PM Insight Sunnyvale

We live in a VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous) world.  If COVID-19 has taught us anything, it is the need for our organizations to be resilient and flexible in the face of change.  We've seen many organizations struggle, and we’ve seen many organizations thrive? What are the successful organizations doing that you’re not, and what do you need to do to become more effective? 

This session explores how you can learn to work smarter at the individual, team, and organizational levels based on the situation that you face, even as that situation evolves around you.  The Disciplined Agile (DA) tool kit provides contextualized and easy-to-navigate guidance for evolving your way of working (WoW) to improve your overall effectiveness. DA describes a robust, pragmatic, and comprehensive approach to business agility, teaching you how to respond swiftly and effectively to changing conditions.  

The last sixteen months have impacted life in many ways, but it seems the world is opening up
again. Workers are back in the office and in‐person conversations are acceptable. Life is getting
back to normal. Or is it?

Working from home remains a valid option for many professionals. Companies are struggling to
re‐create the pre‐COVID team culture. People are experiencing residual pandemic‐related
effects. Building and maximizing relationships have never been more important for project success.
Nurturing a network of colleagues, team members, clients and stakeholders now require a
new attitude and different skills.

This interactive session explores networking concepts and strategies to help you build
productive and profitable relationships in our evolving environment.

An Organization’s DNA is the historical reason why groups of people behave the way they do. It is the genetic code at the root of these behaviors. In this presentation, you will learn how to engage your people in a personal journey to discover your organization’s unique identity, and then use that shared identity to create truly engaged employees and a truly cohesive team.

• What is “organizational DNA?”
• How does this DNA get created and modified?
• Why an organization’s DNA is so important to shaping behavior, language, and what’s possible.
• Proven tools that enable teams to actively explore the DNA of their organization together.
• How to leverage the power of this shared DNA to achieve extraordinary results.

APPROACH: Never one to lecture, Kimberly facilitates lively and engaging “learning laboratories”. You will leave this workshop equipped with practical methodologies, tools & techniques that you can immediately apply to achieve significantly better results . . . even unprecedented breakthroughs!

To meet the rapidly changing digital market demands and customer needs, organizations need a portfolio management approach that enables them to deliver products and services faster to the market, improve business outcomes and support the company’s strategic objectives. The primary focus of lean portfolio management is to align Business Strategy with Lean-Agile Execution.

In the “The Benefits of Implementing a Lean Portfolio Management Framework” session will review the benefits of moving to an agile way of working and the challenges that occur when an organization begins to scale their agile practices. We will cover the various frameworks that are available to help manage scaling agile in your organization. Specifically, we will dive into best practices in implementing a Lean Portfolio Management Framework. Critical to this framework is to organize your teams into value streams that deliver your customer business value. We will review what a Value Stream is and the two components of a value stream: Operational and Development Value Streams. We will dive into the Lean Portfolio Management Framework (processes, artifacts, roles and responsibilities) and the benefits it brings to the organization.

Learning how to market yourself and grow your professional brand is essential in today’s business climate.  Are you someone who is passionate about continuous self-improvement and eager to learn new frameworks and techniques to better optimize your time to conduct your job search and enhance your LinkedIn profile?  

This practical and informative session will provide tips on how to focus your time to build a better brand along with tips on how LinkedIn can help you promote your expertise.

This session will be beneficial for people who are seasoned professionals and intermediate-level LinkedIn users looking for competitive edges to boost their visibility on the platform.

CHAPTER ANNUAL BUSINESS MEETING:
It is traditional that our Chapter will hold a short Annual Business Meeting at the beginning of the December event. Please note that the first 15 minutes of this webinar is dedicated to our Chapter President to present our 2021 annual business report and announcements.
Our Insight event speaker, Sai Subramanian, will start his webinar in the same Zoom meeting session immediately following the Annual Meeting.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is delivering new insights − previously hidden in vast pools of data − to add intelligence to many products and services that ultimately transform the way organizations and machines interact. AI can improve the productivity of internal applications, increase revenue, reduce costs, and improve products and services with added functionality or communication modes. With such a wide-ranging application, enterprises also are struggling to understand what this means to them, how to go about identifying the key areas of benefits, and the modus operandi of going about it technically and culturally. One key to success lies in deciding what problems to solve and identifying a narrowly defined problem that is widely acknowledged within the organization as a pain point. The project should be practical, with adequate funding and access to data. From here on identifying the right tools, talent and methodology can set you on the right path. Also, Data analytics initiatives usually lead to significant changes in the organization’s procedures and culture. Acknowledging and accommodating for this early is imperative. All this, though, does not have to be overwhelming and daunting for the execution leader. This can be broken down into simple to steps to approach, assess, align and achieve.

Failing fast is fine.  Failing forward is truly part of a generative mindset.  Safe-Fail environments create the learning cycles needed to succeed by supporting psychological safety.  But is it possible to succeed sooner?  With the Disciplined Agile Toolkit, the answer may be yes.  Come to this session to learn about the tools available for new Scrum Masters, Experienced Scrum Masters, and Coaches.  Come work with the toolkit in Safe-Fail Zoom Breakouts and get on the pathway to be an Alpha Coach. This is an interactive course using the Miro online tool.  A full personal computer with a second screen is ideal for participants.

This session will address why companies use ERP solutions – what are the typical use cases and types of implementations which are common. ERP can be a driver of change, digital transformation, optimization, can support back-office functions and is undergoing substantial technical transformation with adoption of cloud SaaS solutions. 

Given these use cases, we will discuss methods of implementation based on the scenario. Waterfall may suite some uses, agile for others, continuous build in others. We will review key project management structures such as a PMO, PMO as a Service, Portfolio management, best practice PMO capabilities and PM accelerators. We will address best practices roadmap and assessment approaches to define the implementation scope.

We influence without authority by mastering in #Storytelling and #StoryListening.

Two killing Strategic Project Management Skills we all know and most of us haven’t paid enough attention to them in project management are storytelling and storylistening. When was the last time you delivered a compelling story to shift a challenging conversation to consensus? Through 7 years of actively participating with Toastmasters, I have experienced the power of storytelling and storylistening. In 2018, I experienced a major roadblock for a +7-million-dollar Fiber optics project due to the Park and Wildlife Code Chapter 26 – Protection of Public Parks and Recreational Lands. One major story I missed to listening to carefully almost killed the project. As the project leader, I was glad to shift the roadblock and lift the spirit of the Team to a positive outcome.

Are you ready to sharpen your saw and advance your professional brand to the next level? Join me for this session to hear about the Power of Butterflies and my suggestion to sharpen your saw. You’ll also be invited to share your take on how we can do better to shift us from Project managers to Project leaders, from project leaders to project change makers. Let’s Influence without Authority together. When it comes to Storytelling and StoryListening, “Any fool can know; the point is to understand” – Albert Einstein.