Through personal anecdotes and real-life examples, hosts Merv Jersak and Tim Jerome discuss how to implement effective governance structures, navigate compliance challenges, and maintain transparency and integrity. They share valuable lessons learned, from dealing with abrupt regulatory changes to ensuring alignment with senior stakeholders. Their stories emphasize the importance of knowing the contract, adhering to ethical guidelines, and maintaining visibility.

Main Take-Aways

Stories are powerful teachers. Your hosts provide lessons in anecdotal form where adherence to governance and compliance were important factors in their managing projects:

• be the manager of the project and manage according to the governance structure
• don’t accept informal changes to compliance requirements even if requested by senior individuals
• be prepared to comply with unexpected changes required by law or regulation
• understand that some compliance requirements extend to your own history or behavior
• know your contract and the governance and compliance requirements within it; be prepared to challenge non-adherence
• keep project requirements visible to the team
• take obscure, non-applicable requirements in stride and don’t challenge if they do not affect your project

Show Notes

Today’s Project Managers Coffee Chat: Leadership Lessons from the Trenches – Governance and Compliance are Paramount

00:55 Tim begins with the first anecdote of how a former supervisor challenged him to make project decisions for himself as an act of proper governance.

02:42 Merv tells of an experience where the senior stakeholder from the client side decided to change the cadence of a significant status meeting. Merv was schooled by his own management to never acquiesce to such changes in compliance requirements, even when requested by individuals above his authority. Such changes require formal agreement.

05:03 Tim offers a story where a government agency changed a significant requirement as a matter of regulation. His team had to scramble to remain in compliance.

08:06 Merv provides an example of compliance requirements that go beyond the system requirements of the project – compliance requirements that extend to the personal behaviors and histories of team members themselves. Tim extends that to his own experience of avoiding any conflicts of interest.

11:26 Merv’s next anecdote provides a lesson in knowing the contract and in challenging others (even your customers!) when a compliance issue arises.

15:45 Tim provides a practical example of how a former manager used visual tools to keep the project’s progress visible to the team, which helped the team maintain its compliance with timeline requirements.

18:21 Merv concludes this episode with an experience where his organization had to comply with seemingly obscure, but non-applicable, contractual requirements in order to even bid on a project. He advises you to not be surprised by such requests, and to take them in stride.