PMI Global Insights

Are you a champion of change? Do you set a good example to your team, your colleagues and your company for how change should be managed? During the recent PMI conference, I've been learning more about what i can do to become a champion of change and using what I've learnt at the conference to benefit me and my projects. There was a lot of great presentations and keynotes and for me, it really motivated my desire to push myself to become a better change advocate and "Change-seller". 

During this blog post, I'll give you some ideas for what you can do to become a champion of change and what you can do to make a difference within your own "world" but I'd also like to start a discussion in the chat about what YOU do already to make change work in your projects? What helps makes you unique?

Here's some of my suggestions:

1) Be active, open and transparent

Change is scary and frightening for most people. But not for you! You thrive on change and to do this, you are active about communicating the change and being transparent about what's going on. This has to happen with everyone you see in your working day to be successful!

2) Show the value

With any sort of change management, you're on a PR selling mission. One way to promote the change is to show the value to the interested parties. Make it relevant to them and relevant to what they need to know and it'll help you get the message across. Perhaps ask yourself the question: "What's in it for them?" and "Why is this important for them?". This always helps me think about how I can best show them the value.

3) Communicate, communicate, communicate! 

One thing that you can't do enough of is communicate. Communicate in an effective manner, in the right ways (for your industry, company) and look at the best way of delivering your message. Communication doesn't just need to be verbal! A recent idea was to communicate the upcoming project go live over the company screensavers. So that every time you shut your PC or were idle, you'd get a visual showing you the Go Live date and some important graphic information. It's given us an additional way of communicating to people and something that they'll see several times in their day. If you can make it eye catching, all the better!

4) "Be the change you want to see in the world" - Ghandi. 

This is true for many areas of your life and especially when it comes to projects! If you're stalling, being negative, talking negatively then it'll transfer to your team and that's not worth it! 

5) Look at what you can do differently

Try different things, different strategies to see if your team/ organisation reacts to that more positively. When I'm coaching Project Managers I say: There is more than one way to get from A to B, if the first way doesn't work, then try another way". Sometimes to see what could be done, you need to think outside of the box for what might work with your team. This could be different visuals, broadcasting in different ways, using other media (instead of powerpoint slides, use video).

Summary:

Being a champion of change is something all of us can strive to achieve and strive to accomplish. How do you make yourself a champion of change? Let's connect and discuss more. 

This is one part of my summary of the PMI Conference. I've been connecting with other Project Managers from the Conference both online and in person and i've been asking a question that i'd like to bring to this community. During this years conference, I (and the other experts) tried to tweet a lot more about what we do during the conference, what it looks like, the people that we speak to etc... but is this what you want? Is there something else that you'd like to see? 

What would bring the conference closer to you? or be an incentive to join so that you can see what goes on and perhaps tempt you to join another future conference.

Would you like to see more articles about what we're doing at the conference? Would you prefer more videos/ pictures? 

Now, my challenge for you is to comment on a minimum of 1 thing that you'd like to see more of during a PMI Conference? 

Let's start a chat so that we can make future conferences as valuable and useful to remote attendees as possible.

- Emily.

What a day it's been so far! I managed to arrive a little early which let me work through some notes from yesterday and connect with some of the sponsors in the exhibit hall. 

Today's consulatations have been some of the powerful ones for me yet. Here's a summary of two of them: 

- Fran was coming for some support. She had been headhunted by her old boss and was now in a brand new role, new company and it was a start up so a lot of room for creativity. It scared her. She didn't know where to turn and the best way to collaborate. We discussed the best way to work and get started in this environment and also to look at ways to work in a start up environment. We discussed what she could do to work with her team as well as how to implement a good project management strategy that would work for her industry. 

- Jason was coming for a consult about how to tap into his creativity for his future position and where to go next. We brainstormed together and came up with a plan for what he can do to think outside the box. 

I've spent time today interviewing my fellow experts and will share it here when it's uploaded (they are already on my Twitter page (@Em_The_PM)). I've also spent some time connecting with other knowledge peers who have inspired with me several ideas to progress and develop some webinar ideas.

The closing keynote was presented by: Abigail Posner. She works at Google and was inspiring the crowd with creativity and how to expand our horizons to become true #championsofchange.

Over the next week, I'll be posting more news, pictures and summary of the conference and would like to know what else you'd like to know about the conference. Let's start the discussion below.

(Please note names for consults have been changed).

Today has been quite a thrilling day at the #AskTheExperts booth. We've been quite busy with supporting various attendees with their questions and giving advice. One of my favourite discussions of the day so far has been talking to Adrian who wanted to know the best way to progress his career whilst studying for his MBA. It's really interesting to see the versatile people that we have within the Project Management community. 

I decided today to show you my day through my posts on Twitter. Feel free to follow me for the latest information.

1) Doing some drop in sessions on the couch with Dave Maynard.

2) Having some fun with some of the experts in our booth

3) Heading to the Wellness pavillion to have a foot massage and relax on the gym ball whilst learning how to do some valuable mindfulness.

4) Using the selfie booth and getting a lovely memory of the day

5) Spending time with the projectified podcast to produce some content that we'll be displaying here in a few days.

6) T-Shirt pick up with 3 great designs

7) Looking at the wellness pavillion 

8) Lunch time for our PMI colleagues!

9) Spending time with the other colleagues from PMI

10) Snack time!

11) LinkedIn review corner

12) It's also been the final for PM Wars and it was a thrilling Semi Final and Final.

Has this been useful? or would you like to see something else/different?

​My day started quite early as I wanted to get registered and sorted in time (read: eat as much of the PMI breakfast as I could and drink tea!). The badge collection process was Streamless and very quick. 

Moving into the keynote, Stephen Maye did the introduction keynote and motivating the project managers to really get the most out of the conference and making the conference not just about your company or industry, but also about YOU. Then the keynote was Jon Dorenbos who motivated the crowd with his infectious enthusiasm and lust for life.

After the Keynote, i went to the Ask the Experts area and it's been non stop since! Below is a picture of the LinkedIn area where you can have a profile check as well as a picture taken.

During the break, there's a full array of snacks available and there's plenty of Gluten Free and Vegan options. This is one area where the PMI does not scrimp on and one thing that really sets you up for a good session.

My sessions today have been varied! I've seen people who I met with Last year who gave me an update on their situation and how my advice last year helped. Here are a few summaries of the people i met:

Annette:

- Annette is brand new to Project Management and wanted advice about how to learn more about Project Management and being able to get the necessary amount of hours for their project. We spoke about training opportunities, chapter opportunities etc.

Tony:

- Tony was having a few issues with their team and wanted some advice for how to manage conflict resolution and build a good team environment when there is a lot of negative energy and atmosphere. We spoke about what they can do to make a difference as well as simple, key effective strategies.

Sally:

- Sally has established her own PMO and has been responsibie for leading a successful team to astounding growth... but now her company is throwing every problem child at her and it's becomign too much so we spoke about ideas, solutions and what she can do to manage expectations with key stakeholders.

Pamela:

- Pamela is looking for a career transition and has been looking at the best way to market herself within a very competitive market and area. We spoke about establishing her core values and USPs and what she can do to stand out against her competition.

.... and we're still not done! We're here until 5pm where we will start a "Happy Hour" where people can drop in and chat to us. We've already had several discussions in our comfy sofas where people have been asking about risk workshops, chapter ideas and what we're doing here!

It's not just the "Ask the Experts" that has been alive today. The PM Wars area has exploded and you can sense the competition that has been rising.

It's also been a great day to meet other projectmanagement.com members including one promised selfie! 

Today has been a great first day and it's only looking to get better as the conference progresses. Do you want to know anything else about the event? Let me know below!

(Note: Names used have been changed to protect privacy)