by DharamCW | Mar 29, 2022 | Project-Program-Portfolio Management Knowledge
In the public sector, as Mats Fred (2018, p. 189) indicates:
Projectification as proliferation emphasizes the increasing use and diffusion of projects and project ideas. Projectification as transformation and adaptation highlights the transformation of “permanent” ordinary organizational activities to temporary projects and processes of adaptation in the surrounding organizations and structures. Projectification as an organizational capacity building in which the project logic is spread and diffused in local government organizations, not primarily through specific projects, but through practices encouraging the project logic and reinforcing local government’s organizational project capacity.
The term “Project” itself would be considered as a temporary endeavor. Projectification involves the cultural and discursive societal processes whereby projects and project-like circumstances are institutionalized in individual lives, organizing all sorts of work and society. They are to be planned, controlled, managed with dedication and commitment. In a societal setting, it calls for flexible action and task-focused social relations.
Understanding the Societal Setting
Understanding the Societal Setting
When the boundaries of the project go beyond the organization, societal settings come into place. Societal settings focus on developing and providing solutions together. When the projects are managed and executed at the societal level, it becomes a more collaborative effort. This kind of environment calls for global communication, collective intelligence, identifying skills across the board to leverage. Project execution should focus on accomplishing the tasks by adopting agile principles with empowering the team. The focus should be working through the community via effective networking.
Factors that could affect projectification in societal impact
There could be an influence at a Project Level, Political, Bureaucratic and Market Level. To a varying degree, local government involved in the societal settings would have specific practices that correspond to a political, bureaucratic, and market context. In terms of projectification, there could be complementary or contradictory aspects in nature that need to be managed well. Projectification translation could be done based out on specific settings and practices.
The societal context would have to manage multiple institutions yet need to bring them with a common goal and vision despite indifferences. This aspect needs to be dealt with using Decoupling, Compromising, and Combining depending on the situation and environment. These practices will de-escalate tensions in arriving at a consensus on the focus area or goals.
The project budget needs to be derived from the policies wherein the costs are derived from the social investment funds. This action would mean cutting across the government and local bodies in the region. Sometimes these funds are advocated by World Bank, EU, IMF, etc… Using such funds would also call for strong coordination among the various stakeholders across different processes and procedures. Managing such funds could be tiresome and painful.
Be in the realm of the project in the implementation context. It would look like a smooth sail as initiation would be easy on the ground implementation could be a posing challenge. Focus on the welfare benefits, lower costs for the larger group during the implementation. Understand the potential areas of resistance early in the project upon the various factors including economic, environmental, etc.,
Projectification involves managing an organization to manage two types of complexity involving task complexity and Social complexity. Task complexity refers to the density of the units, causal links, and consequences within a temporal and spatial frame. Social complexity describes the number of members communicating and working with each other and the differentiation of their tasks. In contrast, cultural complexity encompasses the number of different historical experiences and sense-making processes confronting each other in a project.
Factors that could affect projectification in societal impact
The three projectification studies in Germany, Norway, and Iceland show that project work contributes to one-third of the national gross domestic product. Although differences exist among the countries regarding size and industry structure, the degree of projectification of advanced economies seems to converge on around one-third of all economic activities. The exact results showed that the share of project work in Germany was 34,7% in 2013, and 32,6% in Norway, and 27,7% in Iceland in 2014 (Schoper et al., 2018).
The projectification in the public or governance societal segment was more towards improving, modernizing the managerial approach towards the commoner or public. The projects were part of the public sector in the infrastructure area, such as Road Construction, Dam Construction, construction, and larger institutions, and their Projectifications are not sudden. Based on one of the research study by Schuster in 2015, he identified three key factors which seem to provide public/civil service organizations to adopt projectification. They are:
- Quick Mobilization
- Strategic approach towards managing the change
- Accountability and Transparency to stakeholders
Key factors to adopt projectification
It is also to be realized that the ongoing social and economic change and the increase in public sector stakeholder’s innovation and entrepreneurship are most needed in this sector. Projectification helps to meet the void, which can help implement public policies, thus enabling changes in resolving social problems. Even though the benefits exist on projectification, it is not implemented due to the factors such as – Excess bureaucracy, Causes lack of trust, lack of persistence, etc.,
Conclusion
Projectification provides benefits to the people involved to know how to lead a team, influence people, and negotiate or resolve conflict. It would be a combination of more organizing activities to the organizations and transforming ordinary activities into projects. And increasingly, everybody needs to feel comfortable working in a digital environment.
Feel free to check out my discussion on this topic with Reinhard Wagner in YouTube
You can subscribe and follow my podcasts and interviews with Project Management Experts on YouTube at https://bit.ly/2NDY8wd
You can subscribe to vCare Project Management YouTube Channel to catch future videos of our certification Q&A series and student success stories using the link https://bit.ly/2YF0wJl
For any questions related to Project Management career, training, and certifications, you can book an obligation free 15 minutes session with me by visiting talktodharam.com
by DharamCW | Dec 21, 2021 | Project-Program-Portfolio Management Knowledge
Project economy is all about people having the skills and capabilities which enable organizations to turn ideas into reality. The key is these projects should deliver financial and societal value through value streams incrementally delivered through projects. The following are the key six factors identified by PMI that influence the projectification in the project economy.
Climate Change
Buildings are being modified, new products are being introduced, new policies and regulations are being applied. Climate factors are one of the biggest factors influencing global projects. Climate central report found that about 300 million people in coastal Asia would be at risk because of rising sea levels by 2050. Apart from this, people worldwide are fighting to manage droughts, flash floods, volcanic eruptions, and raging wildfires. Climatic changes are a global threat, and many young minds are asking for actions from global leaders. This kind of awareness and activism increases action at the ground level, and project leaders are responsible for those actions inducing change.
Climate Change Challenges
Infrastructure projects like building sustainable cities can increase green space, manage water risk, etc… These projects directly or indirectly contribute to overall sustainability as well. These complex problems are issues that require a combination of systems and design thinking. The project managers need to respond based on a big picture perspective to manage a complex environment. Nowadays, companies need to have projects on climate projection and sustainability front as a matter of compliance and corporate social responsibility.
The project manager needs to practice agile as these projects change quickly along with technology that changes rapidly. Climate change-related factors influence every sector/industry. The project manager’s mandate is to understand the project’s business case and identify the climate-related factors to deliver project value. Projects, programs, and portfolios have to be aligned to understand this and act with a more creative, front-end-oriented approach for tomorrow’s challenge. Therefore, the role of project managers and program managers is going to impact the future generation.
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Artificial Intelligence adoption has just begun. The responsibility of appropriate implementation lies with project leaders mitigating societal-related risks, including ethical issues. As healthcare, consulting, and manufacturing industries have started adopting, uncertainty looms at a large adoption and transition. However, tools like RPA and AI have already started contributing to the automation of business processes at large, replacing humans doing monotonous jobs.
Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Project Management
In the recent IPMA and PwC report in October 2020, AI is considered a tool, and it’s more adopted for automation to augmentation and beyond changing the future. According to this report, 56% of the organization already has digital transformation projects, including AI adoption. However, it also highlights that 77% of the project managers don’t have experience in using AI technologies in Project management, indicating that the adoption is still in its early stages. Artificial Intelligence will change project management in Integration, Documentation, Reporting, Forecasting, Budgeting, Resource Allocation, and Predictive analytics.
AI systems can help connect different Enterprise applications, including HR, Task Management Tools, repositories, etc. It can help set intelligent reminders to mitigate risks. AI tools can help in drafting documentation and can help get the data from other systems. AI can also help to organize the documentation for quick recovery through recommendation engines. Task report completion, the status of the work, and milestone tracking can be managed effectively by AI-based reporting. Adopting AI tools can help anticipate the problems early through prognosis with the help of specific indicators.
AI tools can help the project manager by helping with insightful information by analysis of Big Data or real-time stream of data. Decision-making aided by AI can be very useful for the project manager to take decisions or actions in the behavioral areas of people management, including Influence, Negotiation, Motivation, etc… Human touch is a factor that cannot be avoided, and AI can never replace it, yet it can aid. AI adoption in project management can significantly help project managers in Productivity, Decision, and Performance.
Adopting Chatbots can help provide the project’s status, follow-up reports, providing templates, project plan, and status can help human resources work on something much more productive. This initiative will enable project professionals to think more strategically and prepare well-defined, high-level plans. Analysis of the project with the help of statistical or AI models would identify and quantify the risks. This aspect would also help in what-if analysis and validate the certain hypothesis to justify the stakeholders involved. It’s expected the current adoption of AI among project professionals will move from 27% to 35% in the next three years. So, this calls for the project management professionals to invest their time in people skills which will never go away yet understanding the AI paradigm.
Globalization
The business, which is growing at a global scale in terms of people, trade of goods and service, information exchange, has taken an economic toll and countries started showing protectionist measures regarding trade policies, immigration, and work policies. Globalization will impact the future global trade, and countries will focus on inclusive growth to fuel the economy from within. Example(s): BREXIT, US-China Trade issues.
Impact of Globalization | Project Management Perspective
The COVID-19 situation has also added to the existing woes and has impacted global travel and trade. Apart from this, geopolitical factors, including nativism, racism, xenophobia, are impacting global projects executed by multinational, multi-ethnic, and geographically distributed teams. All these challenges are to be managed by the project managers. In addition, the increased volatility of the situation reflecting the business landscape and job market has to be managed by the project managers.
Project managers need to effectively remote work amidst geopolitical situations by collaborating, managing time zones and cultural aspects. Project leaders have to become Virtual Leaders managing lack of commitment, distractions, poor communication, low motivation, etc. This kind of change can be well managed by effective portfolio management driven at the organization level to minimize adverse impact.
Infrastructure Gap
For any investment that is capital intensive, there is a need to understand the data for decision-making. For example, the G20 global infrastructure outlook estimates that US$94 trillion is required by 2040 across 56 countries and seven sectors, but the budget falls short by US$15 trillion. The gaps exist depending on the investment required in this area concerning the current trends, which vary in different demographics.
The project managers and program managers are expected to be smart and agile for cutting costs and helping to expedite the operations faster. The infrastructure investment has been increasing for 3D Printing, Artificial Intelligence, Modularization, Robotics, IoT with Digital Twins for transformation. Singapore is currently working on a project to create a digital twin of the entire city-state.
The Infrastructure Investment
The adoption of IoT infrastructure to collect more data is getting more attention. In addition, the advent of technology communication infrastructures such as 4G and 5G has increased cloud data streaming capabilities. As a result, operational efficiency, including an increase in productivity and extending of asset life, could be done only with the help of data and analytics.
Large megaprojects on infrastructure areas such as Dubai Solar Park and the Bridge linking Hong Kong to Macau and Zhuhai have large complexities and challenges posing more risks. It is also about augmenting the capacity required to get on with such mega projects. These projects also need to manage or defend political and financial pressures (Example: Halted 13$ billion airport projects in Mexico) through creative means to meet societal needs. Project managers need to address fiscal prudence and transparency.
Project and program offices also need to attain the balance on leveraging local and global suppliers on Megaprojects. Portfolio managers are finding difficulty in people who have experience managing projects of massive size and complexity. The infrastructure Gap to manage these gaps must be well understood by the project professionals, who must wisely adopt the necessary tools required for these endeavors.
Cybersecurity
According to the PMI signpost 2020 report, US$3.92 million is the average cost of data breaches globally in 2019. As we grow more digital, a push is happening in business, governments, and non-profit on how they operate as they are interdependent. Organizations are managing cybercrime, information warfare, and various threats at all different new levels.
Impact of Cybersecurity on Project Management
Project leaders need to work with cybersecurity teams as the projects are progressing to manage cybersecurity requirements while building solutions. It is essential to understand that classification of information and its sensitivity to manage the threats faced. Non-IT sectors need to gain more awareness in the cybersecurity areas, and it needs to be implemented as an integral part of the organization.
Project managers of the future need to consider the value of data regardless of their domain. They need to understand the importance of understanding data ownership and the potential impact of data loss or breach. Understanding the cost impact of protecting the data assets also has to be counted in the projectification process. Risk management must encompass Cybersecurity as part of it as well.
Shifting Demographics
Key changes are happening in the areas of overall population demographics. The youth population is on the rise, and project managers need to align their leadership styles to suit the target audience more. In addition, the urban landscape is changing globally, and villages are becoming more urbanized with the young population who may lack the necessary experience with the new world. It is also difficult to navigate the projects with them. Also, we need to manage and make the best use of the job market with many young minds available.
Underdeveloped countries are moving across. For example, many projects are going on in African countries building infrastructure for their growth. This expansion would build the future for the people, and these countries willing to participate in the projects for creating a better world would require more understanding at a strategic level.
Feel free to check out my discussion on this topic with Reinhard Wagner in YouTube
You can subscribe and follow my podcasts and interviews with Project Management Experts on YouTube at https://bit.ly/2NDY8wd
You can subscribe to vCare Project Management YouTube Channel to catch future videos of our certification Q&A series and student success stories using the link https://bit.ly/2YF0wJl
For any questions related to Project Management career, training, and certifications, you can book an obligation free 15 minutes session with me by visiting http://talktodharam.com/
by DharamCW | Nov 9, 2021 | Project-Program-Portfolio Management Knowledge
What is a Project?
PMI defines endeavour as “a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service or result”. Projects give an organisation focus to excel. “Project” is a huge, broad word that has such rich possibilities in terms of helping define how people do what they do and how organisations achieve their goals, create change, and deliver value. We shouldn’t think of projects by their features or attributes but on what needs to be done and figure out the best way to do it. It is expected that by 2027, employers will need approximately 87.7 million individuals working in project management-oriented roles.
Successful projects
Everyone has a project. People have projects on behalf of themselves and on behalf of others; they have their projects, and they have collective projects. We do projects at school, and we carry out projects at work. Add to that all our spare time projects, and how it is sometimes hard to tell work projects from spare time projects. Projects cut across. (Jensen, 2012)
What is project economy?
PMI defines project economy as a Paradigm shift in the business world toward using projects to handle work and solve problems. It emphasises that organisation in general needs project leaders who can help to manage real-world challenges. The Pulse of the Profession report well backs this aspect.
The Need for Project Economy
The Need for Project Economy: Changing Scenario
Projects with unique objective induce a change in the organisation and society at large. The project approach takes all the stakeholders in the process of obtaining the project objective. Project managers are required to be inclusive, and they cannot take a parallel approach. The project economy drives this change.
Though the management thinkers like Frederick Taylor, Henry Ford, Dr William Edwards Deming recommended continuous improvement of the business’s operations, these improvements were considered projects and executed as projects. Advancements in computing and technology have driven operational excellence at the core. Yet, disruptive technologies and the speed of technology growth drive differently, and it calls for many projects. Projects are seen as a new norm for creating value and help organisations to stay ahead in the curve.
Disruptive Technology
Project work has been seen as more administrative and seen as a low value from the frontline of the management due to extensive documentation and paperwork. Rationale, business Case and benefits were not given sufficient importance in project management methodologies. As the technology and tools for collaboration are fast-changing, agile triggers, project aspects like “Working software over documentation”, “individual interactions over process and tools”, etc., are largely adopted. Technology and engineering help bespoke run the project, making the project managers at the centre of the process. With automation taking over, projects are becoming a critical part of the organisation. Now everything around the people lives are becoming projects, and this fact can be emphasised with every professional’s career as a good example.
People keep track of changes from previous jobs, recording and sharing their learnings. They move from one job to another compared to previous situations where people stuck to one job for a longer tenure. As they move to different companies, the learning is multi-fold and its applied cutting across domains enriching experience.
As organisations are growing more in complex and chaotic environments, “Project Oriented Methodology” helps define action and helps manage change appropriately with a specific set of goals. Project management methods help to improve the performance of individuals and teams.
Monitoring and assuring the quality through projects help us assess its value and deliver it. Project management strategies help to keep costs on budget and reduce the risk of budget overrun. Learning lessons from failure and being agile helps to adapt. Project professionals play a pivotal role in managing the projects and contribute with the right blend of technical and people capabilities. Hence projectification would be the future order, reiterating the fact, where it is expected that employers will need around 87.7 million project management professionals by 2027.
Project Management-Oriented Roles
Country-wise Project Managers Jobs Projection
What is Projectification?
Projectification, the term was introduced by Christophe Midler in 1995 in his research paper “Projectification of the Firm: the Renault Case”. In this, he analysed the relationship between project management and organisation, with a case study of “Renault” on “Projectificiation”, an organisation undergoing a four-phased transition from the 1960s. This study is believed to be a construct of project orientation taken from the novel management approach “Management by Projects” by Gareis in 1989.
“The Project Revolution- How to succeed in a project Driven World”
In the book “The Project Revolution- How to succeed in a project Driven World”, Antonio Nie recommends a Project canvas composed of 14 dimensions that are capable of influence and determine project success across four domains:
- Why?
- Why is this project taken up?
- What is the purpose and passion behind the rationale?
- Why successful implementation important?
- Who?
- Who is accountable?
- Governance of resources and delivery
- What, How and When?
- Details of Definition, Design, Plans, Milestones, Cost, Risk, etc.,
- Power Skills: Empathy, Motivation, Change management, Communication.
- Where?
- Culture
- Prioritisation
- Organisation context
The Project Revolution
Check out my discussion on this topic with Reinhard Wagner in YouTube
You can subscribe and follow my podcasts and interviews with Project Management Experts on YouTube at https://bit.ly/2NDY8wd
You can subscribe to vCare Project Management YouTube Channel to catch future videos of our Q&A series and certification success stories using the link https://bit.ly/2YF0wJl
For any questions related to Project Management career, training, and certifications, you can book an obligation free 15 minutes session with me by visiting talktodharam.com
Conclusion
Projectification is becoming the order of the day, and it’s going on increasing trends. As a project manager or project professional, it’s important to understand how organisations, government and stakeholders are evolving. The disruptive changes happening in technology and rapid growth is influencing many facets of project management. As project professional, as we start manoeuvring them, we can create value for others and us for a better world.
by DharamCW | Jun 20, 2021 | Personal
Today is the day I was born again with the freshness of wellbeing and feeling the goodness of staying alive. Yet another birthday reminder set in my gadget resonates in the morning hours flashing in screen “Happy Birthday Dharam, it’s your 51st year on this beautiful earth”. Freezing my alarm bell, I sit in solitude silence with many thoughts running in my mind, “What Next, What Next, and What Next.”
After performing my daily yoga routine, I start to feel relaxed and think about sharing my experience of how I survived and thrived during this pandemic through what I call a “What Next Approach” to achieve success. As we see the historical strategies, I came across a P-R-S (Problem, Reaction, & Solution) strategy that perfectly matched our current scenario. Here the problem is the COVID-19 crisis, and we need a reaction, i.e., a call to action (What next action will we take)—finally, moving forward is the solution of surviving throughout the crisis till it ends. Surviving and thriving are synonymous with each other. Surviving is like riding a car or a bike, and thriving is the fuel. If the engine stops due to lack of fuel, that’s where the problem begins.
P-R-S strategy
The “What Next?” Approach
Oprah Winfrey Quotes, “Don’t worry about being successful but work toward being significant, and the success will naturally follow.”
“What Next” is a focused and futuristic approach by asking certain simplified questions to yourself and finding the best solutions to your problems during uncertainty. The list of questions given below varies individually, and you can frame “What Next Questions” depending upon your scenario. It is a self-consciousness assessment, where you will be the learner and solution provider for your wellbeing. It enables us to derail faulty thinking where we make decisions that our future selves so often later regret. I am trying to share a common template that could be useful for all.
Q1. What next to make my life better than it was before?
Q2. What next steps should I take to make progress in my professional career?
Q3. What next specific outcome you’re seeking?
Q4. What next critical behavioral change you want to do with?
Q5. What next set of trade-offs am I going to make both on the personal and professional front?
The “What Next?” Approach: Finding the Root-Cause Analysis
Current Self vs. Future Self
Einstein quotes, “Imagination is more important than knowledge.”
Imagination design your future self. Your current self creates a fixed mindset, content with whatever status you are in and stopping the roadmap for achievement. Future self generates a growth mindset and pushes us to move forward towards our goal. An uncertain future breaks you apart emotionally and behaviourally, which impacts your mindset. It ultimately leads you to cognitive dissonance, which refers to a situation used to create mental discomfort that results from holding two conflicting beliefs, values, or attitudes. We all need to break these silos within ourselves.
Empathy not Sympathy
Empathy not Sympathy
My caring for self is caring for other people. That’s what we need to establish in ourselves. Sympathy as a common feeling does not give us positive outcomes, but empathy bridges the negativity gap. Renowned psychologists Daniel Goleman and Paul Ekman have identified three components of empathy: Cognitive, Emotional, and Compassionate. So put it together, we can be mentally strong, emotionally stable, and compassionate towards the family and people we work with. Empathy helps us to overcome anxiety, embarrassment, regret, sadness, shame, and stress.
Forward-thinking leaders
Leaders are the pillar of strength to the foundation of an organization. The old school of leadership thoughts is diminishing and has created a “Leadership Vacuum.” This vacuum can be fulfilled only by forward-thinking leaders who think beyond growth by understanding the good and bad corporate world that is in place. These leaders are empathetic and have a transparent working model put in place. They connect, collaborate, and create a cohesive ecosystem for the employees to achieve their vision and goals. The whole world is filled with uncertainty, and there is no certainty that the desired objective can happen or not. Forward-thinking reshapes the decision-making process of uncertain events within the stipulated time, avoiding greater loss to the organization in the future.
Digital Adoption
As we have moved from industrial evolution to digital evolution, it is a fast-paced movement that professionals need to sync with adaptability. Until March 2020, being an individual traveling worldwide for my training programs, COVID-19 had checkmated my plan of action. It directly impacted my business, which forced me to rethink my business model. The change to digital transformation was imminent. We need to change our mindset to move on to adopt digitalization. My shift to online training programs paid dividends. I stress individuals be from the working class or in business, choosing the right tools and team are critical in achieving success despite testing times.
Adoption
Being Physically Active during this Pandemic
Research shows at least 150 mins of physical activity per day is required for a person to stay healthy and live longer. Most people will be spending time with exercise by going to the gym, swimming, running, be in some form of sports activities, etc. unfortunately, COVID-19 has shut down all the avenues due to social distancing. Physical activity depends on the intensity you do, and it is measured based upon it. The intensity ranges from moderate intensity to vigorous intensity, along with muscle and bone strengthening.
Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (CDC-DNPAO), details the Physical Activity for Particular Age Types, which I have shared here for your reference.
Types of Physical Activity
Another interesting measurement is the MET (Metabolic Equivalent of Task) which offers insight into how an individual’s variation in age, height, and body mass may influence the intensity of physical activity.
With the help of these, I am able to ascertain where I stand and plan to be more active and more productive by doing my regular physical activity routine. I got the opportunity to practice Yoga at a young age which led me to be super fit. With mudras, pranayama, and Yoga asanas, I overcame the physical disability (clubfoot) that I was born with. Gradually Yoga has made my mind, body, soul, and my entire lifestyle strong and disciplined. Yoga has created a positive synergy with extraordinary benefits both on the personal and professional front with stress-free life.
Later on, it motivated me to become a Yoga teacher to my community back in Sydney, Australia, through YiPEE (Yoga in Park for Extreme Energy) Yoga from 2011. With YiPEE Yoga, I was able to conduct free yoga sessions during the weekends to the community. In the USA, I plan to organize free community Yoga sessions once all the pandemic-related restrictions are over and people are back to normalcy. But, for now, I continue to practice Yoga indoors and record these sessions that are later shared on my Youtube Channel.
One such session that I plan to do is scheduled the day next to my birthday and during this International Yoga Day, 21st June 2021. The session is intended to communicate the true value of Yoga and realize how individuals can add quality to their mind as Yoga is all about enriching the mind and empowering the body. Yoga is the journey of the self, to the self, through the self.
Join Link: https://bit.ly/3xw4O4u
Date: Monday, 21st June 2021 [Southeast Asia & Oceania],
Sunday, 20th June 2021 [Americas]
Time: 6:00 PM – 7:00 PM (PDT) / 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM (MDT) / 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM (CDT) / 9:00 PM – 10:00 PM (EDT) / 6:30 AM – 7:30 AM (IST) / 9:00 AM – 10:00 AM (SGT/MYT) / 11:00 AM – 12:00 AM (AEST)
You can subscribe to my YouTube Channel to watch all my podcasts and interview sessions with leading project management experts, along with my yoga session videos at https://bit.ly/2NDY8wd
“The Why” and “The How” of my life
Why and How
Tracing back from a humble beginning and reaching the peak of the career path is not an easy achievement. The upward curve of my life is decided by calculated risk, a strong decision-making process, and nurturing from rightful mentors who fined tuned my path towards success. As we live in a pandemic world, and most professionals are into a midlife crisis, it is time to overcome the delusion it creates that pushes us into a panic mode. Midlife crisis is a crisis of identity at the age of 35-40 explored and researched by eminent Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung and German-American psychologist Erik Erikson, who coined the word “Identity crisis.” On the worrying side, this delusion leads to depression and affects the biological clock of the individual.
Midlife Crisis
The solution that I adopted is clearing structuring, “The Why” and “The How” of my life. “The Why” streamlined by behavior and attitude, whereas “The How” clearly defines the stages and transition in midlife crisis.
Devising self-structured questions which purely depends on your circumstances and the yardstick you’re in. Here I am sharing one question on each subline;
- Why should I live with a standardized life course?
- How can I live with an extraordinary life course?
Simple but thought-provoking questions that every man and woman would have come across. The anxiety of aging, dissatisfaction with not achieving things, and social instability created by the surroundings take a toll on us personally and professionally. I urged myself not to quit and create an obsessive focus to live an extraordinary life with extraordinary aspirations. That obsessive focus should be on what you can control and not on things you can’t control. The critical aspect is to strike a balance between family and network. I created a cluster pool of networks during my migration to Australia, which stabilized my way of living.
Persevere
Perseverance is one of the greatest skills you can develop during this crisis. First, you have to decide to put yourself in the category you strive for, either a standardized life course or an extraordinary life course. I chased for the latter by getting out of my comfort zone as I clearly understood that success is not a comfortable procedure. I envisioned myself getting out of this crisis through better companionship with my family and kids. They are the ones who complement “The Why” and “The How of my Life.”
Organizations ignore the middle-level managers who are profoundly between the ages of 30-35 in the organizational structure. It is the right time to spearhead those people to overcome the delusion created by the midlife crisis by proper people management and engaging them with psychological counseling. Organizations need to revisit their handling of human resources by taking steps to create work-life integration rather than work-life balance. We can’t regret losing talented professionals in that time zone. “People Value” should outweigh “Profit Value.” Let’s create a “Happiness Greenhouse” and overcome this together.
At vCare Project Management, I train individuals to be resilient project-program-portfolio management professionals and achieve success in the time-intense examinations required to obtain the most elusive advanced PMI certifications, viz. the PgMP® and PfMP®. Through my systemic approach, I unleash their full potential, enabling them to turn their aspirations into reality. As on 7th June 2021, Out of 3660 PgMP®s across the globe, 330 are my students spread across 46 countries. As on 6th June 2021, out of 1106 PfMP®s across the globe, 65 are my students who have empowered me with a 100% success rate.
If I can do it, sure can you.
Inspire yourself, and Inspire your surroundings.
Let the change begin from today!!!
Working Together For Success!!!
by DharamCW | Apr 20, 2021 | General
According to the PMI (Project Management Institute), “Ethics is about making the best possible decisions concerning people, resources and the environment. Ethical choices diminish risk, advance positive results, increase trust, determine long term success, and build reputations. Leadership is dependent on ethical choices”. Ethics represent a crucial differentiator in a highly competitive market where reputation and values are highly appreciated among the Project Management Professionals.
The Time Is Always Right to Do What Is Right
Martin Luther King Jr. said, “The Time Is Always Right to Do What Is Right”. As project managers/program managers or portfolio managers, we must make critical decisions daily. Though in the evolving digital transformation world, many decisions might go unnoticed, few do get noticed, as critical ones. These decisions have a profound impact on people, resources, and the environment. Some decisions might have led to conflicts, dilemma, or the creation of new risks.
What is Ethics, and what is the Role of PMI?
Ethics is the branch of knowledge that deals with moral principles. It involves steps, including systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong behaviours.
Regarding ethics at PMI, in the year 1981, the PMI team formed the PMI Board of Directors on Ethics, Standards, and Accreditation. The current PMI ethics document outlines the essentials of ethics based on Vision, Responsibility, Respect, Fairness, and Honesty. PMI expects its members to adhere to these codes of ethics to uphold its values.
Essentials of Ethics
When the whole world is fighting the COVID-19 situation, and demand for digital transformation projects is at an all-time high, PMI professionals need not ask for a better time to establish high ethical standards. Let’s understand the key challenges a PMI trained professional faces in the current digital transformation world.
Digital Transformation
Digital transformation is the process of using digital technologies to create new — or modify existing — business processes, culture, and customer experiences to meet changing business and market requirements.
There are four types of digital transformation: business process, business model, domain, and cultural/organizational. We often see corporations focused solely on the process or organizational transformation.
Digital Transformation
There are three essential components of a digital transformation:
- The overhaul of processes
- The overhaul of operations, and,
- The overhaul of relationships with customers.
The crucial elements that every digital transformation program needs to focus on are,
- Customer focus
- Organisational structure
- Change management
- Transformational leadership
- Technology decisions involve the whole c-suite
- Integration of data
- Internal customer experience
- Logistics and supply chain
- Data, security, and privacy
- Evolution of products, sales, and process around the delivery
- Digitisation
- Personalisation
The key aspects of the digital transformation world could have a major impact on Ethics.
Major impact on Ethics
The transformative effect of Process with Digital Technology: Award-winning Author James Moor in 1985 mentions the transformative effect Digital Transformation could create. He cites the example transformation of manual votes to Electronic Voting Machines, which might benefit from speed and accuracy. On the contrary, it could impact security, vulnerability, transparency, and trustworthiness related issues.
Projects executed in Virtual environments: Today, the projects get implemented in remote places – Home/Office/Small Office combinations. People are working from remote, and it has become the new normal. People significantly use collaboration tools and in some occasions even communicate using social media, which could be manipulative.
Blogging/Newsletters/Social Media Platforms: Professionals tend to share the experience and insights reflecting upon the work ecosystem. Either sharing happens as an experience in a newsletter or a blog post, or it could be even a Twitter thread or a simple tweet reflecting a view. This act is typically done by those who tend to be expressive even within a professional organizational setup.
Global and fast-moving digital society: Communications spread very fast, and a diverse global culture leaves very little control. Digital technology, which is supposed to help leverage, could turn dangerous. The expectation for responsiveness sometimes leaves very little room for interpretation.
Real-world pressures or Peer Competition: Today’s real-world information sharing creates unwarranted peer pressure. This pressure might develop dilemmas and force individuals towards adverse decision-making. Sometimes, due to competitive peer pressures or financial pressures, even the employees’ health and safety concerns might get overseen.
Confidentiality and data security issues: Enhanced digital transformations across the globe have made data exchange easier. In the case of a data expose, it is vital to understand what is exchanged and what is the importance of the exchanged data. Lack of understanding of the data classification at appropriate levels could become risky when the proper accountability level could not be ascertained.
Disruptive AI Tech: Disruptive AI tech such as Chatbots, Speech Recognition Systems, etc., has made the way we think of data and decision making. Too much dependence or flawed inference might have an impact.
Ethics focus on PMIs Performance Domains & Digital Transformation
When a portfolio/program/project vision is established and defined, observable outcomes between the current state and future state as part of the digital transformation must be counted in. The key components that would impact the above said performance domains would be done with re-imagination, cultural change, and cross-functionality.
Digital transformation might have changed in a newer business model, new product focus, and a more contemporary way of working. Digital transformation is about getting the technology right and building necessary support and buy-in from the people managing resistance. Business processes need to be horizontally redesigned to enable collaboration across the teams.
PMI’s Program Management Standard
PMI’s Program Management Standard defines five performance domains that can be integrated with ethics, giving a significant shift in ethics adoption, and may help in improving overall digital transformation initiatives. They are:
- Benefits Management: Benefits profile, which would be based on outcomes and measurement, has to have the ingredients of the ethics as well.
- Strategy Alignment: Strategic alignment to focus on the changing business environment and strategic targets on digital transformation must be governed through ethics.
- Governance: Governance focus and establishes control related to programs. Governance would bring discipline and ethics into the broader organizational structure.
- Stakeholder Engagement: Stakeholders to be kept well informed on the ethical aspects of getting involved whenever any changes in stakeholders.
- Program Lifecycle: Given a structure and suggested flow for a program, the ethics principle has to be adopted to address dilemmas related to circumstances of a business and initiative.
5As Decision-Making framework
PMI has recommended the 5A’ss decision-making framework outlines with Assessment-Alternatives-Analysis-Application-Action. The 5A’s assessment helps to collate all the facts about the ethical dilemma. It considers all your choices. Subsequently, decision candidates are identified and tested for their validity. Apply these principles to the candidates and make the final decision.
5As Decision-Making framework
The decision-makers, when they adopt the 5A decision-making framework, the following checklist:
Assessment
- Does it adhere to the law?
- Does it comply with PMI code of ethics ?
- Does it comply with the organization code of ethics?
- Does it comply with the professional conduct ?
- Does it comply with the ethical values and culture of ecosystem?
Alternatives
- Whether alternatives are listed ?
- For the given choices do we have pros and cons ?
Analysis
- What kind of impact it would make ? (Positive/Negative)
- Does it count in cultural differences ?
- Is this decision taken considering long term impact ?
- Is this decision taken without any external influence ?
- Were you calm and unstressed during this decision ?
Application
- Will the decision be for larger good ?
- Has the decision is without any bias ?
- Is this fair for all concerned ?
Action
- Will you take responsibility ?
- Would you be ok to make your decision public ?
- Are you ready to act ?
Benefits:
When the portfolio managers and program managers adopt the above-said approach outlined in the PMI code of ethics, it provides the following benefits:
- Elevates the profession and raises future standards
- Increases the faith and trust among peers
- Imprints on individual moral mindsets and behaviors
- Improves business relationships across the board
- Promotes fair decision making
- Reduces project risks
- Reduces anxiety and stress and ultimately turnover in projects
Conclusion
Transparency and integrity must be the core values which has to be established by the professionals. The data must be used in responsible and ethical ways during the digital transformation initiative. Data collection has to be based on the ethics principle called “Informed Consent.” The actions cannot be intrusive, manipulative, or disrespectful to others.
Trust must be established among the individuals, groups, or organizations involved in the digital transformations. This trust can be created by establishing data provenance, traceability from the source to the user interface. Program managers or portfolio managers have to act without any bias and with a high level of integrity and impartiality. The same has to be established for the clients, suppliers, and subcontractors without any favoritism and giving them an unfair advantage.
Recent Comments