PMI Global Insights

Presenters: N. Clarke and M. Higgs

First of all, let me tell you that the hidden word on the title is "ethical". I on purpose decided not to show it because I noticed that people tend to think "ethics is boring" or "I know it all".

Actually, there's an increasing interest in ethics due to an increase corporates scandals, so we should be much more aware of the impact of decision making.

Taking decision isn't always as easy, and we're moving from "normative" frames (we tell what is good and right) to a "descriptive" one (describe situation and scenarios).

What would you do - the presenters asked us- in the Trolley Problem (click here for the video): it isn't that easy to come to a decision, uh?

The presenters were sharing two extremely interesting studies, but I want to make sure you are aware that PMI has already provided an Ethical Decision-Making Framework (EDMF) available in 12 languages here.

The EDMF was created by PMI "to guide an individual in the project management profession through a process to make a decision when confronted with an ethical dilemma".

The presentation ended with a question I share with you start a pro-active discussion:

• Project managers need to think about how their behaviours can build high-quality relationships with stakeholders. How do you currently do this?

... and I hope next time you will see the word ethics you wouldn't run away!

PMI Congresses fuel me, inspire me. Not in the way that I come here to fine concrete or plugg & play solutions to my problems. It is rather a place where I find raw material that I (may) use to elaborate new solutions. I always fine good raw material.

R&D - Ripoff & Duplicate

This time in Rome I attended sessions on innovation. Like most (if not all), I really liked the closing keynote, Magnus Lindkvist. I thought he had both an original style and an original content. His message was: we are good at imitating and poor at innovating. Doesn't it reminds you with my post yesterday? See here Project Management is imitation, not innovation.

For Lindkvisk, R&D means for him Ripoff & Duplicate (rather than Research and Development). I love the idea. Our everyday life proove it: we all want the same jobs, the same fancy places where to live, the same cars, the same team members, the same tools, the same best practices... don't we?

Innovation is for people the fools, those who do what others don't, they go where others don't, they buy what others don't... Innovation requires that you strongly believe in your value system to continue out of the roads. 

Yeah!

Presenter: Mike Griffiths

I was really looking for Mike's session because I met him at one event back in January and only after I realised that I studied on one of his books!

The food for thoughts he gave us, the knowledge he has, and the passion for the topic made this session absolutely interesting.

Here are my main highlights from the session

Wicked Problems

Are problems that are characterised by uncertainties, that are difficult to plan and manage with project management methodology. Some examples are:

• evolving business problems
• changing requirements
• emerging technology
• intangible: transform ideas not concrete or steel
• requiring collaboration from different SME

As Peter Drucker analysed in 1999, we are moving from Industrial Work (visible, specialised, stable, etc.) to Knowledge Work (invisible, holistic, changing).

Solving Complex Projects

• Consensus Gathering - collaboratively gain consensus on direction, approach or decision
• Prioritization - build mindful business value and risk reduction
• Short Build/ feedback Cycles - iterate through short cycles of Planning, Exploring, Learning and Adapting
• Result Oriented Reporting - use metrics based on accepted work that gives meaningful indicators to likely completion rates.
• Respect and Empowerment - engage in respectful practices that encourage information sharing and organizational optimization rather than personal one

PMI's Agile Future

PMI has already delivered a lot for the agile community, as shown in the below timeline

and in 2017, PMI will release:

• PMI Agile Practice Guide
• PMBOK v6 Guide

PMI is offering best-in-class plan-driven and agile offering, providing pragmatic guidance on when and how to combine approaches

Hybrid Agile

Hybrid doesn't mean mixing or diluting two methodologies because Hybrid can addictive as done by Lockheed Martin in the following chart

Bonus Tip

The presenter suggested as a very interesting book on motivating people Daniel H. Pink's Drive. Did you read it?

Not only The Clash someday wondered about :)

So after a second day of conferences and meeting people, Are you still 'hungry'? 

Day 2 topic revolved around Navigation Boundaries to Drive Innovation ... I attended different sessions: Why bad projects are so hard to kill and How to asses de maturity of your PMO .. 

I must confess I have an addiction -- yeah I know --- I should not post out there I am addicted to something :)  - I devote most of my time not only to project/program management but to my other passion, mountain and outdoor activities, risk management at the end. I was greatly surprised when I discovered PMI was working in a research project about it! 

During my life some people told me that it was crazy to do that type of activities, that I better could use my time doing other 'useful' things .. but you know what? If I had to listen anything I would haven't done anything in my life ... so yes, I continued doing it even with greater impetus ... During my high school I really got bad scores at the gym classes -- but my moto was Fake it until you make it ... It really taught me about human behaviour and how to deal with conflicts, manage risks, how to abandone in favour of the group and why it is important, how to be more ethical in fact. But you can export all this to the professional life and it really helps you in day to day activities and relations.

So when I met in person Michael O'Brochta, Chair of Ethics Member Advisory Group, during the PMI Congress North America 2014 in Phoenix I got really excited about their research. Michael and Fabio Rigamonti are working hard in the Ethics area inside PMI. Here a link from my colleague Fabio if you want to join the discussion .

I will soon post the interview with Thomas Walenta, PMI Board of Directors and PMI Member of Ethics Review Committee, where you will be able to catch more about Ethics and why it is so important value in project management. 

It is really intriguing how we humans think and act - we all have different 'agendas' and when we are in groups sometimes these 'agendas' change for different reasons, some of them really not ethical. 

How are you going to give up the summit, it is to say, your project? Think about it the next time you are going to take a critical decision. 

After that I attended Americo's Pinto session, How to asses maturity of your PMO.   There are organizations, companies that they even don't have a simple PMO and they struggle managing projects/programs. 

Te Wu presented the Five rules of lean Business Execution using data from a study performed to more than 600 companies.

Te also provided the attendants with some tools to calculate the ExecutionIndex of our organizations?

There has been many other interesting sessions but having 7 tracks at the same time is difficult to attend all of them, but my colleagues of the PMI Community Team did a great job covering them - we decided to post a post per session trying to cover as much as possible: Alfonso Bucero, Majeed Hosseiney, Marco Negri, Maria Hedwall, Alexandre Rezende, Cynthia Snyder, Hosam Eid, William Moylan, Catalin Dogorau, Brad Bigelow, Saadi Adra, Loredana Abramo, Mike Griffits, Rohit Singh, I think I don't miss people :)

And what a best way to conclude a day than recapping? In this occasion Fabio Rigamonti and Sarah Merserau, PMI Community Team members.

Recap Day 1 and Day 2

And you know ... How it was made it is always the best moment ;)

We are live!!! 

Last year I began interviewing PMI Japan Chapter attending EMEA Congress 2016 in Barcelona and I realized of the big potential for PMI. We can spread the word out there and reach peers around the world. 

This is the first 'cooked' material I leave you today - few more will come in few hours/days ;)

Joanna Newman was Community Team member in Barcelona EMEA Congress, supporting PMI reaching to people and gathering face to face opinions of attendants. 

Look what she wants to tell you ... click here