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Are you a Technologically Reliant Project Manager?
| In the professional world where technology is omnipresent, we as project and program managers are used to tying our personal and professional lives to technology and gadgets like smart phones, tablets, GPS, etc. As a result, some organizations are trying a "day without email" on Fridays and/or weekends to encourage more face-to-face and phone contact with customers and colleagues. How do you think this would be received by a multigenerational project team? For baby boomer and silent generation team members, face-to-face may be a preferred communication method. But for members of Gen Y, not communicating by email may make them feel like a fish out of water because of their preference for virtual communication. As the "day without email" idea progresses gradually, employees in these organizations are probably realizing that business functions are about human relationships. This is an opportunity to foster a coaching environment in which Gen X and Gen Y will be able to hone their interpersonal skills supported by senior project team members. For those project team members who use technology frequently, discuss alternatives that will reduce the dependency of email in their daily activities. How much do you depend on technology for your daily activities? How would your project team survive the "day without email" policy? Would you enjoy having a day free of email? |
An Organization's Intangible Process Assets
Categories:
Program Management
Categories: Program Management
| On the shores of the Sun Moon Lake in Taiwan stands The Wen-Wan Resort, a luxury hotel. It looks like like an ocean liner and is built extensively of glass. The resort is licensed as a 'build-operate-transfer' (BOT) project. That means that after a lease of 30 years, the site reverts back to state ownership, regardless if the operators break even or make a profit. The construction of the Wen-Wan Resort took four years to complete, and was finalized in September 2003. Total construction cost of the 92-room resort amounted to US$67 million. Rooms cost between US$1,000 and US$10,000 per night. Internal ROI will likely be met after about 18 to 20 years, which means that in 2023, the resort's operators could start to make a profit. Program and project managers tend to focus on these quantifiable and measurable objectives. But it can be hard for them to grasp intangible or abstract ideas. Yet it is the intangible that usually informs the core values of any successful company. The intangible part is what we tend to ignore: the organizational cultures and styles. In A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide) -- Fourth Edition, an organization's shared vision, values, norms, beliefs and expectation is called "organizational cultures and styles." The PMBOK® Guide also says an organization's direction or objectives are usually defined by its enterprise environmental factors. Take The Wen-Wan Resort, for example. The resort's sponsor and president, Wen-Wan Tang, has a unique background that led him to found and operate the resort in a way that gives pleasure to guests and gives back to society. Mr. Tang owns more than 20 organizations. He used the profits from these businesses to fund the construction and development of The Wen-Wan Resort. He believes that if you're successful, you should help improve the society that allows you to enjoy to such success. Mr. Tang sees the resort as a way to help develop the local economy. It not only creates jobs in constructing the resort but also in staffing the resort. Plus, the resort's visitors support local companies and businesses. In this way, Mr. Tang has shown "organizational cultures and styles" by helping to develop the local economy. What are your organizational cultures and styles? Editor's note: Photo courtesy of The Wen-Wen Resort. |
Project Professionals: Don't Let a Little Tiger Get in Your Way
Categories:
PMI Global Congress 2012 - EMEA
Categories: PMI Global Congress 2012 - EMEA
| If anyone could get a room full of project and program managers mimicking a jockey on a horse, it's Jim Lawless. The closing speaker at the PMI® Global Congress 2012 -- EMEA in Marseille, France, Mr. Lawless holds the United Kingdom's underwater deep-dive record and once became a licensed jockey to win a £1 bet. So when he outlined his 10 rules for taming the tiger within -- the voice inside that makes people afraid to take action -- the audience listened. Mr. Lawless reminded the group that each person writes his or her own life story. "In the end, you're not going to ask 'Did I have a good story,' but 'Did I write it? Or did the tiger dictate it for me?'" he said. A project or program manager might have a game-changing idea, for example, but is too afraid to take it to the CEO. The result is regret -- because the person let the tiger write the story. Mr. Lawless' 10 rules for taming the tiger are:
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Pay Attention to Your Project Management Career
Categories:
Career Development
Categories: Career Development
| Throughout the workday, project professionals are bombarded by an overwhelming number of stimuli. And yet we can only take notice of a very small number of things. The majority of what we encounter simply has to be ignored. At a subconscious level, our brains constantly sift through all of the inputs, deciding what can be ignored and what warrants consideration at a conscious level. This process is managed by the Reticular Activating System (RAS). When we learn a new word, for example, the RAS sensitizes the unconscious mind to that word. When we encounter the same word again (which we had ignored in the past), we will immediately take notice. We can take advantage of this sensitization process to help us advance our project management careers by setting an explicit career goal. In the same way that the "new" word we learned existed before we learned it, there are things taking place in our lives that could be enormously helpful to us in our careers -- but we are ignoring them. Setting a goal sensitizes the mind such that we will take notice of things that we would previously have ignored and we will assign meaning to things that were previously meaningless. Simply setting the goal mentally does a lot to sensitize the mind to events that can help us achieve the goal. Articulating the goal in writing sensitizes it even further. Reviewing the goal periodically sensitizes the mind further still. Know what you want to achieve in your career. Write it down. Review it periodically. These three steps will make you consciously aware of your goal and give new meaning to the same old stuff that has been happening all around you. This "new" conscious awareness will further sensitize the mind to related and useful things. As you then pursue possibilities with such heightened awareness, the process accelerates. All of the sudden, everything seems to become aligned to your purpose. It was all along. You just weren't paying attention! Do you have any examples of how goal setting has heightened your awareness of events that have helped you fulfill your goals? |
European Commission Makes Project Management Progress
Categories:
PMI Global Congress 2012 - EMEA
Categories: PMI Global Congress 2012 - EMEA
| The European Commission is looking for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth through technology. And it's using project management to get there. "Project management is at the heart of our activities," said Francisco GarcÃa Morán, directorate-general for informatics at the European Commission, the keynote speaker at PMI® Global Congress 2012 -- EMEA in Marseille, France. The commission's goal is to create a new generation of open, flexible and seamless e-government services, he explained. For example, e-health projects could help address Europe's aging population. The vision calls for innovative digital services, simplified processes and better alignment between business and IT. Yet the commission has faced many challenges, including insufficient infrastructure, higher workload and staff cuts -- even as it faces greater pressure to deliver value. Mr. GarcÃa Morán also said there's a new generation of workers demanding better technology. "We have to provide the Facebook generation with the tools they're most familiar with." To help achieve its vision, the European Commission implemented an information services project management board. It also created its own approach based on good practices from around the world, including A Guide to Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide). "We believe we have raised the project management capabilities in the European Commission," he said. The greater focus on project management has helped the group achieve a more holistic point of view and strike a better balance between business and project management. There has been some resistance, however, which has to be managed through communicating the value of project management to the staff. "Change management is essential," he said. "It's an area where we are working harder." In a later session, Stefan Tostmann, PhD, spoke about some of the other project management work at the commission. With 27 sovereign states, 500 million stakeholders and 23 languages, it can be difficult to identify common project interests, said Dr. Tostmann, CAPM, resource director (acting) and head of financial services, European Commission. The type of projects addressed can cover everything from aid delivery to IT. And one of the biggest challenges is ensuring that proposed projects can actually be implemented in the member states. Despite progress, there remains a lingering misconception that project management is exclusive to the IT realm, where project management first took hold at the group. "There's not a project management culture in the European Commission yet," he said. Echoing Mr. GarcÃa Morán's comments, Dr. Tostmann said the commission is facing increasing pressure to prove its own value. "Stakeholders want to know what they're getting out of it." That means the commission must become more efficient, he says, and like Mr. GarcÃa Morán, he says project management can help in that process. Read more about change management. |