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:
Strategic Objectives:
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:
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
Click to see previous scholarship winners.
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.
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
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.
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)
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:
| 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 |
Editor Christine
Rotonda, PMPPublication Information: