An older post on what governance boards want is garnering some attention this month. In it is a great example of a CEO dealing with HIS upper management: the board. It turns out that they didn’t want his detail financial analysis until they saw how a proposed acquisition linked with corporate strategy. Projects must be linked to strategy or they shouldn’t be projects!

I’ve been doing a research project on how continual improvement programs are embraced and drive companies from the executive and cultural perspectives. Interestingly, the best practice that seems to be emerging is excellent project prioritization based on alignment with strategies first, followed by value measures. One company tried several times to start continual improvement programs; it didn’t happen until the CEO and others embraced the program as strategic and then followed through with organizational changes such as placing a high level executive in charge of continual improvement programs.

What is your experience with continual improvement? Do you see how high level governance processes can be continually improved and be important to a continual improvement program? Can a continual improvement program exist without the excellent governance processes? I think not- but WHAT DO YOU THINK?

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For months the Innovations Are Under Your Nose post is the most viewed post on my blog. Funny that it only has two comments. Maybe you can help me out by telling me why it’s number one. Is it the picture of the nose? the revelation that most innovations are copied? or could it be that this is just a fluke of blogdom?

What say you?

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Here are the top viewed posts for projectmanagement411.com for May 2008. Interesting that the first two are much older (2-3 months) but continue to be top vote getters. Everything from innovation to PMO governance boards. The recent series on collaborative innovation seems to be sparking some great interest- very much a ground breaking “best of the best” practice! Check them out:

1. http://projectmanagement411.com/innovations-are-under-your-nose-go-and-see/

2. http://projectmanagement411.com/organizations-as-boxes-analogy-reveals-power-of-projects/

3. http://projectmanagement411.com/social-network-positioning-new-age-solutions-to-old-economy-problems/

4. http://projectmanagement411.com/heres-what-pmo-governance-boards-want/

5. http://projectmanagement411.com/a-softwares-history-gives-great-insights/

6. http://projectmanagement411.com/social-networking-strategy-more-important-than-being-green/

7. http://projectmanagement411.com/open-innovation-brings-companies-together-to-solve-problems/

8. http://projectmanagement411.com/how-to-protect-intellectual-property-in-collaborative-innovation

9. http://projectmanagement411.com/networking-an-important-step-in-collaborative-innovation/

10. http://projectmanagement411.com/a-key-to-collaborative-innovation-defining-the-problem-generically/

What’s the latest hot topic at your company? What are you doing about it? What are you doing to make your company’s strategies happen?

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Manufacturing Business Technology magazine’s article on collaborative innovation leads to an obvious question: how do you protect intellectual property when you involve many companies and associations in finding a link between a company with a problem and a company with a solution? Paul Stiros, CEO of NineSigma, a firm that links problems and solutions together, comments on this issue:

“Stiros says the entire process is conducted in such a way that neither party has to fear having intellectual property compromised. “The proposals submitted by solution providers don’t contain the actual solution,” he says. “They only contain the company’s capabilities for addressing the problem. Our client then holds conversations with the solution provider to determine if they can indeed solve the problem. Then they sign confidentiality agreements, and ultimately enter into a contract to have work performed.” “

Fairly simple approach to what could be a big problem. Capability is addressed before two companies attempt to work together. In the case of linking P&G and an agricultural products manufacturer together, the common experience and capability was making small bags, out of the same material, to hold oily substances without leaking. The agricultural firm had solved the problem already. NineSigma helped P&G find them. Then the companies worked out a deal with adequate intellectual property protection.

How do you collaborate with other companies on innovating products and processes? Was intellectual property protection a stumbling block to forming a relationship? Is NineSigma’s approach workable?

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