PMI Global Congress - Day 1

 

By Mike Adams, PMP® 
President Elect - PMI Otowi Bridge 
@MichaelAdamsPMP

I've never been to a PMI Global Congress before, however, I can say it is something I'll try to attend in the future!

Bright and early this morning, I attended the "Young Professionals Breakfast," which was really enjoyable! Several of us "seasoned" professionals stood at tables to discuss career paths and opportunities with younger PM professionals. As usual, I talked up the benefits of volunteering for your chapter. This has been one of the best and most enjoyable things I've ever done, and it has propelled my career in ways I couldn't have imagined.

After the breakfast, we 'experts,' received VIP seating for today's key-note addres by the Scott Brothers. I don't know what planet I've been living on, but I had never heard of them prior to this morning's presentation. I linked to their "about us" page just click "Scott Brothers," if, like me, you don't know who they are. My excuse is that my wife and I have abandoned television service in favor of internet delivered entertainment, which is a long way of saying we watch Hulu, and don't know what is happening on TV these days.

The Scotts talked about the importance of treating your team with the same level of respect and graciousness that you would any customer. They pointed out that your business is only as good as its team, and that you have control over how appreciated and motivated your team feels. I could sum it up for project and program managers with the phrase, "Give 'em some love!" Just be sure your mind is out of the gutter when you're giving the love, otherwise your employees may NOT feel appreciated and HR WILL NOT appreciate you!

After the Scott brothers very entertaining and practical presentation, I saw another fully engaging talk offered by non other than the famous Jack S. Duggal, a passionate speaker, who loves his work. Jack really wants to make a difference. Today, he explored how management has evolved over the past 100-150 years, and then talked about where he sees it going. He started with a quick overview of the major breakthroughs in efficiency that were seen about one hundred years ago. Industry saw automation and an effort to get people out of the way, and find efficiency through repetition and automation. Next we saw a revolution in effectiveness, where businesses got interested in collaboration and getting the person back as a decision maker, and effective team member. Finally, Jack discussed what he sees as the current revolution in managing people's experiences. This is where we measure the experience that people have and tune performance in real time, giving teams the opportunities to experience immediate correction and form good habits while they learn, rather than correct bad habits later.

This reminded me of an article I recently read from the Harvard Business Review, where the research team actually gave team members badges which had sensors in them. These sensors could tell how intensely someone was talking, which direction they were pointing. In short, they could sense body language, and the Harvard research team was able to predict with incredible accuracy how effective a team would be in their project execution simply by how well the team's chemistry came together, based on sensor data. WOW! So that means, we'll soon be able to collect data on how well teams get along and build teams that will be high performing, or what I think Jack was getting at, is we'll be able to give teams feedback on how they're acting, so that they can make adjustments to their interpersonal skills to enhance team performance, and optimize engagement, fulfillment, and success.

This can be a mixed bag, in that I don't know if I want my employer monitoring me with body sensors to see if I'm in the "right mood." However, it does have the capability to alerting me to my mood, so I can try and impact it. I don't know if it is too much big brother or a beautiful enhancement in personal monitoring. I guess we'll see!

Then, I was off for my favorite session of the day, "nap-time." I'm beat! after three days of a PMI LIM, I had to decompress and I slept like a baby. Then I met my co-experts for mingling with Congress attendees and invited them to sign up for "Ask an Expert" sessions with the ProjectManagement.com experts, who have been brought to Orlando to mingle and promote involvement with the online community.

After that, a group of us ProjectManagement.com experts went out for dinner, and this may have been my favorite part of the day! I got to know a group of truly amazing people, who have recreated themselves, accomplished incredible things and who are all down to earth, and fun to be around. I think my favorite thing about this is that they all treat me like a colleague. I think if we were to compare resumes, they'd all have a "deep bench," while mine would be "hmmm...ok!" But they are all here to help others find success and fulfillment. If you haven't checked out the list of experts from ProjectManagement.com, who are here at PMI Global, check it out now. These are some great people, whom I'm really glad to know! Click here to see whose been invited to participate in "Ask an Expert."

Once again, it is way too late for me to be up blogging, but I do want to keep covering what happens at PMI, so I'll have to sleep later.

You can count on my upcoming article encouraging you to volunteer for PMI, because I'm here to tell you that it is absolutely true, "Good things happen when you get involved with PMI!"

I have to also throw a shout out to Rebecca Braglio, who is both brilliant and incredibly talented! While she's not a volunteer for PMI, she is on staff for ProjectManagement.com, and we're lucky to have her. I linked to her profile on her name...check it out!

Feel free to share your experiences with volunteering, and I'll double what I pay you, if you leave some positive feedback on my post! :-)