Pam Thompson does not carry around the key to her home. Instead, she carries a key for a highly secured lockbox at home, which contains that key.
The chief project officer at the Jamaica National Group, Thompson says that as a project manager, her job is to manage issues and risks, to ensure that what the organisation plans, is what is delivered. And managing the risks to her home’s security is just an additional way in which she obsesses about reducing risk; as well as improving process efficiency.
“I find it strange that very few persons use a lockbox for their home keys,” Thompson says. “It gives you more options to secure your home, and reduces the risks associated with losing the key to the house!”
As a project manager, she takes that analytical approach to improving the efficiency of processes and applies this to the organisations’ activities. Her team in the Enterprise Project Management Office (ePMO) operates as a separate division within the Jamaica National Group.
She explains that apart from the general work of managing and monitoring projects, her Division’s Productivity and Organisational Efficiency Unit assesses elements of the organisation’s operations with the aim of improving efficiency.
“One change the team facilitated was the restructuring of our JN banking hall operations,” Thompson outlined. “We determined that customers with transactions which took marginal time should be put in separate lines from those requiring more time.
“This is similar to the concept that is applied in supermarkets, which allows employees to focus appropriately on the different types of transactions … cash versus credit payment; and under-10 items,” she outlined. “In our case, it was complex, time-consuming transactions versus simple, single transactions; and transaction times fell significantly as a result.”
When a defined activity is carefully planned, and the risks and issues mitigated and managed to achieve a specific aim, it is deemed as being a successful project, Thompson said, adding that “I don’t know any area of endeavour or industry that cannot benefit from the discipline of project management”.
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