There was a lot of online activity at this year’s PMI Leadership Institute Meeting and Global Congress this year, more than I’ve seen before. Here’s my round up of the best articles and commentary about the events.

Blog posts

Michael Moss writes about Congress Day 2, including the key note speakers and the contest to outwit the Watson computer.

The official PMI blog covered Malcolm Gladwell’s presentation.

Robert Prol writes about work/life balance on the business trip to Congress.

Thomas Juli sums up his experiences and take away messages from Congress on his blog and his presentation, The 5 Team Leadership Principles for Project Success, is available on Slideshare.

Videos

Watch PMI’s interview with PMI 2011 Awards Ceremony winner, Roberto Toledo of Alpha Consultoria.

Here’s a video on conflict management in projects filmed on location at Congress, from Dux Raymond Sy.

Photos

Global Knowledge’s photos are here.

Michele Sliger took a picture of teams working on agile planning exercise.

PMI’s official photos are on Facebook.

Podcasts

Ricardo Viana Vargas produced a podcast about the Congress.

From me

And of course I covered the events at the Leadership Institute Meeting and Congress here at A Girl’s Guide to Project Management:

Video diary: Leadership Institute Meeting Day 1

Video diary: Leadership Institute Meeting Day 2

Video diary: Congress Day 1

Video diary: Congress Day 2

Video diary: Congress Day 3

I wrote about Elyse Nielsen’s presentation on Myths about Sponsorship here and Malcolm Gladwell’s presentation on Gantthead. I also wrote about the idea of a Results Management Office on Gantthead. I covered PMI’s new ethical decision making framework which was discussed at the Leadership Institute Meeting in an article for PMTips.net.

What other write ups, photos and videos have you seen from the LIM and Congress? Let us know in the comments.

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1. Video Diary: PMI Global Congress North America, 24 October 2011   This episode of my video diary from Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas, covers Day 2 of PMI’s Global Congress North America. Thanks to Kashif (who is...
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Elyse Nielson from Ascension Health and the blog Anticlue gave a presentation at the PMI Global Congress North America in Dallas last month about sponsors and their interaction with the project. She talked about the importance of getting the right sponsor for the project and shared some myths about project sponsorship.

Elyse pointed out that both project managers and project sponsors commonly believe that:

• “One size fits all.”
• A sponsor’s interaction with a project cannot be changed.
• Everybody knows what to do, even the sponsor.

She then went on to explain that the sponsor’s responsibilities are many and varied, and include:

• Ownership of the project
• Authority over the project resources
• Communication: “They also have to be able to do the 30-second blurb and do the campaigning for the project to keep it going,” she said. “You have to be on the exact same page with your sponsor.”
• Change management
• Accountability
• Benefits realisation

Elyse said that the sponsor should be:

• An advocate
• A leader
• A mentor
• A coach
• A decision maker
• Someone with a global perspective
• Someone able to lead on the subject of risk mitigation
• A good manager

“When you have a team that’s in the dumps and an executive gives them a pat on the back, that’s better than a bonus sometimes,” she said.

Elyse pointed out that the concept of one sponsor for the life of the project is limiting, especially when you consider that the role of the sponsor, their focus and the tasks they need to do all change depending on the project phase. For example:

• Initiation: sponsor should have organisational expertise to ensure that the project starts in the best possible way
• Planning: sponsor should demonstrate a strategic view
• Execution: sponsor should concentrate on removing roadblocks and allowing the project team to carry out their tasks as required
• Closing: sponsor should focus on the project benefits, and of course rewarding the team for their hard work.

“Not a lot of people are good at all of that,” Elyse said.

That’s true, isn’t it? Sometimes a sponsor who is great at the strategic stuff doesn’t know how to get things done when the project hits a roadblock. Equally, someone who can manage all that might not be good at campaigning on behalf of the project to ensure it keeps senior management’s attention.

The point she was making was that it isn’t a failure to switch sponsors through the life of the project, and in some cases it might even be the best thing to do. Have you ever switched sponsors on a project? What was the result?

Related posts:

1. What makes a good project sponsor? Having a good, active project sponsor is one of the ways you can ward off project failure. So if you are in the enviable situation...
2. Project Sponsor FAQ Craig Brown has been writing about the job description of a project sponsor over at Better Projects. I have pulled together an FAQ for project...
3. Training your project sponsor Unfortunately you might not be able to choose someone as your project sponsor who meets all the criteria that I mentioned last Monday – that...

This episode of my video diary from Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas, covers my final day at PMI’s Global Congress North America.

Thanks to Taryn, Jeff, Satish, Cassandra, Melanie and Adrienne for taking part in this video, and thanks to PMI for waiving my Congress entrance fee to enable me to attend.

You can see the videos from Day 1 here and Day 2 here.

Related posts:

1. Video Diary: PMI Global Congress North America, 23 October 2011 This episode of my video diary from Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas, covers Day 1 of PMI’s Global Congress North America. Thanks to Brenda for taking part...
2. Video Diary: PMI Global Congress North America, 24 October 2011   This episode of my video diary from Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas, covers Day 2 of PMI’s Global Congress North America. Thanks to Kashif (who is...
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This episode of my video diary from Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas, covers Day 2 of PMI’s Global Congress North America.

Thanks to Kashif (who is quoted talking about one of his projects here), Evelyn and Joe for taking part in this video.

The animal quiz formed part of the keynote presentation by Stefan Swanepoel. You can find out which animal you are at whatanimalami.com. The results in the video come from the people who took the quiz during the Leadership Institute Meeting.

You can see the video from Day 1 here.

Disclosure: PMI waived my entrance fee to the Congress – thanks, guys!

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1. Video Diary: PMI Global Congress North America, 23 October 2011 This episode of my video diary from Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas, covers Day 1 of PMI’s Global Congress North America. Thanks to Brenda for taking part...
2. Video Diary: PMI Global Congress North America, 25 October 2011 This episode of my video diary from Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas, covers my final day at PMI’s Global Congress North America. Thanks to Taryn, Jeff, Satish,...
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This episode of my video diary from Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas, covers Day 1 of PMI’s Global Congress North America.

Thanks to Brenda for taking part in this video. The speaker whose name she can’t remember is John Furlong, CEO of the Vancouver Organizing Committee, who spearheaded the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.

Disclosure: PMI waived my entrance fee to the Congress – thanks, guys!

Related posts:

1. Video Diary: PMI Global Congress North America, 24 October 2011   This episode of my video diary from Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas, covers Day 2 of PMI’s Global Congress North America. Thanks to Kashif (who is...
2. Video Diary: PMI Global Congress North America, 25 October 2011 This episode of my video diary from Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas, covers my final day at PMI’s Global Congress North America. Thanks to Taryn, Jeff, Satish,...
3. PMI Global Congress 2010 North America round up PMI Global Congress generates a lot of blog posts, podcasts and videos.  Here’s my round up of some of the best pieces to give you...