The PM Westchester Chapter's 14th Annual Symposium will be held Saturday, 06 May 2023!
The impacts of 2020 continue well into 2023, and organizations not only need to stay in sync with these changes but to do so in a meaningful and responsible way. In "12 Project Management Trends Emerging in 2023", Arpan Patra lists several trends that will continue to shape project management in 2023. This year’s Symposium focuses on a few of the trends highlighted by Patra.
As Project Managers, we often ask ourselves how we can make an impact as managers and leaders. A strong project manager must not only understand the technologies that will continue to evolve, but be a strong individual and leader. Authenticity, business acumen, innovation and a systems approach that considers the PM in the context of the individual, the team, the organization and the environment, are not simply “trendy,” they are at the core of the organization’s success.
The 14th Annual Symposium is sponsored by the Palatine Group, a leading management consulting firm providing project solutions to clients worldwide.
Join us in person at the Marriott Courtyard Tarrytown - or on-line via Zoom - to learn about:
- The elements of leadership for maximum impact
- Making decisions based on facts and data
- Options for a hybrid cloud approach with AWS for best possible outcomes
- Leveraging humanity for future project success and finding ways to value and empower the people and create work environments to withstand rapid change and heightened complexity
- Taking ownership of environmental sustainability social responsibility by incorporating systems thinking
- Several principles highlighted by Lockes & Latham’s Goal Setting Theory of motivation and Agile’s incremental and adaptive approach that can help transform individuals and organizations
The 14th Annual Symposium will feature six engaging sessions:
- Taming the HiPPO - Michael Roberts
- Leadership Reinvented - Megha Joshi
- Let's FACE It: Leveraging Humanity for Future Project Success - Amber McMillan
- Responsible Project Management - Dr. Nigel Williams
- Little by Little: Doing Big Things with Agile - Niel Magsombol
- Design a Hybrid Cloud Roadmap with AWS - Michael Roberts
(Speakers' bios are below the following session descriptions)
Taming the HiPPO - Michael Roberts
HiPPO, the acronym for “highest paid person’s opinion”, is the manager who pops into your project at the last moment and offers an opinion on what to do to make the project, or product a success. This may or may not be a great idea. So many times, data-driven decisions are sidelined by the highest-ranking person in the room’s experience and insight. In many instances, this is OK. In others, it’s not! When a HiPPO is in the room and a difficult decision needs to be made, but there’s no data or data analysis to determine the right course of action one way or another, the group will often defer to the judgment of the HiPPO. And more and more frequently, decisions not backed by data are guiding your organization in the wrong direction. But how does this change? In this discussion, we will examine how you can depersonalize decision-making and make the decision about facts, not what the HiPPO thinks. We will investigate healthy conflict, and respectful interjection with meaningful data.
Leadership Reinvented - Megha Joshi
It is clear that the world has gone through an epic shift over the last three years. Like never before, today’s business leaders are bombarded with challenges of great complexity and scale. A new strain of leadership DNA is in emergence that is calling leaders to steer with conviction in the darkest hours, blaze new trails, and find new ways of problem solving, while staying true to who we are. Arie de Geus once said: "No problem can be solved from the same consciousness that created it." The same is true for today’s leaders that have a choice to make: embrace this new strain or stay the course! In this talk, Megha will unpack the four elements that make up this strain of leadership DNA. She will highlight how integrating these elements into our leadership style can be a gamechanger and help maximize impact.
Let's FACE It: Leveraging Humanity for Future Project Success - Amber McMillan
With rapid organizational transformations and quicker adoption of new technologies in the Project Economy, we need to leverage our power skills to give project work meaning. Sponsors, stakeholders and project partners need PM's to value their contributions, collaborate on what motivates them and lead beyond methods and artifacts. We have the opportunity to lead the way in leveraging humanity for future project success by finding ways to value and empower the people on our projects so we can create work environments to withstand rapid change and heightened complexity. Using the acronym FACE, this presentation will highlight 4 key characteristics that can be used to create this type of culture in any project environment:
Use Flexibility as a key leadership strategy; commit to Agility; lean on Creativity to move the project forward; and possess Empathy for the people on the project.
Responsible Project Management - Dr. Nigel Williams
The term “Responsible Project Management” was first used in 1991 (Laszlo, 1991), and in the following decades, authors have examined the need for Project Management to create societal value ethically. Subsequent authors have examined the direct environmental impact of carbon emissions and material waste generated. Project management researchers have also examined the social impacts of projects by creating new systems and processes that change community interactions.
The debate about the nature and extent of the responsibility of professionals has been long established and is ongoing. Most of this effort focuses on Corporate Social Responsibility as enterprises seek to meet their changing obligations to shareholders and stakeholders. As part of this process, organizations will develop roles in Social Sustainability, Environmental Sustainability, and Ethics to realize these responsibilities. More recently, an individual perspective on responsibility encourages non-specialized managers such as Project Managers to take ownership of environmental sustainability and social responsibility and enact them in their daily practice.
As part of this process, we have been encouraging PM's to adopt Systems Thinking. Systems Thinking encourages PM's to examine projects as a whole and not just as discrete units of processes and activities. Systems can exist at multiple scales (micro and macro) and domains (social, resource, information) with components, interdependencies, interactions and purpose or logic. For projects, Systems Thinking supports engagement with sustainability and social value and ethics, influencing multiple dimensions in projects.
Little by Little: Doing Big Things with Agile - Niel Magsombol
This session takes a unique look at how several principles, highlighted by Locke's and Latham’s Goal Setting Theory of motivation and Agile’s incremental and adaptive approach. Understanding these principles enables people to not only transform their teams into high performing teams, but also transform themselves into high performing individuals.
Design a Hybrid Cloud Roadmap with AWS - Michael Roberts
Embarking on a journey of any type requires planning. Planning for technology changes can be difficult. Nobody knows what infrastructure or service offerings could look like in five years. However, aligning yourself to take advantage of both on-premise and cloud technologies will ensure you have a stable and robust service offering for your internal stakeholders and clients.
According to a CSA (Cloud Security Alliance) report, AWS holds 41.5% of the cloud computing market — greater than all of its competitors combined — Microsoft Azure (29.4%), Google Cloud (3.0%), and IBM (2.6%). Being the largest of the cloud providers, AWS has spent many years focusing on building new technologies and services to support its clients and partner network, while partners help migrate clients to the cloud. Most Fortune 500 enterprises and over 90% of the Fortune 100 organizations leverage the APN (AWS Partner Network) to develop services and solutions for customers. Some of the world’s biggest brands such as Facebook, Netflix, Adobe, and BBC rely on it to fuel their top projects.
In this session, you will learn from an AWS expert how a hybrid cloud approach with AWS can provide you with infrastructure modernization and time for innovation. We’ll give you some tools to help determine where you are today, what options AWS has which may be beneficial for a hybrid approach, and help you determine how to prioritize your implementation strategy to give you the best possible outcomes from your organization.
Meet Our Speakers:
Michael Roberts is an IT industry professional with over 20 years of experience in bringing software to market. With a BS in Business Administration from Methodist University, his industry certifications include those from ICAgile, Cisco, CompTIA, Microsoft and the Scaled Agile Framework. With his experience as a technology executive, he has guided many companies to successful IT and software projects, and has become a skilled strategist who transforms strategic plans into workable solutions and benchmarks performance against key operational targets/goals.
Megha Joshi is the CEO of Boardroom Zen, a boutique executive coaching firm based in New York. Megha is unapologetically obsessed with helping leaders be wildly successful and to thrive in big-ticket positions while navigating high pressure environments. As a former executive herself, Megha deeply relates to the mounting pressure on leaders. She brings a signature approach that integrates a leadership mindset, physical wellbeing, and core energy principles that catapulted Megha's own professional success. For nearly two decades, Megha drove business transformation, first as a management consultant at Deloitte Consulting, and then as a telecom executive at Altice and Charter Communications. From overseeing multiple business units of over 120+ employees, leading Corporate Escalations for Spectrum’s 30M+ customer base, and facilitating executive briefings to Fortune 100 CEOs on critical aspects of customer experience, to partnering with the best brains in the media industry, Megha's achievements speak to her ability to walk the talk as a high-functioning executive. Megha lives in New York with her husband and troublemaker dog. She possesses a Bachelors in Technology (Jamia Millia Islamia University), MBA in Strategy (The Ohio State University), Executive education (BMLI) and Health Coach Certification (IIN). Megha practices yoga, meditation, hikes in nature, reads and has traveled to over 45 countries. Her podcast, "Boardroom Zen", shines light on how best-in-class executives thrive in the boardroom and beyond.
Dr. Nigel Williams, PMP is the Reader in Project Management and Research Lead, School of Organizations, Systems and People, University of Portsmouth, with the following responsibilities: research strategy formulation; design and implementation of department research roadmap; lead global engagement research strategy. An active researcher, Nigel currently leads a number of research project and supervises PhD students in the area of Project and Systems Management. Nigel is the co-founder of the Responsible Project Management (https://www.responsiblepm.com/) domain of research and practice. He is the co-editor of the forthcoming Handbook of Responsible Project Management (Degruyter). He is also a volunteer for PMI UK and leads the activities in Responsible Project Management.
Amber McMillan, PMP AHPP OTF PROSCI CVA EQP Master NLP MCPC. Also known as "The Feisty PM", Amber specializes in all aspects of leadership, communication and stakeholder management. She is a Master Professional Coach, PM Thought Leader, Speaker and Executive Educator. She possesses a unique aptitude for leading complex conversations, and works hard to create and sustain productive dialog through team building exercises, positive motivation, and her own contagious enthusiasm. With tangible credentials and over 30 years of experience in both profit and not-for-profit environments, she is committed to learning and growing while continuing to practice her profession. Amber excels as an empathetic visionary, establishing creative ways forward in complicated multiple stakeholder communities. Often referred to as an "agent of change", with wide-ranging communication and service experience, her passion continues to drive innovation in her work. She is eager to share both her successes and failures in benefit to others, reflected in her favorite quote: “Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.” — Maya Angelou. Stakeholders who work alongside Amber appreciate her honesty, transparency, unique insight and tangible advice for immediate use. She currently serves as Chief Visionary Officer of Rogers Society, President of PMI-VI, Past Board Chair of the International Council for Certification in Volunteer Administration, and Executive Educator for York University, University of Winnipeg, University of Saskatchewan and University of Victoria.
Niel Magsombol is a Transformation Architect, Executive Leadership Coach and Keynote Speaker who has helped lead Enterprise Agile Transformations in Global Fortune 100 Companies such as Caterpillar, Prudential, Pfizer, Boston Consulting & Fidelity. He is also a proud member of the Maxwell Leadership Certified Team and a DISC Behavioral Analysis Trainer, and is one of only 140 people worldwide to have earned an SPCT, the highest level of certification from Scaled Agile. He’s known as an insightful, energetic, and humorous motivational speaker that has presented at several Fortune 100 Companies, PMI, IIBA & Agile events around the world, universities, professional sports teams, and non-profit organizations.
In-person attendance will include breakfast, lunch, snacks and beverages
Registration closes Thursday, 04 May 2023
In Person, PMI Chapter Member: $125
In Person, not a member of a PMI Chapter: $195
Remote, PMI Chapter Member: $95
Remote, not a member of a PMI Chapter: $140
Students: Contact Laxmi Vallury, VP Career & Professional Development, at VP.Career_Prof_Dev@pmiwestchester.org
Marriott Courtyard Tarrytown - or - Zoom
475 White Plains Road
Tarrytown, NY 10591