In typical Pelicam style we wanted to skip over the usual “Our ten favourite Assurance trends in 2022” article and get straight to the juicy bits. What are the genuinely, achingly, fatally important (transformation related) things that we saw organisations get wrong in 2022?

 Getting to the heart of an issue is exactly what Pelicam have always done. We know from experience that in a project, or even in an organisation as a whole, one issue can result in any number of symptoms. Rooting out that weakness and then coaching organisations on how to overcome it is what Pelicam does.

Here are  3 of the mistakes we saw in 2022:

Confusing Audit and Assurance
Perhaps in the late 90’s this was forgivable, but we really think it’s time for the differences between Audit and Assurance to become as clear as, say, the difference between HR and Finance. We should start out by saying Audit provides a very important, valuable service - but it doesn’t provide assurance. Audit asks, “am I doing this as I should be?” while Assurance asks “am I doing this as well as I possibly could be, will it be successful and will that success match the organisation's goals?”. Assurance may also ask “should I be doing this at all?!”. To think that audit will provide the same assurance as Assurance is a mistake, and a potentially costly one.

Being hobbled by the “hiring crisis”

Yes 2022 felt at times like one crisis after another, but the hiring crisis (aka talent shortage) is one that has impacted the transformation world acutely. Whereas in the past an organisation could sign off a project and then snap up the talent required to deliver it nice and quickly before the programme starts, things got a bit stickier in 2022. Is it Brexit biting? Did we lose too many clever people to fairtrade Cotswold bee-keeping during the pandemic? We don’t know - but we do know that shelving projects due to the talent shortage is a big mistake, and one which will make it even harder to catch the competition when you next try to do so. Instead, Pelicam have helped organisations reframe the challenge and understand how clever ways of working, as well as good management and use of external partners like Pelicam, can actually turn it into an organisational strength.

Misunderstanding Governance

Governance, poor, misunderstood Governance. If one business function is the victim of an uninspiring name, we think it might be Governance. Too many people assume Governance means hours and hours of meetings, reporting and bureaucracy. Effective Governance is quite the opposite, and a key foundation of any successful project. Good conversations, getting to the points that matter, communicating well - this is what Governance really is. Misunderstanding that fact often means an organisational lethargy when it comes to everything governance related - essentially meaning you’re not communicating effectively and at risk of all of the pitfalls that come with that. We have seen so many all singing, all dancing PowerPoint Steer Co decks related to projects or programmes that were actually on their knees!

We’re on a mission to stamp out these mistakes once and for all in 2023! If you recognise any of the above from your organisation, or just think that you might benefit from Pelicam’s unique no-nonsense style of Assurance, we’d love to have a chat. You can also read more about the thing’s your organisation should be doing here