Do you participate in volunteer activities? Yes, for PMI, PMI-NUC, and for TEDxSaltLakeCity
Are those activities similar to your profession or something completely different? Yes for PMI, kind off for TEDx community.
What skills did you learn/improved? Communication, leading without authority and be more adaptable and agile (with team members that aren't getting paid for their job) Saving Changes...
1. Yes, for a large percentage of my time in terms of contributing and supporting multiple user communities, informally mentoring a few practitioners, blogging weekly, delivering many webinars on PM-related topics, as well as reviewing a number of PMI's standards and practice guides and contributing to Standards Plus.
2. Both - mostly PM-focused, but I'm also a community moderator for the Miro user group.
3. Patience :-)
Kiron
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1 reply by Mayte Mata Sivera
Apr 29, 2021 12:22 PM
Mayte Mata Sivera
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Kiron, thank you for participating... Patience, that's true, is something that I also improve it and didn't realized. Volunteering in non-profit, all people is their working hard without getting paid, so we need to understand that and be patience.
Saving Changes...
Thomas WalentaGlobal Project Economy ExpertHackenheim, Germany
Mayte
yes, I am volunteering for PMI and outside PMI.
Volunteering as a PMI leader since 1998 (Chapter and PMI Board) was a sandbox for me, as it taught me how to make a team trust each other and excel. Without using explicit power.
And the real achievements, the satisfaction of stakeholders gave me more confidence.
I was rewarded with getting the PMI Fellow award in 2012.
Outside PMI I am mentoring people who ask and need it, including 4 refugees trying to get a hold of life in Germany.
Thomas
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1 reply by Mayte Mata Sivera
Apr 29, 2021 12:23 PM
Mayte Mata Sivera
...
Thomas,
Your participation and engagement with the PMI community is impressive. I didn't know about the award, well deserved!
I enjoy volunteering but with the pandemic there have been fewer opportunities.
Most of my activities are largely unrelated to work, such as assisting athletes with disabilities. Working with school aged children in classwork or projects related to math and science is a lot of fun, and sometimes I mentor new professionals by request.
Working with the athletes develops empathy for individuals with special needs. Others often see them only as a person in a powered wheelchair for example, and make a lot of assumptions about the individual. Working closely with them you learn a lot about the person, and how they are treated by others. It also build communication skills. One of my ski-buddies has no verbal ability, but I learned to communicate with him very well.
When teaching in more of a classroom setting, it can really build your own knowledge in addition to being fun. Concepts that may seem very clear in your mind, can suddenly seem more confusing when you try to explain them clearly. The teaching process forces you to organize your thoughts in a way that are clear to others, which can galvanize those concepts in your own mind.
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1 reply by Mayte Mata Sivera
Apr 29, 2021 12:26 PM
Mayte Mata Sivera
...
Keith,
Fully agree, the pandemic impacted a lot with the participation and engagement level in tons of volunteer opportunities.
Your experience and contribution is amazing, I assume that at the during the first times of volunteering you were completely out of your comfort zone, as your volunteer is non related to your work.
1. Yes, for a large percentage of my time in terms of contributing and supporting multiple user communities, informally mentoring a few practitioners, blogging weekly, delivering many webinars on PM-related topics, as well as reviewing a number of PMI's standards and practice guides and contributing to Standards Plus.
2. Both - mostly PM-focused, but I'm also a community moderator for the Miro user group.
3. Patience :-)
Kiron
Kiron, thank you for participating... Patience, that's true, is something that I also improve it and didn't realized. Volunteering in non-profit, all people is their working hard without getting paid, so we need to understand that and be patience. Saving Changes...
Volunteering as a PMI leader since 1998 (Chapter and PMI Board) was a sandbox for me, as it taught me how to make a team trust each other and excel. Without using explicit power.
And the real achievements, the satisfaction of stakeholders gave me more confidence.
I was rewarded with getting the PMI Fellow award in 2012.
Outside PMI I am mentoring people who ask and need it, including 4 refugees trying to get a hold of life in Germany.
Thomas
Thomas,
Your participation and engagement with the PMI community is impressive. I didn't know about the award, well deserved! Saving Changes...
I enjoy volunteering but with the pandemic there have been fewer opportunities.
Most of my activities are largely unrelated to work, such as assisting athletes with disabilities. Working with school aged children in classwork or projects related to math and science is a lot of fun, and sometimes I mentor new professionals by request.
Working with the athletes develops empathy for individuals with special needs. Others often see them only as a person in a powered wheelchair for example, and make a lot of assumptions about the individual. Working closely with them you learn a lot about the person, and how they are treated by others. It also build communication skills. One of my ski-buddies has no verbal ability, but I learned to communicate with him very well.
When teaching in more of a classroom setting, it can really build your own knowledge in addition to being fun. Concepts that may seem very clear in your mind, can suddenly seem more confusing when you try to explain them clearly. The teaching process forces you to organize your thoughts in a way that are clear to others, which can galvanize those concepts in your own mind.
Keith,
Fully agree, the pandemic impacted a lot with the participation and engagement level in tons of volunteer opportunities.
Your experience and contribution is amazing, I assume that at the during the first times of volunteering you were completely out of your comfort zone, as your volunteer is non related to your work. Saving Changes...
I have been volunteering for the past few months. Learnt a lot on the various agile frameworks by doing things....the advantage I found is that you get the opportunity to work in a safe environment where you can fail and improve, unlike the real world where you would be in constant pressure to deliver. This also gives you the opportunity to experiment and learn new tools/technologies/platforms.
One key value add for me has been to gain insight of the fact that there is a big difference between what you learn in the books (idea way of working) and the actual implementation/adoption of the concepts. This makes you more aware, patient, adaptive and resilient towards working in the non-ideal environment (which is expected in most of the real world situation) where every team member will have diverse view, knowledge and understanding of the framework.
"A statesman is an easy man, he tells his lies by rote. A journalist invents his lies and rams them down your throat. So stay at home and drink your beer and let the neighbors vote!"
