NEHA CHATURVEDIStructural Engineer-| AECOM New Delhi, Delhi, India
I am one of the handful persons in office with PMP credential and with all the knowledge and skills gained during PMP journey I was excited to share good practices with my colleagues. But I often feel that people take PMP as theoretical knowledge and my suggestion is treated with sarcastic remarks but not actionable item. How do you suggest that things can worded properly from my end and gain acceptability of varied audience from age group to leadership levels. Seniors sometimes take this as insulting when I don’t agree with their ideas with logical reasoning. Saving Changes...
Thomas WalentaGlobal Project Economy ExpertHackenheim, Germany
Neha, I can feel with you, this is not a rare situation, unluckily.
Not many people and organizations understand the value of project management, and hence everyone who does understand it (like a PMP), is a kind of outlier. I am teaching PMP preparation and have seen people leaving their employer not willing to work in an ignorant environment.
Another problem might be the many people promoting agile and scrum which see 'waterfall PM' as outdated and unimportant. In order to preserve their status, they might ridicule PMP.
But you know how much effort you put into the PMP and how much understanding you got out of it, it does not really compare with a scrum master having maybe a mere 2 days course.
This is a good opportunity to work on your leadership: become more resilient, strengthen your self-control, understand stakeholders interest and influence them accordingly. Or you change jobs.
A good way is to form alliances, produce outstanding results, find seniors who are willing to listen and support. I think a message like 'I was successful and PMP helped me' is better than 'PMI/PMP says this and therefore we should this and that'.
Hope this helps in making up your mind.
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1 reply by NEHA CHATURVEDI
Jun 18, 2019 11:58 AM
NEHA CHATURVEDI
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Hi Thomas. It’s good to hear that I am not the only one who is facing this. Yes we need to probably market our credential well with success stories . The resistance to change is inevitable.
Saving Changes...
NEHA CHATURVEDIStructural Engineer-| AECOM New Delhi, Delhi, India
Jun 18, 2019 11:38 AM
Replying to Thomas Walenta
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Neha, I can feel with you, this is not a rare situation, unluckily.
Not many people and organizations understand the value of project management, and hence everyone who does understand it (like a PMP), is a kind of outlier. I am teaching PMP preparation and have seen people leaving their employer not willing to work in an ignorant environment.
Another problem might be the many people promoting agile and scrum which see 'waterfall PM' as outdated and unimportant. In order to preserve their status, they might ridicule PMP.
But you know how much effort you put into the PMP and how much understanding you got out of it, it does not really compare with a scrum master having maybe a mere 2 days course.
This is a good opportunity to work on your leadership: become more resilient, strengthen your self-control, understand stakeholders interest and influence them accordingly. Or you change jobs.
A good way is to form alliances, produce outstanding results, find seniors who are willing to listen and support. I think a message like 'I was successful and PMP helped me' is better than 'PMI/PMP says this and therefore we should this and that'.
Hope this helps in making up your mind.
Hi Thomas. It’s good to hear that I am not the only one who is facing this. Yes we need to probably market our credential well with success stories . The resistance to change is inevitable. Saving Changes...
Hello Neha,
I have the same challenge, it is funny that my boss was complaining to somebody telling him , this employee got the PMP and is driving us crazy . This will be a process which will take time for your organization to get used to PMP terminology , process and things that come with it. what I have done is that I tailored PMP to the needs of the place that I work at . I am planning as well to do an awareness session about the principles and introductory level of PMP. The culture and maturity level will affect tremendously on how you will apply PMP in your environment . I believe we can add huge value getting people eventually on board . Also one thing that I did , I speak their language and always try to educate them and showing them the benefits and how it could help in a successful project whenever I find an appropriate chance . Saving Changes...
Sergio Luis ConteHelping to create solutions for everyone| Worldwide based OrganizationsBuenos Aires, Argentina
If when you talked about PMP you are talking about the certification then let me say that during the PMP journey the only thing you get is knowledge but not more than that. Putting this knowledge in practice is totally different because it will depends on the environment. You have learned lot of tools and techniques and most of them will never applied in the field. So, the important thing is not the tools and techniques. The important thing are the knowledge areas and some process. Each human being is applying that from the time they wake up to the time they go back to bed. The diference are the tools and techniques used to do that and the level of formality. Saving Changes...
Wade HarshmanScrum Master| GDITIndianapolis, In, United States
PMI has done a good job keeping the PMP relevant and, in most cases, a career benchmark that indicates both knowledge and experience. Many people will recognize this when they're hiring, but there are a number of cases where you might be met with cynicism.
As Thomas mentioned, there is a significant distrust of the PMP credential in Agile and/or software development communities. Frankly, we have this coming, because it took us so long to start listening to them. Even now, many PMP-weilding job hunters rush after agile jobs without the education or experience to discern the difference between job cultures. This only fuels the mistrust. The best tool we have to combat this is a communal sense of humility and passion for learning. I believe we're improving and we will eventually earn their trust.
Another source of skepticism comes from project managers who have years of experience but never earned the PMP. And let's be clear, many of these un-credentialed project managers are quite good at their jobs. But either they met a roadblock on their way to the PMP, or they just don't see any value at this point in their career. Perhaps they were audited by PMI and gave up, or perhaps they failed the exam on the first try and decided not to try again, or perhaps they became frustrated by what they saw as mere "theory" that didn't match their own experience. Perhaps their résumé speaks for itself and they don't see value in credentials. I've seen examples of all these.
You might get some resistance from this group as well, especially if they view you as well-educated but inexperienced. It's usually best to approach them with a touch of humility until you have more allies.
The group you probably can't win over are those who don't hold a PMP because they simply aren't good project managers and lack the drive to improve. Saving Changes...
Neha, Many of the suggestions involve working on your Emotional Intelligence. The first part comes from you. You control your own emotions. Working on self confidence in the workplace will help prevent sarcasm from others affecting your own emotional response. The skills associated with PM are very valuable in the workplace and the opinions of others don't affect the value of your contribution. Often times, people use humor including sarcasm as a defense mechanism. Recognize that others may feel threatened by the knowledge you bring for reasons provided by the above posters, and their sarcastic remark is a response to that perceived threat.
To get better responses from the team on your PM suggestions, I would start small, and in a helpful nonthreatening way. You need to change their impression from you are a threat to them on the project, to an ally. I do this by listening and observing, and then being very strategic about when and how I provide input. This includes rephrasing the issue so that you show you are listening and understand. Suggest a remedy, and explain how it helps them. Examples:
"If I understand you correctly, the problem is X. One way you might resolve that is Y. That is a simple action that addresses the underlying problem of Z." "After reviewing the plan, I see X as a risk which is very likely to occur and here is why. An easy way to avoid this risk is Y because..."
They might ignore you at first, but then when they see you were right and proposed a solution ahead of time, they will remember and are more likely to take your input in the future. I've turned adversaries into very strong allies that way. I'm making them look good by recommending improvements to the plan, not picking their work apart. Saving Changes...
Thanks Wade,Sergio, Dina & Thomas for your suggestion. I am facing lot of resistance from peer PM group. Only one PM apart from me has done PMP. So, we face lot of heat from Old PMs as well as Old employees as they are used to same old way of working without process & setting up process bring change which generates conflict & heated arguments sometimes. I was also struggling in handling such situation.
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1 reply by Sergio Luis Conte
Jun 19, 2019 4:51 AM
Sergio Luis Conte
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Process are always there. Implicit or explicit defined but they are always there. If you like to change something then you have to work on "the pain" it is generating. This is an article I wrote time ago and was published by PMI and others. Perhaps it helps: https://www.projectmanagement.com/blog-pos...zational-change On the other side take a look to "Solution Selling" or SPIN Selling method.
Saving Changes...
Eric SimmsSenior Program ManagerBaltimore, Maryland, United States
By itself the PMP is just a paper accreditation; people will only respect it if you show them how good of a Project Manager you are. When people see how well you execute their projects below cost and ahead of schedule, they'll begin to respect the PMP. Saving Changes...
Senior Projects Manager | Field & Marten AssociatesNew Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
We face this a lot. However, when you try to talk to your colleagues, do not give them theory but instead, lead them by example and show them what you've accomplished by following what you are suggestion and the added value, this will increase their buy-in for sure. Saving Changes...
Stéphane ParentSelf Employed / Semi-retired| Leader MakerPrince Edward Island, Canada
Sometimes actions speak louder than words. Take your own advice: suggest actions that you can carry to term. Showing them what works will go a long way to winning them over. Saving Changes...
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