Organizational culture, remote teams and project management

Our personal belief system and governing values have a tremendous impact on how we enter into and maintain relationships. When it comes to culture, we allow those personal frameworks to take a back seat to allow something that is bigger than ourselves to flourish.

Hi Luis,

lots of good questions. And I might not have all answers, but a few.

There is a distinction between PMI as an organization (with its purpose, strategic plan and organizational values mainly targeted at staff) and what PMI thinks the profession and the project economy should be like. Like a distinction between a hammer and a nail. PMI's values for the profession are contained in the Code of Ethics, unchanged for about 15 years. Maybe the 9 symbols will be considered if the Code will be updated. So far they are merely attributes that support PMI's new brand. Do not know if and when an Code update happens.

The beliefs in the strategic plan did not change much over the past 50 years, still PMI believes in the impact of project management and the value of volunteers. It highlights the values of community, diversity (respect) and accountability, maybe those are seen as more important and relevant for PMI than honesty, fairness, humility or autonomy. I do not know.

Will the strategic plan change? I hope so, any strategic plan should be adapted regularly, if not continuously (well, some things need to be stable, otherwise we humans go crazy). The current one was put into effect in 2018, so I think its about time, but I do not know about it.

Think the new Presidents corner is a great tool to communicate changes and the impact of a new leader.
The About us tab is still there, under more ....

Are we facing a cultural change? Absolutely. Always. Adaptive.
It is not bad, it is called living.

The cultural identity of organizations, as you call it, can be defined from the top but will self-create from the bottom (with people using the suggestions or not). In many organizations there is a gap between target top-down culture and actually lived culture.

For example, many longterm IBMers still follow the principle 'respect for the individual' albeit it was stripped off the culture by Lou Gerstner 25 years ago to make layoffs easier.

I think, at PMI both cultures are remarkably close, driven by the passionate volunteers on all levels, including those speaking up in this forum. Thank you, Luis.

Dear Thomas
It is always very pleasant and rewarding to exchange these ideas in a forum of this nature

And, of course, I always consider your contribution fantastic (regardless of whether we have different opinions)

Thank you for participating with your opinions

Have you had a chance to read Jim Collins' "Good to Great"?

Dear Thomas

Speaking of strategy.
It seems to me that there is a profound change in the PMI strategy

Notice:
- The changes in the offer (product portfolio)
- The importance of agile approaches (DA and their certifications)
- The importance of PMP certification in the product portfolio

The new strategy (Cross Selling) is more important than adding value to the project management profession (What is happening with the PMBOK Guide 7th Edition - in its content and in the way it is being produced)

Otherwise let's see:
1. Introduction of the DA (and its multiple certifications) in the product portfolio
2. Creation of project management careers with different levels:
- Entry
- Associate
- Professional
- Master
- Executive

A set of certifications for each level

3. Placing content on project management on a platform that, to have access, you must be a member of PMI

The rationale behind this strategy:
Take advantage of the 1,000,000 PMP certified people to cross-sell and, as a result, increase revenue

Dear Peter
Thank you for participating in this reflection and for your opinion

We agree when you write: "The created culture from leadership is only part of the battle. It takes dedication and structure from each teammate to remain focused on their responsibilities to the team and not fall to the distractions of" remote "workforce"

How do you make that happen?

To what extent should the corporate culture (Principles, Values ??and Resulting Behaviors) be present?

I am not convinced that "...we allow those personal frameworks to take a back seat..." I believe as leaders we use "our belief systems and values" to positively influence the team culture to enhance the potential for team success which translates to project success. Does that mean we are manipulating the evolution of team culture - yes, that's why we are the leaders.

Dear Stéphane
Thank you for sharing your opinion with us

The big question is:
- Do we model or do we allow ourselves to be modeled?

Hi Luis

you seem to have a negative connotation with the term 'cross selling', yet the best companies do that and they are only successful because they better listen and respond to their customers needs (take Apple, Amazon, Microsoft).

My personal opinions regarding the concerns you raised:

While the purpose of PMI is not to sell something, it is PMI's intend to sense and respond to its stakeholders.

Yes, there is a significant shift in strategy with the strategic plan 2017, and we see some results now. I think any points you mentioned can be linked back to provisions of this new strategy.

Cross-selling or selling per se is not among them. Providing the profession with what it needs in changing times is.

I share your concern that PMBoK Guide ed 7 is not vetted enough by a wider range of professionals. I also understand there is a need for quick and dramatic change.

While PMI had already more than 100 products before 2017, digitalization, focus on career improvements, data integration and product portfolio management, as outlined in the strategic plan, lead to an - hopefully - enhanced, modernized and more relevant offering.

The agile movement, though widely unstructured, touches professionals and PMI, so yes, PMI had to transform itself and present guidance to professionals quickly. So it chose to acquire instead of build agile knowledge and reputation. It is worthwhile mentioning that the comprehensive ACP is here since 10 years.

PMP is important, it has to be adapted and supported by other offerings. That is happening. During a career in project management, PMP is no longer the only touchpoint with PMI, PMI (and others) can offer more and at various points in a career, even in different career paths.

It seems to be hard for change managers to accept changes on themselves.

In the book crucial conversations, the authors outline our path to action:
1. we see partial facts
2. we interpret them, fill gaps with assumptions, make a story
3. we have emotions from this story
4. we act on these emotions

Emotional Intelligence, self-awareness and self-control help us to disrupt #3 and #4, go back to #1 and search for more facts.

Dear Thomas
Thank you for sharing your opinion with us

What makes you say that I have a negative idea of ??a cross-selling strategy?

When I became PMP, PMI was a reference for Project Management professionals

The PMBOK Guide was updated to include the knowledge that was developed in the Project Management discipline.

You know, better than me, how the knowledge creation process was generated and consolidated

PMI's positioning has changed (or rather it is changing)

Well Luis,

you wrote that cross-selling would be the new strategy (which it is not) and takes prty over adding value to the profession. Sounds negative to me.

I do not share these your opinions and do not see supporting facts for them.

Like for you, 20 years ago the PMP was the reference for me too. Although it was updated along with the PMBoK Guide every 4 years since 1996, the basic structure stayed the same.

For some years now we experience that Leadership becomes more important for success and the agile movement becomes more popular.

And several other problems arose, like size of PMBoK, digitalization, practical use etc..

So yes, I believe it is overdue for a major overhaul to stay relevant.

The world has changed, and beloved things need to adapt to be useful in the future.

I share some of your and others concerns about how this is done.