Is a Career Change in your Future?
| According to Prudential Financial’s Pulse of the American Worker survey, 1 in 4 workers are preparing to look for opportunities with a new employer once the pandemic threat has subsided. And more than 40% of people who responded to Microsoft’s Work Trend Index, a global survey of over 30,000 people in 31 countries, said they are considering leaving their employer this year. Article after article, discuss employees leaving their jobs, seeking new opportunities with organizations that will provide more career advancement, substantial employer-related benefits, healthier work-life balance, better company culture, and remote work options. If you have been questioning your current role in project management, you must attend PMI’s upcoming Virtual Experience Event 6-7 October to help you navigate your career pathway. In addition to attending inspiring sessions featuring 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, who come together to discuss spearheading impactful global movements to make real change, PMI’s Virtual Experience will debut its CareerHUB to help you with your career change. The CareerHUB helps you at every stage of their career journey. Based on your experience, it will offer a wide variety of professional tools, resume building and advice to help future-proof your career. By attending the Virtual Experience Event in October, you will have access to all the tools available within the CareerHUB such as the CareerHUB Theater, Career Expo, and Career Navigator. CareerHUB provides access to PMI’s “Brand You Theater: to help define yourself as a successful project manager and the best ways to promote career-boosting content. “Brand+Brain+Wellness” topics are 15 minute On-Demand sessions to help you prepare for your next job in project management. Sessions include “Building Your Brand: What’s Your Value Proposition” to help you develop a plan that will help you to stand out and define your unique value proposition; “Plan Your Career Flight Plan” will help you to create an actionable career plan and goals to improve or enhance their professional journey; “How to Amplify Your Resume/CV will help you showcase your best self in your resume and online presence; “How to Interview Like a Pro” will provide helpful tips to be better prepared and confident for an interview. Career Navigator focuses on personalizing a career path for you based on your previous experience. You can enter all your previous jobs, projects, and skills with a free assessment to receive a personalized action plan that matches you with the perfect growth opportunities. By identifying your aspirations and career goals, Career Navigators builds a complete picture of all elements you need to achieve your next step in your project management career. This platform also allows you to track your success and see your development from week to week, so you see how you are growing towards your goal. Finally, Career Expo allows you to create a profile to promote your resume and successes so hiring managers can find you easily. With Career Expo, you won’t miss an amazing opportunity! You can browse available job postings from companies looking specifically for project managers and apply for open positions that fit your career goals. Career Expo also provides an opportunity for you to connect live with companies on the event day. 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 are sure you will become inspired about your role in project management and learn how to make your next career change. 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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Networking, knowledge and insight: PMIEMEA19
| It's been a week since PMIEMEA19 and since I've been back at work, I've had the chance to really let the conference sink in. I think it's really important that after any conference or intense knowledge gathering, that you allow yourself time to process all of the knowledge that you've received and see what what you can learn from in your daily life. I've been really fortunate to be part of a great group of correspondents who really have shown such different sides to the conference which I really hope the online audience has found useful.
Here are some of my key takeaways from the conference.
Since the Conference, this has really been on my mind and I've been talking to my colleagues about how we can be more effective and efficient in our communications both externally and internally. This has started some really positive discussions and I'm really pleased that I'm working in a team where this behaviour is encouraged. If you've not already had a look, I can recommend the videos that I have uploaded sharing my perspective of the conference. Please comment below if they are the sort of videos that you like to see or if you'd like to see anything else. Perhaps the most important thing for me coming from this conference was just how inspiring a profession I am a member of! This was made very clear during the closing keynote when we were told that PMI has surpassed the initial plan of 50,000 hours of volunteering. If you want to read more about the Global Celebration of Service - please check out this website and see how you can contribute.
What's next? This conference has given me a new appreciation to share ideas and experiences that we have in our projects and daily lives. Since the conference, I've already looked at the 1% of change that I can make to become a better Project Manager. If you're looking for a similar development opportunity, then I can highly recommend the PMI Global Conference. This conference will not only build on the great networking opportunities but also fantastic knowledge sessions that you can participate in to develop your skills as a Project Management Professional. This year's conference is being held in the home of the Project Management Institute; Philadelphia. Make sure that you're there to take part in the networking, knowledge and support over the three days. Signing off from an amazing 3 days and a wonderful experience!
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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. |
The Third Day with a Grand Finale
Categories:
Tools,
Social Responsibility,
PMI,
Nontraditional Project Management,
Reflections on the PM Life,
Best Practices,
Human Aspects of PM,
Generational PM,
PM Think About It,
Volunteering,
Mentoring,
Virtual Teams,
Stakeholder,
Change Management,
Leadership,
Lessons Learned,
Complexity,
Ethics,
Talent Management,
Teams,
Education,
Communication
Categories: Tools, Social Responsibility, PMI, Nontraditional Project Management, Reflections on the PM Life, Best Practices, Human Aspects of PM, Generational PM, PM Think About It, Volunteering, Mentoring, Virtual Teams, Stakeholder, Change Management, Leadership, Lessons Learned, Complexity, Ethics, Talent Management, Teams, Education, Communication
| I can't believe the congress is over already. However there is so much we have learned, so much we need to digest. Today I started my day by attending another session on Virtual Teams. Dr. Mike Oliver brought us the session #603 "Enhancing Virtual Project Leadership Effectiveness". He has worked many years from home and virtual teams have become second nature to him. However globally more and more PMs realize they can work anywhere, anytime. After laying out for us why we are having more and more virtual teams and what the characteristics are of virtual teams are, he helped us think through the challenges of virtual teams. The 3 interactive functions of the Complexity Leadership Theory - administrative Leadership - adaptive Leadership - enabling Leadership need to be balanced and the PM needs to know when to use which and how.
His practical tips: 1. Communication needs to be much more detailed, to ensure everyone gets the same message. Situations like the one in this video need to be avoided: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNz82r5nyUw&t=11s 2. If budget allows, it is best to meet at least once physically with the whole team as early as possible during the project. 3. Set very clear rules that touch on meeting etiquette, use of social media etc 4. Build trust and keep affirming it. In Session #609 "Governance: A framework for applying Agile Practices within Projects, Programs & Portfolios" Nicholas Clemens showed us that progressive elaboration has been part and parcel of the PMI Standards since the first PMBOK Guide. The use of Planning Packages helps tackle the unknowns. "Change is your job security", hence we best embrace it. Nicholas reminded us of the Movie "Dead Poet Society" and the central message that changing once standpoint can give us a totally new perspective.
In Session #614: "Collaborating with the Sales Team to delight your Customers" Neil Shorney gave us a refreshing insight into what Sales Teams and PMs think of each other, how they can complement each other and how they should work together. Sales People are not the ogres but the biggest source of information. Their job is: 1. Understand 2. Propose 3. Gain Commitment They should provide all relevant project information through SPACE CHAMPS. If you ask the right questions following this acronym you get all the information you need. If you contact Neil through LinkedIn he will share the question list with you.
The Closing Session of the Conference was a series of TEDTalks, which were meant to build us up and help us focus on the possibilities not the problems. Often this is shackled by our belief systems and we need to overcome these.
Mona Chalabi showed us how with 3 simple questions you can check if statistics are trustworthy or not. 1. Can you see uncertainty? 2. Can I see myself in the data? 3/ How was the data collected? - was the sample size representative? For example a sample of 600 might not be big enough if you try to assess the entire population of a country like America. Where key words defined and do all understand it the same way? Anab Jain visits the future for a living. No she does not have a time machine. However she and her husband are hired to imagine possible outcomes in the future. They then simulate these in extensive laboratory set-ups and simulations. With that they help clients to find ways of preventing the negative outcomes. Mark Pollock & Simone George: Mark lost his sight with 22, when he met Simone he was "only" blind. Later he broke his back through a fall from a window. His biggest message is If you can't change the circumstances, you have to change yourselve". He is involved in amazing research and development of robotic walking aides and new approaches. He has seen the possibilities on his own body, including when well aimed electrical shocks made him be able to move his limbs again without the robotic exoskeleton. Now when he walks it is becoming less of the robot walking him and more of Mark walking. He stressed that the Optimist often get frustrated along the way. A Realist however accepts the brutal facts and moves on. Be a realist when the going gets tough! Julia Dhar showed us how debate is healthy if done right. Engage yourself respectfully, separate the ideas from the person and accept that you may be wrong. If there is conflict about an idea / a situation / an issue, have a face-to-face meeting and discuss in the prescribed manner. Practice intellectual humility. To practice this in your team you can start by devoting 10min in every meeting to debating and idea or issue. Ingrid Fentell Lee showed us easy ways to find joy. Joy is a little short blimp of "feel good right now" as apposed to happiness which is "feel good over longer time". Joy begins with the senses. Pops of color, rounded shapes, patterns, symmetry, abundance will put joy back into your life. This will then lead to your team being more alert, more productive and happier. Each moment of joy is small, but these joyful dots add up and have many positive long term effects. Look for joy in your life, don;t chase the elusive happiness. It will come by itself. Roberto Toledo, of the PMI Board of Directors brought us the great news that the pledged 50,000 hours of community service for the UN global sustainability programs has already been reached! The Goal has now been doubled. Lets all work together to reach 100,000 hrs - check on PMI.org for details, or ask your chapter!
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Coaching as a powerful tool, the cat-metaphor on agility, and the crux in project monitoring at #PMIEMEA19 Day 2
| What a second day at the PMI EMEA Congress 2019. Not only did the sun shine again in Dublin. PMI also celebrated it’s 50th birthday with us. Half a century of caring about the people and the profession; I am happy to have witnessed just over a tenth of that time. PMI also brought on a stage the most incredible Irish a-cappella-band for the evening celebrations. They would certainly be in the final of any X-Factor show. Here my short and punchy summary of the key take-aways of the three sessions today with Maria Fafard, Leonor Viturro, and Anderson Gordon – three very inspiring speakers. It was the first time Maria Fafard spoke at a PMI Congress, and it will not be the last. As an Executive Coach, Maria’s goal was to emphasize the value of coaching techniques in project management. “What’s wrong with you?” Does this question ring a bell? Avoid this question if you want to effectively coach. Coaching is essentially about helping the one being coached to change their beliefs, and with it, their behaviour. Because you touch the belief system of a person, the strongest tools in coaching are open powerful questions: How is your behaviour serving you to achieve your goals? Ok, you received feedback from peers, how are you going to use it? Why is this important to you? A common misconception: As a coach “you are not there to be liked, you are there to give a service. Kindly and firmly state what you observe”, says Maria. Maria also highlighted to overcome the urge to provide a solution that worked for you in a similar situation. Descriptive support will not provide a change of the belief system in the person being coached. People are not vested in the success of a solution that was brought to them from external. In the afternoon Leonor Viturro demystified organisational agility and described the three basic layers of agility needed in today’s organisations to respond rapidly to change: (1) Project Agility, (2) Personal Agility, and (3) Agile Decision Making, of which Personal Agility is the pre-requisite, and also the most difficult to obtain in organisation. Leonor applied a metaphor of a cat to distil the key characteristics of personal agility:
In order to increase organisational agility, starting to push processes to become agile (project agility) will most certainly fail, if the other levels are not addressed (personal agility and agile decision making). The last session of the afternoon was highly engaging and sparked a lot of discussion. Anderson Gordon introduced a systematic approach to project monitoring: He extended the common Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle to include the importance of studying the data being collected and then using the insights to constantly review and adapt the monitoring system. Anderson mastered the task to facilitate discussion and lead the audience to come up with the key take-aways themselves. He showed examples of performance indicators that lacked completeness and were rightfully challenged by the audience. Performance Indicators should combine two set of criteria: CREAM and QQT. Meaning Clear, Precise, Economic, Adequate, and Monitorable indicators, which can be collected in the right Quality, Quantity, and Time. And don’t forget to evaluate the indicators you have selected before adopting them. Let’s see what day 3 holds ready for us.
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 were we will provide live coverage from the sessions. |
