Ray Mead and Steve Butler of p3m global will be on site at PMI Global Congress in Phoenix, AZ 26-28 October. More details on this great opportunity to network with us in the days ahead.
In relation to the #PMIcongressSweeps hashtag that’s sweeping the #PMOT globe, be sure to tell everyone the following…
This announcement is for all of our followers both old and new:
Last May at our re-brand party at the IceTank in London, we officially announced our transition from the known and respected PM-Partner brand to the all-new p3m global brand. This unique celebration (click here or here for a look at a night out) gave us a chance to engage with some close #P3M). If you missed out, get in touch: we’d love to tell you about p3m global and perhaps see you at future p3m global events.
The reason for the announcement today is that September is when we officially adopt the p3m global name.
Related to that, another area we’re making these changes is on LinkedIn, where we’ve long hosted a group dedicated to discussions of the matters close to all things p3m: training, development, assessment, competency, capability and much more. So as you join us for future p3m global events, we also invite you to take the time and join the p3m global LinkedIn Group: the PM-Partners LinkedIn Group will be no more as of this month.
It’s our hope that followers take the chance to migrate from the expiring Group membership to its replacement, and that this announcement offers p3m global a chance to bring in new voices as well. Entities that you’ve known as PM-Partners and now p3m global remain intact and strong as ever.
Thanks as ever for your interest in us – empower change, optimise delivery: p3m global.
I come from a newspaper background, cutting my teeth in the seat of the Cherokee Nation – Tahlequah, Oklahoma. Fascinating place, fascinating industry, prepares you well for other walks of life. To this day, if a blog post is submitted to me (your editor, in case you didn’t know already) after deadline, it remains akin to a troll’s fingernails on a chalkboard. Deadlines were a way of life, the rule without exceptions: there was absolutely no room, as legendary comic George Carlin once put it, to test the elasticity of them.
Naturally as the career expanded, I ended up with responsibilities that used the writing & editing capacities, but left me to rethink the loose ends that often need to be secured first. You know, the ones that don’t actually extend the deadline, but merely strain the elasticity of the Time, Cost and Scope of the project triangle we all are so familiar with now (and brings the troll out from under the bridge and into my proverbial classroom). So suffice it to say, it’s nice to bring a bit of normality and familiarity to the job.
The P3M Globe, a daily online newspaper from paper.li, is as close as I’ll get to the old days, and it’s good enough for me. Evolved from our old PM-Partners Weekly, p3m global are breaking away from the old format and into an evening daily (or an afternoon/late morning edition for those in the Western Hemisphere, especially Tahlequah!). Coverage collates the best of the #PMOT and #PM hash tags, with familiar voices like the PMI blog team, Voices in Project Management; Bernardo Tirado, Susanne Madsen, ProjectManagers.NET, APM and many more. Whilst not all of them write their own stuff, The P3M Globe exemplifies why sharing the strongest pieces and thought leadership (or retweeting, to use common parlance) on Twitter is to the benefit of the consumer and a great way to think not only about your job, but about how to your job well.
But more importantly, it forces the narrative and those in the know on the #P3M, #PMOT and other leading project management hash tags to bring their A-game continuously. Good content rolls and gets pushed. Whenever people thank me for promoting their writings via the latest edition of The P3M Globe, I make it a point to let them know that what they’re putting out into the Twitter ether earned the push. Ergo: for the best words on Twitter about our practice, a subscription to P3M Globe from p3m global and paper.li is the way for the “on the go, no time to check Twitter”, user to get it.
Dan Strayer is the Marketing Coordinator for p3m global. A native of Manchester (by way of the US), Dan currently edits all forms of p3m global Media, including this blog, the monthly newsletter (subscribe here), and all forms of social media output by p3m global that you can see in the icons below. Other recent ventures from p3m global Media include Slideshare and Prezi. Get in touch with Dan on Twitter via @p3mglobal or @danlstrayer.
Whether you like it or not, there has been no escaping this year’s World Cup. Despite the disappointment of England’s untimely departure, the competition continues to dominate the front and back pages. Whilst he is nursing the pain of the USA’s recent exit, our resident Yank and marketing expert Dan (Editor’s note: a.k.a “Editor” heretofore) has asked me to reflect upon the “lessons learned” from Brazil 2014.
Here’s a list of 10 shameless analogies to project management from this year’s tournament:
The ticket to understanding elements of your project management potential may lie in this year’s World Cup(image courtesy Jorge in Brazil via @Flickr, re-used with permission. Changes were not made to the image.)
The twelfth man – Whether it’s been the sun, the samba or the Selecao, there’s no denying that the support for this year’s cup has been fantastic. Amid the hype, the USA’s coach Jurgen Klinsmann gave a master-class in stakeholder engagement with his letter to America’s bosses ahead of their game against Germany.
The death of tiki-taka – Methodologies come and go. As Spain’s exit shows us, the trick is to have the flexibility to choose an approach that fits the game and gets a result. This serves as a word of warning to those always following the flavour of the month.
“No tactics without technique” – The English national team have once again failed to make it far on the biggest stage. Over-drilled and under-skilled, Hodgson’s men proved that no matter how good the tactics, a team needs a fundamental level of competency before it has the capability to achieve its goals.
Beware! Underdog bites! – In a group of three former world champions, Costa Rica were the lowest risk on the register at the start of the tournament. That hasn’t stopped them becoming an issue.
Beware! Striker bites! – What struck me about Suarez’ misdemeanour was the public outrage incurred: not by the monster munch itself, but by his silence on the subject, before making an apology. Whether there’s an appeal process or not on your project’s evaluation, no communication is bad communication in times of crisis.
Home advantage – Brazil may not have been at their scintillating best so far in the tournament, but it comes as no surprise that half of the teams to reach the quarter finals are South American. Familiar working conditions, lofty aims and high expectations have undoubtedly spurred the hosts – and their neighbours – to outperform the rest of the world.
A game of two halves…and extra time and penalties – The number of games that have gone into extra time this year has probably been more popular with the fans than with the players due to the heat. Overtime has seen the levels of performance drop and the number of mistakes increase as legs tire and concentration is lost.
“Rome wasn’t built in a day, but I wasn’t on that particular job…” – What do ‘Big Phil’ Scolari, Didier Deschamps and van Gaal have in common apart from a team in the quarters? Charisma. The value of strong leadership for team work, conflict resolution, communication and – ultimately – project success, is undoubted and immeasurable in value.
Calamity in Qatar – Whilst Brazil seems to be getting over its teething problems, Sepp and his cronies continue to baffle with their handling of plans for the World Cup in Qatar. If you want an example of how not to do a risk assessment, how not to engage stakeholders, how not to monitor compliance, or how not to run a project: look no further!
On scope, on time and on budget? – Despite its successes, criticisms that will mar the legacy of the Brazilian World Cup have all come from three classic project management perspectives. First, delivering all that entails an international tournament in a country with more pressing socio-economic and political issues was the cause of the widespread riots that threatened to kill the fever of the cup. Second, spray painted turf at Fortaleza (editor’s note: not to mention rickety structures) was a symptom of widespread under delivery. From the pitches, to the stadiums, to the transport infrastructure, Brazil did not come close to meeting requirements on schedule. Finally, the cost of the World Cup will ultimately be judged against the benefits that the tournament brings to the nation over the next few years. (editor’s note: Against the backdrop of Rio de Janiero playing host to the next edition of the Summer Olympics, the impact could face even more scrutiny. Given what has transpired in Greece in recent years, the legacy of hosting the 2004 Summer Olympics is negligible and forgotten, especially in light of losing out on so much economically without the burden of the World Cup hosting gig to boot.) Whether the impact of this World Cup demonstrated value for money in Brazil will be a question that overshadows the tournament’s place in history.
Nick Sharpe joined p3m global as a University of Exeter graduate in 2013, working in a consulting capacity to drive improvements in the Project Management methodologies of our clients. After a quick-fire induction on our Project Management Fundamentals course, and initiation into the wonders of the ‘iron triangle’, Nick was qualified in PRINCE2 and MS Project, and assessing clients project management frameworks. Nick has worked with clients in the recruitment, telecoms and energy sectors, and with HR, Business Services and IT departments.
