The Future of PM Work

Communication works for those who work at it – John Powel

What goes into building a multi- cultural community, a diverse community a global community, a virtual community of leaders?             

For me it must be Communication at its best, it must be about effective communication, it is about making your communication work

It was mid – April 2020, I had just taken up the role Vice President – Outreach of PMI Mumbai chapter. That night as I was browsing through linkedin group of PMI chapter leaders, I was amazed by the passion, dedication that the chapter leaders bring to the table.  "Can we bring in all this passion at one place" I thought. "Can we connect, collaborate and co-create – build a community of PMI Chapters?"

And there it was the #PMIChapterXchange was incepted and my outreach journey started, a journey of virtual communication across countries, continents and cultures.

As my journey continues, I pause and ponder to ask myself how will communication be in the #futureofPMWork?

Here are some trends which will shape how we communicate 

Remote work: According to Wall Street Journal even when the pandemic ends, many employees will continue to work from home. A study by Gartner says that 82% of business leaders plan to allow remote work for some time, while 47% plan to allow employees to do so permanently.

Diverse team: With “Anyone, Anytime, Anywhere and Virtual Collaboration - The Future of Work” our teams will be across locations, geographies and continents. With diverse teams, project managers would have work on their communication to work across languages and clultures

Security risks: With remote work comes the perils of security risks. As reported by Business Wire survey, a majority of respondents (58%) indicated that employee home network security was one of their areas of higher concern.

According to a study by BBC UK only 13% of 8 to 18-year-olds think young people will send letters and postcards to each other by the year 2049.

Holograms, body and brain implants will be used for communication and some even predict there'll be a new way of communication may be with emojis

Will this affect the way project managers would communicate in the #futureofPMWork?

How can project manager work with technology to make their communication work in this #futureofPMWork ?

Virtual presence: With virtual and augmented reality gaining momentum, virtual presence will be real soon. Project managers can connect with stakeholders in a virtual conference room. It is said the human brain perceives it as real presence.

Multi – cultural: With devices that can translate languages instantly, project managers could potentially bridge gaps allowing multi-cultural and multilingual teams to communicate effectively.

Secure peer to peer: Blockchain trends grows amidst the pandemic.  Blockchain will enable secure and transparent peer to peer communication. This ensures effective stakeholder as well inter team transparent communication

How will you work on your communication to usher success in #futureofPMWork ?

Please share your views in the comment section.

If you want to know more about the #PMIChapterXchange program comment below or connect with Priya, Lenka or Dr.Lynn

If you want to join our community on the PMI Chapter collaboration platform. Request membership here.

https://ccp.pmi.org/#/community/view/5ef874bd7db4c80069a50e75/stream

Photo by Julia M Cameron from Pexels

It was late June 2020,  the great lockdown quarantine isolation have been imposed for sometime now,  to slow down the transmission. News and information on digital media has been disheartening and stressful.  It has been impossible to relax.

We definitely needed an antidote for these physcological toll that humanity was going through.

Can reading be that antidote I thought  ? Can reading bring us together even in isolation ?

And thus the Reader’s book club was introduced as an offering from our #PMIChapterXchange program. June 25, 2020, we launched the “Reader’s book club” – a digital platform for readers to interact with their favourite authors, or simply readers interacting with each other and discussing their favorite books – being togther in isolation. Our first digital reader’s club saw

Seema Giri who revealed her secret to happiness- Rebound, Reset and Realign. her book “Break Free to Stand in Your Power” and tips to be empowered in life and business.

Dr. Lynn Keeys provided insights into the Cambridge Handbook of Organizational Project Management  providing a view of organizations as a network of projects, integrated by the more permanent organization, and to move away from a focus on individual projects.

Lenka Pincot took us through a cultural journey across continents through takeaways from the Culture Map book by Erin Meyer

With the nuggets of wisdom from these authors and an avid reader, I pondered as a project manager should we consider “reading” as a competency for the teams of tomorrow ? Here is why

Progression of life: To grow, we need to learn, what other way to grow than by reading.

Improved resiliency: Reading stories of trauma, challenges brings in hope and positivity. This influences our mindset shift that enables us to keep going, thereby improving resiliency.

Better decision making: Reading exposes a reader to experiences of how others approach a problem.  This helps us to widen our perspectives and thereby make better decisions.

What ways can we as project managers leverage these digital book clubs in #futureofPMWork.

Team bonding: In the age of dispersed team, consider reading a book in a same virtual background. This gives us a sense of togetherness in spite being apart from each other.

Reinforcement of learning: Augmented / Virtual Reality book clubs, where the reader is transmitted to the plot setting can help in bringing about an immersive experience and reinforcement of learning

Increased Innovation: Digital book club can span across geographies and across demographics. Engaged in community reading with a diverse team can widen our perspectives challenging us to think differently and understand diverse perspectives. This enables a team to be more creative and innovative.

How do you think reading as a competency will evolve in the #futureofPMWork. How else do you think we can augment our team’s learning in the #futureofPMWork ? Do let me know your thoughts.

If you want to know more about the #PMIChapterXchange program comment below or connect with Priya, Lenka or Dr.Lynn

If you want to join our community on the PMI Chapter collaboration platform. Request membership here.

https://ccp.pmi.org/#/community/view/5ef874bd7db4c80069a50e75/stream

Photo by Anna Shvets from Pexels

Until March, I was very excited about the future, I dreamt about an exciting future for project managers and #futureofPMWork. Then came the COVID-19.

COVID-19 is nothing short of a “Black Swan “event, just like the invention of the internet, or the 2008 market crash. Needless to say this has affected all industries, a lot has changed for us, project managers, remote working, processes, decentralization, culture, ways of communication are only some impact and more are yet to come.

What are the key skills that are required for managers, leaders in the new normal ?

The million-dollar question that is probably in the minds of every project manager, leader popped out while I and Lenka were moderating our maiden connect at the #PMIChapterXchange program.

A Panel discussion with experts from Czech Republic (Petr Janis, Michal Jauker) and Mumbai chapter (Satish Mittal, Chintan Oza) to share their perspectives on this very topic. So what did our panellists say

Petr laid emphasis on adaptability, listening and digital skills

Michal vouched for effective communication, team motivation and the value of global outreach enabled by the virtual world

Satish accentuated on the ability to navigate through multiple skills, 3rd eye out, predict risks and motivate team to innovate.

Chintan highlighted the skill improvement framework Identify(gaps), Classify( what can be achieved), Simplify( bucketize Short, Medium and Long term goals), Justify( correlate goals to current scenario)  and Amplify ( go full throttle to achieve your goals)

Armed with the wisdom of the wise and deep introspection of the great lockdown, here are some additional skills that comes out dominant for a leader to succeed in the #futureofPMWork

Anti-fragility:  Antifragility is beyond resilience or robustness. A resilient leader resists shocks and stays the same; an antifragile leader gets better it means that he / she does not merely withstand a shock but learn and improves because of it. Leaders must learn how to make their lives anti-fragile, rather than simply less vulnerable to randomness and chaos to survive in #futureofWork

 Empathy: Tough times calls for leaders to lead with empathy. Empathizing in these times can go a long way to foster engaged and inspired teams.

Inclusiveness: Uncertain times calls for innovative, creative and high-performance teams. Leaders will need to create a well-intentioned, inclusive-minded environment to foster high-performance teams.

Do you have any other skills on your mind which would be relevant for project managers to succeed in the #futureofPMWork ? Comment below.

Want to know more about the #PMIChapterXchange program ? Comment below or connect with Priya or Lenka.

Want to join our community on the PMI Chapter collaboration platform. Request membership here.

https://ccp.pmi.org/#/community/view/5ef874bd7db4c80069a50e75/stream

Photo by Ali Pazani from Pexels

They say “necessity is the mother of invention “and COVID- 19 era has been the true testament of the same. There have been multiple technological revolutions from AI based doctors, voice enable AI detecting infection from the sound of the cough, to simple chat bots providing information via voice interaction. 

We are indeed moving towards a ‘touch less’ or a voice enabled economy.

Research says the overall voice and speech recognition market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 17.2% from 2019 to 2025 to reach $26.8 billion by 2025. Voice shopping is predicted to become a $40 billion business in the next two years. With COVID-19 impact this may grow even further.

So what is "Voice Enabled AI" ? The Voice enabled AI is a technology that does natural language understanding combined with voice recognition.

Does this have an impact on #futureofPMWork? Let's find out 

Contactless economy: With the advent of the COVID-era, consumer behaviour has been  driven by health and safety concerns. It is evident that consumers will move towards digital or the contact less economy which may give rise to product usage to be driven by voice.

Voice Commerce: Voice search has been seeing a rising trend even before COVID-19. According Juniper Research voice-based ad revenue could reach $19 billion by 2022. Organizations will experience a shift in touchpoints being converted to listening points.

Consumer Behaviour: With the slow down of the economy, unemployment on the rise, organizations consumers have become cost conscious. This would mean organizations would have to find out ways to increase improve the voice of their brands

Can we leverage Voice enabled AI to manage our projects in the #futureofPMWork ?

Some instances could be as follows:

Operational activities: Much of the operational activities of a project manager, can be accomplished with voice commands e.g setting up meetings, managing them in the virtual world and managing collaboration tools. Another usage could be status reporting from the field, using external and internal data, machine learning to provide predictions, forecast and risk analysis.

Enhanced customer experience: Voice assisted chatbots on web sites could help us to find what engages the customer most and thereby driving opportunities of revenue generation. This technology can help us to build inclusive products there increasing our customer base and improve customer experience.

EQ enabled conversations: EQ enabled Voice AI intelligent technologies could be leveraged to detect emotions from a conversation with team members and to respond to them accordingly. This data can be used for coaching and mentoring of those who needs the most to engage and inspire.

How else can we give our projects a voice or leverage voice enabled technology in our projects?

Do drop a note in the comments section and let your voice be heard 😊

Photo by Moritz Kindler on Unsplash

“A virtual team working together as one >> side by side separated by waters bought together by technology.” Virtual Team Intelligence

Imagine you are 7,847 km away at home, presenting your first keynote presentation. Exciting isn’t it? More exciting when you see the audience 400 + eagerly waiting to listen to you. Even more exciting when you know you have a dedicated team of volunteers supporting you for this.

Yes, you guessed it right, we are referring to a virtual conference presentation. With the outbreak of the corona virus, I could not be present in-person for the PMI Sweden’s “Passion for Projects” #passionForProjects conference, but never the less the team behind the scene did ensure that the presentation went on smooth and sound. This is an exemplary example of the power of virtual collaboration.

According to research in late 2019

Companies allowing remote work have 25% lower employee turnover those that don’t.

People who work remotely at least once a month are 24% more likely to be happy and productive.

By 2028, 73% of all departments will have remote workers.

Does this mean that in the future of work #futureofWork virtual collaboration will be on the rise?

Will it become a critical aspect of #futureofPMWork ? Let us see why

Collective Intelligence: To encourage Diversity of thoughts, build innovative products and improve agility to proactively transition to the future, collective intelligence would take the center stage. Teams would swarm to brainstorm, collaborate and innovate, and once done they would move on.

Distributed teams: With the rise of the gigs teams would become more and more distributed. Teams would extend beyond the 4 walls of the organization, across multiple locations, geographies and continents.

Connected projects: As projects become more and more connected exchanging information in the ecosystem, our teams would not be confined to one organization, but extended across our customers, co-players, partners and suppliers.

I have been working with virtual teams for many years now, in fact I lead the Agile Community of Practice within my organization which is a 100% virtual collaboration platform spanning across 40 countries with 546 members. It has been 5 years now. So what worked for me all these years?

Team working agreements: When teams work separately, it is easy for teams to get disconnected especially if they are in different time zones. Shared team working agreements like communication protocols, regular meeting rhythms and virtual coffee time connects have been instrumental in improving team cohesion.

Frequent communication: When team do not interact face to face, there is a risk of losing touch. This can lead to missing out on critical information like unexpected emergencies, time demand and priorities. Frequent communication, avoiding lengthy silences are key to removing these impediments. I have leveraged social media, instant messaging, whatsapp, Skype video calls for frequent communication.

Playing games: To keep the engagement on, I have leveraged online virtual, team contests and games. These games encourage members to do what’s best for the team. Leaders emerge and sometimes leaders step down for the greater good of the team. This helps to encourage an atmosphere of collaboration to work towards a team goal.

How do you think the #futureofPMWork looks like in terms of virtual collaboration?

Do you have any other tips to improve virtual collaborations in the #futureofPMWork? I would love to know.