk about Digital Transformation and Mint Blue Consulting. Great to look back over the decades and also to the future for Financial Services, plus talk about Operational Projects and how they can help firms.
https://www.time4advice.co.uk/media/video-library/video/helen-clark-talks-digital-transformation
Reproduced by kind permission of Octo Members, a Financial Services networking organisation for UK financial services professionals:
Octo – Member Spotlight: Helen Clark
Our interview series with Octo Members looks at their careers and ideas.
A short read.
How would you sum up your role, and what for you is the biggest source of job satisfaction?
As a project manager and consultant I help businesses deliver key operational change so they can streamline and grow.
Many businesses don’t have the luxury of an in-house project manager so my business, Mint Blue Consulting, helps fills the gap when needed.
Projects are tailored to client requirements, from consultancy reviews to managing operational/change projects 1-3 days per week, so it’s very varied and interesting.
I’m also an Associate of Model Office providing project management services to support the business.
I love working with different teams of people, facilitating and co-ordinating a wide range of operational and change projects.
For me, it’s that moment when people realise that the project is providing them with a clear path to deliver their end goal and also seeing all the prep work come to fruition.
Outside the current crisis, what are the biggest challenges currently impacting your job?
Fortunately I’ve been used to a mix of office and home working for some years so the transition to working completely online has been pretty much seamless thanks to video calls and interactive project tools. Ten years ago this would have been a very different experience as the systems I’m using today did not exist then.
Working from home is fine to a point, but I’m looking forward to face-to-face sessions again, hopefully later this year, as virtual whiteboard sessions are just not really the same.
What are your key priorities for the year ahead?
This year’s priority is to continue to evolve my business further to support the industry.
Project management is a great way to manage change and encouraging people to consider this even at its simplest form encourages enhanced outcomes.
Life is continuing at a pace this year so tracking the direction of travel and building on the experiences of the last 12 months is the key.
What’s your take on the current regulatory landscape?
Legislation has compounded over the years and is now a significant overhead for all regulated businesses.
In addition, mis-selling has become a sub-industry and the penalties affect everyone, not just those involved. SM&CR has also moved potential liabilities from company level to key individuals which is impacting many firms.
Regulation and training are important and needed, but there’s a danger the increased requirements are not making the industry attractive particularly to the younger generation at a time when more advisers are needed.
It will be interesting to see the impact of the recent operational changes at the FCA and also Brexit over the next couple of years.
Who would you credit as having the biggest influence on your career so far?
I’ve been fortunate to work with a lot of great people over the years and learn from so many so it’s hard to narrow down.
Operational project management wasn’t really a recognised career when I started out in financial services. Initially I worked as an office manager and adviser and honed my project management skills mostly outside of work. In 2000, Charles Levett-Scrivener created a project manager role for me following my involvement on a major project.
Charles gave me a completely free rein to work on a wide range of operational projects and also industry initiatives, such as online bonds submission and contract enquiry messaging. It was an unusual route in an IFA firm at the time and enabled me to carve out a new career utilising my adviser and operational experience, for which I’m very grateful.
Family and friends have also long inspired me to set up my own business which has been running over three years now and they are always there as a sounding board.
Of the people you currently spend time with (personally and/or professionally), who brings out your best qualities? And what are those qualities?
Professionally, it’s the project teams I manage as it’s a two-way street and always something to learn working with so many different people.
Personally, I’m very fortunate to have close family and friends, many of whom are, or have been, in the industry, who are really supportive.
From those who know me well, I’m considered to be highly organised, a natural facilitator and networker, very supportive, pragmatic and an optimist with a creative streak.
What would be the single biggest piece of advice you would give to young people wanting to work in financial services?
Speak to people in the industry to help identify what could suit you best and also consider placements during your education, particularly if you’re considering being an adviser.
Having worked with placement students in the past, understanding the basic roles, training and qualifications needed early on is a great advantage to accelerating careers.
The industry has so many different roles to offer and also so many opportunities to move and change during your career.
What’s the one topic you think the financial services community should be discussing more?
We’re all so busy on a day-to-day basis it’s easy to keep treading the same path and continually add more layers to what is already there.
Taking the time to look at how we can collaboratively work together across the industry to do things differently in the future and encourage innovation is important and Octo Members is playing a useful role helping this debate.
The past year has accelerated topics that have been on the table for years, such as digital signatures and now is the time to build on that momentum.
Helen Clark is Director at Mint Blue Consulting
Interview by Sam Shaw (Financial Services Journalist) April 2021
There was discussion at a recent online networking session about how much the work dress code has changed in the past 5 years. Many companies have already moved to a more informal dress code and this is under review again following the levels of home working over the past months. Ultimately, this means we can no longer assume what to wear when we start to visit clients and businesses again in the future, which triggered thoughts around our use of assumptions and what we take for granted.
At a subconscious level, assumptions are a useful shortcut for the multitude of decisions that are required daily in both our personal and work lives. For instance, I assume the supermarket is open today based on my previous experience and knowledge. This means that when life as we know it is challenged, as it is at present, many of our assumptions no longer hold true and decision making inevitably is more intensive.
In Projects, assumptions definitely have their place, but identifying and minimising these is the key to project success. One of my favourite examples is as follows:
The project brief is simple, ‘Design a house with 3 bedrooms’, however, if you ask a group of people to each draw how they see the end result (‘the requirements’), everyone will produce something different. This is because we are all individuals with our own vision, whether it’s the layout, the roof shape or the number of bathrooms. For that reason architects are usually employed to produce the exact specifications for a house to clarify the design before construction begins.
Requirements gathering at the start of any type of project is therefore critical and using ‘who, what, when, how and where’ helps defines the end goal, removing as many assumptions as possible. For example, if you’re designing a website, having an initial visual design for each web page required is a great way to gain internal agreement before discussing with the website designers. Any remaining assumptions can then documented for assessment and validation as the project progresses. It can be a lengthy process but defining the requirements at the start will ultimately lead to better solutions and a smoother project, saving you time and costs further down the line.
As the saying goes, ‘it’s good to talk!’ and at the same time, we all know what happened to assume……
Mint Blue Consulting provides tailored project management for companies of all sizes to help them grow and develop. For more information see www.mintblueconsulting.co.uk
Mint Blue Consulting has had a busy year and started 2020 as very much a continuation of 2019. By March, one office move was completing with the national lockdown fast looming, while another client seamlessly transitioned their staff to home-working at the start of lockdown, thanks to the completion of another project. We knew then that this year was going to be uncertain and it was evident that coming back out of the lockdown situation was going to take a lot longer than going in.
Online communication has proved essential this year for both personal and work and thank goodness we are in an era where this is possible. Setting up Zoom early on enabled Mint Blue Consulting to easily transition to running operational projects totally online and communicate effectively with clients throughout the year. Facilitating video workshops and meetings has proved highly effective and at times it’s easy to forget that people are all working individually from home.
Developing online working relationships has definitely been the key to deliver complex projects this year. We’ve all had to rapidly adapt to working from home full time so it’s credit to the hard work of my client project teams that project delivery has and continues to be possible. As someone commented earlier this year, we might be physically limited during the pandemic, but thankfully this hasn’t stopped us developing new ideas and moving forwards.
While the technology is a great conduit, the people on the calls are even more important and a common theme reported for many is not taking sufficient breaks between online meetings. As we move deeper into winter, taking regular breaks and getting outside is important to get away from the screen and a walk during the day is also a great way to problem-solve and refocus. Living in the Chilterns, there are many lovely walking routes near my house (even though most of them involve hills) and waterproof walking trainers have been one of my best purchases in 2020.
For those not using online communication on a regular basis, Zoom and other similar tools, such as Microsoft Teams can be daunting as I was reminded the other week when hosting an online event. One of the attendees sent a lovely email of thanks afterwards and mentioned how appreciative they were for the use of breakout rooms as it meant he didn’t have to complete with everyone else on the main call. Even online some people prefer 1:1 conversations so tailoring sessions is important.
Breakout Rooms are frequently used in the different online networking groups which have seen a big boom this year. Moving to online sessions has actually been an unexpected bonus as this has enabled more people to attend sessions across the country without the need to travel. Having met and also re-met lots of lovely people in my virtual travels this year, it’s been great to have the opportunity to discuss current events and topics on a regular basis, interact with different groups of people and also be interviewed by Octo Members, https://mintblueconsulting.co.uk/2020/06/21/the-gr8-debate/. The online approach has worked really well but looking forward to also catching up with everyone in person again at some point next year.
2021 is nearly here, the vaccines are beginning to be rolled out across the country and we’re all looking forward to the day we can freely move around and interact again. Working practices have now changed for ever thanks to the pandemic, so we’ll need to continue adapting to new circumstances. New challenges for a New Year……!
Many people don’t like change and yet life is constantly evolving. After years, even decades, of relative stability we are being rapidly forced to change the way we work, interact and move about our daily lives.
Projects drive change, resulting in people doing things differently and no two projects are the same. Even if the topic is the same, there are always variables, from the project size, to the different people and teams involved and it’s these variables that keeps Mint Blue Consulting’s operational projects with clients so varied and interesting.
Doing things differently is actually often a good thing, but it’s the transition approach that is really important as this will determine the success of the change. Thinking about this reminded me of a team building event I attended many years ago:
We were divided into 2x teams of around 10 people and our challenge was to calculate the number of days it had taken to build the lost city of Atlanta in the fastest time possible. Each team was handed around 40 information cards containing a mix of valid and red-herring data and we were also informed that the Atlanta working week was not the usual 7 days. Our team was also instructed (it turned out mistakenly) not to write anything down whereas the other team had no restrictions on their approach.
The last instruction floored us initially as our natural approach was to write things down! However, we had no choice, so as the Project Manager in the team, I asked our team to sit in a circle with a few cards each and we read out our cards in turn.
Key information quickly came to light as we read round, the red herring information was discarded, and we established there were only 5 days in the Atlanta working week. Those with the cards for the days of the working week were then seated together in order, then one of the group (who was brilliant at mental arithmetic), calculated the number of days it took to build the city.
Much to our surprise, our team completed the task in 50% of the time it took the other team, who were still carefully writing down all the key information as we finished.
Being forced to complete the exercise in this way meant we had no choice but to ‘do things differently’ and it provided some useful takeaways:
Change, as mentioned, is often difficult, particularly where people have had the same routine or processes for a period of time and it’s important to take people with you on the journey. Not easy in these times where there is little choice, but structuring your change through Project Management definitely helps to ease the transition.
As a Project Manager I’m required to plan into the future and fortunately being able to work online means that has been able to continue, however applying this to daily life this year isn’t quite as easy. Plans for everyone are either being cancelled or deferred and all we can do is pencil in future arrangements for the rest of this year and hope for the best. For many, the last 3 months have been a trying and difficult time thanks to the pandemic and the full economic impacts are still unknown as we start to ease out of lockdown.
For many others this has also been very busy and innovative as is often the case in unprecedented times. Online networking has boomed and in between working, I have attended several different sessions over the past few months. It has been inspiring listening and speaking to so many different people and hearing how businesses are adapting. The message is the same, to move forward we are all having to innovate and the challenge is now to keep adapting at great speed in uncertain times. Fortunately working from home does not mean creative development is constrained, in many ways not travelling has allowed more time to review businesses including my own and the next steps.
A few weeks ago I joined the Financial Services Octo Members Group, founded by Lee Robertson and Andy Brown. I’ve discovered many familiar faces from around the industry including ex-colleagues and clients at the weekly virtual pub sessions and it’s been great to reconnect and discuss the key issues affecting the industry.
I was also delighted to be approached by Octo about an interview. The result, my first online video interview below:
This is a 20-minute chat discussing Mint Blue Consulting, the headwinds going through the Financial Services sector and how businesses are adapting in these extraordinary times. It also includes that tricky question, ‘who is someone that I admire in the industry’. There are so many people it was hard to narrow down. Who was mentioned? I’ll leave you to watch……..
Projects come in all different shapes and sizes. For many, the word ‘project’ immediately conjures up the idea of large-scale organisation to deliver an end product or service, but actually, our day to day lives constantly involve projects, whether it’s decorating our homes, hosting social events or going on holiday, to name but a few. Essentially anything that has a structured series of tasks to meet a specified end result is a project.
Planning a project is always key and involving Subject Matter Experts early on who have prior experience in their area, helps determine the initial requirements and provides valuable input throughout the rest of the project lifecycle. Very often it’s the smaller details from these experts which can make all the difference to the project success.
This was brought home recently when a friend of mine mentioned they were heading to Iceland to see the sights and track down the Northern Lights. When I visited the same place 4 years ago I put my project management skills to good use to maximise my own chances of seeing this spectacle. Before booking my own trip I researched the best time of year to visit, the appropriate clothing to wear and (the best part) I downloaded a Northern Lights tracking app to find the optimum location each night. My planning worked and (thanks also to clear skies), I was fortunate to see the Lights not once, but twice in 3 days. Passing on my first-hand experience meant I could help increase my friend’s chance of the success and thanks to the same app they now have their own amazing memories.
In business projects, the same principles apply. Mint Blue Consulting provides the project management techniques and works closely with people who have the relevant subject matter expertise and knowledge on all projects. For example, office moves need detailed IT technology, building and people knowledge, while acquisitions require knowledge of systems, processes and of course, the people and teams involved. Harnessing the relevant expertise enhances the final implementation and helps increases the buy-in of the end result, which in turn benefits the company and it’s future growth, coming full circle.
For more information or enquiries please contact [email protected].
