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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Sun, 20 May 2012 07:54:00 -0700 Managing Multicultural Teams http://thesmartpms.posterous.com/managing-multicultural-teams http://thesmartpms.posterous.com/managing-multicultural-teams


Having the opportunity to work for a company that operates in more than two hundred countries

Having the opportunity to work for a company that operates in more than two hundred countries and territories and is a global leader in logistics has given me the opportunity to lead large global and regional information-technology projects. While technology made the work complex, the element of culture, both national and organizational, amplified the complexity.

A Global Project

The objectives of my first assignment were to lead the convergence of existing invoicing applications hosted and managed by country IT teams to a centrally managed single platform hosted in one of the regional data centers, and to standardize operations and processes. The new invoicing platform would be used by all countries in the Americas region; changes would follow a formal change-request process.

Although the existing invoicing applications shared core functionality, IT departments in individual companies had customized them by adding nonstandard functions that often did not comply with regional guidelines. This uncontrolled behavior led to new functions and processes that disrupted the standard operations at country and regional levels.

The technical team supporting the countries was challenged by reported incidents that often related to the customized functions, not core functionality. This was a source of conflict between the country IT teams and the technical support team, which many times was unable to address the issue. Business users did not produce invoices on time and their level of satisfaction was low. All this affected country and regional cash flow.

The Americas management board sponsored the project and mandated that all countries stop using any feature or function not aligned with the regional invoicing standards.

The Project Team

The project team consisted of stakeholders, the deployment team, and a technical support team. Stakeholders were the permanent regional management board and rotating country officials, including general manager, finance officer, and IT officer, who joined when the new platform was deployed in their particular country. The core deployment team was the same from project inception through completion and consisted of a project manager, technical-support team lead, and subject-matter experts in technology and invoicing. The rotating team members included country resources, both technical and end users. The technical support team, remotely located in Asia, supported day-to-day operation during the Americas business hours.

During team formation, team management became complex as some stakeholders and members of the deployment team changed when a new deployment started. New members came on board and others departed as the deployment in their countries was completed. I had to understand how to integrate new members into the team smoothly, convincing them to accept change and promptly collaborate with the project.

I learned that I needed to develop cultural competencies to manage the project team effectively and establish connections with team members when they came on board. A kick-off meeting to explain the purpose and benefits of the project helped establish the bond between new team members and the project. The most important part of connecting was stressing the importance of their roles and how their local experience would enrich the project, as this created a sense of belonging that translated into engagement. But the connection was strengthened by understanding and respecting the different communication styles and preferences of the national cultures involved.

There are many books about national cultures, but few resources explain how to deal with national cultures in project teams. While attending project management congresses, I was able to connect with other project management professionals who had faced similar challenges and learn from their experiences. I also learned from my own mistakes. During my first visit to Asia, I met with the technical-support team lead and his team and inadvertently broke the local meeting protocol when I started asking direct questions of team members. After catching the nonverbal cues of team members that showed they were asking the team lead for permission to answer, I switched to directing questions to the lead. He then selected the person to answer the question. At the end of the meeting, I apologized to the team lead and team members for my oversight and made it clear that my intention was not to make them uncomfortable or violate local meeting standards. I quickly shared what I learned with the rest of the deployment team.

Speaking foreign languages is a must in a global project environment, but language skill alone does not make a cross-cultural expert. It is necessary to understand other cultures’ values, beliefs, and communication preferences. Knowing how they manage and resolve conflict is essential, for obvious reasons.

During my first visit to Asia, I met with the technical-support team lead and his team and inadvertently broke the local meeting protocol when I started asking direct questions of team members.

It is also important to understand your own culture’s norms and behaviors. That knowledge helps guard against interpreting other cultures’ behaviors in terms of your own unexamined expectations. Reflecting on your own culture helps you understand and interpret why people from other cultures act the way they do.

With those recommendations in mind, I looked for ways to improve my cultural awareness in order to better understand my team members. As the project progressed and my cultural awareness improved, my connection with international team members became closer and more robust. When I had to spend more than two weeks in a country, I usually spent my weekends visiting popular spots where locals met: restaurants, farmers’ markets, coffee shops, and occasional sporting events where I observed people’s customs, traditions, and behaviors. My observations in those settings helped answer my questions about culture. When in doubt, I asked questions either of the locals or my colleagues.

Intracompany Networking

I often met with country management boards during the course of the project; these meetings offered good opportunities to establish long-lasting business relationships. I learned the importance of doing “my homework,” gathering all the relevant information prior to any meeting and knowing the audience in advance. Having established strong relationships in the initial phase of the project helped me get insight into country officials from people who had already dealt with them. Knowing the preferences and sometimes the opinions of a country’s management board about the project helped me to build the right deployment strategy and know what to expect from meetings.

In every meeting with country management boards, my team and I wore business attire and arrived on time. Board members arrived gradually and the general manager usually arrived late, demonstrating his status. The meeting started with preliminary discussions that helped build rapport. Deployment discussions occurred only after rapport was established. Usually, the first meeting exceeded the original allotted time and a second meeting was required to make the final decisions.

In this kind of project, it is important to have a well-defined circle of people who can influence the outcome. It can be like having “invisible” team members who support important functions and contribute to project performance.

Relationships should span all levels of the organization and not be limited to the higher ranks. Establishing a good relationship with users gives you feedback regarding the operation of the application and how it can be enhanced. For instance, Costa Rican users helped solve a common problem: end-of-day activities that involved several steps that required constant attention and, often, work after regular business hours. They suggested assessing the feasibility of automating these tasks. The assessment was positive and the tasks were automated, enabling Costa Rica and the other countries to avoid overtime payment.

A New Project Manager’s Role

In an environment where organizations depend on global projects for benefits that contribute to strategic objectives, the project management professional needs to explore new ways to lead, execute, and deliver projects supported by dispersed and diverse teams. Technical expertise is not enough. Project managers must adopt a business-oriented approach and cultural awareness and other soft skills. The most important knowledge and skills include the following:

  • Strategic Management. Understanding an organization’s strategy will provide the backdrop for future assignments and an understanding of project selection criteria. Only projects that help the organization fulfill its intended purpose should be selected.
  • Mindful Communication. Communication is crucial to project success. Communication needs to be customized to the specific cultures involved in a diverse project team. Good communication influences and inspires project teams and helps build strong relationships across the organization.
  • Adaptability. New leadership styles that fit the global project are required when working with diverse and dispersed teams located across time zones.
  • Resilience. Realigning or repairing projects facing unexpected hardship because of miscommunication and problematic behaviors as well as cross-cultural issues and conflicts will be a regular part of the project manager’s task.
  • Transparency. Adherence to an organization’s values and culture as well as professional codes of ethics is mandatory in global projects. The state of the global project needs to be shared promptly with relevant parties whether the project is in good shape or facing hardships.

In this new role, the project manager will turn into a perennial learner striving toward excellence, a great communicator, and a business partner who ensures that projects will produce the benefits the organization is seeking.

Key Questions

  • As a global project manager, how do you deal with cultural issues in your project team?
  • What is your strategy to deal with conflict in a cross-cultural team?
  • Do you enjoy the challenge of being a global project manager?

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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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Thu, 22 Mar 2012 09:00:00 -0700 8 Secrets of Success http://thesmartpms.posterous.com/8-secrets-of-success http://thesmartpms.posterous.com/8-secrets-of-success

Why do people succeed? Is it because they're smart? Or are they just lucky? Neither. Analyst Richard St. John condenses years of interviews into an unmissable 3-minute slideshow on the real secrets of success.

http://www.ted.com/talks/richard_st_john_s_8_secrets_of_success.html

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Mon, 16 May 2011 18:36:00 -0700 The Value of Project Management in the New Millennium http://thesmartpms.posterous.com/the-value-of-project-management-in-the-new-mi http://thesmartpms.posterous.com/the-value-of-project-management-in-the-new-mi

Conrado Morlan, EzineArticles.com Basic Author

Technology in the first decade of the second millennium supplied a large variety of project management tools targeted to Project Management Offices (PMO) and Project Management professionals.

Some organizations opted to use those tools under the traditional approach to training, improving processes and project or followed guidelines to achieve the Organizational Project Management Maturity Model (OPM3).

Despite the availability of technological tools and best practices, the reality was that many projects were unsuccessful under the traditional approach because either they exceeded project budget or did not meet the proposed schedule. As a consequence business goals were not achieved.

The traditional approach to project management may consider projects as independent units and its success or failure is based on metrics usually associated with financial ratios. A new approach is being adopted by organizations in which projects are no longer independent units but are tied to the business strategy. This may sound simple, although there is no framework or best practice available to apply the new approach.

The organizations are looking to become more competitive, efficient and profitable and they will need a business and project management experts working together to attain the business goals. Both, business and project management experts will work towards the integration of projects into the business strategy.

Under the new approach, new metrics to define project success or failure need to be in place. Project must deliver benefits to the organization and budget or schedule variations may be justified by slight changes in the business strategy. There will be no room for projects originated in functional areas if they are not aligned to the business strategy. Project managers and their teams must become more strategic and take responsibility to deliver results during and at the end of the project.

What is the value for the organization to aligning projects and business strategy?

According to a research study published in 2008 conducted by Athabasca University and sponsored by the Project Management Institute, there are tangible and intangible benefits for the organization when projects are aligned with the business strategy.

The research was conducted in more than 60 organizations around the world and had the cooperation of more than 45 researchers who conducted over 400 interviews. The research results showed that among the tangible benefits the organizations:

  • Saved money and resources
  • Increased profitability
  • Retained customers
  • Increased market share

Among the intangible benefits, the organizations:

  • Attained strategic goals
  • Improved corporate culture
  • Innovated
  • Improved quality of life of their community

The research highlighted that intangible benefits have a direct relationship with the maturity level of project management. Project financials and financial metrics were not available or were not provided by the surveyed organizations.

As a practitioner who had the opportunity to work under both approaches, you may experience that under the traditional approach your role as project manager was more challenging and functional areas' resistance to change was higher. When projects are aligned to business strategy, the majority of the functional areas are engaged and willing to participate in the project to produce the expected benefit and achieve the business goals.

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Fri, 13 May 2011 18:37:00 -0700 Why I am greatful to Be a PMI Volunteer http://thesmartpms.posterous.com/why-i-am-greatful-to-be-a-pmi-volunteer http://thesmartpms.posterous.com/why-i-am-greatful-to-be-a-pmi-volunteer

Conrado Morlan, EzineArticles.com Basic Author

Merriam-Webster definition of "Volunteer": a person who voluntary undertakes or expresses a willingness to undertake a service.

Not many people, including members and non-members, know that the Project Management Institute (PMI) is supported by volunteers from across the world. That was my case when I joined PMI in 2005; I did not know that I would act locally; supporting the local chapter, and globally being part of communities of practice and participating in projects with global reach.

I decided to act globally and learned about the large extent of services undertaken by PMI volunteers including writing PMI standards, preparing questions for certification exams, organizing global congresses, and presenting at PMI sponsored events. And the list goes on and on and on.

I, as one of many others, wondered why these people offer their time to volunteer activities. It wasn't until 2007 at the PMI Global Congress Latin America where I met a Mexican volunteer who shared his experience in an item writing session in Barcelona. He explained how well coordinated the event was: from travel arrangements, venue, and volunteer team to afterhours activities. For him was a valuable experience meeting a selected group of Spanish speaking practitioners from around the world that joined forces to update the certification exam.

Wow! I was immediately sold on the idea. That volunteer opportunity encompassed my enthusiasm for traveling, meeting other people and sharing my experience as practitioner.

I could not wait to become a global volunteer and before the congress ended I was already registered. The first opportunity came three or four months after my registration: an item writing session in Philadelphia. At the beginning, I had a daunting feeling and too many questions. Would I be able to deliver? Am I experienced enough? Would I be called again after this session?

When I arrived in Philadelphia, I put that feeling away and got ready to spend three days with a selected group of experienced practitioners from the United States and Canada. The session was quite productive; we shared our personal experiences and produced great material for the next version of the PMI certification exam. The experience was one of a kind; I could not believe everything I learned in three days and for FREE.

I kept looking for volunteering opportunities and chose to be a presenter at the 2008 PMI Global Congresses in Latin America and North America. My two presentations were selected and I had the opportunity to visit two interesting cities, São Paulo and Denver, to meet practitioners from different latitudes and to share my experience in working with multicultural project teams.

Then, I had the opportunity to attend additional item writing sessions in Dallas, Mexico City, São Paulo and Washington,DC and to write exam material for PMP and PgMP exams. I continued to look for other opportunities and supported the Spanish translation efforts of the PMI Project Management Methodology for Post Disaster Reconstruction led by the PMI Madrid Chapter and was a member of the presentations reviewer pool for the PMI Global Congress 2010 - North America.

In 2009, at the global congress in Orlando, I tried something new: writing columns for the congress edition of PMI Today, which gave me the opportunity to develop my writing skills. I had already co-authored articles for PMI Community Post and continue submitting collaborations on quarterly basis.

If you still wonder why I am grateful to be a PMI volunteer, try it and give yourself the opportunity to live your profession with passion, being a true practitioner and not only applying project management knowledge at work but also sharing experiences with other colleagues, while developing and mastering your skills in a friendly environment.

What are you waiting for? Make your mark and join the local or global volunteer team to grow and advance the project management profession.

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Wed, 05 Jan 2011 11:45:00 -0800 Lessons Learned in Project Management, 140 Tips in 140 Words or Less. http://thesmartpms.posterous.com/lessons-learned-in-project-management-140-tip http://thesmartpms.posterous.com/lessons-learned-in-project-management-140-tip

A few months ago, Dr.John Estrella, a project management practitioner from Canada, requested the to the global community of project managers to share their experiences in 140 words or less, kind of twitter message but in words.

Dr. Estrella compiled the responses that covered project management topics, among them: scope, quality, budget, human resources and procurement. The result of this compilation is the book Lessons Learned in Project Management, 140 Tips in 140 Words or Less.

My contribution to the book is:

Tip 34: Use the “Chinese Army Approach” when scoping project resources

As a project manager, you will need to identify the resources to be included in the different tasks of the project. This activity may turn difficult and may become a roadblock in the selection process.

My recommendation is to use the “Chinese Army Approach,” which literally has unlimited resources, and assign roles or skills required instead of names of resources.

When this activity is completed, the project manager will have scoped all the required resources and then will be able to identify the internal resources that can fulfill the role or the skill; and those that cannot be fulfilled can be sourced from other groups or vendors.

The PDF version of the book is available for your reference.

Lessons_Learned_-_Kindle-PDF_Edition_-_2011-01-02.pdf Download this file

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Mon, 03 Jan 2011 14:05:00 -0800 Use the “Chinese Army Approach” When Scoping Project Resources http://thesmartpms.posterous.com/use-the-chinese-army-approach-when-scoping-pr http://thesmartpms.posterous.com/use-the-chinese-army-approach-when-scoping-pr

As a project manager, you will need to identify the resources to be included in the different tasks of the project. This activity may turn difficult and may become a roadblock in the selection process.

My recommendation is to use the “Chinese Army Approach,” which literally has unlimited resources, and assign roles or skills required instead of names of resources.

When this activity is completed, the project manager will have scoped all the required resources and then will be able to identify the internal resources that can fulfill the role or the skill; and those that cannot be fulfilled can be sourced from other groups or vendors.

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Mon, 15 Nov 2010 18:43:00 -0800 Strategic Project Management as a Tool to Achieve Competitive Advantage http://thesmartpms.posterous.com/nogallery-strategic-project-management-as-a-t http://thesmartpms.posterous.com/nogallery-strategic-project-management-as-a-t

Strategicplanning

Current business trends force companies to find the right mix to become more efficient and agile; these two elements are important to achieve competitive advantage, which will result in increasing market share, revenue or efficiency. 

For years, companies around the world have look for how to achieve competitive advantage through a traditional project management approach, this operational approach covers functions and operational controls, which include strict controls on schedules, budgets and resources. The results of these projects have not produced the expected benefits and competitive advantage even when operational controls were met. 

On the other hand, some innovative companies seeking to dominate their business sector are practicing an alternative project management approach and opt for an evolutionary process that will take them from an operational approach to a strategic approach. Under this new perspective, projects will be used as the mean to achieve real business objectives that support business strategy.

Research studies (Brown and Eisenhardt 1998) have confirmed that projects aligned with business strategy will be the foundation to take advantage over their competition and achievement of business objectives. The results suggest that companies choosing to adopt the new approach will require commitment at all levels in order to change the project management paradigm and establish the new way in which projects being undertaken will be aligned to business strategy and reach business goals.

Under this new approach, projects must be dynamic, flexible and capable to adapt to possible changes in strategy or external factors. The project environment, although “mobile", must not lose sight that business objectives should be meet as established at project inception. This new approach should not change the project’s attribute of temporality.

Companies adopting the strategic approach to project management must change the project selection process and establish a "competimeter" which contains project selection criteria as follows:

"Follow the race" is aimed to improve operations and achieving results in the short term. These projects usually allow the company to maintain its market position

"Winning the race” is designed to improve efficiency or effectiveness and the main objective is to increase market share

"Changing the rules of the game" is designed to create a new product or service that will make the company distinct from the others and strive towards the desired competitive advantage

This project classification establishes that project outcome is not a product or service but how to approach the competition and win.

Under the strategic approach, project manager’s role will expand and in addition to fulfilling their traditional functions, project managers will need to step into strategic and leadership roles. The project manager will turn into a strategic professional who will lead project and cross-functional team, will participate in board meetings where decisions are made about starting, continuing or cancelling projects based on business results.

Once the company achieves the maturity level using the strategic approach to project management, projects will be identified during company’ strategy sessions counting with board members acceptance and their commitment to assist the project team when necessary.

Having working with companies transitioning from the traditional project management operational approach to the strategic approach, I had the opportunity to see how the general manager cascaded the new project management approach across the organization. Solid results were achieved during the first eighteen months having all functional areas involved and collaborating in projects towards specific business goals.

Companies willing to set a competitive advantage will adopt the strategic approach to project management and define what to do, how to do it and how to achieve business objectives through project aligned to company’s strategy.

Reference:

SL Brown and Eisenhardt, K. M. 1998 Competing on the Edge, Harvard Business School Press: Boston, MA

 

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Tue, 02 Nov 2010 10:38:00 -0700 PMI Madrid Chapter Leads Reconstruction Methodology Translation Team http://thesmartpms.posterous.com/madrid-chapter-leads-reconstruction-methodolo http://thesmartpms.posterous.com/madrid-chapter-leads-reconstruction-methodolo

Project management plays a vital role in dealing with the aftermath of natural disasters around the world. When disaster strikes, countries and individuals promptly respond to help those affected. But although immediate needs may be fulfilledm there is still more work to be done after disasters.
Read more at http://www.pmitoday-digital.com/pmitodayopen/201011/?folio=11#pg10

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Fri, 22 Oct 2010 18:02:00 -0700 Project Management Meets the World http://thesmartpms.posterous.com/project-management-meets-the-world http://thesmartpms.posterous.com/project-management-meets-the-world

In the last four weeks I had the opportunity to attend two PMI congresses. One was the 5th Central American and Caribbean Project Management Congress held in San Jose Costa Rica and the PMI Global Congress 2010 – North America.

In both congresses, I had the opportunity to interact with project management professionals from different latitudes and continents. I tried to learn from those interactions and identify the personality treats which set a difference for the project management professionals from around the world.

We manage projects, follow project management guidelines and apply methodologies to their day to day work. In a way we “play by the book”. But in a multicultural environment the project manager professional needs to adapt because an expression, a word or a gesture can be interpreted in multiple ways.

Interacting with project managers I was able to identify different communication styles which were tied to their cultural background among them:  different ways of greeting each other, table manners, personal space, perception of time and many others. All this elements of communication have a great impact on the project execution.

 Multicultural teams should pay particular attention to the risk of miscommunication. Recommendations to the XXI century project managers are described in the article http://bit.ly/9gmJdP.

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Fri, 22 Oct 2010 14:01:00 -0700 The Risk of Miscommunication in a Global Project Team http://thesmartpms.posterous.com/the-risk-of-miscommunication-in-a-global-proj http://thesmartpms.posterous.com/the-risk-of-miscommunication-in-a-global-proj

The Risk of Miscommunication in a Global Project Team

by Jamie B. Gelbtuch, MBA, PMP, and Conrado Morlan, PMP, PgMP

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8:30 a.m. Members of your global project team are all in town and you arrive at your office for the 9:00 a.m. meeting, which by your U.S. standards should begin promptly at 8:55 a.m.

Agenda? Check. Technology working? Check. Breakfast on its way? Check.

At 8:50 a.m., you head to the meeting room and find Lucy, who arrived five minutes earlier and is casually preparing with her feet up on the table, but nonetheless ready to go.

8:55 a.m. Vijaykumar from India, Abdul Azim from the Middle East, and Masao from Japan arrive engrossed in a conversation that you cannot really understand due to the different English accents.

It’s 8:59 a.m (you are already four minutes behind schedule, you think to yourself) and Fatima from Brazil arrives.

In what seems like an eternity, 20 minutes pass, and you receive a phone call from reception asking permission to allow your last colleague Iván, from Argentina, permission to come upstairs.

Before the meeting even begins, the obvious question starts to percolate in your head: How will this team finish the project on time when they cannot even agree on the meaning of “9:00 a.m.”?

Project managers should count risk identification and prevention among their most important activities. In a global project context, risk management becomes more complex. Multicultural teams should pay particular attention to the risk of miscommunication.

Here are three ways to mitigate this risk:

Timing is everything
For some cultures, time is money, and each minute can be assigned a value of loss or gain. Other cultures are more comfortable with less-structured senses of time.

The realities of life across the world impact how people’s time is used: Traffic makes arriving on time a near-impossibility in one location, but efficient transportation networks make that a non-issue in another.

It is essential to be cognizant of other cultures’ theoretical views and daily realties concerning time. As a project leader, you need to suspend judgment when the members of your project team seem to be operating not only across different time zones, but also different time realities.

Is that a “yes – yes” or a “yes – no”?
 When lacking the advantage of a shared language, a common tactic is to boil communications down to simplistic levels, often resulting in an excessive amount of yes/no questions. However, many cultures, in order to avoid conflict, tend to use a “yes” response to indicate that they hear you, even when the answer to the question is “no.”

The “yes” may be accompanied by subtle contextual cues (tone of voice/silence, eye contact/avoidance, facial expressions) that indicate that it is, in fact, a “no.” Keep yes/no questions to a minimum and opt for more open-ended questions instead.

“You can say you to me”
There is a famous account of former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl meeting the late U.S. President Ronald Reagan for the first time and proclaiming, “You can say you to me.”

In order to understand the humor of this statement, consider that many languages distinguish between formal and informal words, titles and grammatical constructions for “you.” Chancellor Kohl was implying a friendly relationship and demonstrating it through the “informal you” that gets lost in translation to English—where there is only one “you.” 

While learning the language of every colleague is neither a viable option nor a necessity for most, knowing whether a language includes elements such as this will provide insight into how that person might view working relationships with others.

Today's project managers need to not only focus on how to mitigate risks associated with project requirements, but also the risk of miscommunicating within the global project team. As Einstein said, insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

As part of the plan for your next project that includes a global team, integrate a cultural awareness component to mitigate communication risks stemming from different cultural attitudes, experiences and behaviors. If you treat the risk of miscommunication in your project as "one size fits all", you might soon find yourself without a project to manage.

Jamie B. Gelbtuch, MBA, PMPJamie B. Gelbtuch, MBA, PMP, is founder and principal consultant of Cultural Mixology, which designs, delivers and facilitates cross-cultural and language training programs in academic, business, and expatriate environments. She is fluent in English, Spanish and French, with a working knowledge of Portuguese. She has particular expertise in working with Latin American cultures and French-speaking countries. For questions, comments, or feedback, please contact Ms. Gelbtuch.

 

Conrado Morlan, PMP, PgMPConrado Morlan, PMP, PgMP, is the regional program delivery director at the global market leader of the international express and logistics industry. He has more than 15 years of experience managing programs in the Americas, Europe and Asia and has led multigenerational and multicultural project teams. He is a contributor to INyES Latino and thesmartpms blog as well as an avid PMI volunteer. For questions, comments or your feedback, please contact Mr. Morlan.

 

Project managers should count risk identification and prevention among their most important activities. In a global project context, risk management becomes more complex. Multicultural teams should pay particular attention to the risk of miscommunication.

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Sun, 17 Oct 2010 12:18:00 -0700 Time Constrains, Schedule and Other Issues Impacting Projects #pmot #pmp #pm #leadership http://thesmartpms.posterous.com/time-constrains-schedule-and-other-issues-imp http://thesmartpms.posterous.com/time-constrains-schedule-and-other-issues-imp

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.  

Enjoy!!

 

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Sun, 17 Oct 2010 11:21:00 -0700 The President's Project - Opening Keynote Session by President Bill Clinton http://thesmartpms.posterous.com/the-presidents-proyect-opening-keynote-sessio http://thesmartpms.posterous.com/the-presidents-proyect-opening-keynote-sessio

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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.

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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.

 

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Mr. Clinton keynote was the best way to start PMI Global Congress 2010 -- North America.

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Wed, 13 Oct 2010 22:07:00 -0700 PMI Global Congress 2010-North America #pminac http://thesmartpms.posterous.com/pmi-global-congress-2010-north-america-pminac http://thesmartpms.posterous.com/pmi-global-congress-2010-north-america-pminac

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.

 

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Sun, 10 Oct 2010 09:48:00 -0700 PMI Global Congress 2010-North America @ Gaylord National Resort Washington, D.C. http://thesmartpms.posterous.com/pmi-global-congress-2010-north-america-gaylor http://thesmartpms.posterous.com/pmi-global-congress-2010-north-america-gaylor

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”.

 

 

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Fri, 08 Oct 2010 16:46:00 -0700 How great project managers inspire action http://thesmartpms.posterous.com/how-great-project-managers-inspire-action http://thesmartpms.posterous.com/how-great-project-managers-inspire-action

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

The video is available at http://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action.html (subtitles available in different languages).

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Fri, 08 Oct 2010 15:52:00 -0700 Thank you Letter from PMI Costa Rica Chapter and the Colegio de Ingenieros Civiles de Costa Rica http://thesmartpms.posterous.com/thank-you-letter-from-pmi-costa-rica-chapter http://thesmartpms.posterous.com/thank-you-letter-from-pmi-costa-rica-chapter

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.

 

Pura Vida Costa Rica !!!

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