Panorama Use

The Project Know-how Panorama™ is for self-directed, double-loop learning by early career professionals wishing to improve the outcomes of their projects near-term and their individual know-how long-term. It guides user action research on user team projects by the definitive cycle of continuous improvement: “Plan - Do - Study - Act."  That guidance is outlined below in blue and explained in the text that follows.

The user “know-how” that the panorama aims to grow is organized by purpose, that is, by purposes of project teams in every project. Eight 8 of these are defined, as set out in on the leftmost column of the panorama. By ongoing action research on these purposes, the user can continuously learn how to better support teams in any project.

User research is guided across the panorama, left to right, by the definitive cycle of continuous improvement: “Plan - Do - Study - Act”. For each phase, the panorama offers step-by-step guidance, seen here on the far right, by the Outline functionality of Mural®.

Study

As can be seen from the rubrics at the top of the panorama, user research begins at the Study moment. That is, as first steps in growing know-how, the user studies the performance of projects experienced as a team member. The user summarizes findings about what worked and what did not work in short entries on digital sticky notes, in drawings, and/or text boxes. Whatever form these notes take, they can then be usefully located on the “gemba maps”, provided by the panorama. These are conceptual diagrams of project work contexts.

Most importantly, what the user needs to discover in the Study phase are a) root causes of what did not work to achieve the project team purpose, and b) the “constructs” that did work, that is, the practical ideas shared by the team - the processes, techniques, methods, etc. - the “know-how” - that did work. Had these team ideas not worked, of course, they would still be “constructs” the team used, but not demonstrated “know-how”. For the panorama user, the basis of growing project know-how is precisely such discovery work at the gemba, on project team purposes, constructs, and know-how.

Act

Under the “Act” rubric of the panorama, the user does self-directed, double-loop learning regarding the project team purpose. The user acts first to clarify and improve organization know-how. This to grow the know-how the team and/or the organization already has regarding the given team purpose. Based on this activity, the user then acts to see if there might be better ways for teams to achieve the purpose, that is, the user acts to potentially improve the models currently underlying team plans and actions, researching know-how that user or user teams do not have but that might be helpful.

To assist the user in this second discovery activity, under the “Act” rubric, the panorama displays project know-how accumulated in 6 management communities of practice (CoP). This display is by way of visual counters representing of 80+ key constructs of these communities. Each counter is color-coded to show a community whose practice is strongly informed by the construct. For example, constructs such as “Work Breakdown Structure” (WBS) that inform the plan-driven CoP are displayed in lavender counters, while agile CoP constructs, such as “Product Backlog” are in orange.

Each counter includes links to video explanations of the construct. Users can easily record their findings about these constructs by sticky notes, annotations, copy/pasting, and or/moving counters around under the Act, Plan, and Do rubrics.

Plan

The user begins the Plan phase by identifying constructs surfaced in the Act phase as potentially pertinent to user career. These potentially pertinent constructs are then prioritized by the user, largely on the basis of which of them are most likely to enhance near term performance of current teams. This prioritization benefits not only the teams. It also benefits the individual user, for many reasons. Developing a user construct (as knowledge in the head) into practical user know-how happens best via collaborative project work informed by the construct. Suitable opportunities to develop know-how from a given construct are transient. Prioritization by “most likely to enhance near term performance of current teams” provides the largest number of such opportunities at a given moment. Under the Plan rubric, the panorama offer space for the user to tailor an individual plan aiming to grow prioritized constructs into real-world know-how (whether or not user panorama is shared with teams). More specific guidance and advice on planning is available by the "Outline" functionality of the Mural platform, shown above on the far right.

Do

Under the Do rubric, the user keeps track of progress toward achieving team purposes that teams make, informed by the constructs the user had prioritized for learning. When progress is confirmed, by project KPI's and/or celebrated by teammates, it shows that constructs the user had prioritized – initially “in the head” only – have now added value for the organization, and have also become practical know-how – in the real world, and in the head, heart, and hands of the panorama user. Congratulations! Time to celebrate! And to iterate.

If you would like to become a user – and owner – of a Project Know-how Panorama™, great! It is free, and it will be available in late September.