My slightly different day 2 at #PMIEMEA19
| Interesting how even at a conference, where you mapped out your session attendance, everything can change suddenly. In this case it made for a slightly different, yet fun day. Initially I had wanted to start my day attending one of 3 offsite sessions that were on offer: A visit to the Royal College of Surgeons Ireland (RCSI). Since I worked the first 24 years of my career in the medical field and the RCSI won an award last year during the PMI Award Gala, I really wanted to attend this outing. However the offsite sessions are very popular and I was late trying to register. So I put my name on the waiting list. The waiting list was only for the Session at the Teeling Distillery. So I kept my fingers crossed and waited. Late last night I got an email, informing me that I had managed to get onto the Distillery Tour. So both @Emily & myself got to take part in this treat.
Did you know that Irish Whiskey is triple distilled, Scottish Whisky (note the difference in spelling) is double distilled and American Bourbon is only distilled once? Did you know that Whiskey gets its color from the wood of the casks it is stored in, while it matures? That's why older whiskey has a darker color.
In the afternoon I attended a session by Dirk Doppelfeld and Nataliya Wiedemeyer about creating your virtual Band. Virtual Teams have their own challenges and the fact that you do not see each other face to face brings a whole lot of unique issues. It is very important that you pay special attention to and effort to getting to know each other, setting clear rules, reconfirming peoples attention and scheduling time for bonding. Dirk & Nataliya shared a set of 11 processes that help you assess the Virtual Team Maturity and position yourself for better collaboration. A great and practical session! During the afternoon break I got into a discussion with Jim Snyder about progress in the medical world and how robotic surgeries are being done. He has amazing knowledge about it and it was great to discuss with him. Unfortunately that made me miss the beginning of the next sessions and I found all the 3:15pm sessions full to capacity. So I was unable to attend any session. Instead I had another great discussion with Dirk Doppelfeld about Project Management Training, REPs and our experiences with classroom and virtual training. As Jim Snyder said during the opening sessions, PMI is about the people. I could not agree more, even PMI Conferences are also all about the people. You meet amazing colleagues and peers, you have deep discussions with strangers. The day ended on a high note again, we had the #PMI50 celebration party. It was good fun with great food, great drinks - lots of Guiness - and fun entertainment.
And true to his word Sunil Prashara was there, mingling with all of us, enjoying himself and chatting with many of the delegates. What a great day at the conference! Can't wait to see what tomorrow will bring. Let us know if you want us to talk in more detail about some of the sessions we attended or those we want to attend tomorrow. |
Did you know that there was a time when Dublin had over 40 distilleries, and then there was a time there was none? Until Teeling decided to open a small distillery again in Dublin in 2012. The tour takes you right into the distillery and you can see the entire process from end to end. 
We learned all about the 5 step process of making whiskey and the different kinds of whiskey. What is the difference between Blend, Small Batch, Single Grain and Single Malt. In the end we got to taste 3 of the Super Premium Whiskeys Teeling is famous for. 
We were back to the Dublin Convention Center in time for lunch. I used the lunch break for more networking and meeting new people. One of my techniques is that I often either open a new table and sit there waiting to see who will join me, or purposely go to a table where I know nobody and join them. You end up meeting wonderful people and having deep discussion about project management in general, the sessions attended during the conference or your experience in your career as a project manager.
First Day of PMI EMEA Congress 2019: Agilely Playing Games with Rogue Monkeys using Social Intelligence?
Categories:
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Categories: PMI, Agile, Volunteering, Strategy, Career Development, Innovation, Leadership, Benefits Realization, Ethics, Communications Management
| Dia daoibh ar maidin! (“Good morning all” in Irish/Gaelic) Can you Agilely Play Games with Rogue Monkeys while using Simulations of Social Intelligence? That sentence about rogue monkeys may sound bizarre. Why do I have it there? It includes the broad themes of the sessions I truly enjoyed on the fabulous first day of the PMI EMEA Congress 2019 at delightful Dublin! Got your attention? Please read on for my key takeaways from each of those sessions. 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 three of the sessions are available at these Youtube links: Priya Patra: https://youtu.be/7Z70-vlxNzo Simona Bonghez: https://youtu.be/L_jkeLysZuU Ruth Pearce: Video will be added soon… Warm welcome!
Entering the Dublin Convention Centre, we were welcomed by two jovial gentlemen, each 12-feet tall. How? They were on Irish stilts! They threw me a few “PMI50” stressbuster toys. The packed meeting hall was welcomed by Beth Partleton, member of the PMI Board of Directors. She introduced PMI’s new CEO, Sunil Prashara. He was asked why he moved from the business world to head a not-for-profit. His reply was amazing: “I prefer to say PMI is a ‘For Purpose’ organization. And its purpose can make a meaningful difference all over the world!”
Jamil the Scribbler and Celebrity High-Performance Coach
“I don’t use Powerpoints. I just scribble. I’m Jamil, the Scribbler! There, I feel so much better!” That was the rousing start to the Opening Keynote of #PMIEMEA19. In an amazingly inspirational, humorous and practically useful session, Jamil emphasized the importance of inner thinking. He exhorted attendees to make just one degree of difference. He mentioned how two perfectly parallel lines could be made to meet by rotating one of them by just one degree. Jamil spoke about “Rogue Monkeys,” people who are 1/78 of the human population. These are people who are invaluable since they think differently. The speaker exhorted all attendees to encourage “rogue monkeys” in their teams, adding that every valuable invention in history came from such thinking. Gamify to Amplify! Priya Patra displayed high-energy in presenting the session titled “Project Managers – Get Your ‘Game On’ to Usher Success." She emphasized the critical importance of gamification to project success.
Priya spoke about how gamification elicits six key human emotions: Achievement, Altruism, Competition, Cooperation, Recognition, and Self-Expression. In highly stressful projects, project managers could leverage this tool very effectively, adding a fun element to deliver superior results. Playing to Win Vered Holzmann and Daniel Zitter presented the next session, “Mastering Project Management Technical and Leadership Skills Through a Simulation Games.”
Each group of nine people played the PMZone game. The game featured three projects simulations with three elements: Cost, Resources, and Value. Players could be hit by issues, benefit from opportunities, and had to plan carefully to succeed. Social Intelligence, anyone? We’ve all heard of Intelligence Quotient (IQ), Emotional Intelligence (EQ) and Artificial Intelligence (AI). But have we heard of Social Intelligence (SI)? In a session titled “Social Intelligence: Why We Need It and How to Get It,” Ruth Pearce, spoke about the importance of understanding others well enough to relate with them.
Ruth presented 24 hum strengths, and the amazing results she had got from taking the time to spot other’s strengths. She ended with a powerful story written by a fellow course attendee on her experience dealing with her husband’s sudden heart attack. Agility Simona Bonghez is a seasoned speaker at PMI events. Following-up on her “Little Drops of Agility” session at the Berlin Congress in 2018, she presented the session, "The Journey Towards Agility: Lessons Learned From Successes and Failures." Simona stressed on the importance of learning from failures and recovering quickly. She presented case studies of her experience with large organizations.
Simona asked attendees to consider what would happen if you were asked to play a game of chess with some pieces completely removed from the game, the knight moving like a queen and the rook like a bishop. Would you decline to play the game? To win, your only option would be to be flexible, adjust to the new rules, and try to outwit your opponent. This, she said, was the essence of Agility and Agile Thinking! I hope you’re enjoying the continuous coverage of the EMEA Congress 2019 by the Community Correspondents Team. In addition to tweets by @PMInstitute and @PMIEvents, regular updates are available on the Twitter handles of our team members, @heykristinj, @Em_the_PM, @StephanieJaeg10, @moritz_sprenger and yours truly, @KarthikPMO. Today, I plan to attend and cover these great sessions. Look for detailed coverage of these sessions tomorrow!
I will also be presenting this session at 3.15. If you are at the conference, I’d love to see you there! Mi7! Motivate and Inspire with Seven Proven Leadership Techniques for Project Success by Sripriya Narayanasamy and Yours Truly! Please follow, like, comment, and retweet our continuous coverage on Twitter (https://twitter.com/KarthikPMO), LinkedIn (linkedin.com/in/kramamurthy) and Facebook ( https://www.facebook.com/forkarthik ) |
Think-Feel-Act, Design Thinking, Governance, AI in PM, and the importance of Sponsorship at #PMIEMEA19 - Day 1
| What a first day at the PMI EMEA Congress 2019. A single blog post won’t suffice to cover all the learnings of one day. I chose to pick out some of the key points that stuck in my head of each session I attended – so here it is: “Most of people define themselves through what we actually do: I am a Project Manager, I am a Fire Fighter, I am a School Teacher. Also, most organisations define themselves through what they sell, and not what customer values.” Jamil Qureshi told the story of a Fire Fighter, who, given the question what he did for a living, said: “I let the future take place, I build communities”. He believes that if he saves a family or a house from a fire, that family can live happy lives and the house will remain to exist. The firefighter defines himself through what he thinks and feels, rather than what he actually does, namely fighting fire.
Jamil made an important point: It is all about perspective. We are drawn to our most dominant thoughts and feelings. If we change the way we think and feel about something, we can change the way we act.
Denis Vukosav is a passionate project manager from the banking industry. That industry may not be known specifically for their ability to deploy Design Thinking and Agile methods in their projects, but Denis is challenging this: “When Design Thinking and Agile methods merge, you can combine best of both worlds. Design Thinking devotes an entire process step to developing customer empathy, which is often minimized within the agile framework for the benefits of speed.” You can make your projects become more successful by incorporating the needs of the customer with design thinking early on in your projects.
Denis continues to investigate how Design Thinking will enrich project management processes and will talk again at the global Congress in September.
Michael Knapp presented his research findings from a study on the importance of governance in 3P (Portfolio, Programme, Project Management) in managing innovation in organisations. “One common mistake management and project managers often do is confusing governance and management. Management is about the execution of tasks and processes. Governance is about decision-making. Today, we have good standards and processes defined for the execution, and research shows, there are very little standards and processes on Governance in organisations.” The lack of maturity and metrics in governance can often lead to barriers to manage innovation effectively. If a project manager experiences the following barriers, there is a high chance that these symptoms are the result of a lack of governance maturity: Under-funding, culture clashes, sclerosis, politics and poor alignment, lack of strategy and vision, and lack of executive commitment.
“The best thing you can do as a project manager working in innovation is to grab management and sponsors and drag them down to the shop floor where the action takes place basis”, said Michael. This will make them start to rethink their commitment.
What will the future of work look like for a project manager? The next session I attended was organized as a panel discussion formed by three industry leaders in their field of expertise (project management). Hilary Baker from Airbus, Jim Robinson from the Ministry of Defence UK, and Dieter Butz from Bosch.
“Knowledge management, empathy, and anticipation are probably the key competences that distinguishes a good project manager from any future AI-driven tool in the profession”, says Hilary. Jim adds, that: “Hard project management skills such as scheduling, risk management, planning, and reporting the right information may become less manual, but need to be understood by a PM”. “Role perceptions will constantly change, and we need to change with the changing needs of the organisation to stay competitive, as an organisation, and as an individual”, concludes Dieter.
The gist of the talk for me: Now is the time to rethink standard role models in a project in order to shape the profession in 2030. AI will support, but cannot compete with the human intuition, passion, and creativity of a project manager.
Olivier Lazar, one of the very few people in the world holding each PMI certification, made an inspiring talk about the role and the need of the sponsor in a project.
“41% of projects fail because there is a lack of sponsorship”. Especially in Change Management the role of the sponsor is inevitable. The project manager does not have the credibility to effectively sponsor change and convince negative influential stakeholders.
Furthermore, he stresses a vital point: “The project charter is a contract between the organisation, the sponsor, and the project manager. It is the accountability of the sponsor to write and own the project charter”. This is sometimes forgotten. Olivier reminds us that the Initiation Process Group of the PMBOK 6th is owned by the Sponsor.
The sponsor is a tool to the project, a good project manager applies this tool effectively in their projects.
Now I am looking forward to a great 2nd day.
Don't forget to follow my fellow Community Correspondents for updates during PMI EMEA 2019: Emily, Stephanie, and Karthik. Follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn we will be covering the sessions live so you don’t miss a thing! |
The Sideshows of the PMI EMEA 2019
| All PMI Events always have a lot of things on the agenda, that can be seen as "side shows", but are well worth attending. You can get so much value in them. Like all PMI Conferences, the #PMIEMEA19 started with a First-time Attendee Orientation. I often attend these sessions, even though I have attended several PMI conferences, since there is always new information. During this session you learn all you need to make the most out of your Conference experience. This time it was even more important, since PMI is using a new event app, which was explained at length during the session. #PMIEMEA19 has other fascinating offers on the program. This evening there were 3 different Networking Tours on offer, which one needed to sign up for, to be able to attend. These did cost some extra money, but it was well worth it. On offer were: 1. A Bus Tour of Dublin 2. A Walking Tour of Dublin 3. A Musical Pub Crawl, with Irish Musicians through several of the old Pubs in I attended the Walking Tour, which saw us walk quite some distance. We learned a lot about the History of Dublin, both recent and all the way back to the vikings. We went to many of the historical parts of town and got many more tips on places to explore from our wonderful guide. Tomorrow, the congress has offsite learning sessions on offer. For these one had to sign on in advance as well. Since they were fully booked in no town, there was even a waiting list. On offer are the following: 1. a visit to One Microsoft Place 2. A visit to the Royal College of Surgeons Ireland 3. A visit to Teeling Distillery We will talk about the experience, if we can, currently I am on the waiting list. In addition to that PMI has a whole host of Networking Breaks, Networking functions and evening functions. To make the most of your Congress experience, you should attend these functions. They are a great opportunity to get to know new people, build your professional network in a relaxed atmosphere. All these functions are a lot of fun and I try not to miss them.
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Wow - the first day is already over
| The first day of the #PMIEMEA19 is already over. It is unbelievable. Reflecting back on the day's events I realize it is difficult to summarize without writing a book. I will try my best. In the morning it was fun watching people network, reconnect with old friends, pick their badges and generally get ready for the conference. I also had a chance to connect with many new people. Of course there was Coffee, Tea and Biscuits. It is amazing to see that 800+ people made it to the conference. Opening Session: Beth Partleton, a PMI Fellow and 2019 Board of Directors Member led us through the session. In a video Jim Snyder, one of the 5 founders of PMI, reflected on the History of PMI. Jim's greatest memories of 50 years of PMI is all about the people. He is excited to see what the next 50 years will bring. Sunil Prashara the new PMI President & CEO reflected briefly on his first 67 days in office. His biggest first impression is also the people and the community spirit within PMI. He is truly impressed what is happening in the Chapters and especially with the Ireland Chapter putting this amazing event together. He promised to be available throughout the event and attend sessions with all of us. And sure enough I met him in some of the sessions I attended. I also managed to briefly chat with him and saw many others do the same. Yes he wants our input, reach out to him! The first Keynote by Jamil Qureshi, was packed with information, tips & tricks in a very relaxed talk. Jamil the Scribbler, as he calls himself. In order to get amazing success in your life you only need to do a 1 degree change. Find that one thing you want to change a bit. The 3 principles that with change your life are simple: 1. Inner Dialogue - reflect and do the 1 degree shift 2. Check on your response to events in your life and see the outcome change 3. Look into the belief systems of yourself and others to see what is blocking you from being truly innovative. Dismantle these belief systems by using the "Rogue Monkey" to proof that the belief systems are wrong. Influencing without Authority: If you use IQ & EQ together you can easily have influence without having formal power. Norma Lynch& Pat Lucey how with the help of a influence plan, using 11 steps one can successfully influence stakeholders and with that project outcomes. This talk will come up tomorrow again. HamdanBin Mohammed Awards for Innovation in Project Management: These international awards were introduced by the Crown Prince of Dubai, to encourage innovation in the way project management is done. There are 8 different awards in 4 categories. Awards are given to Individuals, Organizations, Teams and Academia. There is full time team, that judges applications by clearly defined rules. Check their website for details. www. hbmaipm.com Leading Change Adoption at a Glance: Change projects are only successful, if the implemented is adopted. The What and the How needs to be sorted out. Adrian Mulvanerty reduced it to a simple formula, based on the William Bridges Model: Q + A = E Q = Quality, A = Adoption, E = Effectiveness His leading Change Adoption Toolkit offers 7 tools in 3 process groups. Check with him or the Schneider Electrics Website for the tools. PM 2030: Your Project Management Toolkit for the Future: Philip Diab led a Panel Discussion between Dieter Butz of Bosch, Hilary Baker of Airbus and Jim Robinson of the British Armed Forces. This discussion showed clearly that AI is not likely to replace project managers, since projects need the human factor of project management. However there seem to be clear differences between what the private industries need from a future project manager and what the armed forces expect to require. Forecasting Project Performance with Control Account Value Analysis (CAVA) Douglas Bower explained the principles of Control Account Value Analysis with practical examples and compared it to EVM clearly showing the advantages and disadvantages of each. The day ended on a high note with a Networking Social, with fresh Guiness and wonderful snacks. Thereafter, those who had signed up and paid for Networking Tours left for the tours. I will talk about the one I attended in a separate Blog As you can see the day is packed with information, different sessions and it is often difficult to decide which session to attend. The PMI Event App can guide you in selecting the sessions you want to attend. I have learned a lot of practical things today |
