How curiosity, practical change management and the right technology helped turn fragmented project delivery into a more joined-up, human-centred way of working.
Technology change is often described as a process problem or a systems problem. In practice, it is usually a people problem first.
Getting PMO and technology change right at the same time is one of the hardest things a Project Management Office will do. It means introducing new tools without losing sight of the people, process and behaviour change that make those tools stick. The Crown Estate, one of the UK’s largest and most established property and asset managers, recently went through exactly this: standing up a PMO, introducing a new delivery framework and rolling out enabling technology across its digital portfolio.
In a Wellingtone Community session, The Crown Estate’s Digital Portfolio Management Office Director, Kerry Marriott, unpacked what it really took to make that change stick inside a busy, traditional and complex organisation.
Quick Facts: The Crown Estate PMO Journey
| Organisation | The Crown Estate, part public and part private, managing national assets from retail parks and property around Regent Street to 12 nautical miles of UK seabed |
|---|---|
| Kerry’s role | Digital Portfolio Management Office Director, in post since 2024 |
| The starting point | 100+ digital projects a year, no single master project list, five or six different tools in informal use |
| The fix | A new Digital Delivery Framework paired with Wellingtone Accelerator+ |
| Go live | August 2025 |
| Today | Kerry still spends around half her time on adoption, maturity and continuous improvement |
What Problem was The Crown Estate Trying to Solve?
The Crown Estate is an unusual organisation. It is part public, part private, and manages a wide range of national assets, from retail parks and property around Regent Street in London to 12 nautical miles of the UK seabed. It is also long-established and traditional, which meant that some basic PMO practices other organisations had adopted years earlier were still missing when Kerry Marriott joined as Digital Portfolio Management Office Director. Her brief was substantial: stand up a PMO function, create clearer delivery processes, introduce enabling technology and improve visibility across more than 100 digital projects a year.
There was no single master list of projects, no consistent way of working, and several teams using different tools, spreadsheets and informal workarounds. Kerry has a name for this kind of organisational sludge: treacle. Every company has its own version, and The Crown Estate’s was thick enough that some projects would get stuck and need real effort to get moving again.
Every company has its own share of treacle. We still say it now: there are some projects that hit the treacle and need a bit of help to get that bus on the move again.
Kerry Marriott, Digital Portfolio Management Office Director, The Crown Estate
It would have been easy to start with the technology. Instead, the team started with people and process. Kerry listened, mapped the current reality and asked teams what was working, what was frustrating and what one thing they would change if they had the chance. That early discovery revealed familiar PMO challenges: fragmented processes, duplicated effort, inconsistent governance, unclear demand, limited capacity and change fatigue from previous false starts.
The bus stops Kerry found on arrival: fragmented process, fragmented teams, fragmented systems, and a lot of false starts. From Kerry Marriott’s webinar slides.
The Bus Stop Analogy: How Do You Meet People Where They Are?
One of the most memorable ideas from the session was the bus stop analogy. The change itself is the bus. It is moving quickly, leaders want it to arrive soon, and delivery teams are under pressure to keep it on schedule. But the people needed to make the change successful are not always on board yet. Some are waiting at different bus stops, unsure whether the journey is for them. Others are comfortable where they are, even if the current way of working is clunky. Some appear supportive but are quietly anxious, overloaded or unsure how to engage.
Top Tip
Resistance is not always opposition. It may be caution, confusion, fatigue, lack of confidence or simply too much else going on. PMO leaders should pause, get off the bus and ask what people need before expecting them to move.
Why Curiosity Mattered More Than The Tool
The turning point was curiosity. Rather than assuming the answer was a new tool, Kerry and her team explored why the current ways of working existed, what pain points people were experiencing and where the root causes sat. This aligns with wider change management guidance: successful adoption depends on clear communication, visible benefits, stakeholder engagement, role-specific support and reinforcement after go-live.
The team used interviews, cross-functional workshops, process deep dives and continuous two-way communication. Importantly, they did not try to systemise poor processes. They worked out what should be simplified, what should be standardised and what could be enabled through Accelerator+.
I knew I needed to sort the process out before we did the tech, because if not, I’m systemising poor processes and bad behaviours.
Kerry Marriott, Digital Portfolio Management Office Director, The Crown Estate
Wellingtone’s Project Lead worked alongside the team during this stage, helping to challenge their thinking on process design so that the tool would reinforce good practice rather than simply digitising the old one.
What made the change stick?
Several factors stood out.
| Success factor | What it meant in practice | Why it mattered |
|---|---|---|
| Benefit-led | The team connected the new way of working to outcomes people cared about: better prioritisation, less duplication, clearer visibility, calmer workloads | Gave people a personal reason to get on the bus |
| Senior sponsorship | Leaders reinforced the importance of the framework and asked the right questions in the right forums | Added weight that a new PMO director could not provide alone |
| Peer credibility | Change champions and digital project professionals advocated for the change across teams | People trust peers more than central messages |
| Staying after go-live | The team kept working on adoption long after launch, still refining the framework a year on | Turned a launch into lasting behaviour |
The Crown Estate went live with Accelerator Plus in August 2025. At launch, the team deliberately started with the standard set of 25 out-of-the-box Power BI reports rather than building anything bespoke straight away. That gave them room to see what people actually used to make decisions, rather than reporting for the sake of it. They are now building a tailored dashboard based on what that period revealed.
This is a common pattern in successful PMO and technology projects: get the basics live, learn from real use, then refine. See Wellingtone’s overview of PMO technology for more on the tools and platforms that support this kind of rollout.
How Do You Handle People Who Won’t Get Off The Bus Stop?
Not every resistor moves at the same pace, and some plant themselves firmly at their bus stop. This was where the PMO used what Kerry calls man marking, borrowed from football: rather than assuming one PMO director can win over every sceptic personally, find the person that individual already trusts, whether that is a peer, a line manager or a project manager they have worked closely with, and let them make the case instead.
The Crown Estate’s own project managers became the strikers in this approach. They had the credibility and the working relationships that a newly arrived PMO director did not yet have, and they helped bring reluctant colleagues on board by showing rather than telling: running the new process on live projects so people could see it work before being asked to trust it.
| Why people resist | What it looks like | What tends to help |
|---|---|---|
| Unknowing | They attended the training, but it did not register | A short, repeated refresher |
| Unable | They want to do it but have not been equipped, often due to workload or absence | Hands-on support and a bit more time |
| Unwilling | They understand what is being asked and simply will not engage | A different conversation, usually involving HR or a line manager |
In Kerry’s experience, most resistance falls into the first two categories. The people causing real delivery delays are usually unknowing or unable, not unwilling, which is why a quiet conversation about what is getting in the way tends to work better than an escalation.
Line managers play an important part here too. They often hear concerns first and can have a more direct conversation with their team than a PMO ever could, which is why bringing them into the change early is so valuable.
Practical Tips for PMO and Change Leaders
- Start with the problem, not the platform. Understand the real pain points before choosing or configuring a solution.
- Ask people what they would change. A simple “golden ticket” question can quickly reveal what matters most.
- Do not systemise bad process. Simplify and improve ways of working before embedding them in technology.
- Use quick wins to build confidence. A single version of the truth, even in a simple spreadsheet, can create early credibility while the bigger change is designed.
- Pull busy people in deliberately. Use focused workshops rather than constant meetings, so people can contribute without excessive context switching.
- Make benefits personal. Show how the change helps people with workload, prioritisation, reporting or decision-making.
- Build a champion network. Use credible peers, line managers and senior sponsors to reinforce the change from multiple angles.
- Man-mark stubborn resistors. Find the peer, line manager or project lead they already trust, rather than trying to win every sceptic over personally.
- Let reporting earn its place. Start with what is available, live with it for a while, and only build custom dashboards once you know what decisions people actually need to make.
- Stay curious after go-live. Adoption is not finished when the tool launches; keep listening, measuring and adjusting.
Questions From the Community
Final Takeaway: Why Staying Curious is The Real Skill
The strongest message from the webinar was also the simplest: stay curious. When change feels stuck, do not assume people are being difficult. Ask what they are worried about, what is getting in the way and what would help them move forward. The more PMO leaders understand the bus stop people are waiting at, the better chance they have of helping everyone reach the destination together.
