Deliver That!

A little announcement for you. It’s summer, just about, so we’re taking a little break from the podcast. Time for some holidays, to rest and recharge and regather ourselves ready for more discussions on leading projects and delivery teams, and everything involved in getting big stuff done. So, we’re off for a while. But we’ll be back soon, ready to go. Thanks for listening along to everything we’v...

You've started a new role as CDO. How do you get up and running? The first month in a new position is the time for making impressions: for what you can understand about the business and it's for you to make your impression on the organisation too. We talk about what's running through your mind in those first weeks, and discuss some practical things to do to get your bearings.

How do you take a group of competent individuals and bring them together into a high-performing team? We take a look at the presumptions, rules-of-thumb, and particular actions a Chief Delivery Officer can take to raise the water level so all the boats float higher. And then we discuss how things can get off balance and the potential to sink a happy ship, the strange tidal forces both inside and o...

Lovely though the views are, you're static on the mountain top. The journey doesn't happen here. To get stuff done you have to come back down to ground level. This is the world of your tactics. In part 2 of the conversation we talk about execution — taking the strategy you created at the top of the hill and turning it into reality, with a thoroughgoing set of turn-by-turn actions. This isn't a con...

As with many aspects of the CDO role, being able to hold a creative tension between strategy and execution is a distinctive quality. The role requires you to do both to see far ahead, and determine how to get where you're going and, to take one step at a time on the path you've set, without getting distracted or discouraged. Or, to put it differently, it's about altitudes of thinking taking the ti...

Professionalism demands that project delivery processes are comprehensive and robust. That creates the right foundation for delivery jazz — situational agility and innovation. The delivery principal must hold the tension in a fundamental balancing act between: systematic and thoroughgoing processes on the one hand, and situational agility with space for improvisation and innovation on the other Th...

As the business matures, it stretches forward towards greater professionalism. We talk about the three Cs that are the aim of professionalism: Calmness Confidence Consistency We talk about the essence of professionalism: Capturing 'our ways of working' Making sure there's always value delivered — for customers, and for the standing of the business Ensuring efficiency — removing unnecessary overhea...

Communication is a key skill in all jobs, right? Well, clear and coherent communication is of a different order for a Chief Delivery Officer — unusual excellence in communication is a fundamental requirement of the job and an essential skill that should be particularly well developed. The CDO is responsible for effective communication between all parties on projects: clear communication is vital t...

We're picking up some threads from the first episode, looking in greater depth at the strangeness of a delivery leadership role. In the first half we return to that uncomfortable location for the CDO — sitting between each customer's needs and the objectives of your own business — and we discuss how it's more complicated still, because you also need to serve the teams that actually deliver client...

The very first episode of the Deliver That! podcast — a show about delivery leadership for projects, teams, and programs — the big concepts, real-life stories from the front line, and everything involved in the role of a Chief Delivery Officer. In episode 1 we introduce the podcast and ourselves: What’s the reason for the podcast and what are we aiming to do with it? Who are we, Steve Hunton and J...

  Deliver That! is a new podcast about project delivery leadership. The big concepts, real-life stories from the front line, and everything involved in the role of a Chief Delivery Officer. No filters. No fluff. Just honest conversations about what happens in project and delivery leadership, and how big things really get done.