25Jul2013 PMINJ News July 2013 Calendar: Scrum Workshop - 10 Aug Monthly Meeting - 17 Sep Volunteer Opportunities PMINJ LinkedIn PMINJ Facebook Member Area Contents PMINJ VP Welcome Chapter Announcements PMINJ Member Benefit:  Scholarships PMINJ Election Results Event Reports  May’s Symposium Highlights - Sell Your Skills: Advance your Career PMINJ June 2013 Chapter Meeting Project Management Articles “10 Secrets to Becoming a PMP” New Certificate Holders Article Submission & Publication Information Advertisers: PMO Link PMINJ VP Welcome by Sandra Baptiste, VP Administration It’s been a joy and a privilege serving as your VP-Administration for the past nine months.  Funny how time flies when you are having fun.  And I’m having a blast! Since our annual kick-off meeting last September, the PMINJ Board has been working diligently behind the scenes to ensure that as an organization we continue to serve you, our Membership, in the most efficient and effective manner. In January and February the Board held working sessions to develop our 2013 Strategic and Tactical Goals, as well as to review and reinforce our Vision, Guiding Principles and Strategic Objectives.  Here they are: Vision:  To be the leading professional project management organization in New Jersey Guiding Principles: Further PMINJ Chapter as a member focused organization Provide opportunities to PMINJ members to enhance their professional growth in the field of Project Management. Provide a sustainable chapter infrastructure Strategic Objectives: To engage and develop members in the Project Management profession To increase the value of PMINJ membership To provide an environment that promotes participation and collaboration among members To promote awareness and add value to NJ and its communities through outreach To foster mutually beneficial partnerships with organizations Once the goals were set, we created a robust Dashboard to track actual performance against goals, making VPs accountable for the areas and functions under their responsibility.  During that same timeframe, the Board approved the Operating Budget for 2013 to ensure that as a non-profit organization we remain financially viable. One of the most significant activities was the streamlining of the Board structure.  This involved shifting existing functions to areas where they were best suited and adding new functions where appropriate.  The outcome led to the creation of the following three new VP positions: VP-Business Relations - responsible for maintaining a consistent alliance with organizations that participate in the success of PMINJ. VP-Outreach - responsible for maintaining alliances and providing assistance to New Jersey communities, corporations, government, and educational institutions. VP-Recognition - responsible for recognizing accomplishments related to Project Management and other professional and personal achievements. In order to fully implement the Board organization change, the Chapter Bylaws have been updated and approved.   As you can see, there has been a whirlwind of activity as we reinvent ourselves to better serve you. These are exciting times, so we urge you to get involved! Return to top Chapter Announcements   PMINJ Member Benefit: Scholarship by Lisa Davis The PMINJ scholarship award program builds professionalism and excellence in our current and future Project Managers. In 2013 our scholarship award program has reached another level.  PMINJ continues to create opportunities for siblings of current members to blossom as leaders. We offer not one, but three scholarship awards.  PMINJ not only awards for achievements through high school, but motivates our undergraduates to practice continued excellence in order to become eligible for renewal scholarships. As these accomplished recipients graduate and begin working in their chosen fields, they’re aware of and aligned with the standards of excellence that we promote.   There is also a scholarship for current PMINJ members seeking a Master’s Degree in Project Management.  Active PMINJ members receive more scholarship opportunities than many chapters around the world. We are one of the elite 12 chapters internationally that have reached their 30 year milestone. PMIEF (PMI Education Foundation) offers PMI Chapter Milestone Professional Development Scholarships to these longstanding chapters. Specifics about the PMINJ and PMIEF Scholarship Programs can be found on our website. The PMINJ application process for 2014 will open on 01 January 2014 and applications are due 01 March 2014. If you have any questions, please send an email to d-scholarships(:@:)pminj.org   Click to see previous scholarship winners. Return to top PMINJ Election Results   Thanks to our members for selecting the PMINJ Officers for the next two years. Judy Balaban - President Mark Barash - VP – Membership Lisa Blake - VP – Programs Barbara Fuller - VP – Marketing Kim R Hinton - VP – Recognition Raji Sivaraman - VP – Business Relations As Sandra mentioned in her Welcome, these officers will help streamline and create a new PMINJ Board to provide excellent services for our members.           Return to top Event Reports May’s Symposium Highlights - Sell Your Skills: Advance your Career by Jerry Flach, Stacey Kornhauser, John Bufe Attendees at the PMINJ 2013 Regional Symposium on May 5th and 6th had the opportunity to do exactly what the Symposium theme stated, “Sell Your Skills: Advance Your Career.”  Todd Cohen kick-started the symposium on Sunday May 5th with approximately 120 participants. Todd, an expert in building ‘Sales Culture’, led an energizing “Networking Skills for the Successful Project Management Professional” workshop. His dynamic workshop kept everyone’s attention for the entire four hours!  He focused on the concept that everyone’s in Sales, which is also the name of his book. Find more information at www.toddcohen.com. This concept speaks to our ability to impact the bottom line by considering we are all in sales since we represent our companies and ourselves. Todd offered basic examples for project managers to effectively network. Some solid ideas were: Place your nametag on the left side of your lapel so that when you shake hands with a new person your right arm will not block your nametag Rule of 2 When you see two people conversing, leave them alone, unless you are invited into the conversation. Arrive 10 minutes early to a networking session because it’s easier to enter an emptier room (and you will not go against the Rule of 2) and as a bonus, the early networkers get the opportunity to network with the organizers of the event! Todd Cohen also keynoted Monday’s Symposium attended by 630 people.  As a great start to the day, he shared some of Sunday’s nuggets including: Vulnerability is Nobility: In other words, be honest about what you do well and what you don’t. Know your Value Proposition: Your value proposition, for both yourself and your projects, differentiates you and encourages more conversation.  In the proven design of the Symposium, the attendees then had the opportunity to choose from three tracks, Process, Skills and Tools, and speakers on these topic areas, presenting in hourly learning sessions:  Lori Britt “Developing World Class Process Maps,” discussed the value of process mapping for identifying and prioritizing process, project and product improvements and realizing those opportunities. Marc Resch “Strategic Value Driven Project Management,” provided session attendees with additional techniques to define and achieve strategic project objectives and maximizing competitive advantage.   Ron Krukowski “Harnessing the Consciousness of Consulting Effectiveness,” highlighted additional subtleties to selling one’s skills and staying focused on the path of success. Half-hour breaks allowed attendees to network and interact with the valued exhibitors. This was followed by three more Track Speakers.  Gus Cicala “Leadership is Taken, not Given, Establishing, Maintaining, and Regaining Control of Projects,” provided project managers with insights to drive project success despite the lack of formal powers within an organization. Saibal Basuroy “Key to Successful Project Controls in Mega Transit Projects.  A Case Study of MTA’s Number 7 Project in Manhattan,” highlighted the development goals of this major program and the project control tools and techniques that are keeping the 7 Line Extension on schedule and within budget including vendor and contract management.   Susan Morris “What do you say AFTER you say hello? What do you do BEFORE you say hello?” covered the importance of first impressions and assuring lasting positive impressions. After a delicious lunch, a second keynote speaker, Martha Legare, presented “Projects Mean Change – Are YOU Ready?” Martha helped us understand the underlying thought processes and statistics of failure and success. Despite or perhaps because of the preponderance of failure (occurs 70% of the time) project managers can embrace change to plow towards the gold medals of success.  Martha shared 4 actions most notable for managing change and assuring project success: Understanding the multiple levels and perspectives of change, choosing the right approach with change, clearly communicating the intent of change and assuring change management skills. Jim Schneidmuller, “The Why, How & What of a Program Management Review (aka Audit),” covered how PM’s can leverage a Program Management Review Process to measure and further the success of an organization’s program and project management processes. Wendy Blumenstein, “Leading Others Best Practices and Bettering Your Leadership,” shared new research on Leadership Best Practices further elaborated in the Wiley book, “The Work of Leaders,” and focused on three essential elements of leadership; vision, alignment, and execution. Irene Cousino, “Exercise Your Right Brain to Maximize Effectiveness,” challenged PM attendees to hone our emotional intelligence to better lead and manage project teams. Neal Whitten, the final outstanding keynote spoke on “Behaviors that Lead to Exceptional Performance”.   Neal provided a list of what he calls “Power Snippets” of behaviors and weaved memorable tales for us to clearly understand the points. He reminded the audience that project managers need to define and manage daily to three top priorities to enhance personal and project value especially in today’s world of “100 emails in your inbox in the last 7 minutes!” Special thanks to all the speakers, exhibitors and volunteers that made this event possible. PMINJ is an all-volunteer organization dedicated to providing its community with excellence in PM. For a great way to expand your own leadership and team building skills, and gain valuable PDU’s, consider volunteering!   For more information on volunteering, additional programming, including monthly events, trainings and the November 7th International Project Management Day celebration, bookmark and check back often with www.pminj.org.  Click to see more Photos Return to top PMINJ June 2013 Chapter Meeting by  Kristine Clark Jeff Harmon, PMP, gave a presentation for the June 18th chapter meeting held at the Bridgewater Marriott entitled “The Power of Culture and Values in Project Success.” The objective of the presentation was to outline the benefits of utilizing his leadership style into your everyday practice and provide an overview of practical ways to accomplish this goal. Utilizing these leadership ideals, the speaker stated, would enable a PM to connect with their project team “on a deeper, more substantial level,” and by extension, lead to better performance from the team and improved project performance overall. Jeff began by citing a statistic relating to a Joint Commission for Health study in the US and Canada. This study found hospital operating room accident reports had 70% fewer accidents where the staff was on a first-name basis with each other. The first-name basis implied a deeper level of familiarity among the employees, which engendered more trust in each other, and an overall higher level of performance in their work. He went on to quote Stephen Covey focusing on investing in and creating trust in the people you work with and your organization as a main influencing factor on project performance. The bottom line result is when trust goes down, costs go up, and the exact opposite; when trust goes up, costs go down. To establish a level of trust within your own team and create a trust culture, Jeff first recommends a personal values assessment of importance to you individually, and then perform a similar exercise with your project team members. He reasoned that giving a voice and placing value on the areas that are important to team members will enable the Project Manager to connect with them, and will, in turn, bring out the best in their performance, thereby positively influencing overall project performance.  One of his quotes from Richard Barrett, one of the leaders in research around culture and the impact on organizations was, “True power lies not in the ability to control, but in the ability to trust.” You create implicit trust, implicit power, as a project leader, when you make the investment and when you connect the team to yourself and to each other. Jeff walked everyone through tangible and intangible elements that he recommends for running a project, the difference between teams in comparison to working groups, and provided a brief values self-assessment. He explained why these assessments were important, and how they contributed to increased performance. He ended the presentation with the four indispensable factors needed to begin using servant leadership as part of your project management practice. You can find out more about Jeff Harmon and this topic at his website www.brilliancewithincoaching.com and read his book, The Anatomy of a Principled Leader: A Field Guide to Being the Type of Leader Everyone Dreams of Working For by Jeff Harmon (2012)   Click to see pictures from the June Meeting. Return to top Project Management Articles “10 Secrets to Becoming a PMP” By Cornelius Fichtner, PMP Deciding to get a Project Management Professional (PMP)® credential is a big step in a Project Manager's career, and it can be a time-consuming and difficult journey. To summarize, the 10 secrets are: Knowledge is Power - Read the PMP Credential Handbook Not everyone is elegible - Know the training and experience requirements Join PMI and a local chapter saves money - Get the PMBOK guide and a discount on Prep classes and the exam There are no shortcuts - Plan, schedule, and execute Deadlines are great motivators - Set an objective and maintain the pace The Guide has the answers - Read it, sumarize it, and read it again (75% of questions are from the Guide) ~25% of the questions won't come from the Guide - Take a Prep class and read other PMP resources Studying with others works - Formal training and study groups Sample questioins give you confidence - Find free sample quizes online; Prep courses usually offer sample experiece You can beat exam day stress - Know where the test center is located; have a good nights sleep; leave early to arrive on time. About the author: Cornelius Fichtner, PMP is a noted PMP expert. He has helped over 18,000 students prepare for the PMP Exam with The Project Management PrepCast Return to top New Certificate Holders The following have received their certification since the last newsletter (through 30 June 2013): PMPs Mary Albert Blythe Anderson Anthony J Annucci Jr Tito Anyanwu Amartya Basu Heather Benarick John Bertram Courtney Bethea MANSOOR BHATTY Christopher Blake Jose Borges Alexander Bragat Scott Bush Thomas Carle Harini Chitalia Min Chong Frank Cleary Michael Colli Debora Csontos Carlitos Datuin Lisa Davis Mary Davitt Judy De Champlain V Deo Sharmila Deshpande Jean-philippe Dieudonne Gregory Dougherty Tammy Duffy Brian Eaches Lisa Faucette David Fehring Leann Frank Lawrence Fried Paul Gill Mary Angeles Gonzalez S. Grasso James Green Louis Hahn Christine Herrmann Melisa W. Ho Monique Iacobacci Nak Islam Anuradha Jairaj John Jew Jimmy Joy Anupam Juniwal Andrew Kowalik Tommy Lee Danielle Maddiboina Joe Maldonado Yuansheng Mao Neil Martinez Charles McNeil Frank Modrowsky David Morris Kerry Murtagh NAMITHA MURTHY Ahmed Naji Leric Nicholas Jim Nigro David Nixon Rafeeque Octoberene Miguel Otero Anthony Pacitti II Murugappan Palaniappan Erik Palkhiwala Chris Paolella Keyur Patel Michael Patti Gregory Player Kari Rabatin Himabindu Ramaraju Steven Reitano Karen Rini-Agpaoa Raji Sarabudla Kajal Sarkar Raymond Scaringe Steve Searle Sonal Sheth Margaret Siemon-Hryczyk Richard Siluk Edward Sneath Monica Songok Jennifer Stewart Richard Strauss Padmini Tandavakrishna Deborah Thomas Albert Tomaro Armando Torres Melissa Trotter Satya Vallepalli Baljeet Varraich Ana E Vasquez Bernie Viggiano Joseph Viscido Maitri Vyas William Weber Carol Williams PgMP None CAPM Andrew Kowalik David Nixon PMI-RMP Ronald D'Avanzo PMI-SP None PMI-ACP Saranga Ram Return to top Article Submission & Publication Information Editor Christine Rotonda, PMP   Contact the newsletter editor, at editor(:@:)pminj.org for newsletter related items, to submit articles and to provide feedback! Submissions:  Submit articles in MS Word, plain ASCII text, or as part of an email.  Graphic files should be high resolution (1MB+) JPEG or GIF.  All members are invited to submit articles, meeting review, or other items of interest for publication.  Advertising:  Contact Raji Sivaraman (sponsor(:@:)pminj.org) for advertising/sponsorship inquiries.  For more details. Newsletter Schedule Newsletters are published every other month: Jan, Mar, May, Jul, Sep, Nov Articles due to the Editor by the 5th of the month: Newsletters will be published via e-mail and on the PMINJ website by the 25th of the month: Newsletter Team: Elena Kostenko – PMINJ Quality Manager Laurie Policastro – PMINJ Marketing Content Manager Kristine Clark   – PMINJ Marketing Content Manager Return to top PMINJ is not responsible for the content or quality of any advertisement included in this newsletter.