the smart pms blog http://thesmartpms.posterous.com Most recent posts at the smart pms blog posterous.com 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?

 

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

]]>
http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1572503/BestoftheBestCM.png http://posterous.com/users/4SirDmU49YtP Conrado Morlan thesmartpms Conrado Morlan
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

 

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

]]>
http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1572503/BestoftheBestCM.png http://posterous.com/users/4SirDmU49YtP Conrado Morlan thesmartpms Conrado Morlan
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

Image004
 

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.   

Image003
 

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.

 

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

]]>
http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1572503/BestoftheBestCM.png http://posterous.com/users/4SirDmU49YtP Conrado Morlan thesmartpms Conrado Morlan
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.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

]]>
http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1572503/BestoftheBestCM.png http://posterous.com/users/4SirDmU49YtP Conrado Morlan thesmartpms Conrado Morlan