March 4, 2020March 4, 2020 Linky

5 Tips for Project Leaders on Millennials and How to Manage Them

By Raj Vardhman

5 Tips on Millennials and how to manage them

Half of today’s workplaces are comprised of millennials, while in the near future, they will make up to three-quarters of the workforce. Generation X, or people born 1965-1979, sometimes need a helping hand in dealing with them in the workplace. They might not have similar mindsets, and they might enjoy different working styles, but should be able to function properly and as a team in the same space.

Managing a team is a complex task, especially if you are leading a group of people with different outlooks on business and life in general. Being in charge can become that much easier just by understanding millennials as employees.

Here are 5 tips for dealing with millennials on projects.

#1 Offer words of encouragement

Regarding their employment, millennials tend to keep an open mind – meaning that they strive for more than just a regular desk job with low career goals. By approaching their work as something meaningful, they will feel appreciated and reciprocate accordingly.

Most of them would perform better at a job that promises a learning experience and the ability to grow within the company. The employer should be there to offer a face to face talk with an employee and land a helping hand or an opportunity to educate them further.

If you, as a leader, recognise a team member’s hard work, they would feel stimulated to stay and continue the good work. A simple ‘well done’ goes a long way.

#2 Work fewer hours

Even though statistics show that they work one hour less on average than Gen-X, millennials are hard workers. Almost 90% of them think that flexible working time makes for a more productive result. People feel motivated to finish their workload and would do it successfully if met with an adequate need.

Furthermore, many consider that working remotely can make a tremendous difference in how quickly a job gets done. So, a chance to work from home now and then can result in flying colors.

Consequently, if offered a dynamic and flexible working time and place while still delivering results, it will set the team and their work apart from the rest of the pack.

#3 Keep up with them

Millennials are curious and tech-savvy; they keep abreast of the latest fashions in technology and consider it to be an important part of progress.

Most of them grew up with electronic devices, and they can offer new insight into how tech can be an integral part of communication with co-workers within and out of the company. Being a part of their group chat can be significant. It is also a big advance in thinking innovatively while leading them on a project.

#4 Teamwork makes the dream work

Over 70% of millennials believe that teamwork is necessary for an effective working environment. They think that being able to rely on another person’s opinion helps their thought process.

Having defined roles in a team is a great way not to allow head bumping. It can be quite an advantage for a project manager to hear different ideas while simultaneously counting on millennial workers to accomplish projects successfully and efficiently.

#5 Create future leaders

Most millennials will not settle for stagnating in their work. This is a massive problem for not only millennials but any ambitious person. Nobody expects to be handed a promotion on a platter, but people must see an opportunity for growth. By offering a tip or a hint that an employee is heading up the ladder, you would motivate them to work harder.

A leader should not feel intimidated by younger employees with potential but should take upon themselves to train them to become future leaders capable of guiding and being ready for upcoming endeavors.

Conclusion

Having a good perspective on millennials in the workplace, might help project managers to deal better with them. Though not a different species, they are more conscious about the business world around them and how it works, how cruel it may be, and they are always on the lookout. They value hard and honest work, just like any other generation.

A significant number of them require a support system and solid relationships while still being given the freedom to express themselves through their work, whether that’s in an office with flexible hours or not.

Regardless of the negative connotation that sometimes comes with the word ‘millennial,’ they are tireless workers focused on the future and its perks, as well as constant improvement.

About the Author:

Raj Vardhman is the co-founder of GoRemotely.net. He is a WordPress virtuoso and white hat SEO expert with a passion for developing SEO strategies. His experience and work over the years have driven him to give other individuals lessons about taking control of their work and finding remote jobs.

February 25, 2020February 14, 2022 Linky

6 Leadership Skills Required for Project Management

By Jenny S

In many organisations there are distinct criteria that companies use to pick suitable individuals for leading their projects. The job of a project manager is not easy. You need to come up with good project plans, monitor proper execution and ensure that you deliver or exceed the expected results. It is for this reason that project managers require specific qualifications and some years of experience, including the possession of leadership skills. These are the things that often set project managers apart. With good leadership qualities, you will effortlessly lead a team of people who work efficiently. This article will highlight some of the most crucial leadership skills for project management.

Leadership skills for project management

Source: Pixabay

Patience

One thing that often ruins projects before they even start is the lack of patience of individuals involved. Patience is among the essential leadership skills for successful project management. You need to be patient with everyone involved in the project, including stakeholders, suppliers, your employer, and your team members. The moment you lose patience and start rushing the project, is the moment you start making errors. Such errors will ultimately lead to project failure and thus you need to move at a consistent pace.

Team organization skills

Being a project manager involves a flair for team management. A good project manager has to make sure that the entire team works in synchronization in order to deliver positive results. They should be able to organize the team in such a way that it functions efficiently and are able to ensure that the plan is executed in a coordinated way. A good project manager should keep in mind that high performing teams deliver better results.

Source: Pixabay

Risk management skills

Every project manager should have knowledge about risk management regardless of the project type. Such expertise enables you to identify potential problems, identify mitigation strategies and risk owners. You need to consider what the best mitigating actions are and implement them. This ensures that the risks don’t affect the continuity of the project. Your ability to efficiently plan for and respond to any risks, will help you lead your team through complexities that may occur throughout your project. A strategic project leadershipshort course can help you achieve this.

Communication skills

Any experienced project manager will concur that projects requires excellent communication skills. That is because you want team members to understand their roles and responsiblities clearly so that there is no misunderstanding about what is required of them and how to achieve this. You also have to be able to communicate with any additional stakeholders involved to ensure they understand what the project entails, how you will be implementing the project, and what your deadlines are. Remember that project managers spend the majority of their time collaborating with others to keep them engaged and informed about the various aspects of the project.

Source: Pixabay

Negotiation skills

Effective project management also relies on excellent negotiation skills. It is among the best project management skillsthat any project leader should possess. The question is, why is this skill essential? First, project management involves leading a group of people from different backgrounds. That means conflict could arise at any time. Thus, it is vital that you are able to negotiate with the parties involved in the conflict so you are able to diffuse the situation before it escalates. Negotiation skills could also help obtain the best possible agreement with your suppliers, which will enhance the overall outcome of the project.

Source: Pixabay

Critical thinking skills

Critical thinking is a skill that enables leaders to make the best possible decisions in any situation. You need to be able to think critically in order to come up with appropriate solutions to any problems that may arise throughout the duration of your project. Critical thinking skills can also help you create working solutions to impeding problems that will help prevent them from occurring.

Conclusion

The application of the above leadership skills, will help improve your project management capabilities. By developing and practicing these skills you are ensuring that a project runs smoothly and effectively from commencement to completion.

Please let us know in the comments which of these leadership skills do you consider important and what other leadership skills would you add?

About the Author:

Jenny is a passionate writer and guest blogger. Writing helps her to improve her knowledge, skills and understanding about her industry. She loves to educate her audience about education and technology via her writing skills. Apart from writing, she loves traveling & photography.

February 18, 2020February 18, 2020 Linky

5 Practical Steps to Improve your Self-awareness

by Dr Eben van Blerk

Prior articles in the Emotional Intelligence series:

Emotional intelligence has become one of the top predictors of success in life, in the office and at home. Emotional intelligence can be learnt and can be improved over time as we continue to learn from our daily experiences in life. Improving your emotional intelligence will probably be one of the most difficult personal challenges. You will not become more emotionally intelligent without practicing these skills. You have to believe there is room for improvement in managing your own emotions. Developing emotional intelligence skills is not easy. It requires commitment to the cause, ongoing hard work, persistence and acute self-awareness.

Lack of Self-awareness

How do you know you lack self-awareness? Some of the tell-tale signs of a lack of self-awareness may be as follows:

· You are not able to easily read a room and pick up emotional signals

· You find it difficult to put yourself in the shoes of others

· You do not know how you come across to others (and you do not care)

· You do not know who you are and how your behaviour impacts others

· You find it difficult to admit and take responsibility for your mistakes

· You do not react well to feedback and often become defensive

· You often do not know what you are feeling and why you are feeling that way

Where to start

Where does one start? First you have to get to know yourself in order to start understanding how you are coming across and when and how to manage your emotions. Self-awareness is the basis of our relationships with others. Once you have the self-awareness to know when and how to manage your emotions, you can develop the empathy to put yourself in the shoes of others and truly understand their feelings. This will be the ideal position to build and manage interpersonal relationships, manage conflict and effectively collaborate with others. The problem is often people do not know how to develop their self-awareness.

Steps to develop self-awareness

#1 Decide to change

You have to start this journey of self-development because you want to and because you are convinced that there is room for developing your self-awareness. Developing these skills does not happen overnight. If you are not committed and dedicated it will take longer and in all probability lead to frustration with very little personal growth.

#2 Build an emotional vocabulary

Before you can learn the skill to manage your emotions, you need to know what you are feeling. Compile a list of feeling words (emotions) and use the list to label emotions as you experience them. Examples are angry, hurt, inferior, jealous, irritated, happy, frustrated, insecure, anxious, motivated and concerned. Extend the list as you learn to identify your feelings and expand your emotional vocabulary. When you are able to name your feelings, it is easier to start managing your emotions that lead to unproductive behaviour and negatively impact others.

#3 Get to know your personality

Once you have built a level of emotional vocabulary, you need to know why you are experiencing the emotions you listed. This will help to manage your emotions. Get to know your personality. An easy way is to complete some of the many free personality tests on the internet. This will provide you with a good overview to start. Also, start observing yourself in the moment, during happy times and during conflict. What are you feeling in the situation and why are you feeling that way? How do you respond in the situation and how does your body respond? Additional to a personality test, ask others for feedback on how you come across.

#4 Ask for feedback

Ask family members, your spouse, colleagues and friends with whom you have a trusting relationship to give you feedback on how you come across. Ask for honest feedback on what they think of you and your behaviour. How they experience you when you are on top of the world as well as in the moments you are not that proud of? Compare your self-perception with your reputation with your colleagues and your circle of friends. Take their feedback to heart. Reflect and use their feedback as part of your development journey. Continue to ask for specific feedback as you work on specific development areas.

#5 Write your own eulogy

The idea of writing your own eulogy may seem grim and make you uncomfortable initially. This could however provide you with valuable insight to live a more fulfilled life. Take time to reflect on your life. Consider how much you mean to other people, what you do for others and what kind of person you are. Think of what have you accomplished thus far in your life. What will you say about yourself if you had to deliver the eulogy? What do you think others will say? Consider what you want to be remembered for and what you want people to feel and say about you after your passing.

Improved self-awareness

Now that you understand self-awareness better and you have the steps to improve your self-awareness, it becomes easier to commit to growing your emotional intelligence. You will find that improved self-awareness will provide a better understanding of your motives, behaviour and thinking. This will enable you to start making informed choices towards healthy and productive relationships with others.

About the Author:

Eben van Blerk, a Doctor of Technology, has more than 25 years’ practical team work experience. He has published articles and book chapters on leadership and emotional intelligence in local and international publications.

Contact him on LinkedIn if you need a speaker or workshop facilitator on emotional intelligence for your next team engagement. His emotional intelligence talks and programmes are popular in the corporate and private sector. It will equip your team with knowledge and tools for improved communication, effective conflict handling and managing their emotions towards a more productive and fulfilled business and personal life.

February 10, 2020February 14, 2022 Linky

8 Common Project Risk Examples and How to Minimize Them

Project risks are those unexpected events, that most likely will put your project deadline at risk if they are not identified and mitigated ahead of time. As a small business owner, project complications aren’t anything new, but how you handle these roadblocks, will determine if your company succeeds or fails. There are a few different ways deadlines get pushed and cause you to spend more than expected.

Fundera has compiled 4 of the 8 most common project risks that could threaten your project timeline, with some helpful advice to managing each one.

#1 Scope Risks

Scope risks are tasks that endanger project objectives, deliverables, or timeline. This is the most well-known project risk of entrepreneurs. Even though there are various steps to be taken to avoid the odds of this happening.

#2 Cost Risks

This type of risk is the most common as it shows the biggest threat to businesses and their financials. Staying within budget is crucial for business owners to make a sufficient profit off their client’s projects while still keeping them satisfied.

#3 Time Risks

If you and your team think there is enough time to complete your project comfortably, or even with time to spare, you most likely aren’t scheduling your tasks effectively.

#4 Technology Risks

Technology can get confusing and frustrating at times. Studies even show that only 30% of IT project implementations are successful. Keep your projects in the green by scheduling extra time to brace yourself for implementation delays.

If you are a small business owner, taking risks can be fun as long as you learn from your own actions and keep improving.

See below for examples of the 8 most common project risks and helpful tips for mitigating them.

22 Common Project Risk Examples and How to Minimize Them

February 3, 2020February 1, 2020 Linky

How to Help your Team to be More Productive

How to help your team be more productive

A project leader has much influence over a team’s productivity. Therefore, it is always good to ask yourself: “How can I help my team to be more productive?”

You want to empower people to solve their own problems, and to be self-sufficient. You want to encourage collaboration, sharing and trust.

Consider taking a coaching approach where you listen more, ask good questions and be slower to rush to action and advice. Also understand the dynamics of behaviour change. The fact that habits are the building blocks of good behaviour, means that you want to encourage good habits and set the example.

Below you will find 10 specific ways to help your team be more productive and motivated to perform optimally, with compliments from Wrike.com.

10 Ways to Make Your Team More Productive (#Infographic)

Infographic brought to you by Wrike

January 20, 2020August 25, 2022 Linky

Implementing Automation on Projects

Some of the best performing companies today have automated up to 75% of their management processes. While this trend is showing no signs of slowing down, it’s important to take a look at how automation fits into project management in order to fully understand their relationship. With automation you strive to remove redundancies, increase efficiency, and eliminate errors from a process. Let’s take a look at why and when automation can be implemented within project management, and when automation should be avoided.

Push to Scale

In smaller to mid-sized companies, scaling is a central pillar to the company’s success. Many companies fail when they are at a formidable size because they are not set up internally to scale beyond what made them successful in the first place. With projects being a vehicle to implement strategy, it is one of the means companies will use to scale. When automation is implemented within a project management system, organizations have much more control over the speed at which they can grow.

Offload Busy Work

There are many tools that help project managers manage their processes, one of which has can greatly reduce the “busy work” surrounding projects. Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is becoming the new best friend of many project managers who utilize on-premise or cloud-based software to manage workflows. Think of the “robots” in RPA systems as little software employees that can be trained to do the mundane data entry and other repetitive tasks many project managers still rely on humans for. This reduces errors in the system and allows human employees to focus more on strategic or creative solutions for the organization.

Process automation can take over things like creating contracts or invoices and document generation and more. This will allow project managers to quickly generate consistently compliant documents and records without mistakes or the need to review each one. These automated forms will allow workers to quickly and accurately submit information when team members are working remotely or out in the field, ensuring a process does not slow down due to a team member’s availability in the office.

Connect Disparate Systems

Automation in project management is one of the best ways to ensure that typically disparate software environments can be connected and checked against each other for error. On projects requiring integration between disparate systems, many issues, like inconsistent data, can be avoided if you implement third party automation software to connect all of your different platforms. It will ensure that when data is entered into one system, the other integrated systems are updated or added with the same data. This ensures everyone is seeing the same data and data quality improves. Employees become more efficient and projects requiring integration, are more successful.

Refine Processes and Measuring Success

Many projects can run into bottlenecks when deliverable reviews are required. Automation can optimize this process so that all approvers are notified when they need to review data that’s been uploaded to the system. When feedback is given, the original assignees receive it all in one place, organized chronologically.

Effective communication is the key to good project management; automating data integration into multiple systems and automating reviews are all examples of automation making project communication fast and accurate

When not to Automate Project Management

Although automation may seem like the best thing ever, but there are times when it is not appropriate. This is mainly when your project management processes are not fully established or potentially different processes are used per department or per project. Remember that automation is, well, automatic! Once in place, the data entry or data transfers will just happen.

If your processes are not matured or too different from others, data will end up in the wrong places without the right people being notified. Automation in project management should be used once processes are fully established and ready to scale up to meet company demands, not before.

Final considerations

Automation has the benefit of reducing errors while increasing efficiency. When your organization is at the critical point where it needs to scale, and there is a need for better measurement and reduced busy work, automation tools should be implemented to help you grow.

If your internal processes are not mature and solidified, hold off on implementing automation within your project management systems to avoid unnecessary confusion and mistakes due to the volume of data that could potentially be mismanaged.

December 30, 2019July 2, 2024 Linky

Project Management Conferences to attend in 2020

As a Project Management Professional, one of the best ways to keep learning, is by attending Conferences. You get access to the latest industry trends, research, key note speakers and best of all, the connection and engagement with fellow practitioners, is priceless.

Here you will find a list of excellent project management conferences as well as agile gatherings that are planned for 2020 and will take place in different parts of the world. Most of them offer early bird discounts; so it’s a good idea to plan ahead and to register as early as possible.

More events will be added over time, so remember to visit the Virtual Project Consulting Event page in future for details.

FEBRUARY 2020

The Technical Project Management Conference

Date: 24 – 26 February 2020

Location: AMA Conference Center, Atlanta, USA

The Technical Project Management Conference - AMA Conference Centre, Atlanta

Project managers can learn how to create a technical project management environment covering different project management frameworks, life cycle, terminology and how to successfully lead teams. It will provide you networking opportunities so you can get in touch with hundreds of project management professionals.

Click here for more information.

International Conference on Lean Six Sigma and Project Management

Date: 21 – 22 February 2020

Location: Paris, France

The International Conference on Lean Six Sigma and Project Management is another event from the International Research Conference organization aiming to connect scientists from all over the world to consider Lean Six Sigma and PM challenges and suggest brand-new solutions and ideas.

Click here for more information.

MARCH 2020

PMI Sweden Passion for Projects Conference

Passion for Projects Conference - Sweden

Date: 9 – 10 March 2020

Location: The Clarion Hotel and Congress in Malmö Live, Sweden

PMI Sweden is an event with inspiring speakers, professional colleagues, and companies in different sectors gathered with the goal of sharing their knowledge and experience in project, portfolio, and programme management. The theme: “Orchestrating projects in a transformative world”.

Click here for more information.

APRIL 2020

International Scientific Conference on Project Management

Date: 23 – 24 April 2020

Location: Riga, Latvia

This Baltic States conference’s theme is “Project Management Development – Practice and Perspectives.” Its focus is on discussing scientific research related to project management issues and to encourage networking between professionals in the industry.

It takes place in English. Click here for more information.

MAY 2020

Change Management 2020

Date: 3 – 6 May 2020

Location: Anaheim, California, USA

The Association of Change Management Professionals (ACMP) is hosting their annual conference this year with the theme: “The Future of Work”.

It is your chance to network with other professionals who are spearheading change. The opening keynote speaker is Jacob Morgan, author and founder of the Future of Work University. It is being hosted at the Anaheim Marriott within walking distance of Disneyland making this a great conference to combine business with a vacation.

Click here for more information.

Global Scrum Gathering

Date: 11 – 13 May 2020

Location: New York, USA

The focus of this conference, hosted by Scrum Alliance, will be on taking Agile to the next level in your organization. There is a good mix of presentations, hands-on workshops and coaching. #SGNYC20 has a number of themes.

Click here for more information.

Agile and Beyond

Date: 19 – 21 May 2020

Location: Detroit, Michigan

Agile & Beyond is a grassroots, volunteer run conference that helps people learn about agile principles and practices as well as covers topics that help make people and companies awesome. With pre-conference workshops and over 130 conference sessions, there is a wide variety of topics for the agile newbie all the way to the agile expert.

Click here for more information.

APM Power of Projects Conference

Date: 21 May 2020

Location: London, UK

This year’s theme is “Power of Projects.” It is one in a series of three conferences, with other events happening in Edinburgh and Manchester. You don’t need to be a member of APM to attend.

Click here for more information.

JUNE 2020

PMO Conference

Date: 2 -3 June 2020

Location: London, UK

The PMO event, focused on portfolio, program, and project offices, suggests you to discover innovative approaches to your work. Join to get informed about the latest PMO research, next-generation solutions, and exchange insights with your peers.

Click here for more information.

PMI EMEA Global Congress

Date: 14 – 16 June 2020

Location: Prague, Czechia

The EMEA Congress 2020 will teach you the concepts, skills and behaviours to help shape the future. Attend for professional development with hundreds of Project, Programme and Portfolio managers from around the world.

Click here for more information.

OCTOBER 2020

PMI GLOBAL CONFERENCE 2020

Date: 17 – 19 October 2020

Location: Seattle, Washington

The Project Management Institute (PMI) is the largest association of project management professionals. PMI global conference is one of the largest gatherings of the year and the details are being finalised.

Click here for more information.

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December 18, 2019December 18, 2019 Linky

How to Make your Project Successful

Whether you’re a project manager of a small or a big, complicated project, one outcome you’re always striving for, is for the project to be successful.

Looking at statistics from historic projects, there can be many causes of project failure, as can be seen in the Infographic below. Failed projects lead to wasted time and resources, unsatisfied customers and of course, it will cause damage to the project manager’s reputation.

Main causes of project failure

One of the most common causes include lack of executive support in the form of absent or inexperienced sponsors, or sponsors who don’t make timeous decisions. Another common cause of project failure is lack of skills or personnel for effective strategy implementation.

Remedies for failure

There are remedies for failure, depending on what the cause of the failure was in the first place.

If the cause is poor communication, there are numerous ways that a project manager can communicate with project teams in real-time using software solutions as well as good communication practices through-out.
Efficient project tracking is another remedy that can prevent unplanned changes or issues to impact projects negatively.
Having mitigation plans for identified risks, as well as contingency plans for when things go wrong, you have a much better chance of protecting projects from becoming derailed.

To address the Sponsorship issue causing lack of executive support, you need to ensure that the organization has a culture that supports active sponsors on project. Expect them to be advocates for the project, to engage actively with key stakeholders and to use their influence when necessary in support of the project. Watch this video from Worldfinance.com to find out how to get the best out of executive sponsors.

Study the infographic from Wrike.com for a prescription for project success, think of it as the medicine to cure the main causes of project failure.

The Cure for Project Failure (#Infographic)

Infographic brought to you by Wrike

November 11, 2019November 9, 2019 Linky

Your Guide in the World of Project Management

PM Tips is a Project Management blog that guides you into the world of project management. They offer information on a wide range of project management topics in a simple, yet effective language.

With articles written by experienced project professionals and various subject expert contributors, it is a must-read for all beginners and veterans in the field of project management.

Recently I’ve had the honour to be interviewed by PM Tips as part of their ‘Interview with an Expert‘ series. The interview covered my professional career development over the years, some challenges I had to overcome, my views on Agile and PM methodologies, as well as certifications. It is part of my contribution to help our PM community in advancing their skills by learning from others’ experience.

October 31, 2019October 31, 2019 Linky

Is Your Company Using Project Portfolio Management (PPM) Effectively?

Portfolio Management is the coordinated management of one or more portfolios, a component collection of programs, projects, or operations, to achieve organizational strategies.

Portfolio Management is what helps businesses choose the right opportunities to pursue at the right time in order to achieve the greatest strategic advantages for their efforts.

Discover the current trends, best practices, common benefits, and average ROI of PPM in this Infographic about Portfolio Management.

Infographic brought to you by Wrike project plan tool free.

Is Your Company Using Project Portfolio Management (PPM) Effectively?

October 28, 2019October 27, 2019 Linky

Project Management: Planning with Purpose

What research shows us, when assessing high performing project managers, is that planning as a competency is always present. We know that the process of estimation and planning is critical to the success of any project. The plan will guide the investment decisions, it tells us about the demand for resources, if work is on track and what functionality (deliverables) can be expected.

In addition to planning, high performing project managers are more likely to have extended personal and professional relationships within and outside their organizations. Not only will this give them more expertise to draw upon (by reaching out to your network), but when they need to interact with stakeholders to further the goals of their projects, they were more likely to have pre-existing relationships to draw upon.

In her book: “Adaptive project planning” by Louise Worsley, she describes it as ‘social capital’ that experienced project managers build up and value in contrast to less experience project managers who are less likely to do so.

Project Management Professional Journey

When looking at the journey of a typical project manager who started out as a novice and has progressed to working on large, complex projects, they seem to progress through 3 distinct stages.

#1 Intuitive

At this stage, they able to coordinate and schedule small projects. People are chosen, because of having good organizing skills, an ability to get things done, and they could be relied upon. There is a recognizable aptitude for project coordination, explaining the phenomena of ‘accidental project managers’.

The intuitive stage is where junior project managers build their confidence, and they begin to understand what works and what doesn’t. With their intuitive understanding and natural coordination skills, managers will perform well initially but are likely to struggle or even fail, as projects get larger and more complex. When more complex projects are given to them, they may feel ‘stressed,’ unable to cope. They often find the work-load is higher than they can manage.

#2 Methodological stage

At this stage they able to use a publicly repeatable process and plan medium-to-high complexity projects.

These are processes like PRINCE2 or Project Management Body of Knowledge, from PMI. It is important to take note that applying a specific method to the project, does not guarantee success in its own right. It needs to be accompanied by a build-up of project knowledge and skills and the exposure and learning from experiences in a much larger variety of projects.

At the methodological levels, for real progression to occur the range of experiences and responsibilities taken on starts to expand. A breadth of experience appears to be the basis upon which judgment is developed.

#3 Judgmental Stage

At this stage they are able to structure and appropriately select from a variety of approaches to manage complex projects.

With larger and more complex projects, the critical skill is the ability to mix and match approaches. To have the common-sense to use tried and tested practices whenever appropriate, but to have the confidence to step off that path and structure new ways of working when these approaches are just not right.

During this stage, you will focus on big picture understanding and planning becomes part of shaping the engagements.

Matching Project Managers with the Right Projects

Organisations need to attempt to match the skills of the project manager to the complexity of the project.

At the advanced level, change in behaviors and attitudes are necessary to run more complex projects. At this level, it’s about having experience, conviction of actions and perhaps even bravery. These project managers are working on high profile projects and must be able to face the challenges of operating under the very public scrutiny of many and senior business stakeholders. Their approaches must be backed by the experience and professional understanding which allows them to make judgments about how best to structure the project for successful delivery. These project managers understand that the structure of the project must be adapted to the characteristics of the project.

One more essential ingredient, based on research, that seems necessary for experienced project/program managers to be successful, is the opportunity to work with a senior manager in the organization (taken under their wing) and having a mentor in the organization in the development of their career.

In conclusion, it is important to remember that project managers need a planning armory which include techniques, tools, tips and tricks. Keep working on using your judgment, and adapting to change in every situation to come up with the best approach to use for each project.

Resources: The Lost Art of Planning Projects, by Louise & Christopher Worsley

September 9, 2019September 9, 2019 Linky

Innovation Projects – Telematics for Teaching

By Linky van der Merwe

After publishing articles about “Innovation through projects” and “5 Elements for Innovation through projects”, I wanted to share an article that will give an example of an innovative project that helped to make a huge difference in the education sector in South Africa.

How to address the need for better exam results

To address the education needs of Grade 11 and grade 12 learners, in order to improve the final exams results, the Department of Education, Western Cape, in cooperation with the University of Stellenbosch, started with an innovative initiative.

Telematics to broadcast extra lessons

Stellenbosch University Education Department

Interactive Telematics Teaching is a 21st century response to learner/teacher support. From the trial done by the Western Cape Education Department in 2009 with 10 schools, it has grown to more than 300 schools, using telematics, to provide extra lessons to schools. The lessons are provided by two teachers in a television studio that are then broadcasted to schools through satellite dishes on the schools’ roofs.

What makes it so effective, is the fact that although the teachers are remote or virtual, the lessons are interactive. The teachers and learners at schools can call, email or WhatsApp questions or feedback.

What is Telematics

Telematics is defined as a system that marries information technology with telecommunications, or the long-distance transmission of computerized information. In this instance it is used to sending, receiving, and storing information through telecommunication devices, like satellites, through decoders (provided by the University) to a data projector, screen and sound system in each classroom involved. This is especially useful for schools who are in remote rural areas which don’t have access to broadband internet yet.

Objective with Telematics platform

From a University perspective the Interactive Telematics platform’s primary function is to support the post-graduate education students, and addition to that, to support the Department of Education’s schools Teaching Project to offer extra classes to hundreds of schools.

Benefits of extra lessons

Subjects are explained from different angles to improve comprehension that will help the stronger learners to confirm their understanding while it helps the weaker learner to understand better for the first time. It improves their overall understanding of the subject.

The self-image of the learners improve. Learners are assisted with examination tips, explanation of difficult concepts and even the parents become more involved.

The added benefit to the teachers attending with the learners, is that they see a demonstration of how difficult concepts should be presented and explained, or confirming that the way that they are teaching, is correct.

The revolutionary power of e-learning is not only having a multi-media platform, but also the power of connecting presenters and learners leading to interactivity and collaborative sharing.

Schools participating in this initiative, make the extra classes compulsory for their grade 11 and 12 learners. The lessons are planned in detail, considering the previous results from grade 11 and 12 exams. The content is planned to address where learners have gaps in their knowledge.

The subjects being broadcasted are Mathematics, Physical Science, Life Sciences, Accounting, English and Afrikaans. It has been proven that the Grade 12 (matric) exam results have improved at schools participating in this initiative.

Technology in the classroom

This initiative lead to a partnership between technology and the teacher in the classroom. The aim is to support teachers, but it will never replace teachers in the classroom who are providing the hands-on feedback by walking around among learners and ensuring that they are doing the right things. Teachers will support learners before, during and after every broadcast in order to stay focused and to maximise this intervention.

Long term benefits

Telematics teaching presents an education and training revolution in terms of technological capability. But more importantly, it facilitates access and availability to quality education as never before, providing teachers and learners with a range of choices and opportunities for learning.

Source:

“Innovation: How Science helps to form South Africa – Chapter on Telematics” by Sarah Wild