.png)
Oct 29 - Oct 31, 2023
Key Takeaways from Speakers by Jiah Lee
The 2023 AIPM conference was an immensely valuable learning experience in the way it provided me with exposure to a diverse range of cutting-edge insights through the talks, and the chance to engage with professionals and experts, enriching my knowledge and expanding my professional network.
Key trends in speaker topics could be identified, with many speakers bringing up the idea of the rise of AI, importance of collaboration and partnership, as well as embracing diversity in perspective. Below is a summary of key takeaways I’ve drawn from some of the speakers at the conference.
Who said Leadership theory Kant be as simple as 1,2,3
Sunday, Oct 29, 2023 2:15 PM - 2:55 PM | Mr Lachlan Waite
The key takeaway from this talk was regarding the 3 essential parts to leadership:
Meaningful work (something to do)
Fellowship (someone to love)
Shared ambitions (something to hope for)
Each of these parts had three key words or phrases associated with them:
The first essential part, “meaningful work” had the key words of enable, effectively and meaningful associated with it. Leaders should enable their teams to effectively engage in meaningful work, fostering a sense of purpose and accomplishment.
The key words of “fellowship” were grow, people, and fellowship; leadership involves fostering personal and professional growth among people, cultivating a sense of fellowship.
Finally, the third essential part to leadership was associated with the key words of develop, shared ambition, and their efforts. Leaders support team members to develop shared ambitions, aligning their efforts with a collective vision that inspires and guides the entire team towards a common goal.
This was also interesting in how these three factors aligned to the values of PMLogic: purpose, people and planet. “Meaningful work” was regarding doing things with clear objectives and meaning, which parallels to PMLogic’s value of purpose, where we believe in defining our personal and professional ‘why’ in order to do purposeful work and lead meaningful lives. “Fellowship” was about creating a collaborative and supportive environment in which individuals enjoy working together, aligning with the value of people, where we treat everyone with respect, upskilling and nurturing our employees and partners, clients and stakeholders. Finally, “shared ambitions” was linked to PMLogic’s value of the planet, in that we actively strive to reduce carbon emissions through the projects and programs we deliver, with a common goal of keeping up our commitment towards environmental sustainability.
Beyond Resilience: Creating Antifragile Projects
Sunday, Oct 29, 2023 3:35 PM - 4:15 PM | Dr Greg Usher
This talk was very thought provoking, firstly identifying the difference between a risk and a black swan, then bringing to spotlight the idea of antifragility and its significance in a project context.
A risk is a foreseeable and manageable event or situation that can be assessed, planned for, and mitigated with reasonable measures, while a black swan event is an extremely rare, highly unpredictable, and unprecedented occurrence that typically has a profound and widespread impact, making it difficult to anticipate or prepare for using conventional risk management methods. Using Donald Rumsfeld’s words, “known knowns” and “known unknowns” would form a part of risks, while “unknown unknowns” would be a black swan event.
With the concept of antifragility, it was defined as something that benefits from shocks and stressors. Being antifragile would go beyond being robust (minimally affected by the stressor) and even resilient (springing back to original state); it is the opposite of being fragile (losing value as a result of the stressor), hence the name. The human body is an example of an antifragile system, becoming stronger after getting vaccinated or exercising.
To create antifragile systems, the following strategies can be used:
Create simplicity by removing harmful events, rather than adding seemingly beneficial ones
The principle of creating simplicity in antifragile systems involves a strategic approach of decluttering and eliminating unnecessary complexity. Rather than incessantly adding new elements or features, focus is placed on identifying and removing harmful events or components that may compromise the system's stability. By streamlining processes and reducing potential points of failure, the system becomes more resilient to unexpected shocks and disruptions, fostering an environment where adaptability and responsiveness are prioritised over unnecessary intricacies.
Ensure there are multiple options
Antifragility thrives on diversity and redundancy. By ensuring there are multiple options or pathways within a system, it becomes more adaptable to changing circumstances and less susceptible to single points of failure. This approach acknowledges that unpredictability is inherent in complex environments, and having a variety of options provides a buffer against unforeseen challenges. Options act as the agents of antifragility, offering alternative routes when one path encounters difficulties and enabling the system to evolve and improve through diverse experiences.
Fail fast
Embracing failure as an inherent part of the learning and improvement process is a key tenet of antifragility. The "fail fast" strategy encourages a proactive approach to experimentation and risk-taking. Instead of avoiding failure, the emphasis is on quickly identifying and learning from failures, allowing for rapid adjustments and iterations. This iterative process not only accelerates the development of robust solutions but also cultivates a culture where failures are seen as valuable opportunities for growth and refinement.
Allocate the most time to aggressively protecting the element (amongst time, cost, scope) which could destroy value
Antifragile systems recognise that not all components are equal in terms of their impact on overall value. Allocating the most time, attention, and resources to aggressively protect the critical elements within a system is a strategic prioritisation. This involves a careful evaluation of elements related to time, cost, and scope, and focusing efforts on safeguarding those that, if compromised, could have the most detrimental effect on the system's value. A matrix with time, cost and scope against constrain, enhance, and accept can be used as a tool for this evaluation. This approach ensures a targeted and efficient use of resources, minimising the potential for catastrophic failures and enhancing the system's overall antifragility.
Table 1: Example Evaluation Matrix of Time, Cost and Scope
| Time | Cost | Scope |
Constrain | ✔️ |
|
|
Enhance |
|
| ✔️ |
Accept |
| ✔️ |
|
Most importantly, it would be critical to change the mindset from seeing stressors as risks to viewing them as opportunities.
Other interesting articles on the topic of antifragility:
Research and a demonstration of how project management education is being impacted by artificial intelligence
Sunday, Oct 29, 2023 2:15 PM - 2:55 PM | Mr James Bawtree
This talk given by our very own CEO and founder James Bawtree, was the first to kick off a series of following talks exploring similar topics around artificial intelligence, particularly in the project management context. It highlighted the significant impact AI could have in both an education and project management context.
Firstly exploring how AI arose, it was very interesting to hear about how the concept of AI was around from late 1940s, almost 80 years ago. There have been astonishing levels of advancement in the AI space since then, and AI is now able to have profound impacts on how students, educators and future project professionals engage and deliver their work. In fact, 99% of CEOs globally believe Generative AI will have a moderate or fundamentally transformational impact on their business.
For students, AI can help personalise the learning experience and increase student interactions and engagement, through analysing their learning patterns and providing customised learning material. Particularly for lower or average performing students, a study found that the use of AI led to a significant increase in marks and output quality across all subjects. While the ethical considerations regarding AI use still remains standing, seeing the data in terms of the benefits that AI can deliver, it would be critical for students to learn how to use this tool effectively and ethically.
In the project management industry as well, AI is predicted to have an influence on all practice areas; e.g. for schedule management, risk management and HR optimisation. A continued 35% project success rate has been reported by Nieto-Rodriguez and Vargas (2023), with one core contributor being poor decision-making in project management. With the use and implementation of AI into project management practices, however, it is envisioned that the probability of project success will significantly increase, as it enables more informed, data-driven and rational decision making.
The final thing that struck me from this presentation was the quote “If you’re not using AI yet, you’re already behind,” which prompted me to re-evaluate the practical application of AI from the perspective of a student working in a project management specialist company. While AI is a useful tool, it is often regarded as unethical in the academic field, so I had a little bit of stigma around its use in the academic space particularly for assignments as a student. As such, I believe that I had been unable to fully comprehend its value in practice and had not been harnessing all its potential benefits. In the future, it would be important for all of us to expand our knowledge and understanding of AI, explore its ethical implications, and actively seek out opportunities to apply it effectively in both academic and professional settings, thus maximising its benefits while addressing any ethical concerns responsibly.
Nieto-Rodriguez, A. and Vargas, R.V. (2023) How AI will transform project management, Harvard Business Review. Available at: https://hbr.org/2023/02/how-ai-will-transform-project-management
Making creativity work for you
Monday, Oct 30, 2023 9:50 AM - 10:40 AM | Ms Carolyn Miller
This talk was particularly inspiring in empowering each person’s unique perspective as she spoke about how diversity in demographics (genders, ages, cultures, etc.) enhances creativity, as everyone brings a different frame of reference. For example, younger generation people have a different generational mindset where they come in and pitch ideas more vocally. They can bring lots of inspiration to the team by promoting conversation and stimulating creative ideas.
For recent graduates stepping into the professional world, the talk served as a powerful reminder that fresh perspectives can be a significant asset. The speaker's emphasis on diversity in thinking and the value of younger voices highlights how entering the workforce with a new mindset can drive creativity and innovation. This reflection encourages new professionals to embrace their unique viewpoints and confidently contribute, knowing that their ideas can bring fresh energy to any team, regardless of experience level.
Other insights shared was regarding how creativity is stimulated. Often, we assume that creativity would be enhanced when we let ideas loose with no boundaries. However, it is when people have constraints put on their problems and they have rules to push against that creativity is stimulated. Moreover, vulnerability stimulates creativity – a lot of the time, ideas become limited as people think their ideas would be condemned for being a ‘dumb idea.’ To foster a safe to fail environment so that fruitful ideation sessions can be facilitated, a strategy could be to come up with some crazy ideas first when starting off the brainstorm.
It is important to remember that creativity is between us, not within us – we stimulate creativity the most by bouncing ideas off one another and communicating openly. When we engage in open dialogue, we allow our thoughts to intersect and evolve, creating a dynamic exchange that pushes the boundaries of what any one person might achieve alone. In this sense, creativity is not a solitary spark but a shared experience that thrives on diverse perspectives and active participation. By bouncing ideas off one another, we build on each other's strengths, challenge assumptions, and unlock new possibilities that might never have surfaced in isolation. Ultimately, it's through this process of continuous interaction and communication that the most innovative and impactful ideas come to life.
Will AI replace the Project Manager? Insights into the impacts of digital transformation on project professionals
Tuesday, Oct 31, 2023 11:25 AM – 12:05 PM | Ms Tamara Mirkovic
Many speakers spoke about the rise of AI, and how it could be used effectively in a project management context, highlighting the upward trend in its integration into daily project work.
Amidst all this, this speaker was able to provide all the project managers in the room with a sense of relief, speaking about how despite all the amazing capabilities of AI and its astounding advantages as a tool in the project management context, it is unlikely that AI will replace the project manager entirely (phew!). Firstly, considering the narrower forms of AI, where robotics and AI capabilities are combined, it is limited by the data that is given as input; it is unable to do anything outside of its data inputs. While there have been great advancements in the artificial intelligence space, it lacks the perception of reality and common sense, taking a long time and many iterations to understand basic things like identifying animals and understanding that even if the object is not visible, it does not mean it has disappeared. AI would get very confused if you were to play peek-a-boo with it!
This speaker also provided us with a useful framework through which AI tools such as ChatGPT could be prompted: the GUIDE framework where GUIDE stands for Goal, User, Instructions, Detail and Examples. An example provided by the speaker for using the GUIDE framework as a prompting tool is given below:
Goal: Create an email to encourage project stakeholders to complete a survey on Data Literacy Training needs.
User: The stakeholders are academics and higher education administration staff.
Instructions: Direct staff to a survey link and respond by 3rd October 2023.
Detail: The survey will inform our training teams’ ability to customise delivery of courses such as Data Fundamentals and Advanced PowerBI
Example: Maximum 5 dot points. Also needs a short introduction and professional language.
By dedicating effort to fine-tuning the input provided to AI systems, users can enhance the optimisation of outcomes, leading to substantial time savings. Now, we should all be able to use AI effectively, with the reassurance that it won’t replace our roles anytime soon!
Key roles in an Agile Transition @ Scale
Tuesday, Oct 31, 2023 12:25 PM - 1:05 PM | Mr Ben Morrell & Ms Sarah Neal
The two speakers from Telstra spoke about Telstra’s transition to their Agile at scale model which commenced mid-2019. To provide some context, this transformation sought to fundamentally change how the organisation runs, “enabling people from various parts of the organisation to form cross functional delivery teams that will focus on customer outcomes through fewer hand-offs, better collaboration and the right capabilities to deliver” (Badenoch, 2019). During this talk, the two speakers highlighted two key change and transformation roles they had to assist in the Agile transformation process: coaches and group scrum leads.
Coaches helped staff to stay on the path to agility, through launching teams for success and celebrating at key milestones, and ensuring the constant reflection is practised after the launch. This constant reflection facilitated continual learning, and by adjusting their approaches based on the learnings, coaches were able to ensure that the implementation of the transformation remained dynamic, responsive, and aligned with the evolving needs of the team and the organisation. They played a critical role in helping teams to stay focused on the goal of delivering better customer and user outcomes, and monitoring progress to prevent teams from swinging back to old practices. In particular, coaches actively engaged with those who had not grasped the full purpose of the transformation, providing education to enable team members to comprehend the advantages of embracing the change and to foster their full support for the transformation.
Given the sheer size and complexity of the transformation, Telstra found there were gaps in the delivery of this change; the group scrum lead role was created to assist and ensure delivery ran smoothly. Group scrum leads were defined as the “custodians of Telstra’s systems of work.” They needed to be both experts of senior stakeholder management and project delivery, having a balanced blend of theory and personal experience. They would play the role of a facilitator, promoting collaboration amidst resistance to change, through encouraging them to come up with their own ways to adapt and overcome the challenges being faced. This would foster ownership and accountability, and help people to become less resistant to change as they are proposing it themselves. Further to this, group scrum leads were responsible for group level practices and cadences, and hence also responsible for building a strong network to ensure the flow of work for the whole group.
Typically, when adopting a transformation, organisations tend to focus on what changes need to be made to the organisational practices, to ensure the benefits of this change can be realised. However, it is crucial to direct efforts towards both changing behaviours and practices simultaneously. Changing behaviours involves modifying the mindset, attitudes, and ways individuals approach work to build everyday agility and bringing values to life, whereas changing practices involves the adoption of new methods, tools, and processes to enhance efficiency and problem-solving, ultimately driving tangible operational improvements. Given that resistance to change is inherent in any context, it is essential to support the transformation of mindsets and behaviours of the individuals and teams comprising the organisation by minimising this resistance. This way, the effectiveness of adopting change will be heightened significantly.
Badenoch, A. (2019) Becoming a more agile organisation to deliver on our T22 strategy. Available at: https://www.telstra.com.au/exchange/becoming-a-more-agile-organisation-to-deliver-on-our-t22-strategy
Predaptive Delivery
Tuesday, Oct 31, 2023 1:10 PM - 1:50 PM | Mr Alex Lyaschenko
A new concept of “predaptive delivery” which combines the predictive (traditional waterfall) approach with the adaptive (Agile) approach was proposed to offer a more flexible and responsive project management strategy which has its own unique methods. The predictive and adaptive approaches particularly differ in the early stages of the project; while the predictive approach formulates a well-defined plan encompassing scope, time, and cost from the outset, the adaptive approach relies on a broad understanding at the early stages. Many organisations say that they adopt a “hybrid approach,” but it was found that most of them were waterfall, with very few iterative elements embedded.
The basis for this predaptive approach would be that all three elements of time, cost and scope would have both fixed and variable components in similar ratios, rather than fixing scope as in the predictive approach, or fixing time and cost as in the adaptive approach. It also assumes that resources are limited, contravening the general assumption that resources will always be available. This approach was established on the finding that resource constraints are often not addressed sufficiently, among the three project dependencies of technology, priorities and resources.
The speaker used the analogy of managing projects as GPS systems, rather than a map book (where the path would be planned out at the beginning, with minimal room for adjustments) or postman delivery (where the path would be planned on the go). It would be useful to implement conditional scheduling, where a map with the various possible pathways is depicted, and there is potential for switching from one path to another. There would still be a critical path, but there should still be other options to mitigate the impact of risks.
Another element highlighted regarding the predaptive delivery approach was regarding the consideration of reverse dependencies for feasibility. Considering the steps to making a cup of tea, we would need to boil the water and put a tea bag in a cup prior to pouring the water into the cup. These two steps do not seem to be dependent on each other, but when thinking about the scenario in which a tea bag is immediately available, potential unconsidered dependencies are brought to spotlight, as the tea bag would then need to be sourced first before the water is boiled.
Overall, the notion of “predaptive delivery” was an interesting concept to consider, which could potentially fuse the best of the predictive and adaptive approaches to delivering projects.
Collaboration & Partnerships as a Key to Success in a High Technology Environment
Tuesday, Oct 31, 2023 11:40 AM - 12:20 PM | Ms Natalie Waldie
Collaboration benefits
increased innovation
Competitive advantage - working against other players in the market and
have access to markets you wouldn’t usually be able to reach
Access to resources - grow in house teams or form partnerships - access to niche resources quicker. Don’t need to poach people, rather just partnering
Risk sharing - sharing risks between the parties, more appealing to stakeholders, partnering with your customer
Complementary strengths - maturing product and taking it into production
Make sure there is mutual benefit
Lessons learned
Very important to keep stakeholders aligned
IP management - background vs foreground IP - clearly defined in register
Sponsorship
Panel: Australia’s Energy Transition – What does the PM profession need to do to be transition ready?
Monday, Oct 30, 2023 3:35 PM – 4:35 PM | Ms Kylie Brosnan, Ms Jane Seawright, Ms Sharon Sebastian, Ms Sharon Towner
Competing priorities
Ai can help generating the information come through
Still element of human interaction
Not competing - should be complimentary
Three things to take away
Engage early and not leave the problem
Restoration of country
Don’t assume benefits - rather ask what they need
Private and public industry
work well together
Needs to be more of it
Telling a story - why it is critical
Community benefits
Private industry are ahead, public trying to keep up
Excited to continue the conversation on the future of project management? Join us at the upcoming 2024 AIPM National Conference, where PMLogic will have a booth! It’s the perfect opportunity to dive deeper into transformative trends in project management.
Come visit us and see how we’re pushing the boundaries to create sustainable, purpose-driven project solutions. See you there!
Comments