Written by: Catherine Binuya, Ed.D.

Presentation Overview 

Elba Pareja-Gallagher is the UPS Sustainability Director (https://about.ups.com/us/en/social-impact/environment/sustainable-services/sustainability-trailblazer-elba-pareja.html) and ShowMe50 Founder (https://www.showme50.org/author/elba/). She presented on the origins of the sustainability movement and the current implications of ESG (E—Environmental Care, S—Social Responsibility, G—Government Ethics), and why it is important in global politics and business.

Takeaways

• The background of sustainability—
  • Sustainability spurs innovation. Industries must be able to adapt and adopt ESG to save costs, and create opportunities, and thrive and grow.
• SEC (U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission) in the news—
  • The SEC ruled, in March 2022, to require publicly traded companies to report on extensive climate related information and climate risks, via financial statements, e.g., Green House Gas (GHG) emissions, financial implications, Carbon Footprint. Set goal for US industries to be Carbon Zero by 2050.
• Time travel—why ESG?—
  • The ESG movement is rooted in pivotal events across each decade beginning with the Vietnam War giving rise to social-political activism in the 1970’s; to the focus of socially responsible investing in the 1990’s-2000’s; to global-political initiatives such as the Paris Agreement, UN Sustainability Goals, impact of COVID-19 and Black Lives Matter (BLM) in 2010’s-2020’s.
• Drill down of ESG—
  • Environmental Care includes considerations for: air pollution, water pollution, carbon emissions, energy efficiencies, waste reduction, water conservation, biodiversity. Fact: processing concrete accounts for 8% of global emissions.
  • Social Responsibility includes considerations for: equity, diversity, labor standards, customer protections, production responsibilities, human rights, human capital.
  • Government Ethics includes considerations for: board diversity, executive pay, audit structures, shareholder democracy, ethics and compliance, anti-corruption, lobbying, IT security and cyber risks.
• Diagram of the balance and intersection of E, S, G—
  • Successful sustainability is achieved by balancing the needs of stakeholders at the intersection of all three E, S, and G (e.g., venn diagram model).
  • The UN (United Nations) defines sustainability as: meeting the needs of the present without compromising future generation’s ability to meet their own needs.

Additional Recommended Resources:

• • • Podcasts: MSCI ESG Now, SNP Global ESG Insider, Green Biz
    • Books: “How to avoid a climate disaster: The solutions we have and the breakthroughs we need” by Bill Gates, “Climate Change and the Road to Net-Zero” by Dr. Matthew Hampshire-Waugh

Next Event

Join us at the next PMI Atlanta AEC forum (TBD)

Register at www.pmiatlanta.org/events/event-calendar

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Written by Lakisia Jones PMP, CSM

Presentation Overview

Larry Maccherone, founder of Transformation.dev, presented a 5-step approach to change the culture of development teams. This 5-step approach can be launched and scaled across all development teams in the organization. 

Takeaways

• Getting people to change their mindset is one of the biggest challenges to transforming culture
• Target gradual improvements initially that will ultimately get to culture change
• Words matter because words used carefully reveal how one thinks
• Create a list of company practices and adopt them
• Practice the adoption states: Thoughts->Words->Action->Culture
• Coaching
  • Work with the development team to pick 3 practices to adopt
  • Sit with the team every 90 days and discuss the list of practices with them
  • At the end of the conversation the coach should have a good feel for how the team feels about the practices selected for adoption
  • Assess where the team is in adopting the practices
  • Go into coaching mode for the next 90 days, then reassess with the team after 90 days
  • Repeat the process with other development teams
  • At Comcast, it took 1 ½ years to go from low maturity to high maturity
• Use metrics and visualization to build sponsorship
• The defect/vulnerability/incident 3-step process:
  • Fix it
  • Find and fix others like it
  • Prevent future occurrence

Next Event

Join us at the next PMI Atlanta joint Agile Forum with the Governance Forum on Wednesday, May 25, 2022.

Register at www.pmiatlanta.org/events/event-calendar 

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Written by Rishea Middlebrooks, CAPM, ACHE Student Associate

Roughly 43% of captured data is largely unused: Discover the solution to multicloud complexity!

Presentation Overview

Seagate Technology's CIO and Executive Vice President of Storage Services Ravi Naik tells the story of how confronting the multicloud complexity head-on led his team to a creative data solution that has since become an external vendor-agnostic storage offering, while also offering practical advice on how business leaders can attain and plan for a clear view into the TCO associated with data storage and usage.

Takeaways

• More data is thrown away or siloed than put to work!
  • Roughly 43% of captured data is largely unused
• Barriers to putting data to work
  • Ensuring valuable data is collected in the first place
  • Managing the storage of collected data
  • Making the different silos of collected data available
• Lyve Cloud
  • Cloud crafted by Seagate – a cloud created by CIOs for CIOs
  • Fully S3 compatible interface
  • Flat, predictable pricing
    • Pay for what you store – that’s it
    • Data retrieval, ingestion, write/read operations, archive retrieval, expert support included
  • Open, standard APIs enable rich ecosystem of solutions
  • Availability in multiple regions
  • 11 9s data durability
  • Efficiency with Equinix
    • Equinix platform enables reduced latency and lower bandwidth costs at the Metro Edge (200+ data centers globally)
    • Equinix is the network backbone for the network internet
    • Sub-2 millisecond latency
    • Computing or storage capabilities
  • Interoperable
    • Able to store data on Lyve Cloud and load applications through software stacks
• Looking Forward
  • Horizontal scaling across the globe
  • Exabyte of storage available by the end of 2022
  • Vertical scaling by offering enhanced capabilities and frictionless storage options
  • Future certifications: FedRAMP, HIPAA

Next Event

Join us at the next PMI Atlanta Technology Forum on Tuesday, April 26, 2022.
Register at https://pmiatlanta.org/events/event-list/tech-forum-220426

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Written by Rishea Middlebrooks, CAPM, ACHE Student Associate

Don’t Make the Same Mistake Twice: Take Lessons Learned into your next project!

Presentation Overview

Almost every methodology has a process that includes “capturing lessons learned” but do we really close the loop and actually “apply lessons learned?” This presentation took a serious look at the lessons learned process in all methodologies across the continuum and described how to apply the knowledge to better improve overall product delivery in the PMO.

Takeaways

• Objective of lessons learned on a project
  • The goal is to avoid people making the same mistake twice
  • Lessons learned should be positively reinforced!
  • The purpose is to re-do good things and avoid bad things and to make the PMO better, ultimately making project managers better
• Challenges to effective lessons learned
  • It’s often an afterthought – done at the end of a project
  • Not appealing – little attention from upper management
  • Seen as a project manager task instead of a team task
• Guidelines for lessons learned
  • Recruit a ‘lessons learned facilitator’ to carry information to the next project – this person is not closely connected to the project
  • Prepare and hold a meeting to review lessons learned before the start of a new project
  • Concentrate on obtaining information in four general areas:
    • What went well?
    • What didn’t go well or had unintentional consequences?
    • If you had to do it again, would you do it differently?
    • What recommendations would you make to others doing similar projects?

Next Event

Join us at the next PMI Atlanta Healthcare Forum on Wednesday, April 20, 2022.

Register at www.pmiatlanta.org/events/event-calendar

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Written by NoriYah Yisrael, MS-PM, PMP, CPPM, FAAPM

Presentation Overview

On February 10, 2022, the Clinical Research Forum of the PMI Atlanta Chapter hosted the “Retooling Project Management Competencies for Post-Pandemic Project Success” presented by Dr. Yaw Amponsah Adoo. The purpose of the event was to discuss how the current post-COVID pandemic business environment prompts Project Management Professionals (PMPs) to attune their competencies and skillsets to remain relevant, in their respective industries. 

During today’s forum, Dr. Adoo expounded upon those competencies a successful project manager would need to embody to survive in today’s COVID environment, as it relates to the Clinical Research and other industries. Those recommended project management competencies are partly based on Bloom’s Taxonomy and include:

1. Cognitive - Knowing how to apply the most appropriate concepts when evaluating and making judgments while faced with new situations
2. Psycho-motive - Adapting and modifying skillsets and patterns to meet specific requirements
3. Affective - Being aware and attentive to different phenomenal
4. Applicative - Applying those strategic and business management, technical, and leadership skills most notably present within the PMI Talent Triangle™

Dr. Adoo also described how COVID is perceived to have impacted the business of running projects including on-time delivery, cost, resources, and the future landscape of project management in general. The VUCA framework (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity) can be applied to help PMPs assess how much they know about a particular situation (e.g., COVID influences on projects) and those approaches they can take to potentially help overcome or decrease negative outcomes.

Takeaways

• PMPs must ensure they remain well-trained, competent, and skillful at running projects, as the nature of the working environment can change without notice.
• High performing PMPs (and their projects) are expected to not only survive, but to succeed, during uncertain times and market variability.
• During and after the COVID pandemic, or other seemingly disruptive environments where causal relationships are unclear, PMPs can apply the VUCA framework to assess their situation and apply various approaches aimed at eliminating or minimizing negative outcomes.

Next Event

Join us at the next PMI Atlanta Clinical Research forum on Thursday, May 12, 2022.

Register at www.pmiatlanta.org/events/event-calendar