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The Best Virtual Meeting… EVER! 5 Fun Games to Engage Your Virtual Project Group!

Written by Claire Sookman on . Posted in Articles. 1 Comment on The Best Virtual Meeting… EVER! 5 Fun Games to Engage Your Virtual Project Group!

Do you ever have those days when go you off on philosophical tangents? You know, those cold, gloomy mornings when you stare out the window, coffee mug in hand, wondering, “Does a fish know what water is?”, “Is the colour red really universal?” or “Is Robert from marketing a real person?”

We’ve all been there. The truth is it’s hard for virtual project groups to bond on a personal level with other group members…partly (well, mostly) because we may not even know what the other person looks like! Without bonding, the results could be dangerous. The University of California, San Francisco, lists some of the common symptoms of a disengaged team:

  • Decreased productivity
  • Conflicts or hostility among staff members
  • Confusion about assignments, missed signals and unclear relationships
  • Decisions misunderstood or not carried through properly
  • Apathy and lack of involvement

And there’s more:

  • Lack of initiation, imagination, innovation; routine actions taken for solving complex problems
  • Complaints of discrimination or favouritism
  • Ineffective staff meetings, low participation, minimally effective decisions
  • Negative reactions to the manager
  • Complaints about quality of service

And there’s still more! A 2009 article from the Occupational and Environmental Medicine showed that a lack of team spirit can even cause employee depression…But don’t panic!

Before you scurry off to Google, furiously searching “how to engage virtual project groups” — take a breath. We’ve done the work for you. Here are some innovative games that are sure to have your team amused and engaged in no time.

1) Virtual Charades – Charades is a great game that builds group spirit, whether in a traditional workplace or a virtual one. If your company usually sets up video conferences for meetings, this is definitely a game that will have everyone working together, solving problems and having fun along the way. If you’re unfamiliar with the game, Charades requires the player to mime or imitate a certain action or subject that the rest of the team has to figure out. For more information on how to play, click here .

For those who use voice chat instead of video chat, there’s a fun alternative for you too — Voice Charades. For Voice Charades, create a secret list of objects, animals or famous people. To decide who will go first, enter all team member names onto a site such as Random.org and choose the first name that shows up. Email or send an individual/private instant message to this team member letting them know what they will be acting out. Remember to keep the clues work-appropriate and respectful of others. Have fun guessing what/who the person is imitating. Some entertaining suggestions are:

  • Printer sound
  • Al Pacino impersonation
  • Star Wars Light saber
  • Monday traffic
  • Radio anchorman

2) Spin a Tale – This fun game fosters creativity and helps team members think on their feet. During a meeting, make up the first line of a story. Then ask team members to take turns and add each subsequent line until a whole plot develops! Let the story go along on its own path and deviations. This is the fun part of the game; you never know what perils or fortunes can occur next! The best thing is, even though your team may develop favourite start tags, the story will never end up the same! In other words, you learn how to think innovatively. Here are some ways you can start your tale:

  • I woke up at 9am — that was when we were supposed to Skype in for the meeting…
  • Jared looked over the ledge of his balcony, wondering why the crowd had gathered…
  • The email had no subject line…I hate it when he does that…
  • Fifteen years, 15 days, 15 hours and finally the letter had come…
  • As Sophia hid behind the red SUV in the parking lot, she tried to remember how exactly she had gotten there…and why there was that giant scar on her arm…

3) Situation Puzzles – Situation puzzles are an exciting way to exercise creative problem-solving skills while also building team unity. In a situation puzzle, the team leader states one mysterious sentence such as, “a bell rings, a man dies, a bell rings”.* The rest of the team must now solve the situation by asking “Yes” or “No” questions. As each question unearths new information, the team can creatively build on each other’s thought patterns and ideas until all the loose ends are tied. A great reservoir of situation puzzles can be found here!   *(Click here for the answer)

4) PowerPoint Game – You will never look at PowerPoint presentations in the same light after this game! This is a great way to get group members thinking on their feet while having loads of fun. To play the PowerPoint game, go online and find a series of complicated or extremely nonsensical PowerPoint presentations (try SlideShare). Then ask team members to improvise a presentation with the slides they’re using. Hilarity is bound to ensue! Go here for more information about the PowerPoint game.

5) 2-Minute LOL – This is another improvisation game that will get everyone thinking fast, learning about team members and literally laughing out loud. First, divide the team into smaller groups or partners. Then give each group a topic or let them choose one. Allow each team about five to ten minutes to create a set of jokes based on their topic. Make sure they have this discussion in a separate virtual conversation so that the rest of the team does not hear the punch lines beforehand. When everyone regroups, randomly choose a group to go first while timing their comedy improvisation for two minutes. Once again, remember to keep all jokes respectful and workplace-appropriate. Award the funniest team with a gift card or some other form of prize!

And there you have it — five amazing ways to engage your virtual project group! Try them out and let us know which game your team liked the best! And if five tips aren’t enough, here’s a whole book full of tips! Across the Hall, Around the World is the ultimate archive of virtual team-building tips that’s sure to get your team engaged!

Don’t forget to leave your comments below.

Claire Sookman is the driving force behind Virtual Team Builders, Claire brings to the table over a decade’s worth of corporate and public sector training experience, working with over 4,500 managers in the past three years. Specializing in virtual team building and communication strategies, Virtual Team Builders provides training that enables global teams to work more efficiently.

Not How Do You Do It… Should You Do It?

Written by Chris Vandersluis on . Posted in Articles. 6 Comments on Not How Do You Do It… Should You Do It?

FEATUREMar28thWe spend a lot of energy in project management circles trying to determine how to do one thing or another. In my travels to various parts of the planet, something that’s sadly lacking in many places is good judgement on whether we should do that thing.

I’ve told the story before of an engineering organization that was looking for a new timesheet system. This sounded like good news to me because our own TimeControl timesheet system is a good fit for engineering firms. However, I was less happy when I heard the reason why the customer felt their existing system was no longer able to meet their requirements.

“We’re having to do a whole manual transfer of data from that old system to our Finance ERP,” explained the technology specialist. “Because they need three rate values and our existing timesheet can send only two, we’re having a miserable time with all this manual intervention trying to get a third value stored and sent. Can you do that with your TimeControl?”

TimeControl was certainly capable of sending multiple rate values, I assured the specialist, but I was at a loss to understand why they needed such an interface in the first place. In the end, after some discussion, the client agreed to pay for a day of system design and I scheduled some time in the offices.

Our meeting together started off great. They had the CIO in the room and I was suitably impressed that the head of the IT department was sufficiently interested in the problem to attend himself. He and the technology specialist took turns whiteboarding the problem By our mid-morning coffee break we had a combination of boxes, diamonds, circles and lines in the four basic whiteboard marker colors all over the board.

I took copious notes.

By the break, though, I had my first intelligent question. “What was the volume of transactions,” I asked, “that was being handled through this manual process?”

No one knew the answer.

“Can we ask the CFO?” I asked.

A quick call was made. Yes, the CFO was keen to talk to me but could only do so over lunch. I was delighted. Senior management intervention at such a rapid pace isn’t that common and it indicated to me that management was committed to get this problem handled. Things were looking good.

We worked for another hour on the whiteboard diagram. I headed to lunch with the CFO, the CIO, and the technology specialist who had called me originally with a good understanding of what they wanted and the kind of time it was going to take. The CIO and I agreed that changing the timesheet was fundamental to the new solution and that 6-8 weeks of developer time to automate this “archaic manual transfer process” sounded quite reasonable. I was upbeat—sounded like some business on the way.

However, there was something niggling at the back of my mind. The whole premise of the problem came back to a lack of a single field in the old system and its inability to move that column of data to the finance system. I’d already determined that this data was critical to the corporate effort “Why not just give up on that extra data?” I’d asked. “What would happen if you just didn’t transfer the data?” The CIO had told me he’d already considered that and management had made a good case for this data being essential to their ability to bill accurately.

Time for lunch. We went across the street for chicken (business lunches always seem to be feather, leather or fish!)

I sat across from the CIO with the CFO to my left. The technology specialist was across from him. We exchanged pleasantries and then ordered and while we waited for our meal, I turned to business.

“I’m here to work on this timesheet system to finance system interface,” I explained. “The CIO and your technology specialist have been describing the challenge but perhaps you could describe your understanding of it in your own words.”

To his credit, the CFO described exactly what we’d been talking about all morning. This was a good sign. Often, when you go back to the client or end user of a system, the understanding of the requested change isn’t at all what IT understands.

“Now could you describe how you currently handle the interface?” I asked.

“It’s an archaic manual intervention,” he described. Again, it sounded just like what I’d heard this morning.

“And how many transactions are managed through this archaic manual intervention?” I asked.

“Oh, about five a month,” he responded.

There’s silence at the table.

“Five,” I repeat. I see the CIO’s jaw drop out of the corner of my eye.

“Yes,” says the CFO.

“And how long does it take to do these transactions manually each month?” I ask.

“Oh, it takes one of my staff about 20 minutes,” he says.

“Excellent,” I say, my heart sinking as I changed the subject.

The CIO couldn’t meet my eyes. We finished our meal and headed back to the office. As we did so, he walked next to me. “I’m so sorry for wasting your time,” he apologized.

“No need to apologize,” I said. “I’m just happy we figured this out before spending eight weeks on writing the interface.”

The time to recoup a return on investment from the effort we’d described would have been many years. At 20 minutes a month, there was no point in doing the work. In fact, the company had already spent way too much time working on how to do it already.

Could we do the work? Sure. But we shouldn’t.

 And sometimes that is the most effective project of all.

Don’t forget to leave your comments below.

Chris Vandersluis is the founder and president of HMS Software based in Montreal, Canada. He has an economics degree from Montreal’s McGill University and over 22 years experience in the automation of project control systems. He is a long-standing member of both the Project Management Institute (PMI) and the American Association of Cost Engineers (AACE) and is the founder of the Montreal Chapter of the Microsoft Project Association. Mr. Vandersluis has been published in numerous publications including Fortune Magazine, Heavy Construction News, the Ivey Business Journal, PMI’s PMNetwork and Computing Canada. Mr. Vandersluis has been part of the Microsoft Enterprise Project Management Partner Advisory Council since 2003. He teaches Advanced Project Management at McGill University’s Executive Institute.

The PMBOK Guide ® – Is it Enough?

Written by George Bridges on . Posted in Articles. 4 Comments on The PMBOK Guide ® – Is it Enough?

Mar21_With_map_in_field_13813336_XSThere have been some changes to the PMBOK® Guide in the Fourth Edition. Since the PMBOK® Guide is an ANSI standard, PMI must assess it every 4-5 years to determine if an update is needed” (Cyndi Stackpole).

The increasing acceptance of project management indicates that the application of appropriate knowledge processes, skills, tools and techniques can have a significant impact on project success. The PMBOK Guide indicates that subset of the project management body of knowledge generally recognized as good practice” (PMBOK Guide ®3rd Edition, 2004).

It is clearly stated that the PMBOK Guide® is a subset of the project management knowledge and the field of project management, like many other professions is too vast to be captured in a single book or guide.
Project Management is like Venturing into Deep Water

Is the Project Management Body of Knowledge enough to build and sustain a rewarding career in project management? Over the past 30 or more years, we have seen the increase in the number of Certified Project Management Professionals (PMP). As of the writing of this paper, PMI reports that there are over 300,000 people who are now PMPs. Many professionals have been thrust in the arena of project management either on their own or by a push or nudge from their managers or others. Project Management has been referred to as the “accidental profession” because in the past no one has set out in their early career choices to become a project manager.

Let me explain how getting into project management sometimes happens. Professionals from marketing, finance, sales, and engineering are asked to lead or manage a project. They have had no or very little formal training in project management. After working on a few projects they begin to learn more and more about the profession of project management.

Getting involved in project management is a lot like learning how to swim, ride a bike or learn a new sport. Let me compare learning project management to learning how to swim.

I learned to swim at around ten years of age and have been swimming all my life now. I am by no means an expert at swimming, but I received enough training and experience to work as a lifeguard for a few summers.

When I first learned to swim, the instructor gave all first-time swimmers an orientation of the pool. Every new swimmer learned about the “shallow end” of the pool and the “deep end “of the pool. The “shallow end” is about 2–4 feet of water and the “deep end” is about 5–10 feet, depending on the size and shape of the pool. All beginning swimmers were instructed to stay away from the “deep end” until you passed a test to certify that you could survive in the “deep end.” So as a beginner, even though you could see the “deep end” and perhaps go near it, you dare not venture into it until you have gotten the appropriate instruction and training. There were many other safety practices that were taught, but knowing your environment (the pool) was critical and could mean life or death if you valuated this safety principle.

Learning project management is very similar to learning how to swim. Those that are new to project management are like those that are learning how to swim for the first time. The new project manager can accomplish and manage new and small projects; they have to stay in the “shallow end” of the environment where they are applying project management. They learn to do and perform more as they practice the profession of project management. The new project manager applies the practices they learn and become skilled at project management.

However, at some point, the project managers are called to handle larger and more complex projects. Just as swimming in the “deep end” of the pool, much more is at stake with these large projects and they cannot be managed in the same way as the smaller projects. In order to handle the larger project, more training, coaching and experience is needed. The PMBOK Guide ® becomes the foundation of project management knowledge that is needed to transform the new project manager to a more seasoned project manager that can take on the challenge of leading and guiding a team of people on an extensive project assignment.

 The PMBOK Guide is used to prepare the project manager to go into the large complex and complicated environments. This is very much like preparing and learning how to swim in the “deep end” of the pool.

Note that as a swimmer, once you have been qualified to swim in the “deep end,” this does not mean that you can now go diving in the Atlantic or Pacific Ocean. Similarly, the PMP Certification will give you the foundation to handle and manage the larger projects successfully, but more training and skills are needed to maintain and sustain success on future projects.

  • The PMBOK Guide is enough when you think of it as a starting point for your career in project management.
  • The PMBOK Guide is enough when you use it as a launching pad for bigger and more challenging assignments in your industry.
  • The PMBOK Guide is enough when you recognize that it is a subset of the project management body of knowledge and it represents the best practices from a cross-section of professionals.
  • The PMBOK Guide is enough when you recognize that it is a standard that is now part of a collection of standards in the PMI Standards Library. In fact, just recently, PMI has made an announcement about its Standards Navigator. Here is what they say about it:

“PMI’s new Standards Navigator offers an innovative way to get the most from our library of global standards, especially for organizations.”

As you can see here, the PMBOK Guide is now a subset of the PMI Global Standard, which includes OPM3, the Program and Portfolio Management.

The PMBOK Guide is enough if you consult with the other project management standards. As a PMP, we are required to keep our certification current, by maintaining and contributing to the project management knowledge. We can do this in a number of ways as required by the Project Management Institute. Our individual contribution to the field of project management will ensure a continuing evolution and growth in our profession. The PMBOK Guide ® is enough if we can continue to add our new ideas, new concepts, new approaches and new project management skills. Local, global, international, multinational companies are all requiring those that practice project management to gain both the PMI Certification and internal certification as well.

Don’t forget to leave your comments below.

George Bridges is a Director of Business Analysis with more than 25 years of experience in business systems analysis, business process modeling, operations research and Information Technology. George teaches business analysis and project management to hundreds of seminar and class participants every year. He has participated in the analysis and development of business systems for major corporations, such as Ford Motor Company, Unisys Corporations, and for a large church in the Metropolitan Detroit.

Be Nice!

Written by Kiron Bondale on . Posted in Articles. 6 Comments on Be Nice!

It’s one of the most frustrating issues that a project manager can face – everyone is working hard to achieve a seemingly impossible project milestone, but there is one stakeholder that is disengaged or unwilling to commit themselves to the required work. 
In those circumstances where the project manager is vested with formal authority, they could act decisively in the best interests of the project, but in most cases they will need to use influence instead of direct action.
It’s very easy for the project manager to get defensive, take the situation personally and let it affect their productivity or work-life balance.
A combination of the following techniques may help to resolve the situation.

  1. Apply Stephen Covey’s Habit 5 – Seek first to understand, then to be understood.  While this may not be material to the desired outcome, understanding what might be driving the negative behavior could provide you with alternatives.  Meet with the individual to gain this understanding, and then ensure that they are aware of the perceptions they are creating and the impacts to the project, the organization AND themselves.
  2. Do your homework.  Analyze the impacts of the behavior on the team and towards the end result – what’s the worst case and best case scenario?  If this behavior is chronic and is not specific to just your project, it’s quite possible that the project team members have developed tried and true workarounds.  In such cases, ask yourself the question “Is this battle worth fighting?”.
  3. Isolate the behavior.  Negative vibes can become infectious, so do what you can to shield the rest of your team from the impacts of the behavior.  One attribute of an effective project manager is that they are able to remove hurdles from the team’s progress and that could mean running interference between them and this individual.
  4. Be water, my friend.  No matter how hard the barrier, water is able to find its way around or eventually wear down resistance.  Don’t own this burden yourself – if your team agrees with your concerns about the impacts of the stakeholder’s behavior, brainstorm with them to come up with alternate paths.
  5. Escalate effectively.  Assuming you have not developed a reputation for “crying wolf”, a good test of project governance is whether real action is taken when a PM escalates a risk or issue.  Focus on communicating the objective impacts of the behavior and avoid anecdotal evidence.  Position the dialog as helping your sponsor or steering committee help you to achieve their expected project benefits.

The Serenity Prayer should be on the office walls of all project managers (regardless of their faith or beliefs), but the following quote from Road House is more appropriate to this situation: “I want you to remember that it’s a job. It’s nothing personal.”

Don’t forget to leave your comments below.

 

 

How Successful is Your Own PMO? Take the 5 Question PMO ‘Acid’ Test

Written by Peter Taylor on . Posted in Articles. 3 Comments on How Successful is Your Own PMO? Take the 5 Question PMO ‘Acid’ Test

Who

‘Call up your CEO and then count the number of seconds before he recognizes your name…’
If your PMO is really connected to the business, at the right level and with the right profile, then your CEO will know you and your PMOs work. You don’t have to start with the CEO, you can try this out moving up the organisation level by level – who at two levels above you knows you and the PMOs work? For those that do say ‘thanks’ and for those that don’t; well tell them about it.

What

‘What happens when you call up a project manager do you get straight through or do they adopt an avoidance strategy…’
A call from any member of the PMO should be a welcome event and not something to hide from or fear. Consider if there are certain individuals or teams or departments that are resistant to what the PMO is trying to achieve. Ask yourself why this is and plan a charm offensive to demonstrate that the PMO is their friend.

When

‘When was the last time that a project manager contacted your PMO asking for some form of help? …’
If this has not happened in some time then perhaps your PMO is not as accessible and open as you may wish it to be? Run a survey or open session to gain some insight in to the reasons for non-contact with the PMO. It may link to the ‘what’ question above i.e. fear of the PMO, or it may be just a lack of awareness. Go out of your way to help key people, regardless of if it isn’t really in your PMO remit – by winning influential supporters the word will spread about the PMO being a ‘go to’ group.

Where

‘Do people ask many times over where they should go for project information or project help…’ 
The PMO should be the automatic first call for anything project related when project managers or others need some guidance, make sure yours is easy to access and quick to respond.
Market what the PMO does, create a menu of service items that the PMO can deliver ‘off the shelf’ and advertise this tirelessly.

Why

‘Do people ask why they should use the PMO and do they know what your PMO does…’ 
You should have marketed the value of your PMO throughout the organization and people should easily access a ‘service menu’ or what the PMO can do to help them. Success stories really help here with proven benefits of PMO involvement, invest your time in developing some and get people outside the PMO to write them or at least validate them.

How

And finally question number six – the ‘how’ – how can you improve the PMOs’ work and profile, its performance, its acceptance and its role in your company?
How can you do this?  You need to think and plan and act.

Don’t forget to leave your comments below,

Peter Taylor’s background is in project management across three major business areas over the last 26 years, MRP/ERP systems with various software houses and culminating in his current role with Infor, Business Intelligence (BI) with Cognos, and product lifecycle management (PLM) with Siemens. He has spent the last 7 years leading PMOs and developing project managers and is now focusing on project based services development with Infor.