Viewing Posts by Jack Duggal
SPARK: How to Ignite It for Greater Connection, Meaning, Purpose, and Impact!
Categories:
Virtual Experience Series
Categories: Virtual Experience Series
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By Jack Duggal, MBA, PMP Have you thought about the need for greater connection, meaning, and purpose recently? If you have, you are not alone, and if you haven’t, you should! It is a life changer and can lead to greater results, impact, and satisfaction. Particularly in the last year, the pandemic has pushed us to reflect on these questions to find a sense of meaning and purpose. Over 40 percent of the global workforce is in pivot mode and considering leaving their employer this year, according to a Microsoft 2021 Work Trend Index report. But how do you pivot with purpose? Do you feel stuck in your current situation, or do you have a bunch of options? Are you unsure if you are on the right track? How do you decide and make tough choices? How do you connect your project to purpose? To address these questions, we have to go to the source of what ignites our spark. Just like a light bulb needs a connection to a power source to light up, what do we as humans need to light up? “Powered by Intel,” “Powered by AWS” or “Powered by Google” are ubiquitous stamps and stickers on products and systems. What would be a similar sticker for homo-sapiens? The more you think about it, the more you will realize that we are “Powered by Purpose” – we are a purpose-driven species. Purpose is what makes us get out of bed in the morning instead of dragging. Purpose is what we need to bounce back, and not just bounce back but bounce forward. Without purpose we are designed to self-destruct. So, if you feel like you have lost your mojo, you need to reconnect with your purpose. We have all gone through a rough time with the pandemic, but some people have gotten stronger by reflecting and reigniting their spark. They have changed their priorities and carved a new path based on their purpose. Since the 1980s, there are over 750 studies that mention “purpose in life” examining the psychological, behavioral, and biological benefits of purpose. From stress reduction to resilience, more antibody production to longer life, more money, and greater life satisfaction are some of the benefits highlighted in these studies. Think of purpose as a vitamin; the strength of vitamin P energizes and lights us up, and the lack of purpose can drain and weaken us. What is purpose? Purpose is the flame that ignites the spark. It inspires and enables action to create or do something that is meaningful to yourself and consequential to others. It is energizing because it helps you to connect to your highest self. It provides a clear why based on the central theme of who you are, your skills, and your goals. How do you find it? You will discover purpose at the intersection of what is interesting to you, what you are good at, and what the world needs. You have to dig into your curiosity that fuels passion that sparks purpose. In this PMI Virtual Experience Series session on 2 June, we will unpack this in detail and find out how to light the spark by discovering what powers and inspires you, connecting your projects to purpose, and using purpose as a skill to find meaning and connection. Move from me to we to thee and impact not just yourself but your family, team, community, or the planet. Identifying your spark and igniting your purpose is a life changer. Find out how by joining me on 2 June for the Virtual Experience Series where I will be responding to your questions and comments as you start to identify your big why and what you offer to the world.
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From Kill the PMO to Creating an Elite PMO
| From Kill the PMO to Creating an Elite PMO there are some exciting sessions to look forward in the PMO area of focus at the congress. I will be leading the first session on Sunday morning, Kill the PMO! Some of you are probably excited about this idea of killing the PMO and others are wondering, why? “When will the PMO stop us from conducting business…” was a comment I heard recently from a frustrated executive in a financial services organization. Often, PMOs are guilty of unclear, complicated processes that are costly in terms of time, rework, frustration and simply conducting business. These complicated processes are like creepers and weeds that can spread and strangle healthy plants and trees if not controlled in time. What comes to mind when you think about the “PMO?” 78% of the respondents in our survey said more work, documentation, red-tape and bureaucracy. This perception of bureaucracy is a critical issue for PMOs and a number one reason for push-back and lack of buy-in and acceptance for many PMOs. Today’s DANCE-world (Dynamic & changing; Ambiguous & uncertain; Non-Linear; Complex and Emergent & unpredictable) has caused increasing disruption in business and beyond. To survive in a disruptive world speed and agility are key and simplicity is a strategic imperative. How do you create a start-up culture that gives you a competitive advantage and guard against bloat and bureaucracy that slows you down? As one executive in a global conglomerate remarked, “our enemy is not the competition, it is unnecessary complexity in our processes.” You have to create a culture where you can work together and focus on initiatives and projects that matter the most, make jobs easier, simplify processes and enhance customer experience. Organizations like General Electric, ConAgra, Vanguard and others have embraced simplification as a strategic initiative. Just like the Phoenix the PMO can rise from the ashes and resurrect itself as the Department of Simplicity. The vision for starting and sustaining PMOs should be that they are the Department of Simplicity within the organization. There is a rallying cry to simplify organizations and government in today’s disruptive world and simplification is become a strategic imperative for speed and agility in many organizations. In this not-to-miss session we will discuss how the PMO needs to kill the traditional perception of bureaucracy and re-invent itself as the Department of Simplicity. We will discuss how the PMO can take a leadership role to identify opportunitiesto focus on simplicity and dedicate itself to identify and reduce unnecessary overhead and complicatedness. You will walk-away with practical ideas and techniques from real-world PMOs that will help you to increase buy-in, support and win raving fans for your PMO. The other PMO sessions range from building a PMO from the Ground-up to Starting-up an Enterprise PMO. Also Change Management and Creating an Elite PMO through collaboration are featured. I am also excited about finding out more about how to Incorporate PM Best Practices even when the PMO is not supported by the organization. Here is a listing of the PMO area of focus sessions: NA14INP01: Kill the PMO! Resurrect the Department of Simplicity
IntermediateSunday, 26 October
IntroductorySunday, 26 October
IntermediateSunday, 26 October
IntermediateSunday, 26 October
IntermediateTuesday, 28 October
IntroductoryTuesday, 28 October Even if you are not directly involved with PMOs, attending PMO sessions at the congress will provide a broad perspective on contemporary issues facing organizational project management (OPM). If you want to find out what is trending in PM it might be a good idea to attend some of these sessions. |
Are We Measuring & Communicating Project Success in the Right Way?
| Are We Defining, Measuring & Communicating Project Success in the Right Way? This is a beautiful question that we need to be re-thinking, particularly in today’s disruptive world. We all measure projects in some way, but do we measure what matters? This is the question we will be discussing in an interesting new format of an ‘interactive’ session at the upcoming North America Global Congress in Phoenix next month. This session will also be available live to a virtual audience. I am excited to lead and facilitate this session as I have been on a pursuit of finding better ways to ‘measure what matters’ for a number of years. I have posed this questions to hundreds of project and program managers around the world and written about it. Most organizations have all measure of key performance indicators, metrics and measurement systems, but the more you look under the covers measurement is a joke in many organizations. In this engaging and interactive session we will explore, why this is so? Along this pursuit I am outlining four objectives for our discussion: 1) Ask the tough questions and challenge the current ways of measuring & communicating project success. 2) Discuss how do we define project success? 3) List measures and performance indicators that stakeholders care about. 4) Gain new insights and actionable pointers to measure and communicate project success.
To get us started, here is a preliminary list of questions to think about: • What do you currently measure? What are common measures in today’s world? • What kind of behaviors do our current measures promote? • Do we measure what matters? • How do you define project success? • How do we measure what our stakeholders care about? • What makes stakeholders happy? • How do you communicate project status and progress? • What tools / templates / platforms / dashboards / scorecards are appropriate to communicate project success? • How do you know that customer requirements have been met? • How do you know that the project outcomes have been met? Are you ready for the dialog… What are your challenges in this area? What other questions you would like to explore? |
