Welcome Message

As founder and CEO of International Institute for Learning (IIL), E. LaVerne Johnson has been an influential voice in the project management profession for the past 20 years, and she continues to help shape the industry’s global training and development landscape. With global operating companies all over the world and clients in more than 150 countries, IIL is a global leader in training, consulting, coaching and customized course development, and is proud to be the educational provider of choice for many top global companies. Our core competencies include Project, Program and Portfolio Management, Business Analysis, Microsoft^® Project and Project Server, Lean Six Sigma, PRINCE2^®, ITIL^®, Leadership and Interpersonal Skills, Corporate Consciousness and Sustainability.

Dr. Harold Kerzner

Senior Executive Director, IIL

The Integration of Project Management Into Strategic Planning Activities

Executives have come to the realization that project management practices can be used effectively for projects related to the execution of a strategic plan. Unfortunately, many of these projects are longer in duration than most projects we are accustomed to managing, the types of decisions are different, an excellent knowledge of the business and its environment is necessary, a different type of leadership may be required, and the results of the projects could mandate an organizational change. Project managers may have to be specially trained to manage these types of projects

Greg Balestrero

(LinkedIn profile, YouTube)

Strategic Advisor – Corporate Consciousness, Leadership & Sustainability, IIL

Trust, Ethics, and Values: Critical Foundation for Success

One of the most illusive characteristics in business today is strong public trust. Oftentimes this is due to a misalignment of values between customers, the community, employees and governance. When the values are synchronized, there is a strong belief and trust that pervades all relationships.In business, this translates directly to respect and a strong, respected brand. On the other hand, when there is a misalignment of values anywhere in the business system, trust falters,andthe brand becomes tarnished.

Thispresentationdeals head on with this issue, helping you understand that organizations today are the stewards of public trust, whether in dealing with the community, the environment, or thesatisfactionof its customers. The presentation leads you through a framework for aligning values, even in the highly transparent world of invasive social media, and the strong accountability to all levels of governance. This framework is scalable from the smallest project teams to the corporate portfolios.

Joanna Durand

(LinkedIn profile)

Program Management Council Chair and Global PMO Head, Citi

The Soft Skills of Project Management

This presentation highlights the importance of soft skills and the role they play in ensuring project success. Through a lively discussion covering the different types of soft skills leveraged within a project’s lifecycle, the insights they can provide, as well as their value proposition, you will more fully understand how to engage with your project team, clients and partners while enhancing your project leadership skills.

Frank Saladis PMP

(LinkedIn profile)

Trainer/Consultant, IIL and Founder of IPM Day

Project Management: The Power of the Profession

The world business environment and pressures of continuous change and intense competition require every organization to attract and sustain authentic and adaptive project leaders. This presentation addresses the importance of developing and enhancing the ability to lead project teams effectively and successfully through a positive and supportive people focused approach. The challenges of leadership are discussed from a business management and project management point of view and focuses on the importance of establishing a strong and mutually beneficial connection between the project manager and the team.

Judith W. Umlas

(LinkedIn profile)

Senior Vice President, Author, Trainer, Publishing & allPM.com

Grateful Leadershipâ„¢: Using the Power of Acknowledgment to Engage All Your People & Achieve Superior Results

Grateful leaders can tap into the power of personal commitment and dedication by acknowledging people in an authentic, heartfelt manner. Those leaders who model true acknowledgment behavior will inspire others to do the same and to want to dramatically increase their levels of contribution to the organization. This presentation will motivate leaders to embrace Grateful Leadership as a means of bringing their organization and its people (including all of its stakeholders), to the highest levels of engagement, passion, and commitment.

Osmo Harkonen

(LinkedIn profile)

MSc (CE)-Vice President, Group Quality, Wärtsilä

PM Development in Wärtsilä Corp

Transformation from an engine supplier to a solution provider was a painful and costly process for a mechanical engineering group without proper knowledge of how to integrate the sold products and services efficiently. The group’s decision to invest heavily in project management competency development proved to be correct. The group has, according to benchmarking studies, developed into one of the leading solution providers in the industry. The transformation process has taken more than ten years and required first that the project management was proved to be an effective way to manage integrated solution and service offerings in one of the divisions of the group. After ten years of extensive competence building project management is now used as the main management philosophy in the group – in customer delivery projects, product and solution development projects and operational development projects.

Beth Partleton

(LinkedIn profile)

PMP Immediate Past Chair, 2012 PMI Board of Directors

Women in Project Management

Project management is often misconceived and misrepresented as a male-dominated profession. While this may have been true in the past – particularly in industries such as IT, engineering and construction, which were typically male-dominated – in today’s economy women project managers are not only thriving, but emerging as key leaders and innovators within their organizations. As the PMI Project Management Salary Survey shows, there are more women in project management than ever before, making up 39% of the project management workforce in the U.S. and 1/3 of all project professionals in Canada as of 2009.

This presentation will discuss career trends, leadership styles and team strengths that women bring to project management and their organizations. The presentation will be given by immediate past PMI Chair and current Board Director Beth Partleton, the first female manager, first female director and first female leader of Miller Brewing Company’s engineering group.

James Brown

(LinkedIn profile)

Research PMO Senior Manager, Dupont Pioneer

1.How a PMO Can Make a Difference

Companies continue to struggle to deliver projects on time and within budget. That challenge has led many to turn to project management offices (PMOs) as a way to boost efficiency, cut costs, and improve project delivery in terms of time and budget. But many are continuing to fail. The goal of this presentation is to help understand how a PMO can be set up for failure at the very beginning, how to improve an existing PMO and how to develop a well-respected and valued PMO no matter the industry or segment within the organization.

2.Project Portfolio Management: Metrics That Work

Many companies are struggling with implementing portfolio management because the data required is missing or inaccurate or, more commonly, not identified and tracked. Project Management can help to provide this data and drive this initiative forward if the company culture and organizational structure allows. The goal of this presentation is to help understand how Project Portfolio Management can be applied to support a business, with some examples of a few business metrics to put into place, and measure and why it should not be exclusively used in the IT organization.

3. The Importance of Resource Management

As Project Managers, we sometimes struggle in securing resources to ensure that our projects deliver on time. However, when we do get the necessary resources, we often find that we are still unable to meet our delivery dates. Why is this? The goal of this presentation is to provide a thought provoking idea involving the use of “Critical Chain” resource management. Utilizing this methodology and a few of the ideas presented, a Project Manager may be able to make changes that may enablethem to meet their commitments and perhaps have happier resources on their projects.

Jennifer Aiello Quaglietta

(LinkedIn profile)

2012 Kerzner Award Recipient

Sr. PM Consultant, Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care Canada

Translating Project Management into Practice in Government

The health care system in Ontario is complex, with many layers of governance, multiple stakeholders, and service providers across a large geographic area. Within Government, the application of project management to projects can be used to foster a culture of effective and efficient delivery approach to implementing priorities. Best practices and lessons learned can then be leveraged to mature the project management concept throughout the organization, from small pilots to a fully operational project management office. The critical success factors include: using evidence to support standards, levering experience from colleagues, flexibility, and customization.

Dr. Thomas Juli

(LinkedIn profile)

PMP, CSM Trainer/Consultant, IIL

Leadership Principles for Project Success

We all need and thrive for successful projects. But what does it take to get there? This session explains why project management alone is insufficient and shows why project leadership is the decisive factor for project success. The session outlines 5 simple yet powerful leadership principles which, if applied systematically, can help you pave the path to project success. It illustrates how you can use these principles to set up, manage, and align your projects for success. Last but not least, it shows you how to become an effective project leader.

Adrian Pagdin

(LinkedIn profile)

Trainer/Consultant, IIL

Stakeholder Management: Gaining and Maintaining a Guiding Coalition of Support

When stakeholder’s expectations are met, the likelihood of a successful project outcome is significantly increased. For the project manager, gaining and maintaining a guiding coalition of stakeholders is essential to overcome obstacles and embed change. Adrian Pagdin describes a practical pathway to identifying, understanding, engaging with and winning the support of project stakeholders.

James T. Connors

Executive VP Operations – National September 11 Memorial and Museum

National September 11 Memorial & Museum

The 10^th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks was a firm deadline for opening this national memorial at the center of the World Trade Center site in Lower Manhattan. The Memorial was dedicated on that day by thousands of victims’ family members and dignitaries, including President Obama. On the next day, the Memorial was ready and opened to the world.

Opening this venerable facility was fraught with challenges – from achieving the construction deadline three years in advance of any other public elements of the World Trade Center project to the development and execution of an interim operating plan required because the Memorial is surrounded by active high-rise and below-grade construction – arguably the most complicated construction site in the country.

The interim operating plan addresses incomplete physical plant, security/life safety imperatives, visitor demand outstripping capacity, community concerns, and the obligation to enrich visitor experience despite the afore-mentioned challenges.

All these challenges were met by employing a collaborative planning effort that engaged the many public and private stakeholders. Over 4.5 million visitors from all fifty states and over 150 countries have made the pilgrimage to this hallowed ground in the first year of operation, making the Memorial a top visitor venue in the New York metropolitan region and the country.

Carl Belack

Director Complex Projects Practice, IIL

The Brave New World of Second Order Project Management

Despite decades of the development and enhancements of several project management processes by various professional groups (PMI, IPMA, APM), a continuing and unacceptably large number of projects still fail to meet their business objectives. Second Order Project Management explores why these Newtonian/Cartesian-based PM processes, while still necessary, are not sufficient to meet the demands of major projects that are executed in an ever-changing business, technological, and communication environment. It also explores an alternative perspective of today’s requirements for complex project processes and those who manage them.

Jane Morgan

(LinkedIn profile)

PMP Trainer/Consultant/Coach, IIL

Leverage the Power of Coaching in Your Projects!

Coaching is a word on everyone’s lips these days, and you don’t have to be a professional coach to leverage some of the most powerful aspects of coaching in your projects. In fact, coaching is listed as one of the key leadership competencies today’s Project Managers need to have. Knowing and using key coaching skills will enable you to better understand what is really important and what truly motivates your project team, your clients, and other key stakeholders to gather project requirements more effectively, and to get to the root of project issues, creating theright space for positive outcomes.

Bill Richardson

(LinkedIn profile)

Trainer/Consultant, IIL

1. Five Things Every Agile Project Manager Needs to Know About Facilitation

The capability factors for every project manager revolve around three components: 1) mindset or mental model on how things work or should work, 2) skill set or proficiency, expertise, and experience to get things done, and 3) tool set or ability to gain leverage using processes and templates. This presentation provides five key strategies for moving effective facilitation skills to the “go to arrow” in your management and leadership quiver, and it will demonstrate the linkage between effective facilitation and the successful application of agile principles.

2. Five Things Every Project Manager Needs to Know About Leadership

Project managers, as vanguards of change, ironically need to be as proficient at mobilizing stakeholders toward a shared purpose as managing them along the way. This presentation delves into the important and sometimes subtle differences between mobilizing and managing and the limiting effects of underdeveloped leadership skills on a project manager’s influence and impact. This presentation provides five key strategies you can implement immediately to begin to make a difference, both personally and professionally, in how you lead, facilitate change, and optimize the outcomes for all stakeholders.

Dr. Roberta Grossi

PhD, DBA, DM, MBA Trainer/Consultant, IIL

Conflict Management

There are two forms of conflict; the healthy confrontation of ideas and the disruptive opposing positions. While the first one eventually leads to positive outcomes and creative solutions, the second one can actually destroy potentially excellent co-operations, both internally and externally, to the team and to the company. Understanding the nature of conflict, and the role one plays in provoking and nourishing it, is the first step to changing one’s perception of conflictto change one’s perception of conflict. With the simple yet effective tools and techniques presented, everyone is able to transform any conflict into a prosperous and effective collaboration, regardless of the culture where the situation occurs. All it takes is to be the first one to change the mindset, adopt the new strategy, and take the responsibility to make the shift in the way the relationship evolves. A win-win-win (self-other-company) outcome will be the reward.

Harry Rever

Director of Six Sigma, IIL

Six Sigma and Sustainability – Business Survival in a Challenging Economy

This economy right now is challenging at best, and it doesn’t look like it will turn around any time soon. Businesses are struggling to survive in these tough economic times, by doing more with less and being as efficient and productive as possible. The most important decision business leaders can make to be sustainable, and profitable for that matter, is to focus on improving the efficiency and productivity of the company. The best way to improve results is to focus on improving the process and that is where Six Sigma comes in. The proper application of Six Sigma is, without question, the best way for companies to operate efficiently and become productive and sustainablein tough economic times.

Dr. Ginger Levin

(LinkedIn profile)

PMP, PgMP Consultant/Educator-Portfolio, Program & Project Management

1. Nine Guidelines to Successfully Executing Portfolio Management in Your Organization

Portfolio management is a difficult culture change to implement. Everyone enjoys pursuing their own “pet” projects that they believe will make a difference, but people naturally resist change, so the importance of portfolio management must be communicated in order for it to be embraced and implemented. It also requires far more than just purchasing a software tool. The emphasis is to manage strategic change as we optimize our organization’s portfolio, consisting of all the work that is underway—programs, projects, and operational activities. Nine guidelines for successful implementation of portfolio management, or enhancement of your organization’s existing portfolio management process, are presented in this video.

2. Portfolio Management: The Key to Organizational Excellence in Today’s Complex and Competitive World

PMI®’s 2012 “Pulse of the Profession” survey showed that 71% of the projects that met their original goals and business intent were done under portfolio management. As project professionals, our focus must shift from “doing projects right” to making sure our projects support our organization’s strategic goals and objectives. Complexity, resource constraints, mergers and acquisitions, and increased competition have mandated a portfolio management process that everyone in an organization embraces to ensure excellence. Portfolio management, along with effective strategy formation for enhanced project execution, is essential for organizational success and survival. It enables us to capitalize on opportunities and focus on the projects that are critical to success.

Mike Watson

Trainer/Consultant, IIL

Questions the Boss Should Ask

There are several moments at the start of a project when the project manager needs help and support from the boss. The key moment comes when the project manager presents the project plan for approval, but an opportunity is often missed or badly handled because the boss does not know how to review the plan: either the plan is glossed over, or a small detail is aggressively picked apart. This presentation gives practical guidance to the boss in what questions to ask to make the project manager explain the overall planning process, and not the technical details.

Jose Manuel Boccardo

(LinkedIn profile)

Head of PMO in the Direction of Exploration & Production of Repsol

Integrated Project Management

This presentation covers the experience of creating a Project Management Methodology that operationalizes the PMI´s PMBOK method so it can be efficiently applied to the type of projects executed by an Exploration & Production company. It includes a summary of how the PMBOK was operationalized in the Repsol E&P, and concludes with the lessons learned during the creation and implementation phases.

Gene Bounds

(LinkedIn profile)

President of Bounds Associates, LLC

Organizational Efficiency Initiatives and PMOs

In today’s budget-conscious economy, organizations seek to be more cost-effective. Wherever possible, we are working hard to increase efficiency and reduce operating costs. In some cases, this involves reducing budgets, services, programs, or staffs. In others, longer term reinvestment strategies are included. Global economic conditions continue to lag forecasts; as a result, budget deficits and spending cuts have driven focused attention on achieving effectiveness and efficiency.

While Information Technology has been a major focus area for efficiency over the past several years, this presentation highlights the role that PMOs can play to assist senior leaders with thoughtful analyses, transparency, and successful outcomes. This evolving change in the thought process and in program management allows decision makers to make those difficult decisionswhen balancing efficiency initiatives and mission effectiveness.

Marsha Hughes

(LinkedIn profile)

PMP, CBAP, CSM Trainer/Consultant, IIL

Agile Planning: The Three Horizons

Many people have the impression that there is no planning on agile projects, but there are actually three levels, or horizons, of planning – each to a progressively deeper level of detail. Release planning determines the scope, schedule, and resources needed for a product release, iteration planning determines which features will be built, and what tasks need to be done to build them, and daily planning monitors progress during an iteration. The farther out the planning horizon, the less detailed the plan, since we know we will need to adjust our course to reach it.

Éamonn McGuinness

(LinkedIn profile)

CEO of BrightWork

SharePoint 2013 – What’s new for Project and Portfolio Management

The Microsoft SharePoint 2013 release was unveiled in July 2012 with many new features required for managing projects. SharePoint is now considered by many to be the de facto industry standard platform for collaboration with in excess of 125 million users licensed.

Microsoft SharePoint 2013 now has a new template for managing a project with exciting new capabilities including social capabilities, a new WBS list type that synchronizes with Microsoft Project, and many more, so it is clear the Microsoft SharePoint team is now really encouraging us to use SharePoint 2010 and 2013 to manage work and projects. The question is how?

Steven Blais

(LinkedIn profile)

Trainer/Consultant, IIL

1. Two for the Price of One

In these days of economic stress, it is not unusual for organizations to attempt to save money by combining the roles of project manager and business analyst into one position. While there are benefits to this combination, there are even more drawbacks and challenges. This presentation explores some of the drawbacks and challenges and how to overcome them when you are tasked with playing both roles at the same time.

2. Manage Expectations Before They Manage You

“Manage their expectations” is usually a phrase that comes up when a change is requested or when it looks as though the project might run into trouble. Expectations exist from the start and cannot be managed unless they are understood from the start. The problem is that many expectations are not expressed, but have a significant impact on whether the project is considered a success. This session introduces methods for uncovering stakeholder expectations and techniques to handle them.

Dr. Willis H. Thomas

(LinkedIn profile)

Trainer/Consultant, IIL

The Basics of Project Evaluation and Lessons Learned

This presentation is based on his book The Basics of Project Evaluation and Lessons Learned, published in November 2011 by Taylor and Francis (AKA Productivity Press, CRC Press): New York, NY. It looks at project evaluation and lessons learned in the context of initiatives that are temporary, unique and for a specific purpose to produce a product, service or result (projects). Evaluation (of which lessons learned is a part) involves the determination of merit (quality), worth (value) or significance (importance).

Mario Landa

(LinkedIn profile)

Director of MSP Services, IIL

Get Your Head in the Cloud! Managing Projects with Project 2013

Growing an organization’s project management maturity level and capabilities can be a slow, painful, and costly process. Cloud computing is an economic model that provides attractive benefits and economic incentives. This presentation explores the evolution of one of the most successful Project Management Systems – one that has accompanied many organizations on their journey to enterprise project management excellence. Take a fresh look at what’s new with MS Project 2013 and why Project Management maturity may be achieved faster, with less pain, and cost using the brand new Project Online.

Isabel Ortiz

PMP Trainer/Consultant, IIL

Competencias Clave del Director de Proyectos (Key Competencies for Project Managers)

Organizations are becoming more and more aware of how important it is to strengthen the competencies of their project managers. The competencies required for a successful project generally revolve around both theproject manager and the team members. Individual competencies (technical, interpersonal and contextual) have been identified as critical factors for the success of a project, but different research proves that the competencies most required today are the interpersonal ones: achievement orientation, problem solving, leadership, and teamwork. (Presentation in Spanish)

Alan Harpham

(LinkedIn profile)

Chairman of the APM Group

Interview: IIL Europe-APM Group

This interview by Jill Watson (IIL Europe), of Alan Harpham (Chairman of the APM Group), discovers more about who the APM Group is, what it does, and its role as Official Accreditor for the British Government’s Cabinet Office products in PPPM and ITIL. Alan describes the range of APMG and Cabinet Office products and their adoption around the world, the roles of Accredited Organisations in Training and Consulting, and how the APM Group accredits.

Vilca Damiani

General Manager at IIL Brasil

OLA Movement: The Importance of People in PM

This presentation shows how people are the key to turn theory into action when deploying project offices. Also discusses how to carry out the strategy outlined, leaving the role in planning for the achievement of tangible results and reliable – based on the “OLA movement” done between people – connection, collaboration and sharing. (Presentation in Portuguese)

Rodolfo Ambriz

(LinkedIn profile)

LATAM Regional Manager, IIL

Gestión del Portafolio: De la Estrategia a la Táctica

Las Organizaciones cuentan con su Visión, su Misión y su Estrategia y Objetivos Organizacionales, y basado en esto requieren alinear su Portafolio para implementar los Programas y Proyectos correctos. Esta presentación es un resumen acerca de los procesos de las Gestión del Portafolio, su relación con la estrategia de negocio; las técnicas, herramientas y modelos para definir y evaluar los impulsores de negocio, y la selección, priorización y balanceo de los elementos del portafolio al analizar diferentes aspectos.