Category: Project Management

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#002 – Managing Change in a Global Environment with Jennifer Bedell

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With cultural dimensions such as Power Distance, Individualism, Masculinity, Uncertainty Avoidance, and Long Term Orientation as she sites the research of professor Geert Hofstede, Gert Jan Hofstede, Michael Minkov and their research teams.

Jennifer brings her years of experience as a Business Analyst, Change Manager, and QA in a Global organization as well as some research by country helping us to understand the different cultures we are working with.

 

Show Notes:

  1. Host: Ron Smith
  2. Contact info for Jennifer: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenniferbedell/
  3. Referenced Material: https://www.hofstede-insights.com/models/national-culture/

 

Audio Attribution:

  1. license
  2. title: JENNY’S THEME
  3. creator: Jason Shaw
  4. audio source
  5. changes were not made
  6. Music: www.hooksounds.com

 

Use the comment section below to comment on the interview.

Want to get more helpful project management insights like this directly in your inbox? Subscribe to the Managing Projects newsletter (see subscribe in right side menu).

 

Ron Smith

Ron is a Project Manager with Chalder Consulting Inc. www.chalder.ca

Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/rondsmith

Check out the contributors page.

 

Transcription of Interview

Ron: [00:00:03] This is the managing project’s podcast with your host Ron Smith. Join me as I talk practitioners and thought leaders in the world of project management and related topics. Visit managingprojects.ca for more information.

 

Jennifer: [00:00:18] Welcome to the third episode of managing projects. Today we have Jennifer Bedell from Halifax who’s working with ADP. Jennifer will be presenting at project world that is happening in Moncton New Brunswick on November 27 and her title is managing change in a global environment. Let’s get to the interview.

 

Ron: [00:00:40] Good morning Jennifer Badell.

 

Jennifer: [00:00:43] Good morning Ron. How are you today.

 

Ron: [00:00:45] I’m very good. I’m very good. How are you.

 

Ron: [00:00:48] I’m great. I got a good night’s sleep last night so it’s awesome.

 

Ron: [00:00:53] I was reading your profile on the conference page and your profile mentions that you work for a global company ADP and you’re often on calls in the wee hours of the morning. Midnight calls and then and 6:00 a.m. calls that you must be or you must be a fan of the coffee!

 

Jennifer: [00:01:13] I do like my coffee or my tea as the day prescribes. But yeah. I mean it does happen on occasion that all have these conference calls very late. And again early morning. I try to avoid that whenever possible. But when you’re working globally Sometimes this happens and you might just have a nap in the middle of the afternoon to make up for it.

 

Ron: [00:01:36] Yeah. Most of my experience has been around Indian based companies when I have calls at night. So I can totally relate. You’re a trooper. You’re a trooper for doing that.

 

Jennifer: [00:01:49] You know one of the advantages that we have actually is a lot of our colleagues in India are working shift work so that they’ll sometimes do the late nights and we get to work during the day. So it’s OK because it helps you know they’re good.

 

Ron: [00:02:01] They’re good to do that. From your bio 15 years experience in business analysis, change management, and quality assurance. I understand that the presentation you’re giving which is on Monday November 27th Moncton New Brunswick. The presentation that you’re going to give is titled managing change in a global environment. You seem to be the the perfect person to give this talk! Tell me a little bit about why you’re giving the talk and maybe a little taste for for people see if they might want to attend your session.

 

Jennifer: [00:02:34] Sure. So I picked this topic mostly because hey it’s what I do. A lot of it I learned kind of by doing and being introduced into a global organization and basically kind of jumping in with both feet and starting to meet with people across the different regions. As the topic suggests it’s managing change across a global organization and some of the things that I’ve found is depending on who I’m working with or what area of the world I happen to be working with, as I’m introducing something new I’m getting very different responses. So I did a little bit of research and found a gentleman by the name of Geert Hofstede. I think I’m pronouncing it correctly. He’s actually from the Netherlands. And he did research beginning in the 60s on some different dimensions of national cultures. So when he came up with six different categories of how different countries collectively handle certain situations or certain types of things. So it’s not to say that everybody in that country behaves that way or thinks of things that way. But generally speaking he’s found some some commonalities with the people in that particular country. And I’ll give you one example of one of the things that I’ve noticed. Power distance is one of the dimensions that he talks about and he’s got graphs on his Web site that will show you where the different countries fit. The countries that are generally dealing with are Canada, US. I’m dealing with Prague, Czech Republic quite a bit and and China as well. So one of the things that I found in terms of power distance it basically means how accepting is that culture of inequalities and power. So for example a director has more authority or more power than a manager. And in China that’s extremely high. So when I’m introducing a change in China, I go to a director and I say we need to we need to start doing things this way. The director will instruct their team and the team will take it up and just do it no questions asked. Where as in Canada and US that power distance is much lower. So here it’s going to be well you know I just don’t really want to. Why do I have to do it. I look at the way it was. So very different responses just based on that one dimension.

 

Ron: [00:05:25] That’s really interesting. So you’re bringing me back a little bit so it sort of mentioned that I did a little bit outsourced work. I did work with an Indian outsourcer. And what struck me in the work that surprised me was that they didn’t want to bring bad news up the chain to authority.

 

Jennifer: [00:05:46] Yes.

 

Ron: [00:05:47] And I found that so I found that out the hard way. It was it’s a shame. Maybe I should have listened to your session ten years ago. All the companies around are dealing with some kind of Indian outsourcer model. It was a very difficult lesson to learn because they literally didn’t want to tell you what the problems were. You couldn’t help them.

 

Jennifer: [00:06:13] Yeah. And on the other side of it when you’re talking about asking for a change or introducing a change you’ll hear Oh yes no problem we’ll do this very agreeable. when you check back in a month, it hasn’t been done but they don’t want a challenge right. It’s just not.

 

Ron: [00:06:36] I knew that they were working really really long hours and they really wanted to please you and try their hardest but they didn’t want to be seen as not being able to do it.

 

Jennifer: [00:06:47] So yeah and I’ll just highlight what the six different dimensions are I don’t go into the detail on all of them in my talk but I do I do touch on the ones that affect response to change. The dimensions are power distance which I said is acceptance of inequalities and power. Individualism which is kind of like every man for himself whether it’s sort of that it takes a village to raise a child or not. There is masculinity which is kind of a tough one to understand or even explain in today’s society but it’s the word that was used to describe basically whether a culture is more caring or more you know assertive. Uncertainty avoidance is how willing to accept something that is being introduced if you don’t have all the details. Long term orientation: are you willing to accept kind of a short term pain for long term gain. Indulgence versus restraint. You can probably guess where we are in North America on that one.

 

[00:08:05] You’ve been listening to the Managing Projects podcast. Be sure to visit us @ ManagingProjects.ca for show notes including links to books and resources mentioned. And don’t forget to sign up for email notifications so you are the first to know about new episodes. You can also follow us on Twitter @Manage_proj. If you enjoyed the show please leave a review on ITunes as it helps other people to discover the podcast. Thanks for listening.

 

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#001 – Can the Zombie Apocalypse help you survive your projects? with Hans Eckman

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

A great discussion on his dynamic and creative view on project management.  Requirements Management Platforms.  If you are attending the conference this would be a great session to attend.  There are a lot of great speakers heading the Moncton!

Hans will be presenting the following topics:

  1. Can the Zombie Apocalypse help you survive your projects?
  2. Becoming the Best Version of YOU!

Listen to this 15 minute pre-conference chat.

 

Show Notes:

  1. Host: Ron Smith
  2. Contact info for Hans:  eckmanguides.com

We are a participant in the Amazon Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites. Books mentioned during the interview:

  1. The Purple Cow – Seth Godin
  2. Becoming a Category of One: How Extraordinary Companies Transcend Commodity and Defy Comparison –

Audio Attribution:

  1. license
  2. title: JENNY’S THEME
  3. creator: Jason Shaw
  4. audio source
  5. changes were not made
  6. Music: www.hooksounds.com

 

Use the comment section below to comment on the interview.

Want to get more helpful project management insights like this directly in your inbox? Subscribe to the Managing Projects newsletter (see subscribe in right side menu).

 

Ron Smith

Ron is a Project Manager with Chalder Consulting Inc. www.chalder.ca

Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/rondsmith

Check out the contributors page.

 

Transcription of Interview

Ron: [00:00:03] This is the managing project’s podcast with your host Ron Smith join me as I talk with practitioners and thought leaders in the world of project management and related topics. Visit ManagingProjects.ca for more information. I’m Ron Smith. Welcome to episode number two. Today’s guest is Hans Eckman. Hans will be presenting at Project World and Moncton New Brunswick on November 27. His topics at the conference are, if you can believe this one, Can the Zombie Apocalypse Help You Survive Your Projects. And becoming the best version of you. Hi Hans Welcome to the show.

 

Hans: [00:00:43] Hi Ron. Thanks for having me today. I’m honored.

 

Hans: [00:00:45] Oh glad to have you. So I know you are with Blueprint Software Systems right now. Would you take a few minutes and just tell us what your focus is with them.

 

Hans: [00:00:54] Absolutely! Blueprint software is one of the largest and most robust requirements management platforms available to large corporations. I’m actually part of their professional services division so I’m helping them and their clients with the business transformation and org change management that needs to happen when you’re moving from project base requirements to actually managing requirements as an asset throughout your enterprise.

 

Ron: [00:01:21] So those requirements that you’re creating won’t die when a project is finished but they will live on or potentially breed into other projects – more of a corporate view.

 

Hans: [00:01:32] Absolutely yeah. And so we’re all used to the kind of one one and done approaches to projects. But when you can start managing that information as an asset at the smallest level you reduce the amount of startup time for each project. You reduce the number of errors and missed requirements. You have the ability to trace and automate your testing because of it. But longer term that information actually has extreme value so you can identify the impact of changes across your enterprise a lot faster, reduce your audit and compliance risk, and identify new opportunities that you might miss if you didn’t have that world view of the enterprise.

 

Ron: [00:02:13] Well it’s really interesting kind of trends are you seeing.

 

Hans: [00:02:18] For a lot of companies the big struggle has been how do I get my stuff faster and better. And that’s what’s been behind one of the largest pushes for Agile is looking at team based and looking at smaller iterative projects. But there’s nothing that prevents those same principles from being applied even in waterfall projects. So the big change I’m seeing is some organizations are really embracing the fact that the understanding of their enterprise operations is as vital as the services themselves.They’re starting to invest a lot more heavily in both the people processes and technology around that area.

 

Ron: [00:03:01] Yeah I hear you here. I mean certainly a trend that I’m seeing as well like it’s quite interesting to look at it from a requirement standpoint like every organization that I’m working with they’re adopting these enterprise architecture groups and the projects need to be interfacing with them. But that’s that’s an interesting view to take a corporate view of how these requirements are being traced. So when you’re not doing that type of work with these companies I hear you’re chasing zombies.

 

Hans: [00:03:27] A little bit and hopefully it’ll remain just in theory and not in practice. But absolutely one of the opportunities I’ve had is to present at conferences across the United States and Canada on the topic you were alluding to ask been one of the most popular presentations I’ve given which is how you can survive your projects by preparing for a zombie apocalypse basically following if you can be ready for the worst case scenario. You should be ready for anything. Showing how some of the skills techniques and approaches in disaster response and disaster preparedness actually perfectly mirror our project life cycles. If we can use those daily examples we can actually strengthen our skills and ability and take those it back into the workplace and perform better there as well.

 

Ron: [00:04:19] I love the analogy because you know we’ve been on those troubled projects that it seems like an apocalypse. I love that you picked that as the analogy. It’s very creative way to say no how did you ever come up with a with a title.

 

Hans: [00:04:34] It actually started Bob primness and I were at building business capability’s conference one year. And like any other conference when you’re meeting and hanging out with people you start sharing some of your war stories. One of the common themes that we’ve seen over the years is we tend to learn more and develop our skills faster in the most impossible projects impossible departments impossible clients we’ve ever worked for. And somehow throughout the evening that conversations shifted over to zombies and what would happen if you were trying to apply those same principles to a zombie apocalypse. So Bob kind of threw down the gauntlet and challenged me to come up with a presentation that could tie the two together and to not be outdone after I succeeded doing that I threw the gauntlet back at him. So sometime coming in 2018 Bob will be presenting BA the musical.

 

Ron: [00:05:29] Say that again? BA the what?

 

Hans: [00:05:32] The Musical. So is the musical with original songs and lyrics by Bob Prentis. He has about half of it written and is refining it and moving forward so we can look forward to that. On the conference circuit next year.

 

Ron: [00:05:49] Oh man can the guy sing.

 

[00:05:51] He is actually an unbelievable singer and entertainer. His keynote presentations are usually about a quarter to a third of it is him breaking into song. He was a one of the lead members of the Minneapolis chorus and just a phenomenal singer and entertainer. Unfortunately I have absolutely no skills in either of those departments so I have to rely on much more information based value rather than the pure entertainment.

 

Ron: [00:06:23] I was doing a little bit of research on on your talk with the zombie apocalypse and found some of your some of your resources and I tell you I want to go home and start stocking the cans of food just to make sure I am ready. But it was you know I really loved your slant on on this topic. And so that is one of the topics you’ll be giving. And then the other one as we’re finishing up the conference is becoming the best version of you and maybe just spend a minute in and tell us a few things about about that.

 

Hans: [00:07:02] Absolutely. I had the honor of being able to do quite a few keynote presentations this year and will be excited to attend in the Moncton conference. It will be my first time participating in that event. And so the the heart of the conference came from a realization that most people don’t realize not only what they’re good at and what their superpowers are but they don’t necessarily see those superpowers as something that sets them apart in a positive way an area that they should be focusing in on. A lot of our professional development, we end up looking for gaps looking for errors looking for mistakes and trying to fill that. But we can actually be a lot more productive if we focus in on our core value and look for more opportunities where we can be our best person and we can do our super powers.That’s really what sets us apart. So in the keynote I try and help people with some tips finding out what their super powers might be as opposed to just general skills that everyone can do. Then develop some techniques and approaches to help people harness that energy and be more successful in their personal and professional lives.

 

Ron: [00:08:16] What do you think the main reason is that people don’t try to identify their superpowers and perhaps try to go to try and go and chase those. What have your observations been?

 

Hans: [00:08:27] I think we’ve got a trap that is common across all all businesses and employment areas which is we tend to focus in on the base skills and activities that are required for a job. So we look at any position any level in the organization and we focus in on all the things you would be doing. That tends to slant our approach to fill out those jobs as equally as possible across the different activities the different skills. There’s really nothing in the hiring process or in a lot of staff and development processes within an organization that really focuses in on your unique talents and why those are important to the organization. We see the same problem with product marketing as well. Seth Godin had a great book The Purple Cow and another gentleman I forget his name offhand wrote an excellent book called Becoming a Category of One which were specifically targeting the same problem with businesses. A lot of companies try and compete by saying we do all these things better or cheaper or faster than our competitors. Instead of finding what it is that they do that makes them unique. Perfect example would be Apple. Apple does not create new products. They don’t create disruptive products. Instead they find a need that and find a way of making it so much better than anyone else can do it more user friendly more intuitive and just a better overall experience. And that’s been their key to success. As individuals, we need to kind of take that same approach. One of the things that we do well that nobody else is doing as well because that’s what’s going to set us apart. That’s what’s going to set us up for advancement and future opportunities.

 

Ron: [00:10:22] So do you see this as a personal enrichment or corporate focusing?You could take that approach corporately. But is your presentation more on the person itself.

 

Hans: [00:10:36] Yeah my my focus is on the person. Eventually this will probably could turn into corporate workshops or other activities. But at the moment, it’s helping people understand what makes them special.If being special and being different is a good thing they should stop trying to hide it. Now hopefully some of those people especially as they move into leadership or management positions will turn around and start looking for those special skills looking for those opportunities within their team and then that’s how it can spread throughout the enterprise. But at the moment my focus is much more on the individual than the than a than a team or corporate environment.

 

Ron: [00:11:17] So Hans, I think you’re becoming one of the veterans from what I can tell on on the circuit for Project World and you’ve spoken a few times now. Tell us a little bit about your speaking engagements. Where do you go that across North America. Have you have you left the continent? What’s your focus on some of your speaking engagements?

 

Hans: [00:11:37] So far it’s been largely the United States and Canada. Not that I wouldn’t love to be able to present in some other countries. I just haven’t been able to work out the logistics yet. I had an invite to go to speak in London but we were never able to find a time or a way to make that happen so definitely enjoy focusing in on North America. Would love to spread out. And primarily speaking on project management, business analysis, leadership, and then also some on soft skills and other personal development areas.

 

Ron: [00:12:14] Well you know what I am excited to see you here in a couple of weeks. What’s the best way for people to get a hold of you or you have a web page or an e-mail address that you’d like to share?

 

Hans: [00:12:26] Absolutely so yeah. I love connecting with people love staying in touch. All of the all of the articles I write all of the presentations that I do are available on my web site which is Eckmanguides.com. And you know they can grab my name off of your blog to get the right spelling. So that’s where all of my information is published. I look forward to anyone that wants to connect through linked in and stay in touch that way I try and make sure and publish everything. Also through LinkedIn and then if people want to reach out directly my email is Hans@hanseckman.com And I’d be happy to help out wherever I can.

 

Ron: [00:13:07] Thank you for the time this afternoon. And again I can’t wait for that conference. It sounds like a lot of fun teasing zombies. Can’t wait to hear that.

 

Hans: [00:13:16] It’ll be good. I have never. I’ve had a lot of people that started very nervous about coming too and very curious how it was going to be, but I haven’t met any one who didn’t at least walk away with a few tips and tricks that they could absolutely apply to their professional lives as well.

 

Ron: [00:13:34] Yeah absolutely. These conferences are really well done and thanks for your time today.

 

Hans: [00:13:39] Thank you so much. It’s been an honor being here I look forward to meeting you and the rest of your listeners at the conference in a week.

 

Ron: [00:13:47] Sounds great. See you then.

 

Ron: [00:13:50] You’ve been listening to the Managing Project’s podcast. Be sure to visit us and ManagingProjects.ca for show notes including links to books and resources mentioned. And don’t forget to sign up for e-mail notifications so you’re the first to know about new episodes. You can also follow us on Twitter @manage_proj. If you enjoy the show please leave a review on iTunes as it helps other people to discover the podcast. Thanks for listening.

 

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PMP Certification – Steps to obtaining the PMP® certifications

PMP® Certification is becoming a popular route for professionals who want to demonstrate their management and organizational skills.  It is becoming a very popular entry point for the PMI certification tracks.

Steps to obtaining the PMP® certifications

  1. Review the requirements to take the test
  2. Join a local study group
  3. Register to take the test
  4. Take the test

Where can I find qualification information on the certifications

You can find information on the Prerequisites here:

Check to see if you qualify to take the test.  If you do not have enough direct work experience you may consider taking the CAPM certification.

Local study groups

Look up your local chapters and see if you can get added to their mailing list.  These chapters are full of people who will help you get started and often can direct you to the study groups often happening in your home city.  Those chapters also put in great lunch and learns to help you keep your training up to retain your certification.

Favorite materials to ensure you add to your study curriculum

When I studied for my test I was given the PMBOK as well as a few study guides.  I remember a difference maker being Rita Mulcahy’s book.  I’ve never met Rita but if I did I’d thank her for the guide that helped me learn the concepts in a really clear way.  Just a little tid-bit of info for you 🙂

Where does one take the test?

You will want to check the page on the PMP Certification as at this time the CAMP certification course can be taken online.  I did not see this on the PMP site but I bet it would be coming soon.

I personally took the test at a local testing site about 2.5 hours away from my home base.  You can see a list of testing centers hopefully near you.:

Alternatives to the PMP® Certification

As of the time this article was written: PMI offers 8 certification tracks.

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How to Optimize for Successful Methodology Roll-out

Methodologies

When it comes to project management methodologies, every company is implementing a new methodology or trying to salvage an existing, imperfect implementation. A poorly executed project management methodology roll-out causes confusion, erodes morale, and puts your project at risk.  Companies big and small cling to Agile, Waterfall, TOGAF, or a mashup of multiple approaches.  Some verticals are now being mandated to follow industry standards.  With so much at stake, it is critical that an organization optimize for success, but organizations are complex systems so that can be harder than it sounds.

 

A poorly executed roll-out of a new project management methodology causes confusion,

erodes morale, and puts your project at risk.

 

Discussions about embracing a particular methodology often happen at such an academic level it leaves a massive gap between idea and execution.  The people who have chosen the methodology need to connect the dots for the broader organization and clearly communicate how to use it.

Continue reading “How to Optimize for Successful Methodology Roll-out”

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Properly Timing Resources Coming on or off the Project

Projects can die in the starting blocks for a very solvable issue of overly cautious resource management.  Adding project resource timing is a crucial success criteria.  I’ve seen projects fail to start because the resources are not secured quickly enough.  I see this more with cautious resource procurement processes that are trying to get one type of resource and when secured, they go after the next one in the list.  The problem is that often a request takes 3 weeks+ from start to finish and the first resource may not be available when the last one is finally confirmed.  The process continues to look for the first resource again. Continue reading “Properly Timing Resources Coming on or off the Project”

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Risk Management: 5 Easy Steps

Most businesses, if not all, talk about risks. But are they actually managing them?  We will discuss 5 easy steps to execute risk management.

I’ve heard people say things like “if we do that, then there a risk that…”, “what are the risks involved?”, “we don’t want to take that risk”.

But how many of these risks are properly identified, planned, and actively managed? Continue reading “Risk Management: 5 Easy Steps”

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The Paradox of Creating a Plan for Managing Change

Change Management Plan Article written by guest blogger – Carl Gosselin

Planning for organizational change is always simpler than implementing the change. The planning process is usually linear; one activity in planned prior to other activities and so on. Although an attempt is made during implementation to follow these steps, what actually occurs in anything but linear. Continue reading “The Paradox of Creating a Plan for Managing Change”

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Project Management Software | Clarity and Open Workbench

I’ve noticed several enterprise organizations working with Clarity and Open Workbench lately.  Enterprises are looking outside the traditional MS Project Tool set for their project management software.

Clarity is an enterprise back-end solution that is well-suited to run portfolios of projects. It seems to hold every slice of enterprise project data you could ever imagine. The reporting is robust; however, there is a learning curve to access the data. It takes some time to master the movements and to understand how each piece of data relates to the other in the Clarity UI. You will have several “Aha” moments along the learning path as you understand how it is all interconnected. Continue reading “Project Management Software | Clarity and Open Workbench”

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Focus Helps Project Management

You have to concentrate to focus … you have to work at ignoring distractions.

Wikipedia defines Focus: selectively concentrating on one aspect of the environment while ignoring other things.

Today’s large organizations often are open concept cube farms.  There has always been a lot of things in this type of environment to distract you or break your concentration and this is getting more pervasive in today’s connected state. With facebook, twitter, personal e-mail, IM (corporate and outside), drop-ins, online banking, loading Tim cards via smart phones, people walking by etc… it is hard to FOCUS.  But it is not just your typical outside distractions.  I find corporate processes heavy in templates and corresponding data mappings can slow down the works and create a mesh in itself that is tiring to wade through. Continue reading “Focus Helps Project Management”