Sharing Economy at work?

A guest post by my friends at Genius Project

The phenomenon of the sharing economy can be attributed to the likes of some popular names such as Uber and Airbnb.

The magazine Alternatives Economiques, defines it as people creating value together. This form of economy is actually developing itself in the context of social media and internet platforms. Sharing cabs, exchanging homes, sharing knowledge, borrowing supplies, sharing meals…the list is long.

Does this sharing economy have an impact on working styles?

And, what are we really sharing at work?

The question may sound naive, but it’s a question worth asking. Phone lines, emails, open workspaces…it looks like, especially in smaller companies, it’s becoming easier to share information and data. In theory, employees in an organization collaborate several times around a project. They share and comment on documents (the description of a document for example), analyze the results (if project X was not delivered successfully, we have to evaluate the reasons before launching a new project with the same partner), compare status progress (if the drawing phase is not finished, no need to launch the production), or share information on team member availabilities (if X is working on Project A this week, he will only be able to complete project B next week). The reality is in fact, quite different. We often observe that information and data are not reaching everyone in the company. The information and documents can be modified and evolve during a project. Documents can arrive with wrong information, become restricted or even disappear. The consequences are often late delivery, reduced efficiency or even disappearing information.

If our everyday lives are sharing oriented, the reality in the workplace is actually quite different. The early 2000s, we saw the development of social networks in the private sector. In 2016, we see these practices slowly making their way in the professional sphere.

When Facebook implemented Facebook @ Work, Microsoft deployed Yammer and Salesforce developed Chatter, enterprise 3.0 is gaining ground. Companies are offering more solutions in order to facilitate communication and increase collaboration within the company. A great example is JC Decaux, who recently replaced its intranet with a social platform. Software providers are now adding social functions to each of their solutions. Genius Project project management software, now has its own social collaboration platform. With Genius Live!, collaborators publish information relevant to their projects on a common wall. Documents are easier to share and emails are less in number. Social networks close the geographic gap between employees in different time zones. The company can then foster collaboration methods and share best practices. The corporate culture is also growing thanks to this collaborative innovation plan. Collaboration is part of the digital transformation. This transformation is moving full steam ahead.

Companies seek to work better together and to improve their productivity. The practices from the private sector arrive in the professional world. Now, to your posts…

To know more about Genius Project and its collaboration tools: http://www.geniusproject.com

PMI, do you still love me?

Now look, it is really important to put this in some real context. I have been a member of PMI for 10 years now, and will continue to be a member. I am a project manager in ‘good standing’ with my PMP secured many years ago and regularly updated through the CCR process.

I am currently leading a project management community of around 200 PMs around the world and they are supported in membership of PMI through my company and many are either PMP certified or on a path to certification through our training partners. PMI representatives spoke at a recent conference for these same project managers.

Personally I have presented at 77 different PMI events throughout the world in the last 5 years, from the UK to USA to Australia, through conferences and congresses, local chapter meetings, and webinars. Yes, in the spirit of full disclosure 28 of these were paid for ‘gigs’ but that is my job after all and last year alone I did 12 such events without charge as a way of giving back, and because I enjoy it of course. And I will continue to do this; as I write this I have two further local chapter presentations lined up already.

And so I hope you can tell that I am not a ‘PMI hater’, quite the contrary, but I am feeling somewhat unloved right now.

Let me give you three examples.

Congress: The EMEA Congress is in London this year, and I will be there, but I submitted two papers for potential presentation and neither were accepted. Well I say neither were accepted as I don’t officially know one way or the other. PMI hasn’t told me. I assume it is a ‘no’ since I am not on the agenda that has been published and I have spoken to several others in my network who are presenting and have, obviously, heard from PMI. The official response to my submissions was ‘Notifications to accepted applicants will be sent by December 19th, 2014’ and I have heard nothing so I am not in but, and here is my gripe, why haven’t I heard something? I mean I, and presumably many others, put the effort in to submit a paper and potentially prepare a presentation so why can’t PMI be bothered to even send a ‘sorry you have not been successful this time around but we really appreciate your interest and investment of your time…’? It is another conversation about how some people seem to get to speak, through the blind selection process, at congress after congress around the world, they clearly have a knack of pitching a subject better than me these days it seems, but that is not the source of my concern in this case, it is the lack of communication back to the PMI member.

I did follow up on this with an email to the congress contact and guess what… nothing, no response at all. PMI – I am feeling unloved.

Book: I have now written 15 project management books and some while ago I thought it would great to have one title published by PMI. Great kudos after all I will admit. If you go online you can see the PMI Book Publishing Program and look at the book submission document that needs to be completed if you like.

I do have books, two at present, that are for sale on the PMI Marketplace so I presume it safe to say that I haven’t upset anyone in PMI by telling everybody that they need to be ‘lazy’ project managers.

Anyway the advice on that form is that if you do submit a book proposal, and I did, then ‘You will be contacted by the Manager, Publications approximately 6 weeks from receipt of your proposal regarding our decision’ – guess what… I wasn’t contacted, ever, nothing at all. The book concept was brought to fruition but by another publisher. Rejection is fine, it happens in life and it certainly happens in publishing (a lot) but rejection by default of no response is not acceptable I would say. PMI – I am feeling unloved.

Complaint: As I mentioned earlier I do speak a lot for free at PMI events and one such event was a webinar for one of the Communities of Practice and it was a very popular presentation, based on my Lazy Project Manager book. However one person made a complaint to myself, the CEO of PMI and the head of the Community of Practice. The complaint itself was, I feel very confident in saying this, completely foolish. The person complained that to include ‘lazy’ and ‘project manager’ in anything was an insult to the profession. But ‘no’ he had not read the book, one of the best-selling project management books ever I am proud to say, and ‘no’ he had not even attended the actual webinar, he was complaining from a point of principal. Silly really. I responded, copying everyone on the original complaint email, and politely put my counter-argument and explained the concept of ‘productive laziness’, my experience in project management, and invited the complainant to listen to the recorded webinar and, if he was still unhappy, to get back in touch with me for a further conversation. That was the last I heard from them. But you know throughout this process I heard nothing from PMI at all. Someone had complained to the very top of the organisation and I, the member and volunteer speaker, was doing all of the situation handling. PMI – I am feeling unloved.

As I said, I am no ‘PMI hater’ (yes I know there are such people out there) but I am a member of the PMI family and I would have expected a lot more in the way of communication and interest. I feel, based on my involvement and contribution to PMI and the project profession as a whole that this is a reasonable and considered challenge to PMI to try a bit harder. At chapter level I have had no issue at all but at corporate I think perhaps the whole ‘we are there for the members and not our selves’ might have been forgotten by some.

When it is time to renew my membership PMI loves me. When it is time to re-certify my PMP then PMI loves me (a lot).

‘Good things happen when you get involved with PMI’ – so the PMI website declares and that is without a doubt true. I have enjoyed my years of working with and through PMI but there is still that whole ‘love’ thing that just appears to me to be missing.

And so I ask the question: PMI, do you still love me? I hope you do…