Magical start of the day of #PMICON18 at Los Angeles with spray painting and the
The new operating model for project teams: Balancing flexibility and standardization
June 25, 2025 | Live Webinar
Here we go again … the world is always changing.
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Categories: Virtual Experience Series, digital transformation, Portfolio Management, Risk Management, Agile, Best Practices, Generational PM, Project Planning, Project Delivery, Project Requirements, Strategy, Career Development, Innovation, Change Management, Leadership, Program Management, Benefits Realization, New Practitioners, Talent Management, Education, Communication
| 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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First Day of PMI EMEA Congress 2019: Agilely Playing Games with Rogue Monkeys using Social Intelligence?
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| 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 ) |
#PMICON18 – The Magic Continues
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I am back to Bollywood after spending a week in Hollywood and what a week it has been :
My takeaways ? I have noted them down as quotes that I gathered from the sessions that I attended 1. “I blamed a lot of people when I wasn’t having success, the more I blamed people around me, the more I lost myself, bit by bit, piece by piece.” – John Dorenbos – “Life is a magic” Key note day 1 2. “You will become infinitely more powerful if you can understand your preferences and set them aside and let your colleagues’ preferences shine through,” – Cam Marston 3. “The big part of the equation was to work with the community to understand what veterans wanted in their brand-new veteran’s medical center – Fernando Rivera, Director of Medical center – south Louisiana Veterans health care system, 2018, PMI Project of the year winner Do I hear “crowdsourcing ““Ask the crowd “here as well ? 4. “Creativity changes the world!” – Abigail Posner My experience at the conference are captured in these blogs Day 1: #PMICON18 – Day 1 The magic starts! https://www.projectmanagement.com/blog-post/47192/-PMICON18---Day-1-The-magic-starts-- #PMICON18 – Day 2 Collecting the GEMS of the Generations Day 3: #PMICON18 – Day 3 Invest in the wisdom of the crowd and crack creativity A yearlong celebration of PMI’s 50th birthday #PMI50 has already begun. Watch this to know more. We even created a live mosaic billboard with the moments of the #PMICON18 And yes, there is more… The experts from “Ask the Expert” group have created some exclusive content just for you. My exclusive expert content Projects in the Real World: Agile and Beyond is here. With this I sign off from Bollywood. I would love to know your thoughts on the coverage. Do post your comments here, also don’t forget to follow me on twitter , LinkedIn and Facebook for other exciting news from the world of agile and project management. |
#PMICON18 – Day 1 The magic starts !
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Key takeaways: Have a vision in life and believe in magic! Face the reality Surround yourself with those who lift you up Life is indeed a magic! I was all ready to spread the magic through the channel that I had at the congress as a speaker and as an SME at the “Ask the expert” started as soon as I stepped out of my room at the hotel. I guess my T- shirt said it all. I engaged in discussion across the hallways at the breakfast table, the linked- in corner, the awards gala dinner and at the community “Ask the Expert” booth. Some discussions: “There was a directive to implement JIRA company wide, we tried agile, but our people were not ready?” Bingo! you got it, we need to focus on our people first. Agile is not only about tool implementation. Agile Methodology is a people-focused, results-focused approach to software development that respects our rapidly changing world. Focus on people first to bring the change in mindset for adaptive planning, self-organization, and short delivery times. Tools are just levers, Jira Software is an agile project management tool that supports any agile methodology, be it scrum, kanban, or your own unique flavor. “We are into Workday implementation, one the first ever implementation for the healthcare, we tried agile but it did not work!” Sure of course not all projects are suited for agile, it is up to the project manager to decide what can be agile, predictive or hybrid. For COTS implementation, we may not be full fledged agile on day one, but we of course implement some values of agile like faster feedback, inspect and adapt, and slowly and steadily e may want to look for more opportunities to be agile. Read more on hybrid methodology here “I have started a new contract and I need to setup a process, there is no current process, how do you bring in agility here?” No current process, that seemed scary at first, but as the discussion progressed, we agreed that there was a process which was adhoc. This needed to move to through the maturity level of Adhoc-> Repeatable-> Managed-> Adaptive-> Agile and DevOps. This cannot be achieved day one, but a project manager can assess the current situation and build in a road map for process agility. That evening the “Happy hour” became happier with some champagne, cup-cakes, lots of appetizers, in-promptu on the sofa expert discussions and networking with the attendees. If you have not been able to sign up for the “Ask the expert” sessions, we are here till Monday, you still have time to sign up here, or just drop by for a more casual discussion at the “Ask the Expert” community booth in the exhibit hall. And the end .. the PMI Professional Award Gala dinner, where the best and best of the project management is awarded. A retro musical by “Marilyn Monroe” and Dean Martin made this evening even more magical. Are you ready for more magic on Day 2 ? Unable to experience this magic in-person at the congress? Follow me on twitter , linkedIn or Facebook as I take you through this magical experience of #PMICON18 in the city of angels.
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#PMICON18 – An Ocean of endless learning opportunities. Are you ready ?
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“Would we still need project managers in the digital future? “A question that came up from the audience in a panel discussion at the PMI Global Conference 2017, Chicago. We concluded the discussion on the note, Yes we would still need project managers as they are the driver of the “car" (project), no matter how fast the car goes. Project managers are the #ChampionofChange, who keeps track of the scope, engages the team and manages the stakeholders. The skills would need to evolve through continuous learning to drive the change in the disrupted future. PMI Global Conference 2018 is one such conglomerate of thousands of project managers for 3 days of learning, the learning opportunities to augment our skills to be a true #ChampionOfChange An Ocean of endless learning opportunities for Playground sessions and special attractions: PM Wars, wellness sessions, hands on labs, advancing your career and building a personal brand. Ask the expert: An expert group of project management professionals would be present onsite to solve our queries, get tips on projects, project management career path, you name it. You could sign up for Ask the Expert sessions here. Learning sessions: Mesmerizing key notes and other power packed learning sessions. I would be leading a session, where I would be exploring a new lifeline for project managers “Ask the crowd”. #517a Who Wants to Be a More Successful Project Manager? Here's Your New Lifeline: Ask the Crowd! Curious to know what it is all about? Follow the #AsktheCrowd on twitter and linkedin to know more. So are you ready to dive in? I am, Please check out my agenda here Again, if you not able to make it to the Conference, keep watching this space and follow me on twitter , linkedIn or Facebook for insider insights, attendee experience and much more ! |