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Viewing Posts by Conrado Morlan
What's the Story Behind Your PMP Certification?
| Long-time Voices on Project Management blogger Conrado Morlan, PMP, PgMP shares how attaining a PMP certification helped his career. Project management practitioners like me, with more than 20 years of experience, learned about PMI and the PMP® certification in ways much different from today. My first exposure to PMI, A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide) and PMP certification was in the late 1990s. It was during a training program to attain PMP certification -- and in Spanish, no less -- at the company I worked for in Puebla, Mexico. My colleagues and I questioned the benefits of this certification, which at the time was not well known in Mexico. In addition, the written exam was in English. That did not make the PMP more attractive. I left the company before taking the exam. Yet in my new job, I discovered that the knowledge I acquired in the training program was very helpful. Without prompting, I used some of the best practices in the PMBOK® Guide, especially those related to risk and project integration. As I progressed professionally, I moved to the United States and learned more about PMI chapters and global congresses. I became a member and a regular at chapter meetings. By this point -- even with eight years of practical experience in project management and applying best practices in my work -- I realized I needed to take it to the next level: earning PMP certification. Sure, professional experience and on-the-job-training are important -- but I was only recognized for that at my company. Attaining the PMP meant that the world's largest association for the profession would validate my professional experience. In the lead-up to my exam, I was traveling intensively for my job, and the PMBOK® Guide became my travel companion. While abroad, I visited local PMI chapters and learned about running projects in different settings. The interaction with members of PMI chapters in other countries helped me tweak my project plan. The combination of studying and exchanging ideas with practitioners internationally were fundamental for my PMP exam preparation. In December 2005, I attained my PMP -- and I have never regretted it. Achieving the certification brought me immediate benefits. After I notified my manager, he awarded me an incentive bonus. A week later, I was selected to lead one of the most challenging projects of the portfolio. Over the years, I also became more involved in my community, volunteering at events such as PMI item-writing sessions. In 2011, I was honored with the 2011 PMI Distinguished Contribution Award. I'm not saying that getting my PMP awarded me recognition and experience overnight, but I needed it to get to the next stage in my career. I still find project professionals who think the same as my colleagues and I did in the late 1990s. The most frequent questions I hear are: Why should I earn a certification or a credential, if I am a senior project manager with many years of experience? How does a certification or credential make me different? To these, I respond with a question (Why not step out of your comfort zone?) and a thought (What made you successful in the past will not make you successful today). The truth is that, just like doctors, project professionals need to update their knowledge to face the challenges in today's project world. PMP certification and PMI membership give you access to share and acquire project management knowledge, stay up to speed on new trends, and join a group of global volunteers contributing toward the advancement of the profession. Most importantly, certification helps you reach the next step in your professional life. At least that is what it has done for me. How did getting a PMP help your career? Are you still considering getting one, and why? |
Project Adjournment for Virtual Teams
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Teams
Categories: Teams
| While project managers often talk about building a virtual team, they rarely discuss disbanding one. I recently adjourned the virtual team I'd led for the past four years. As a dispersed team, we initially experienced some issues around cultural differences. But we came together eventually and produced the expected results for the organization. When the time came to close the project and disassemble the team, a different kind of challenge arose. The first issue I encountered was that some team members didn't want to leave the team. Over the life span of the project, we'd built a strong bond. And there was another layer of complexity as team members' cultural traditions and values informed how they expressed their disappointment. As I helped the team to reach closure, I discovered the more "face-to-face" time, the better. I tried to reduce the distance that separated us with video conferences. During these meetings, I would explain that team adjournment wasn't a loss, but rather an opportunity to meet new people and take on new tasks. With some team members, an impromptu call before the adjournment meeting worked fine. With others, I scheduled a conference before and after the meeting to ensure they would be okay. The second challenge was preparing team members for their next project assignment. During the transition process, it was important to see their reactions, so video conferences were helpful here as well. I also tried to keep the focus on how team members could leverage their experiences in our project for their next assignment. Finally, I introduced some team members to project managers in need of skilled resources. Two of my former team members joined projects this way. In the end, the team members understood that our strong bond wouldn't end just because the project did. We're always just an e-mail or a phone call away. As a virtual project manager or team member, what challenges do you face during team adjournment? |
The 5 W's of Successfully Working on a Global Project
| Due to the global nature of projects, nowadays it's quite common for project managers to have project teams that include members of different nationalities and cultures. Rather than making positive or negative conclusions about a culture, project managers need to build awareness and understand that cultures exist relative to each other. The challenge is to determine the actions that will enable them to successfully manage projects and reconcile the relative differences. Project managers should consider the five W's to successfully work collaboratively on a global project. Who: Who is working on the project? Everyone. It is rare to find a stakeholder or team member working on a project that has little or no contact with people from a different culture of their own. What: What skills do project managers need to develop that will make them credible in another culture's eyes? A project manager may be fluent in one or more foreign languages, for example. While that will help him or her communicate with others, it will not give the project manager the understanding on how a culture understands deadlines or other aspects of business. Project managers must listen and observe while working in a global setting to learn these things. Where: Where is there opportunity to learn? Project managers should interact with people of different cultures inside and outside of the business world to navigate through unfamiliar cultures. Next time an intercultural opportunity arises, seize the moment to observe, reflect and learn. When: When is the best time to collaborate with a multicultural team? Select an activity where all or most of your team members participate, such as a project status meeting. Does every culture respect a set meeting time, for example? In some cultures, there are no written rules of time etiquette, and a single event can be interpreted in a multitude of ways. Why: Why should you care about multicultural traditions? As a project manager, you will have to manage teams that are partially collocated and across time zones. You should be somewhat comfortable in foreign environments and cognizant of local customs to continue learning and effectively conduct projects. As a global project manager, how do you apply the five W's? |
Managing Multicultural Teams
| In my first post ever, I talked about how the "multi" factor plays an important role in projects and how project managers must be prepared to address team issues related to this phenomenon. As project managers in a global environment, we are now more often expected to lead multi-regional projects. This adds the element of different cultures -- both national and organizational -- that adds can add complexity to projects. Perhaps your experience is similar to mine when working with project teams in a global environment. My multicultural project team consists of senior stakeholders, a deployment team and a technical support team. All team members have varying experience in the organization, but also can come from very different cultural backgrounds. There can be a struggle when starting a project in a culture that you are not familiar with. How do you bring everyone together to share a common vision and commitment on the project delivery? I have learned that I need to develop strong cultural competencies to manage a multicultural project team effectively and to establish connections with the team members. I like to use three tactics when on-boarding a new team member from a different culture: 1. Explain the purpose and benefits of the project to help establish the bond between the team member and the project objectives. Stress the importance of his or her role and how his or her local experience and knowledge will benefit the project. 2. Discuss any concerns that the team member may have, such as with language or customs. This can also help break the ice and show that you understand how difficult cross-cultural relationships can be. 3. Emphasize what is important to you, whether it's work ethic or communication methods, and why it's important. Don't assume that all of your expectations are globally understood. When I manage a project abroad, one of my preferred ways to build cultural awareness is by spending time visiting popular spots where the locals meet. For example, at restaurants, coffee shops, sporting events and shopping centers, you can observe customs, traditions and behaviors. Your observations in those settings can help to answer your questions about the culture. But it's just not observation that will help you. People are very proud of their cultures and customs and are often keen to help you understand them. This supports the need to build a rapport with your team, whilst also building your awareness. It's also important to understand your own culture's norms and behaviors. That knowledge helps guard against interpreting another culture's behaviors in terms of your own unexamined expectations. As a global project manager, how do you manage a multicultural team? |
Work to Live or Live to Work?
| Working with multigenerational project teams has taught me that commitment is a common attribute for team members of every generation. But every team member approaches commitment in a different way. Different generations place different values on pursuing work-life balance. A strong work ethic is a characteristic of the older members of the project team, part of the silent generation. Members of this generation tend to want to work a reduced number of hours to be able to devote time to personal activities. Baby boomers, the generation referred to as workaholics, consider work a high priority and greatly value teamwork. In my opinion, they are focused on their achievements and are willing to work long hours to achieve project success. Generation X is good at controlling their time. This generation has a desire to control and set a career path, personal ambitions and work time. Generation Y is driven by a strong preference for work-life balance. Many Gen Yers look for jobs that provide them great personal fulfillment. In my opinion, one of our tasks as project managers is to find ways to shed the stress in our project team members' lives. Part of that is to better understand the work-life balance needs of team members from different generations. To bring a better work-life balance to any generation, define more accurate project schedules based on flexibility, telecommuting and time off. Tell us about actions you have adopted to meet project goals and still accommodate team members' work-life balance needs. |