This streamlined, executive-level version of the foundation course for the Stanford APM curriculum gets you up to speed on the latest thinking in strategic execution in just two days!

If you’re an executive responsible for large programs and portfolios of projects, you need to understand how the organization’s environment as a whole affects each project’s results. You also need to understand the big picture of how projects contribute to your organization’s long-term strategies and goals. Do you really understand how strategy is translated into coherent action at the project layer? Practicing strategic project management requires a whole new set of tools.

Converting Strategy Into Action—An Executive Perspective introduces a framework for aligning your organization’s project and program initiatives with its strategic objectives by treating strategic execution as an overall system. This fast-paced, two-day course covers strategic management concepts, as well as a high-level understanding of associated techniques and tools for building a strong and effective organization.

You’ll see why it’s imperative that your organization’s strategy, structure, and culture all align; what the payoffs can be; and how to get there. You’ll explore what alignment really means and the social dynamics of work, as well as the knowing-doing gap, including its causes and remedies. And you’ll discover how an organizational mastery model can help organizations embrace a more comprehensive view of strategic execution. You’ll emerge with a working knowledge of what it takes for your organization to execute business strategies consistently through a portfolio of projects and programs. And you’ll know what it takes to leverage your organization’s managerial and technical expertise to the greatest strategic advantage through a perspective based on alignment.

Benefits to the Organization

As a result of Converting Strategy Into Action—An Executive Perspective, your organization will benefit from:

• Successfully executing business strategies by doing the right projects right
• Better use of scarce resources
• A stronger and more productive matrix organization
• Consistent high performance

Learning Objectives

After attending Converting Strategy Into Action—An Executive Perspective, you will understand what is involved in:

• Pinpointing the aspects of strategic execution that are problems for your organization in project and program management
• Articulating the differences between two fundamental strategies and how they affect execution
• Taking action to align your work with a changing cultural landscape
• Applying the concepts of organizational structure to project and program structure
• Identifying organizational alignment and misalignment, and modify your work to better align with the organization
• Applying an overall model of strategic execution to your work environment

Target Audience

This course is designed to benefit business executives seeking to gain a basic understanding of the concepts and techniques covered in more detail by the full version of this course and the Stanford APM curriculum as a whole.

Prerequisites. This course has no prerequisites.

Note: not applicable toward SCPM credential. Converting Strategy Into Action—An Executive Perspective is a condensed version of the first core course in the Stanford Advanced Project Management curriculum. As such, it cannot be applied toward the Stanford Certified Project Manager (SCPM) credential.

Course Topics

Course Introduction and Agenda

• What is advanced project management?
• Challenges to executing strategy

Strategic Role of Project Management

• The Integrated Project System
• How PM has evolved
• The new business environment
• The new strategic role of PM

Framework for Converting Strategy into Action

• The Strategy-Implementation-Operations model (S-I-O model)
• The Integrated Project System
• The project ecosystem

Culture and Strategy

• How organizational culture influences strategy
• Four types of organizational culture
• Four value disciplines

Project Portfolio Management

• What is portfolio management?
• The portfolio process

Aligning Strategy, Structure, and Culture

• A primer on strategy
• Aligning organization culture and strategy
• How traditional organizations
• Why we use matrix structures
• The fundamental trade-off in organizing projects
• Weak matrix vs. strong matrix: pros and cons
• Lab: applying what you’ve learned

Managing the Social Dynamics of Project Work

• The vicious work-time cycle
• The time-use system map
• How culture affects time utilization
• Changing the culture of time

The Knowing-Doing Gap: How Smart Companies Turn Knowledge into Action

• What is the knowing-doing gap?
• The main point of the knowing-doing gap
• Three big lessons
• Five causes of the knowing-doing gap
• Remedies for the knowing-doing gap

Strategic Execution Framework: Mastering the Project Organization

• The world of fractals
• The Strategic Execution Framework (SEF)
• SEF domains