Guessing is not a strategy: How to build decision velocity with AI and real-time data
June 10, 2026 | Live Webinar
Gladwell and Watson -- And a Lot More is Coming at Congress
Categories:
PMI Global Congress 2011 - North America
Categories: PMI Global Congress 2011 - North America
| Like any good fan of bleeding-edge business thought, I'm always interested in what author Malcolm Gladwell has to say about innovation. This weekend at PMI® Global Congress 2011 -- North America, Mr. Gladwell is slated to give a keynote on organizational culture and innovation drawing on lessons learned from Xerox, Apple and IBM. He'll also cover how project managers can inspire creative thinking to help drive business growth and, just possibly, change the world. Resident blogger Jim De Piante will lead a session showcasing Watson, IBM's supercomputer that beat out contestants on TV quiz show Jeopardy! Learn about the IBM Grand Challenge that led to Watson, a revolutionary undertaking that required a different sort of project management. John Furlong will discuss his role as the mastermind of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic & Paralympics Winter Games. Teaser: It involved a US$1.76 billion budget, more than 2,600 participants, 82 nations, 86 events and 55,000 volunteers. Intrigued? We'll have more. Congratulations to the Prairie Waters Project, the 2011 PMI Project of the Year recipient. They were awarded last night, along with several other winners. We'll have more on the awards ceremony coming later, plus much more as the event goes on. Follow @PMINAC and use hashtag #pminac to keep up with congress happenings on Twitter. And of course, stay tuned to Voices for more posts from congress through the weekend. If you're going, see you there! |
The Invisible Side of Different Generations in Project Teams
Categories:
Generational PM
Categories: Generational PM
| Generation X represents the majority of members in project teams around the world. (The exact date range of this generation varies, but for the purpose of this post, it is those born in the 1960s through the early 1980s). These team members are potential candidates to transition to higher ranks once their senior project managers and program managers are ready to retire. Veteran project managers and program managers who are close to retirement are looking for the right successor. But that can be challenging because of the divergence of values among generations. Cultural and generational beliefs and behaviors have both "visible" and "invisible" components. Visible elements of beliefs and behaviors are easy to observe and represent the 'what' of cultures and generations. For example, baby boomers are confident, independent and self-reliant, and those from the Silent generation are disciplined and loyal. The invisible part is not easy to observe and represents the 'why' of cultures and generations. It holds values, beliefs, attitudes and assumptions that are a result of shared experiences. During Generation X's childhood years, in the mid 60's and 70's, there was an intense competition between the U.S. and the former Soviet Union. This competition influenced people to strive towards their country goal and fostered teamwork. The competition between countries included fields like economy, politics, science and sports. Generation X was born into, and grew up in this competitive environment. They have taken their culture and spirit to the workplace and positively impact project teams with their pragmatism, competence and technological savvy. In my opinion, project managers and team members of different generations need to look on the invisible side of their beliefs and values to understand each other and avoid stereotyping and creating the wrong perception. As a project manager, what would you say is the main contribution of Gen X team members? What other invisible factors had a positive effect for generations now in the workforce? |
Timeboxed Meetings Foster Efficiency
| Official project meetings normally take up so much time that most see it as time wasted. How do you ensure you're getting or delivering information that you want without wasting time? How do you train your team members to be more efficient in sharing information you need? There is one technique in agile scrum that I particularly like and have found very useful. I'm pretty sure this technique has been around for a long time, only now they have a special name for it: the timeboxed meeting. Timeboxing is typically used when a project schedule is divided into separate time periods -- each period has its own schedule, deliverables and budget. When you apply timeboxing to a meeting, each team member answers three questions:
In reality, having team members summarize their last 24 hours into three minutes is challenging. Without focus, and practice, they will undoubtedly fall into the trap of over-elaborating and, worse, finger pointing. In the beginning, you might want to try five minutes per person, but reduce the number of participants. This means you will have more than one session of timeboxed meetings. As your team gets more comfortable, start reducing the time and adding team members per session. Remember, the idea is to hold these meetings daily with the objective of sharing updated information quickly. As an added benefit, you're indirectly coaching your team members to be more focused and efficient. As project managers, we have to determine whether a technique is counterproductive. If the idea of having a daily update meeting seems too taxing, try holding them every other day. If you feel that getting team members together at one time is difficult, improvise and ask them to send text messages or email instead. Have you used timeboxed meeting techniques? What methods do you use to increase the reporting efficiency within your project team? |
Manage The Knowledge Gaps
| To be great in project management, we can't only be familiar with our role as the project manager. We must be educated about other roles in the profession, as well as most, if not all, knowledge areas. But project managers often do the work they like and are familiar with, rather than work that needs to be done. Even if it's work that contributes to a project's overall success, I find that many of us focus on tasks that we're familiar with or that we already know we're good at. Regardless of how great I am with some tasks, I know that I must fill in my own knowledge gaps with team members' expertise. Because in addition to being a good project manager, the real trick to getting things done is surrounding myself with a capable, well-trained project team. Instead of trying to learn everything and being everything to everyone, I accept that I won't always know it all. I ask for input from the team on a regular basis. This makes the team feel needed and appreciated for their contributions and makes the project execution more efficient. Do you tackle the tasks you're good at rather than those that need to get done? How do you balance your own expertise with that of your team members? |
Networking Practices for Project Results
Categories:
Best Practices
Categories: Best Practices
| Last week I attended my first formal networking how-to event. I was curious to learn about the differences and similarities between general networking and networking for project success. What interested me the most was a slide detailing three types of networks: operational, personal and strategic. In the project environment, networking for operational, personal and strategic goals is a core competency for project managers and team members. In all my training sessions, I always repeat the statement "90 percent of a project management job is communication." In fact, I go as far as to say networking is a skill that can lead to project success. For example, networking comes in handy in the following areas: With stakeholders: On projects we talk to all our internal and external stakeholders on a regular basis. Therefore, we have to network. We network to acquire and manage resources, vendors and contractors, and also to ascertain and explore risks, strengths and opportunities for the project. Our personal objectives can be met because well managed, informed and engaged stakeholders equals a happier project manager. In project communications planning: Project objectives should be SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time bound). Similarly, project-networking activities should be smart too. Networking activities should:
Project managers must have networking skills to successfully engage, lead and build the team. These skills will enable the project manager to be a mentor and leader of the team. Project managers should network with their teams to delegate, collaborate, motivate and ensure they work together. With interpersonal skills: Networking can help project managers build self-confidence, and devote time and strategy to build and reciprocate through meaningful networks. Plus, meeting others and finding common ground and mutual areas of benefit and collaboration is always helpful to a project manager. I can confidently assume that since the history of projects, good project managers have been networking out of necessity or risk project failure. Certainly in my own case, I have been naturally 'networking' without really knowing that I was doing it. The difference now is that I am more aware. What do you think is a networking best practice? Is project success dependent on a project manager's networking abilities? What benefits has networking brought to your projects? What role has networking played in your projects? |