Here we go again … the world is always changing.
Categories:
Agile,
Benefits Realization,
Best Practices,
Career Help,
Change Management,
Communication,
digital transformation,
Education and Training,
Generational PM,
innovation,
Leadership,
New to Project Management,
Portfolio Management,
Program Management,
Project Delivery,
Project Planning,
Project Requirements,
Risk Management,
Strategy,
Talent Management,
Virtual Experience Series
Categories: Agile, Benefits Realization, Best Practices, Career Help, Change Management, Communication, digital transformation, Education and Training, Generational PM, innovation, Leadership, New to Project Management, Portfolio Management, Program Management, Project Delivery, Project Planning, Project Requirements, Risk Management, Strategy, Talent Management, Virtual Experience Series
| As offices thought they had a plan to get back to offices in September and October, plans have been delayed. If these past 18 months haven’t been hard enough, now your organization needs to transform its business to adapt and succeed in the new normal world. Equipping leaders to quickly anticipate and react to the speed of change is one of the most challenging issues for organizations. At this point, burnout and attrition are other key challenges faced by organizations today. Do you need inspiration on how other project managers are dealing with change? If you do, you need to attend PMI’s Virtual Experience 6-7 October to rejuvenate your project management skills and learn from leaders to think differently so you can lead your organization through an ever-changing environment! Hear from prominent rising leaders around the world who are spearheading impactful movements to determine what is needed to make real change. These inspiring sessions will help you to think differently and look out of the box to develop the solutions needed for your organization. PMI’s Virtual Experience has brought together a diverse group of influential speakers to share their experiences and outcomes. Get inspired by Fatima Ibrahim, Global Citizen's UK Hero of the Year, Gitanjali Rao, Young Inventor, Author, and TIME Magazine's 2020 Kid of the Year, and Jordan Chanesta, LGBTQIA+ Rights Activist, come together to discuss spearheading impactful global movements to make real change. Hear from author Peter Hinssen as he discusses his book, The Phoenix and The Unicorn: The Why, What and How of Corporate Innovation, and how organizations aren't afraid to reinvent and adapt to the new normal of digital disruption. Join breakout sessions to hear how other project management leaders are managing change and learn from their best practices and mistakes. Sessions include:
In addition to all the great sessions and speakers, Virtual Experience Series 6-7 October has multiple ways to connect and network with the PMI global community. The Lounge chat is where you will meet attendees from all around the world. Join industry chats where you drive the conversation! Chats are focused on the following areas: Construction, Energy (Electric, Gas, Mining, Oil), Financial Services, Government/Legal, Healthcare/Pharmaceutical, IT, Manufacturing, Telecom, and Training/Education. We are so excited for this powerful virtual event because we know how much change happens when our incredible community comes together from around the world to share these experiences. We’ve had past attendees tell us they’ve never felt more connected virtually — and that is something we are truly proud of and will continue to strive for. Join us. Free for PMI Member, US$79 for Non-members. Register Now and we look forward to seeing you there!
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PMI's Virtual Experience Series - Part 2!
| PMI wrapped up the 2020 Virtual Experience Series this month. The VES is a new virtual event series that offered monthly virtual experiences from June – December this year. More information can be located at https://www.pmi.org/virtual-experience-series. You can still register for one of seven events or the entire on-demand series to gain access to all of the amazing speakers and content and up to 68 PDUs through 31 January 2021. In the November program, I hosted sports strategists Katie Sowers and Craig O’Shannessy who discussed how they use data and insights to improve the play and outcomes of their athletes. By far, the number one takeaway of our virtual participants was the sharing of strategists’ “Why.” We received feedback such as:
It is interesting how the “Why” prompts a journey into who we are and what motivates us. Nowadays with our COVID-19 challenging work environments, and the push to build new capabilities and skills, those individuals and organizations who are guided by purpose are shown to be more resilient, have stronger well-being and are more engaged (McKinsey) . The list of benefits goes on. “People don’t buy what you do. They buy WHY you do it.” ~ Simon Sinek The “Why” is your purpose, cause, or belief. And it’s not new. Simon Sinek has been talking about “Why” for years. Remember this video? It’s hard to believe that Sinek’s groundbreaking Why video is now 10 years old! “Inspired leaders and inspired organizations think and act from the inside out.” ~ Simon Sinek A few years ago, the PMI leadership team performed an exercise to each identify their why, recorded their word and explanations, and posted it to our internal social media group for all staff to view. It was bold, vulnerable, and thought-provoking. My executive leader took his operating group through the exercise, inspiring thought, alignment and action. Every now and then, I’ll have a colleague update me on their “Why” as they clarify their purpose or even change it based upon a life event. We are experiencing for the first time in history a movement whereby all generations are more likely to purchase from a purpose-driven company. If you are a leader in your organization, you need to clarify with your audiences your strategic vision, your purpose, and your values. Your #1 stakeholder group - your employees - want to understand your company’s mission for long-term value creation. Employees engaged in their company’s purpose and values are less likely to look for a different job. And you can help them by facilitating a workshop on finding their own “Why.” Linking employees' passion to the organization's purpose is bound to increase engagement in the workplace. Discussion topic for readers: As a project leader, we need to possess the leadership skills to drive our projects and teams. How does your “Why” fuel your work? Or if you haven’t explored your “Why,” how might knowing your why, and the why of your team members, impact your approach to the way you work? |
How does your behaviour support you in achieving your goals? - PMIEMEA19 Recap
| PMI EMEA 2019 is over and just slowly I start to realize what a great Congress it was. And foremost, it was a fantastic opportunity to meet fellow project managers from many different countries and backgrounds, share experiences, and celebrate PMI's 50th anniversary. It has been a week since I arrived back home, enough time to organize some thoughts and reflect on the experience.
I initially attended the Congress to get more involved as a volunteer, learn from global thought leaders and practitioners, and to look out for inspiration. I have realized for why I am passionate about the profession of project management: It’s all about mind-set. Furthermore, it's the freedom of choice and personality to use a variety of tools, insights, methods, processes, and competences to achieve goals. The people I have met in Dublin all had these things in common: Personal drive, the willingness to communicate, being results driven, working passionately towards personal goals, and foremost: curiosity. These are exactly the traits that distinguishes a good project managers.
I can’t speak for the rest of the attendees, but inspiration is what I found. Most of the speakers transported a real passion for what they do and what they talked about. That’s probably the reason for why some sentences and learnings still occupy me every day at work.
Five key sentences from the Congress really got stuck and already made a difference in the way I look at projects in my organisations and at the effectiveness of project leaders today. I use these sentences to challenge my own thinking at work. They are thought anchors, not actual learnings. Maybe they will have an impact on how you go to work tomorrow, as well:
“People are drawn to their most dominant thoughts”: Change the way people think, then you can change the way people feel and act; it’s all about mind-set – Jamil Qureshi
“Key emerging competences in project management will be agility, customer empathy, advanced analytics, and curiosity”: Traditional roles will be disrupted by a more complex and uncertain environment organisations are embedded in, be part of that change – Hilary Baker
“Many companies measure how they implement change, but not the actual change itself”: A change is no longer a change when it is part of the DNA of the organisation. It is often difficult to attend change until full implementation as Management or Sponsors prioritise new initiatives, when change management projects are perceived to be completed. – Olivier Lazar
“The next big challenge will be to standardise terminology of agile beyond the small task group and define an integrated framework with the 3Ps: project, programme, and portfolio management”: The hype around agile methodologies is profound, however, they still fall short of providing an integrated framework in relation to the 3Ps on organisational level – Nicholas Clemens
“How does your behaviour support you in achieving your goals?”: The one who asks the right questions leads. The importance of coaching skills for effective communication cannot be underestimated for project managers – Maria Fafard
What do you think? Will these five anchors provoke your thoughts and actions, too? Thank you Kristin Jones for providing me with the opportunity to volunteer as community correspondent at this years’ congress. I hope there will be a chance in the future to volunteer once more. A big thank you also to my team of community correspondents, Emily, Stephanie, and Karthik – it was fun working with and learning from you. Hope to see you all soon. |
Final Summary of PMI EMEA Congress 2019 – my 3 top Lesson’s Learned
Categories:
Agile,
Best Practices,
Career Help,
Change Management,
Communication,
Complexity,
Education and Training,
EMEA Congress Reflections,
Ethics,
Human Aspects of PM,
Innovation,
Leadership,
Lessons Learned,
New to Project Management,
Nontraditional Project Management,
PM Think About It,
PMI,
Program Management,
Project Delivery,
Reflections on the PM Life,
Stakeholder,
Strategy,
Virtual Teams,
Volunteering
Categories: Agile, Best Practices, Career Help, Change Management, Communication, Complexity, Education and Training, EMEA Congress Reflections, Ethics, Human Aspects of PM, Innovation, Leadership, Lessons Learned, New to Project Management, Nontraditional Project Management, PM Think About It, PMI, Program Management, Project Delivery, Reflections on the PM Life, Stakeholder, Strategy, Virtual Teams, Volunteering
| Hi everyone, thanks for following me all through the Congress and reading my blogs and Tweets about the Congress. It really has been a privilege to be Community Correspondent for the #PMIEMEA19. It is a lot of fun, but also hard work. During all sessions you attend, you listen, take notes, tweet and keep your Social Media Updates going. That takes a lot of concentration. Even during the Networking events, you take notes and keep track of who you meet and what you do. Then in the evening when everyone orders their second beer in the Pub of choice for the day, you go back to your hotel room to write a blog about your day. What an experience! I thoroughly enjoyed it. Especially tweeting on Twitter was a new experience for me. I only opened an account successfully about 1 month ago. What an eventful few days it has been! I was privileged to listen to Jamil Qureshi twice, once during the PMI LIMC Alumni Workshop on Sunday and then on Monday again during the Keynote. So much information in such a short time! Then during the Opening Session to hear from Jim Snyder, that his best memories are all about the people. Not the Mega Milestones and achievements, no, the people! Yes his best memories are about you and me. I actually agree with him. Yes in PMI events I have always learned a lot, but the best has always been the people. And you keep meeting again at events. For me they are also the go to Network when I need advice or help. Meeting Sunil Pashara and seeing him attending sessions, mingling with people and freely networking with delegates was special. Knowing that he is a true citizen of the world, born & raised in Kenya, worked in almost every continent, living in London, working in Philadelphia. When we talk to him, he can relate.
Every session I attended, even then one I felt lost in, since the discussions used a Scrum Vocabulary, that is Greek to me, I took important lessons from. They are all in my notebook, but if I share them all, this will be a book. So what are my 3 biggest lessons:
For both hybrid projects & virtual teams you need to scale your communication up a notch. Hence I will concentrate on improving my communication skills and my EQ skills, both will come in handy for both environments. I want to become a Project Motivator and of course I bought the book by Ruth Pearce during the Congress.
Hat’s off to the Host Chapter, the PMI Ireland Chapter for a job well done.
It was also very exciting to see and be inspired by live TED Talks. I am looking forward to seeing more of the new engagement between PMI & TED. Karthik had shared the links to all the original TED Talks, so you can watch them yourself. This was for me the first time attending the PMI EMEA Congress. I had previously only attended PMI Africa Conferences, the first day of 2 PMI Global Conferences and a host of Leadership Institute Meetings (LIM, RLIM). What they said is true. Each Conference / Congress has its own character. In Africa it is all about Networking and the social events are attended by all, it is like a big carnival with learning sessions. In the US it is more about Business, and the Conference is so big (up to 5000 people), that you are happy to see your Network Friends. However it is fun, and somehow you do meet your friends. The EMEA Congress I had been told is all about the Learning and the PDUs. But in Dublin I saw that the fun counts as well in Europe and the parties were great. I think each has its big positive sites and I will definitely attend any of them again. See you at the next Congress:
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Round up of Videos from PMIEMEA19
| One thing that I asked the community before the conference was what would like they to see during the conference? What was the best way to share the conference with you all? The feedback and answer that came from several of you was that you wanted to see various points of the conference via video. To be able to have this in a format that could be watched by everyone, I have uploaded to Youtube all of the videos and would really appreciate your feedback. Are these the videos that you wanted to see? Would you want to see any others/different ones?
- Emily. |
