Written by: Alex Leonard, PMP

Can you imagine an agile country? What if the values of agile could lead the social impact? Can we use Agile in the entire government to improve a country?

Presentation Overview 

On March 19, 2024, the PMI Atlanta Chapter Agile Forum attendees met virtually as Rocío Briceño presented on “Social Impact Agile: How Agile is Used to Improve the World”. During her presentation Rocío discussed how agile project management can be used to manage social governance projects.

To set the stage, Rocío began discussing the problems that big companies and country governments have. She emphasized that when you look at these problems closely, they are not all too unsimilar. The key to dealing with these problems is not to focus on all that is wrong, but instead, focus on the solution. And that is where Social Impact (SI) Agile comes into play. In the SI Agile Manifesto, there are five commitments:

1. Share clear objectives
2. Actively involve beneficiaries
3. Action teams with social passion
4. Be transparent
5. Provide visible and frequent results

These five commitments are the pillars of SI Agile. While you concentrate on solutions, you will uncover problems, but they are not your focus. The solution to addressing country governance problems lies in the united application of the SI Agile commitments. During the event, Rocío walked us through a case study explaining how SI Agile was applied to solve solutions in Chile and the National Army of Columbia. Furthermore, she explained how the five SI Agile commitments, and a combination of agile frameworks and approaches, were used in a plan to put the entire country of Costa Rica on the path to progress and well-being while humming to the social mantra of “pura vida” which means “everything is going to be alright”!

Takeaways

• Agile frameworks and approaches are not limited to the business sector; they can also be used successfully in a social governance context.
• When we work together in a unified way, there is no national problem to big that cannot be solved with the commitment and resilience of the people.

Next Event

Join us at the next in-person PMI Atlanta Agile Forum at Motion Recruitment on Tuesday, April 16, 2024

Keynote Presentation: “The Agile Lifestyle” by Emanuella Altidor

Register at www.pmiatlanta.org/events/event-calendar 

Event Pictures

By Karen Jacobs, PMP

PMI Atlanta’s first in-person Chapter meeting at Maggiano's, held on March 11, served up a warm welcome for newcomers and a keynote address full of lessons from great leaders past and present. 

Our members and guests enjoyed a delightful meal with rigatoni, baked cod, and eggplant parmesan served family style at Maggiano’s Little Italy at Perimeter Mall—the Chapter’s new venue for in-person Chapter Meetings. Dessert was strawberry cheesecake and a rich chocolate layer cake.

Dick Teters, founder and executive director of The Center for Accountable Leaders and a professor at Kennesaw State University’s Coles College of Business, delivered the keynote address focused on Simon Sinek’s Golden Circle concept of inspiring action and its applicability in project management.

He highlighted the importance of knowing “the why” behind ambitious goals, pointing out the examples of notable figures such as former President John F. Kennedy, who led the charge for the US space program to land a man on the moon, and entrepreneur Elon Musk’s current goal to build a Starship rocket that could transform space travel. He discussed the differing approaches of explorers Roald Amundsen and Robert Falcon Scott to their 1911 expeditions to the South Pole, with Amundsen’s team using better navigation and traveling every day regardless of weather in the freezing Antarctic, while Scott’s team operated only in good weather. The efforts of Amundsen’s team ended in triumph with his team being the first to reach the Earth’s southernmost point, while Scott’s team died on the return journey home. Teters’ point was that planning and preparation can make a difference.

The meeting included announcements of available volunteer positions, including in-person and virtual meeting facilitators for the operations team; facilitators for newcomer sessions for the engagement team; and social media and content managers for the marketing team.

Our next in-person Chapter Meeting will be held Monday, May 20, 2024 at Maggiano's Little Italy. Be sure to register today!

Written by: Kayla Burrell, MS, CMS

Skilled project leadership is essential for guiding initiatives toward success and meeting goals and intentions. Capable leaders are crucial for keeping projects on track and delivering on their promises, underscoring the important role of experienced project managers in managing the complexities of diverse project resources.

Presentation Overview

On March 14, 2024, Marcia Brown-Rayford presented to the PMI Atlanta Clinical Research Forum attendees on "Why 65% of Project Executions Fail & How to Mitigate Costly Pitfalls". During this event, Marcia explained that for most mission-critical projects in life sciences today, missed deadlines and project failures have massive consequences that can result in billions of dollars in lost revenue. These projects fail largely due to challenges with people resources and process tools.

According to leaders in the field, the coordination of remote and office workers is the number one challenge, with the second challenge being the coordination of people from multiple firms onto one project team. Without capable project leaders at the helm, initiatives go astray, and a project's original goal or intent gets lost.

Among life science survey respondents in North America, 58% said teams composed of individuals from multiple organizations are important to successful project execution, but 63% expressed that managing such diverse and distributed team members made critical projects more difficult to execute. This observation highlights the need for experienced project managers who are adept at managing diverse project resources. The key to project execution is the "PEOPLE" (team); changing the composition of a project team (as needed) is essential to success.

Takeaways

• Clinical trial delays are costly, but they can be mitigated.
• For successful project execution, leaders must focus on how best to coordinate their team.
• There are seven (7) ways to win in a new project execution environment:
  1. Invest in or become project quarterbacks (i.e., leaders)
  2. Upskill and get equipped to excel in the new environment (i.e., bridge the skills gap)
  3. Centrally coordinate and effectively prioritize the project portfolio
  4. Remember and trust the power of the WBS (work breakdown structure)
  5. Leverage external and/or supplemental expertise
  6. Conduct team readiness assessments
  7. Foster a collaborative work culture

Next Event

Join us at the next PMI Agile Forum on Thursday, May 09, 2024

Keynote Presentation: TBD

Register at www.pmiatlanta.org/events/event-calendar 

Event Pictures