The Big Time

Organizational Transformation Series of Courses and Micro-Credentials was recently launched by the Project Management Institute and Brightline Initiative . The series is divided into three courses:

• Organizational Transformation Foundation (OTF)
• Organizational Transformation Implementation (OTI)
• Organizational Transformation Orchestration (OTO)

Before jumping into the specifics about each course, below are some general information related to the courses / micro-credentials: 

• Self-Paced courses (5 to 10 Hours per course) 
• Courses Fees range between $199 to $299 for members
• Each course has 1-Hour Online, non-proctored course-based exam
• Exams are 30 multiple choice questions
• Upon completion of the course, you earn 10 PDU's 
• Upon successful completion of the exam, you earn a PMI micro-credential and badge (no expiry)
   

Organizational Transformation Foundation (OTF)

Organizational Transformation Foundation (OTF) Micro-Credential is suitable for professionals who wish to expand their knowledge on the basics of organizational transformation from the fundamentals of navigating change in transformation projects to the five building blocks of successful transformations with a focus on the human-centered approach to enabling change.
 

Organizational Transformation Implementation (OTI)

Organizational Transformation Implementation (OTI) Micro-Credential is about the "Doing" part of the Organizational Transformation which concentrates on:

• Managing rapid response teams
• Building core capabilities

It goes through the domains of:

• Understanding Transformation Strategies
• Assessing Transformation Readiness
• Building Capabilities
   

Organizational Transformation Orchestration (OTO)

Organizational Transformation Orchestration (OTI) Micro-Credential is about the "Leading" part of the Organizational Transformation which concentrates on:

• Capturing Value
• Driving Continuous Growth and Prosperity 

It goes through the domains of:

• Leading People-Centered Transformation
• Achieving Organizational Outcomes
• Market Awareness and Strategic Response 
• Assessing Capabilities 

Being one of the first few professionals who completed the whole series, I can attest that the series added lots of value and I highly recommend it for anyone interested in Organizational Transformation. It is very well structured, and supported by case studies and online resources.

Stay tuned for more to come ! 

Recently, I’ve taken two courses that introduced me to a very interesting and valuable new concept called “Citizen Development”. My passion about this topic started when I took the foundation course after which I participated in the pilot for the CD Practitioner’s course. 
 

Being a new concept to many, I decided to write an introduction blog about Citizen Development before I dive into the details of each course I’ve taken. In this blog, all figures are quoted from PMI Resources. 
 

Citizen Development is a very interesting initiative and concept. In the beginning, I thought that it only applies for professionals with a background in IT but after deep diving into the subject and taking couple of courses, my view completely changed in that Citizen Development can be beneficial for all individuals and organizations.  
 

The Citizen Development Movement

Introduction to Citizen Development

The below slides provides a brief overview of what Citizen Development is, why it is important and what are the benefits of CD: 

Transformative Benefits of Citizen Development

Citizen Development Canvas and Maturity Model

Citizen Development Courses

PMI are working on a series of courses related to Citizen Development: 

• Citizen Developer Foundation - Released 
• Citizen Developer Practitioner (PMI-CDP): End of May 2021
• Citizen Developer Business Architect: Q3 - 2021
• Citizen Developer Strategist: Q4 - 2021 

What is the difference between a Practitioner, Business Architect and Strategist ?  (The below definitions are quoted from PMI Resources) 
 

CD Practitioners: Those who do the work by creating apps and using them in their day-to-day work. They range from students to project professionals to SME's. They could be but not limited to, the following:

• Business Analysts
• Project Managers
• Business Consultants
• Sales Executives
• Marketing Managers
• HR Managers
• Finance Analysts
• Operations Analysts. 

CD Business Architects: Architects manage Citizen Development teams, the governance process and the collaboration between stakeholders in IT and the business. They facilitate access to relevant tools and methods. They can come from IT and may already be enterprise architects or may come from the business as an agile coach or product owner. They could be but not limited to, the following:

• Lines Manager 
• Enterprise and IT Architects
• Demand Managers 
• Portfolio Managers
• Agile and Scrum Specialists 
• IT Managers and Team Leaders 
• Business Transformation Consultants 
• Organizations Design Consultants 
   

CD Strategists: Strategists manage and lead the creation of the operating environment that allows Citizen Development to thrive, instilling the cultural practices and mandates that foster adoption and scaling of Citizen Development and drive organizational transformation by harnessing the power of Citizen Development application platforms. The are members of the senior management team and can include, but not limited to, the following: 

• Chief Executive Officers
• Chief Strategy Officers 
• Chief Information Officers
• Chief Transformation Officers 
• Digital Transformation Directors 
• Organizational Designers 

What are your thoughts on Citizen Development ? 

In the next blogs, I will discussing each of the courses separately in details so stay tuned. Meanwhile, feel free to reach out to me for the courses Registration Links. 

As a Career Coach and Professional Developement Mentor, I believe growth comes from within so I continiously keep working on myself by exploring new ideas, taking courses and certifications for areas that I feel are valuable. 
 

Agile and Waterfall Kick-Off is a very valuable and interesting initiative by the Project Management Institute that will provide you with the basic concepts, tools and techniques you’ll need to get started managing projects in both Waterfall and Agile environments:
 

• It’s a FREE short 45-minute course.
• Upon completion of the course, you will earn two PMI Badges. No exam, no expiry.
• It's suitable for Project Managers (Formal and Informal), PMO's, L&D Leaders.

I highly recommend everyone to take advantage of this opportunity. Feel free to reach out to me for the Registration Link. 

How can Kick-Off help you and your team ? 
 

The majority of projects in the working world are managed by informal project managers who struggle to meet organizational goals on time and on budget. Being a free digital learning tool, Kickoff is the fastest and easiest way to for you and your team to get started: 
 

• Get smarter with foundational knowledge that’s critical for project success.
• Put learnings into practice immediately—so you can move your project forward.
• Learn how to rally and inspire a team you can trust to get the job done.
• Gain new skills that can make you a more confident professional leader
   

Stay tuned for more blogs on some of the latest PMI Course Offerings ! 

Joy and happiness filled my heart upon receiving a paperback copy of PMI 50^th Anniversary Commemorative Book as a Thank You Gift from PMI. What an amazing gift to kick-off the year. It means a lot to me because I was part of those first 50 years of growth. 

From cover to cover, the book looks amazing and is very obvious that there was lots of thought put into it. It includes all the story from the day PMI started and with the limited no. of princted copies, this will be a great souvenir to keep forever. 

Being part of PMI and this great community for many years, I estabished a strong sense of ownership and commitment towards the profession, PMI, the Community and it's members. I enjoy volunteering and giving back to the profession and as the famous Elizabeth Andrew say: 

"Volunteers don't necessarily habe the time, they just have the heart."

Giving back to the Profession and Comunity is a noble thing to do and what motivates me most is seeing the people around me succeed.

Looking forward to be part of PMI during the next 50 years and contribute to their growth and success.

I wish you all a fantastic 2020 full of happiness, health, wealth and success ! 

Recently, I've seen so many discussions about how increasing your network adds value. Some think its a waste of time, others see it the other way around. In this blog, I will be sharing my personal experience and point of view.

Increasing your Network Connection base is very beneficial in so many ways so for those who are wondering what the purpose is or what's the added value, I would like to give you a brief of how I personally found it useful: 

1. Mentoring / Assistance: In many cases, I connect with people and they send me a thank you message for connecting with them and say that they are new on this platform and wonder how they can start on so I help them out get started here. Some people feel shy or not comfortable taking a first step so why not we take the first step. 
2. Enhancing the Community Engagement: Item 1, leads to enhanced member engagement within this community as soon as they get their head around it and understand how much of an amazing platform and community it is. I feel that everyone of us should have a sense of ownership towards this community.
3. Connecting on other Platforms: In many occasions when I connect with people here, they send me a thank you message and tell me that they are not very active here and ask to connect on LinkedIn and share expertise. I did benefit a lot from so many people.
4. Connecting in Person: In many occasions, I connected with people on person via connecting through this platform and some of them (To be specific 2), we became friends although they are not very active here. 

In summary, Networking has so many advantages of which one of them is Building Relationships. You just need to look at the positive side of things and look whats beyond that number. I am not saying I am connecting with all my connections but I certainly connected with a decent number of people. (If you connect closely with 500 people out of the 100,000, this is a great achievement - This maybe a small percentage but it is certainly a big number). 

For me, it is not about adding connections to show off the number. It is about the whole package of me being a member of this community, leading by example, contributing, helping, connecting, learning and the list goes on.

Thank you for everyone who gave me the honor to connect with them. There are lots of great people out there, so connect with people and start building relationships. 

Network and let your Relationship Ship Sail towards Building Relations !