Project Management professionals still consider meeting the schedule as one of the critical success factors of their projects. Although meeting the schedule is important, nowadays projects may be considered successful if they bring the expected incremental benefits to the community, employees and the organization that pay for the proyect.
In a global team, the concept of time may differ and the "interpretation" of the schedule may vary from country to country. Among it's main functions project managers need to consider the cultural factor in their project teams to ensure that milestones will be completed as planned.
How would you deal with a team member in which his/hers language or dialect there is no words to describe the future? Would this be a roadblock for your project? Phil Zimbardo describes on his video "The secret Powers of Time" the different concepts of time across different geographies and religions views.
This video is a must for all those project manager that have not consider the time perception impact on their projects teams.
On the eve of his 35th wedding anniversary, President William J. Clinton addressed the thousands of project management professionals attending the PMI Global Congress 2010 North America.
During his address, Mr. Clinton expressed his fascination by project management and how it had positively impacted him as on his political career running campaigns as attorney general, governor and president.
When President Clinton took office for his first term in 1993 the world was changing and he faced the challenge to reduce the deficit. He asked Vice-president Gore to lead and build a national partnership to reduce the deficit and reshape the government fairly quickly considering different alternatives, among them technology projects that would provide quick wins.
Examples of those quick wins include: the Inc. Magazine award presented to the Social Security Administration for being the most consumer responsive organization in America, the electronic tax filing and how government created value and doubled American people’s trust in government according to the survey conducted by the University of Michigan.
Today, thru his foundation Mr. Clinton leads many projects toward the benefit of people in America and throughout the world providing medicine to children in need and fighting obesity. On annual basis he meets with world leaders, philanthropists and NGOs leaders of to focus on specific actions. In 6 years, Mr. Clinton foundation spent 60+ billion dollars to positively change people’s life.
The three current challenges the world is facing, according to Mr. Clinton are:
• Global instability
• Growing economic inequality between rich and poor countries
• The need for change in the way energy is produced and consumed in the world
There is still a lot of work to be done in Haiti after the earthquake and he invited project managers to join his cause and develop standards to make sure that everything is done in Haiti during the re-construction is hurricane- and earthquake-resistant.
One of the most interesting quotes from Mr. Clinton was “If you're a project manager and you're a professional, there's always going to be something you can do for the next 50 years in the 21st century".
During the Q&A session with Greg Ballesteros, CEO of PM, Mr. Clinton Mentioned that two people that had influenced his life was Nelson Mandela, Nobel Prize and former President of South Africa and Yitzhak Rabin, fifth Prime Minister of Israel. From both he learnt the power of strength and that adversity should not change ideals.
Mr. Clinton keynote was the best way to start PMI Global Congress 2010 -- North America.
V AP-CON 2010 Congreso Centroamericano y del Caribe de Administración de Proyectos.
The event took place in San Jose, Costa Rica on September 22rd thru 24th andbrought together more than two hundred project managers from Central America and the Caribbean. The event was organized by thePMI Costa Rica Chapter and Colegio de Ingenieros Civiles.
Jamie Gelbtuch and I were guest speakers. The title of our presentation was "Formando un Equipo de Proyecto Multigeneracional de Alto Rendimiento" (Developing a High Performance Multigenerational Team). The audience included project management professionals from Guatemala, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, the United States of America,Costa RIca and Brazil.
Jamie and I decided to combine our personal experience in cross-cultural and project management environments to which we had been exposed throughout our professional careers. During a discussion, we concluded that today's project managers not only wrestle on a daily basis with budgets, schedules and team issues, but for the first time in many decades with a new element of diversity— the management of multigenerational teams.
The outcome of that discussion was the article "Multigenerational teams and Their Impact in Project Management" published in April's PMI Community Post. The article was well accepted by the project management community and as a result we were invited by the PMI Global Diversity Community of Practice to conduct their inaugural webinar last August (2010).
The presentation used in the webinar was adapted for the V Central American and Caribbean Project Management Congress in order to address the Central American and Caribbean audience.
The event was very well organized and Jamie and I would recommend that you consider attending the congress next year.
Three full days filled with learning, networking and sharing experiences with other project management professionals from around the world. Former President Bill Clinton was the keynote speaker and shared his experience with project management during his political and civil career.
Project Management professionals want to have fun too!!!
The Monday evening networking evening "A Taste of Washington" was the perfect opportunity to network, relax and have some fun with colleagues from around the world.
The Congress features three full days of learning and networking for the global project management community. On Saturday took place the PMI Award Ceremony and Reception in which the best of project management was recognized.
The recognition included PMI chapters and Specific Interest Groups, individuals and companies focused on project management education and project management professionals for their contribution to the profession. To culminate the ceremony, the PMI Project of the Year award was announced.
After the event, the reception was a great venue for networking with people from various geographies who attended the Leadership meetings and/or the global congress. A large group of Latin American representatives got together after the reception to continue “la fiesta”.
Take a look to Simon Sinek's video and take his recommendation. You as project manager must inspire action to the project team and stakeholders. Try to use the golden circle and the question "Why?" in your next project status or stakeholder meeting and see the diference
A nice token of appreciation from the the PMI Costa RIca Chapter and the Colegio de Ingenieros Civiles de Costa Rica for the Presenters of the V Centro American and Caribbean Congress of Project Management held in San Jose, Costa Rica.
The next issue of the PMI Community Post will include the article "The Risk of Miscommunication in a Global Project Team". My colleague Jamie Gelbtuch and I collaborate on frequent basis with the PMI e-newsletter. This will be the third article focused on how project managers deal with diverse teams.
While project managers wrestle on a daily basis with budgets, schedules and team issues, for the first time in many decades a new element of diversity is being addressed—the management of multigenerational teams.
My passion is program and project management and how culture impacts the project outcome. I'd been managing global and regional projects around the world led and managed diverse and disperse teams and transformed programs into benefits. I had been exposed to several project management methodologies and achieved credentials from different project management organizations. I am the first Mexican to achieve the PgMP credential and mentoring potential candidates from Latin America. As an avid volunteer with PMI and with other organizations I participate in events that promote the project management culture. I have a strong multi-cultural background and speak fluently English, Spanish and Portuguese. I am a frequent speaker at regional and global project management congresses. You can read my columns in PMI Community Post and INyES Latino.