On 19 March, Gordon Shaw presented at the Auckland Branch meeting, on Social Media for Professionals – are you harnessing the power of social media?

This was an informative and interactive session, which provided tools and tips for professionals to gain the most benefit from their online social media profiles.

Tips including having a personal risk management strategy for your profile and advice to ensure "you are looking after your personal brand, as no-one else is going to do this for you". Gordon also recommends to have a strategy, manage it and seek assistance as necessary.

** THIS EVENT HAS BEEN CANCELLED **

ILM WORKSHOP

In line with the Project Management Institute of New Zealand's mission to increase value to existing and potential members, we are pleased to offer you the opportunity to attend the Investment Logic Mapping (ILM) Workshop here in Auckland.

ABOUT INVESTMENT LOGIC MAPPING

Investment Logic Mapping (ILM) is a technique to ensure that intelligent discussion and thinking is done up-front, before solutions are identified and before any investment decision is made. This aids to validate the rationale for a proposed investment, and to ensure that it is sufficiently compelling to convince decision makers to commit to further investigation and planning.

ILM was developed by the State Government of Victoria, Department of Treasury and Finance (DTF) in Australia in 2003, to screen budget bids. It was formally introduced to New Zealand by the State Services Commission (SSC) in July 2008, following successful pilots by the Ministry of Health.  It is being increasingly used by New Zealand Government agencies and is included in the New Zealand Treasury's guidelines for Public Sector Business Cases. Although its origins are in the public sector it has proved an equally valuable technique when used in the private sector.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND

- Those who wish to develop a deeper understanding of ILM and utilize ILM for projects, particularly for high cost and high risk Government sector capital business cases as mandated by the New Zealand Treasury in August 2010.

- Those who wish to become accredited ILM Facilitators

TRAINER PROFILE

The Director of Fankhauser & Associates, Rae Fankhauser, is an accredited Investment Logic Map facilitator. She has provided more than 100 training sessions and workshops in the approach and facilitation of Investment Logic Map workshops through skills transfer workshops offered by the Department of Treasury and Finance (DTF, Victoria) and her company is the DTF endorsed training provider.  She has also provided training workshops for the State Services Commission (New Zealand), Ministry of Health (New Zealand), Brisbane City Council, Department of Transport and Main Roads (Queensland).

COURSE STRUCTURE

The Workshop consists of two parts, and each part is conducted over one and a half days. The learning approach aims to establish a strong theoretical and practical foundation involving: formal presentations, facilitator-led simulated workshops, and several debrief opportunities.

Part 1 focuses particularly on the Problem Definition workshop and provides a strong introduction to the methodology and its uses across government.
Recommended for: strategists and planners, policy officers, business case writers and evaluators.
Those aiming to gain a good understanding of Problem Definition and the Investment Logic Mapping process may need to attend Part 1 only.

Part 2 focuses on the Benefit Definition and Solution Definition workshops and will provide an introduction to the Service Logic and Investment Prioritisation workshops.
Completion of Part 1 (or similar) is a pre-requisite for Part 2.
Recommended for: To-be facilitators.

Those particularly interested in workshop facilitation, or in becoming accredited, may wish to attend both Part 1 and 2.

Note: Please note that completing both parts does NOT automatically result in ILM accreditation.

A separate ILM submission process (with additional cost) is required for accreditation.

For information on accreditation please refer to the Australian Department of Treasury and Finance website.

DATES 

Part 1:
Tuesday 2 October: 9am - 5pm
Wednesday 3 October: 9am - 1pm

Part 2:
Monday 12 November: 9am - 5pm
Tuesday 13 November: 9am - 1pm

LOCATION

Auckland –venue to be confirmed 

COSTS (indicative only)
PMINZ members:        $1,700 + GST (per part)
Non-PMINZ members: $1,800 + GST (per part)

REGISTRATION

If you would like to register for this training, please contact Yvon Ooi at northern.events@pmi.org.nz with the following details:
1. Full name:  
2. Contact number(s):  
3. PMI NZ member (Yes/No):     
4. Billing details:    
5. Attending Part 1 (Yes/No):  
6. Attending Part 2 (Yes/No):  
7. If attending Part 2 only, have you previously completed Part 1 (or similar) (Yes/No):      

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

Please examine the attached terms and conditions before registering.
Payment must be received within 14 days of the invoice date.

 Due to limited availability, we may need to:
- restrict the number of participants from one organization; and/or
- give preference to those wishing to attend both parts; and/or
- give preference to those who have previously attended Part 1

Thank you for your kind understanding. 

Kind regards,
Yvon Ooi
Northern Branch Special Events Coordinator
Project Management Institute of New Zealand (PMINZ)
E: northern.events@pmi.org.nz
W: www.pmi.org.nz

Mike began his presentation by talking about PMI in a global context – it was interesting to note how PMI have become so global in the last 15 years. He outlined the international structure and where New Zealand fitted into Region 10, Asia-Pacific and global context. He talked about how the structure was dependent on great volunteer leaders, and the careers that can be created by volunteering for PMI, and the personal development opportunities that come as a direct result.

He talked about the PMI Strategy and the approach they take in realising their vision, identification of partners, markets and positions of influence in a global sense. He then talked about the Chapters and Branches role played in being the face of PMI and the personal networking and learning opportunities provided by them. He gave examples of how PMI’s work manifested itself in government and corporate policy and how the New Zealand Chapter hoped to support that with local work.

He outlined the history to his appointment and the value he hoped to bring to the organisation by way of member benefits and growth in membership and resourcing.

He summarised by talking about how media can assist in positioning PMINZ as the leading advocate for the Project Management profession and what success would look like in 12 months time.

The two presentations can be viewed here. (1 Presentation to Auckland Branch) (2 Achieving our Strategic Goals)

Romi Patel - Improving the win rate of your proposals and tenders through applying campaign strategy and project planning
 
Romi provided insights into how to improve your tender success rate by being proactive in your approach. This means to start planning your response to the expected clients problem prior the Request for Tender document arriving with you. Treat your proposal response like you would with a project - plan, execute, monitor and close with gateway checks of bid/no bid analysis at each stage.

Remember business writing principles - plan what your writing and write the plan of the proposal; ensure linkages to the Request for Tender document are easy to locate and meet the requirements in a concise manner.

A tip Romi provided on writing Tenders is to try and make it easy for the company responding to be able to respond in the most appropriate manner to meet your needs.
 
Ngaire Hunt

Gordon Shaw, Director of consulting firm Sempre Avanti Consulting, presented on the topic 'Green Project Management'.
 
In a highly informative, relevant, interactive and entertaining presentation Gordon contended that sustainability was not only desirable from an environmental perspective but made sound business sense. While leadership of politicians and officials may vary with different politician agendas the underlying argument for economic sustainability remains compelling.
 
Sustainability is ultimately about improving processes, and project managers play a critical role as change agents. Organisations are constantly subject to transformation allowing project managers to take a leading role in creating efficiencies and economic sustainability. Examples were given of different thinking - use of biodegradable material, efficiency in process, design changes, etc - leading to reduced waste and reduced costs. Gordon led an exercise where attendees were asked to consider their personal travel options and what would cause them to change habits.
 
Gordon, who is current President of the Institute of Management Consultants NZ, challenged attendees to question the approach being taken within their organisations. He introduced various approaches; M4 measurement matrix - measure, manage, mitigate, market, and 4L - learning, lean, linked, lasting, together with case studies ("Interface Carpets") and leading practitioners, including the late Ray Anderson. Due to time limitations Gordon had to skip over some detailed elements of his presentation but kindly agreed to the complete presentation being made available through the PMINZ website.
 
The presentation generated a high degree of interest and everyone left the meeting wiser and with a much greater appreciation of the role project managers can play in 'Green Project Management'. 

You can view the presentation here.

Date: November 23, 2011
Speaker:  Youssef Mourra, Partner, PIPC
Topic: Hw Different Projects can have different personalities

Youssef  gave a thought-provoking, highly interactive and entertaining presentation based on Eddie Obeng's book "Project Leader's Secret Handbook". This book suggested that all projects fall into four different types:

1.    “Fog” projects which are not well understood and the objective is not fully developed.  This is exhibited by a high degree of uncertainty of outcome and approach. In such projects the caution is the key.
2.    “Movie” projects  have a well defined project structure but the objective remains unclear – in the beginning the final destination of each stage is unclear but once some idea is captured, the destination can be known.
3.    With “Quest” projects, the destination is clear but the steps to be undertaken to reach the destination are not obvious. Example is R&D project.
4.    “Painting by Numbers” project s are  the ones in which the objective is clear and the approach to be taken is well understood. Such projects (e.g., construction projects) are ideal to help junior project managers "cut their teeth".

While organisations prefer to reduce uncertainty, a balanced portfolio of projects is often the case. The greater the degree of "fog" the greater the level of cost and time contingency required. During the life cycle of a project, changes occur over time as the objective becomes clearer and the approach becomes better defined.

In each of the above project types, it is debatable which project management methodology is to be used - PMBOK, PRINCE II or Agile.

The quality of the presentation was excellent and the active participation from the attendees proved the point.

You can download a copy of the presentation here.