Author: Adi Muslic, PMP

Organizational Transformation: Implementation is the second course in the OT Series, which provides the framework for transformation execution.
This course, written and designed by subject experts at the Brightline Initiative at PMI, is the ticket to an informed, intelligent, people-based transformation. It gives you knowledge you need to lead and execute a transformation.

The course teaches how to:
1. Identify and describe the frameworks used to define your transformation strategy
2. Assess an organization’s transformation readiness
3. Identify and describe strong leadership characteristics
4. Activate transformation
5. Use 5 transformation touchstones

How do we start? Transformation begins at the strategic level where the vision and goals are determined. To do so, we need to evaluate the degree of complexity and the rate of change. This helps to identify the level of uncertainty. The next phase is to decide what the domain and type of your transformation is. When we decide what our transformation strategy will be, we can start evaluating our organization’s readiness.

Many organizations do not have required competences to support a big change. They will need to understand what they are capable of doing.

Next steps are:
● Define business capabilities
● Determine capability readiness
● Identify hard and soft capabilities required to achieve your transformation type

Before starting the transformation, we must close any capability gaps (people, technology, structure, or assets). The course instructs us to use the Capabilities Heat Map as a tool to identify the gaps. When we identify the gaps, we can start addressing them by using following approaches: Build, Acquire, Partner, Outsource.

Once we close our capability gaps, we are ready. It is time to start implementing.
The implementation phase is based on the 5 building blocks and 3 step methodology that were introduced in the last month article: https://pmi-switzerland.ch/index.php/publications/blog/1373

With these foundations in place, we can start our Transformation Trajectory that integrates the methodology and building blocks into five touchstones along the trajectory:

1. Creating a winning vision and strategy
2. Engage and empower people
3. Leverage customer and competitive insights
4. Activate an agile transformation operating system
5. Enable perpetual transformational

The course explains each touchstone in more detail. There are also two case studies to practise what we have learned.
After each module, there is an interactive scenario to further practise applying the tools and practices from the course modules.

Next month, I will tell you more about the third course in the Organizational Transformation Series:
Orchestration.

For more info, visit : https://www.pmi.org/organizational-transformation

I use this opportunity to invite you to join our virtual event, Leading a dynamic people-centered transformation, on 31st March: https://pmi-switzerland.ch/index.php/events/events-list/leading-a-dynamic-people-centered-transformation

Author: Thando Dube, PMP

Le Forum Ouvert est un événement qui offre un espace libre pour partager des expériences, des conseils, ou discuter des problématiques que vous pouvez rencontrer lors de vos projets.

Notre Forum Ouvert n°9 a eu lieu le mardi 25 janvier 2022 en ligne via Zoom, sur un thème brûlant et d’actualité : « Gestion des risques projet en période de COVID-19 ».  En parlant de l'actualité, cet évènement restera dans les annales comme le premier Forum Ouvert organisé en français pour mieux répondre aux attentes de nos adhérents suisses romands.

Le plus romand d’entre nous, Leandro Benda a eu le privilège de présenter ce forum en français et il l’a fait avec brio !  Une vingtaine de professionnels de gestion de projets issus de tout le tissu de l’économie suisse et quelques participants de la France voisine ont répondu présents.  Trois salles virtuelles ont été créées afin de faciliter les échanges en petit groupe sur les questions posées par les participants via l’application Slido. Chaque participant a eu la liberté de rejoindre une salle qui abordait le sujet qui l’intéressait. Les discussions en salle virtuelle ont été limitées à 15 minutes afin de permettre aux participants de se retrouver à nouveau dans la salle commune pour poser à nouveau d’autres questions.

Différents sujets liés à la gestion des risques et, plus important, les vécus et les expériences des uns et des autres pendant cette période de Covid-19 ont été abordés. 

Parmi les questions qui ont été traitées, on a notamment noté:

-        Comment les professionnels de gestion des projets ont soutenu la résilience des équipes pendant cette période très incertaine ?

-        Quelles ont été les adaptations et changements sur le processus de gestion de risques rendus obligatoires par la situation de la pandémie Covid-19 ?

-        Y a-t-il eu des risques qui ont été atténués ou exacerbés par la pandémie Covid-19 ?

Notre prochain Forum Ouvert n°10 sera organisé le 17 mai 2022 et nous vous communiquerons les informations précises dans la Newsletter du mois d’avril.  Comme le planning peut encore changer, nous vous invitons à consulter régulièrement le site PMI Suisse afin d’avoir les dernières informations sur les évènements programmés. Tous les évènements peuvent être consultés par le biais de ce lien: https://pmi-switzerland.ch/index.php/events

Bonne lecture et au plaisir de vous retrouver lors de notre prochain Forum Ouvert !

Author: Daniel von Niederhaeusern, PMP

Date: Saturday, 26 March 2022
Location: Zurich
Trainer: Monika Keller, PMP

Dear members and friends of the PMI Switzerland Chapter,

Even though we don’t know how the covid situation will be in March, we again invite you for a 1-day classroom training. We really hope that we are allowed to execute the training after we had to cancel this event last autumn. 

Our trainer Monika Keller is an experienced coach and trainer, Lecturer, Federal Professional Adult Educator, PMP, and collected a lot of experience as a project manager for international companies for many years.
Monika runs her coaching and training company 3C Keller which focuses on leadership and topics related to work-life balance and the reconciliation of work and family life.
You will find more information about Monika and her blogs in her profile on LinkedIn.

The learning goals are:

• Reflect and improve your communication- and time management skills
• Strengthen your self-confidence and take responsibility for yourself
• Influence your own situation in a positive way
• Practice your presentation and argumentation skills

Training content:

• How to improve your self-management skills to achieve a better work-life balance
• Learn a method to better reflect yourself, communicate your needs, and set boundaries
• Learn from your peers by discussing real PM challenges in small groups

What is your benefit /added value?

• You will learn how to deal with stress to prevent a burnout
• Learn, how to improve and influence your time management  
• Reflect your priorities for a healthy work-life balance
• Discuss your experience with your PM peers
• Finally earn 7 PDU’s

If you are interested to learn: How to become your own chairperson and set boundaries - don’t hesitate and register yourself to secure your seat. You will find more information and registration form on PMI Webpage.

Hope to see you there.

Author: Edul Nakra, PMP

Speaker: James Greene – founding member and former President of PMI Switzerland

In this very interesting online session James Greene described his journey from Project Management to Program Management, and along the way shared key pointers and lessons learned through his experience working in various capacities and industries on this journey.

Project Management has multiple dimensions including planning, organizing, motivating, and controlling resources to achieve specific goals – in a sense more tactical in nature.

When it comes to Program Management things get a bit “fuzzy” – it has a broader scope, a longer term/strategic view, and is not quite as focused. In general, you find yourself working with less information. 

They both however are temporary, have a business case, are business strategy aligned, and deliver organizational change.  

James then went on to cover various initiatives he had managed between 2010-2014, including IT Infrastructure, Organizational and Technical integration following a merger, and then a divestiture. 

He highlighted that there are challenges involved when a Project is not a stand-alone one, but rather part of a Program – these include securing resources, resistance to change, parallelization of many activities, and potential cultural differences due to a larger and in many cases global nature of Programs.

When it comes to making the transition from Project Management to Program Management, James mentioned that it was analogous to going from being a pilot sitting in the plane taking the plane from one destination to the next, to being the controller in the control tower – not just responsible for an individual flight but for all the flights at your airport.

It is a different way of looking at things, the tools, and the way of working. In a Program Management role, you find yourself more concerned with change management and dependencies between the projects.

He then went on to providing some advice and things to remember for those looking to make the transition:

1. You are no longer managing a project – you are managing Project Managers (and not their teams). This requires a different leadership style than managing a Project.
2. Program planning is more esoteric than project planning. There are a lot of unknowns, and it involves more strategic thinking.
3. Risk Management needs to be taken to a higher level (these are not the same as project risks), and Change and Quality management becomes much more important given the complexities of having multiple projects running in parallel.
4. Dependencies need to be managed well, and monitored and controlled effectively.
5. Clear and concise communications are critical. Communicate up, down and in an efficient manner - listen to people.

Finally, James covered different methods and tools he has used to manage Programs, and presented some Dos and Don’ts for Program Managers:

 To conclude, James took questions where attendees got the opportunity to draw from his experience, ending an extremely useful and informative session.