Day One of #PMIEMEA18 was full of Learning, Sharing, Networking and Growing!

 

Guten Tag!

What do Agility, Innovation, Transformers, Ethics, and Leadership have in common?

These were the broad themes of the terrific sessions I attended on Day One of the PMI EMEA 2018 Congress at Berlin yesterday.

While it is impossible to cover all the great insights and learnings in one short blog piece, I will try my best. Short video interviews with speakers from four of the sessions are available at these Youtube links:

Simona Bonghez: http://bit.ly/SBEMEA18

Mohamed Khalifa & Muhammad Ilyas: http://bit.ly/MMEMEA18

Lily Murariu & Alan Richter: http://bit.ly/2I70Bed

Ibrahim Dani: http://bit.ly/IDEMEA18

A warm German welcome!

The event was off to a great start, with a warm German welcome from Thomas Walenta of the PMI Board of Directors. He briefly touched upon how much of what PMI does would not be possible but for the passion and hard work of volunteers from the world over.

Winning with Innovation

In a highly thought-provoking and entertaining session, Rowan Gibson, the celebrity keynote speaker stressed on how important innovation is for business survival. He gave attendees many concrete examples of Business Innovation. A short video on a road accident showed how a proactive insurance company made life a breeze for one of the car owners, with a crash sensor-activated agent call, a drone assessing the damage, plus an Uber driver and tow truck quickly arranged. The other party? Well, he was still on hold with his insurance company!

Rowan also gave attendees great tips on how an innovation project could be initiated, planned, executed and closed.

Ethical Decision-making for Global Teams

In a highly engaging session, Lily Murariu and Alan Richter presented on the results of a global ethics survey. Leveraging an excellent online polling tool, the duo asked session attendees decide on next steps in three typical situations involving ethical dilemmas. Lily then presented PMI’s Ethical Decision Making Framework (EDMF) as a very useful tool to help make better decisions.

Agile Droplets in a Waterfall World

This session by Simona Bonghez simplified a tough topic with excellent expert insights, visually appealing and elegant slides, plus excellent humor. She started with how tough a choice it is to choose between Predictive, Agile, and Hybrid. Providing many real-life examples, she gave practical tips on choosing the right approach for the right project, considering context, complexity, and constraints.

Transformers!

No. They weren’t talking about the famous movie series! Mohamed Khalifa and Muhammad Ilyas started by highlighting the latest trends that are truly transforming the projects of the future. Using many interactive activities, they stressed on the ten key skills project managers need to acquire to stay relevant in a rapidly-changing world. Some were: Social Intelligence, Cognitive Load Management, Virtual Collaboration, Design Thinking.

The Engaging Leader

“Stop Managing and Start Leading. Be an Engaging Leader,” was Ibraham Dani’s opening phrase. Mentioning key differences between managers and leaders, he listed various categories of team members such as “Doers,” “Thinkers,”, “Carers.” Ibrahim warned attendees that one disengaged and toxic team member could undo the productivity of three others. Ibrahim ended with several practical pointers on the importance of proactive leadership for project success.

I hope you are enjoying the continuous coverage of the EMEA Congress 2018 by the Community Engagement Team. In addition to tweets by @PMInstitute and @PMIEvents, regular updates are available on the Twitter handles of our team members, @KarthikPMO, @PriyaPatra, and @Em_the_PM

Meanwhile, have a wonderful day, or as they say in German, “Ich wünsche ihnen einen wunderbaren Tag!”

Today, I plan to attend and cover these great sessions. Look for detailed coverage of these sessions tomorrow!

• Workshop: Applying your Strengths to Build Productive Teams by Conor Traynor
• Beyond Humans: Using Machine Learning to Calculate Contingency for Systemic Risks by Werner Meyer ()
• Pivot-Point – From ME to WE: A true story of Leadership Transformation by Phil Bristol (@PhilBristol_CMC)