the smart pms blog http://thesmartpms.posterous.com Most recent posts at the smart pms blog posterous.com Sun, 17 Jun 2012 09:04:00 -0700 Fill in the Blanks for Junior Project Team Members http://thesmartpms.posterous.com/fill-in-the-blanks-for-junior-project-team-me http://thesmartpms.posterous.com/fill-in-the-blanks-for-junior-project-team-me

The other day, a member of my project team e-mailed me and proposed that we consider starting a new project. The new project would complement a project we are currently working on.  
 

Eventually, I learned that the project board had rejected this proposed project before. I discovered that a stakeholder who had pushed to start the project several times -- despite the fact that the board discarded it -- approached my team member, who happened to be a junior member and new graduate. 
 

As a new member to our team, I had to explain the project selection process of our organization. The board selects projects from a business-oriented approach. Under this direction, projects produce business benefits that will contribute to achieve organization's strategic objectives. The proposed project did not fit this mindset, but as a new project team member, how could he have known?

I explained further to this project team member that in this mindset, project professionals must wear a business and technical hat. Depending on the situation, project managers must ensure that their project teams deliver projects that will produce the benefits and results that the organization is looking for.

This is just one example of how project professionals will need to be able to coach "multi" teams, especially those made up of new and young project members. You can't assume that everyone on the team shares your same knowledge. 

Eventually, the junior team member understood why only projects that will help the organization fulfill its intended purpose should be selected. A few days later, we met with the stakeholder to ask for specifics about the project with regard to the organizational benefits.

How do you coach junior project team members when they are less knowledgeable?

 

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Tue, 22 May 2012 15:25:00 -0700 Overcoming a Significant Age Difference http://thesmartpms.posterous.com/overcoming-a-significant-age-difference http://thesmartpms.posterous.com/overcoming-a-significant-age-difference

As a project management professional for 20 years, I've managed IT projects in a variety of industries and regions, including North America, Latin America and Europe. Most of the projects were regional or global, and the project teams included members from different nationalities, cultures and generations.

Although complexity was a common denominator in these projects, it wasn't because of technology. It was because the people had what I call the "multi" factor: multinational, multicultural or multigenerational project teams.

The "multi" factor plays an important role in projects, and project managers must be prepared to address team issues related to this phenomenon.

The multigenerational work force has created what I call the "21st Century Organizational Ecosystem." Many organizations may find themselves dealing with generational clashes between a 60-something program manager, a 50-something project manager, a 30-something project team leader and a 20-something project team member. This could just be one facet of this ecosystem.

Project managers should understand the significant age difference among team members at the outset of a project. Age differences will be translated in generational gaps and identifying those gaps at the beginning enables the project manager to discern the preferred communication methods, interpretation of hierarchy and authority, as well as the perception of personal and work time.

In addition to technical skills, project managers must master interpersonal skills in order to analyze situations and interact appropriately, since the project team environment has evolved over the last 10 years a new interpersonal skill is required, not only for project managers but also for team members and stakeholders: multigenerational awareness.

Generations as cultures are based on invisible values, beliefs, attitudes and assumptions created by shared experiences and events. These differ across generations, and each will likely feel or behave differently in the same situation. The lack of cultural awareness may lead to a misunderstanding and misinterpretation of the situation.

With the inclusion of Generation Y to the workplace will experience a significant age difference. As the children of baby boomers, Generation Y may not always fit the behavior you see in many organizations, but that shouldn't impede how you leverage their talents and competences when working as team members on a project.

These 20-something new graduates, or "millennials," have lived in a technologically ubiquitous world. They've always been recognized independently of their abilities and have mastered virtual collaboration skills.

Their attraction to technology may cause some project managers to find it challenging to communicate with millennials who don't follow traditional business formalities. For example, those that favor sending task and project status via text message rather than standard report templates.

In the project environment, millennials are closer in temperament and outlook to baby boomers. They look for smart mentors who don't talk down to them. When these types of relationships mature, boomers will show millennials how their wants can align with an organization's needs.

Millennials bring much to project environment: the ability to rapidly adapt to change, the ease with which they embrace diversity and a strong collaborative spirit. They've grown up in a changing and diverse world and have mastered many abilities that are important to projects.

Leading a multigenerational project team can be like riding a roller coaster or a day at the beach. It depends on how quickly project managers can enhance their multigenerational behaviors and values to creating the synergy required to have a successful project team.

How have you experienced the multigenerational factor in project teams? How has working with different generations affected your projects?

 

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Mon, 21 May 2012 07:57:00 -0700 Are you a Technologically Reliant Project Manager? http://thesmartpms.posterous.com/are-you-a-technologically-reliant-project-man http://thesmartpms.posterous.com/are-you-a-technologically-reliant-project-man
In the professional world where technology is omnipresent, we as project and program managers are used to tying our personal and professional lives to technology and gadgets like smart phones, tablets, GPS, etc.

 As a result, some organizations are trying a "day without email" on Fridays and/or weekends to encourage more face-to-face and phone contact with customers and colleagues. How do you think this would be received by a multigenerational project team?

For baby boomer and silent generation team members, face-to-face may be a preferred communication method. But for members of Gen Y, not communicating by email may make them feel like a fish out of water because of their preference for virtual communication.

 As the "day without email" idea progresses gradually, employees in these organizations are probably realizing that business functions are about human relationships. This is an opportunity to foster a coaching environment in which Gen X and Gen Y will be able to hone their interpersonal skills supported by senior project team members.

For those project team members who use technology frequently, discuss alternatives that will reduce the dependency of email in their daily activities.

How much do you depend on technology for your daily activities? How would your project team survive the "day without email" policy? Would you enjoy having a day free of email?

 

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Sat, 31 Mar 2012 08:12:00 -0700 Bridging the Great Divide http://thesmartpms.posterous.com/bridging-the-great-divide http://thesmartpms.posterous.com/bridging-the-great-divide

Faced with a veritable youth quake, project leaders are closing today’s generation gap by helping team members of all ages work together.

Read the expert advise of many project managers practitioners on how to deal with multigenerational teams in the  project environment. 

PMN0412_Gen_Gap.pdf Download this file

 

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Wed, 21 Mar 2012 09:00:00 -0700 The Post-Recession Millennial - Infographic http://thesmartpms.posterous.com/the-post-recession-millennial-infographic http://thesmartpms.posterous.com/the-post-recession-millennial-infographic

Summary of the report produced by the Career Advisory Board - DeVry University. The Career Advisory Board is a panel of leading career experts and authors from business and academia who provide actionable advice for job-seekers. 

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Tue, 20 Mar 2012 09:00:00 -0700 Who Are the Millennials? http://thesmartpms.posterous.com/who-are-the-millennials http://thesmartpms.posterous.com/who-are-the-millennials

Who Are the Millennials?<br />Flowtown - Social Media Marketing Application

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Mon, 19 Mar 2012 10:00:00 -0700 Multigenerational Team Infographic http://thesmartpms.posterous.com/multigenerational-team-infographic http://thesmartpms.posterous.com/multigenerational-team-infographic

Infographic inspired from the video "We all Want to be Young"

 

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Sun, 18 Mar 2012 10:59:00 -0700 Millennials an Entrepreneurial Generation http://thesmartpms.posterous.com/millennials-an-entrepreneurial-generation http://thesmartpms.posterous.com/millennials-an-entrepreneurial-generation

Results of recent recent survey conducted by the Young Invincibles in conjunction with Lake Research Partners and Bellwether Research and funded by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. 

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Sun, 17 Oct 2010 07:48:00 -0700 Speaking Engagemet at V AP-CON 2010 Congreso Centroamericano y del Caribe de Administración de Proyectos http://thesmartpms.posterous.com/speaking-engagemet-at-v-ap-con-2010-congreso-0 http://thesmartpms.posterous.com/speaking-engagemet-at-v-ap-con-2010-congreso-0

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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 and brought together more than two hundred project managers from Central America and the Caribbean. The event was organized by the PMI 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.   

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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.

 

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Sun, 26 Sep 2010 15:25:00 -0700 Speaking Engagemet at V AP-CON 2010 Congreso Centroamericano y del Caribe de Administración de Proyectos http://thesmartpms.posterous.com/speaking-engagemet-at-v-ap-con-2010-congreso http://thesmartpms.posterous.com/speaking-engagemet-at-v-ap-con-2010-congreso

V AP-CON 2010 Congreso Centroamericano y del Caribe de Administración de Proyectos. 

Jamie Gelbtuch and I were guest speakers at the V AP-CON 2010 Congreso Centroamericano y del Caribe de Administracion de Proyectos (5th Central American and Caribbean Project Management Congress) organized by the PMI Costa Rica Chapter  and  Colegio de Ingenieros Civiles.  

The event took place in San Jose, Costa Rica on September 23rd and 24th and brought together more than two hundred project managers from Central America and the Caribbean.

The presentation topic 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, Brazil and the United States of America.

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 the August 2010 Monthly Webinar.

The presentation used in the webinar was the adapted for the 5th 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.

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