 In the afternoon of the first full day of the IPMA World Congress, I was Shanghai'd, stuffed into a black limo, and driven 20 km across town. I was held in a hotel room, and forced to divulge secrets, while a young Chinese woman whispered in my ear.
When I showed up an uncharacteristic half-hour late at the Congress Hotel, my first words included the statement above.
Knowing me, Rose awaited an explanation. I had been approached about this earlier in the day, and Adesh Jain (IPMA President) asked if I would assist in the proceedings for a concurrent meeting: The Construction Project Management Committee of the China Construction Industry Association was a participant in this Congress, and also concluding their judging for the Top International Chinese Construction Project Managers. I agreed to do so.
The black limo was provided by the CPM Committee. The hotel was on the other side of town, and the room I was in had 200+ Project Managers observing the final presentations of the top 10 Outstanding International Project Managers. The young woman? Translating the Chinese portions of the presentations, of course.
Each candidate showed slides of their projects and programs, and cited factors leading to their success. Their topics ranged from highways across Africa to India Sub-continent water and sewage systems, to world-class skyscrapers, to facilities for the 2006 Beijing Olympics. Such magnificent accomplishments they have achieved, and yet, they were all young: their ages probably ranged in the 30's. Their projects and programs ranged from the hundreds of millions to the billions.
Judging for this portion of the award was based on their presentation and communication skills--earlier processes had rated their papers, and the final score was to be based on a combined result of their paper score and their presentation.
Interestingly, most were nervous; some ended up reading their papers. Of course, I only know English, and they were not presenting in their native language, Mandarin. And they did a magnificent job.
After the scoring was completed, I was asked to say a few words to the audiience. Simultaneously translated, I pointed out that we did not have the 10 Top International Project Managers in the room... I went on to point out that we had the top 200, and those who presented were singled-out as being exceptional. It was interesting to see from the reactions who understood spoken English, and who relied on the translation.
I also pointed out that their Chairman demonstrated great presentation skills, and he was a role model worth emulating. I observed that many of today's great Project and Program Managers are limited in their upward path not by their project performance, but by their ability to convey it to others.
Adesh helped get this award started several years ago, and it is a good example of the cross-organization cooperation manifested by IPMA and its members. This experience was well-worth my half-hour tardy return to the Congress Hotel, where Rose was waiting.
About the Congress
The Congress itself was typical of recent IPMA Congresses: Much opportunity for networking and socializing, some excellent papers presented, and an opportunity to see a different part of the World, and how they view the practice of Project Management. Some of the keynote speeches were a little long, as was evidenced by the more-than-normal networking in the corridors.
I presented my paper, Distinguishing PM Competence in Training and Development,
Organizational Assessment and Certification, to a packed room. The paper is available on the asapm website. I used this Congress to introduce the version of PM CompModel that is aligned with IPMA's new ICB3. No, this was not a marketing spiel in the guise of a Congress speech: I made the tool freely available to all attendees, just as the asapm version is available to asapm members and friends.
The quality of the vendors presenting their wares was a bit higher than normal, with such organizations as the PM Institute actually staffing a booth this time (in India it was there, but vacant), and IIL had a convincing presence, including a rare captive audience in one of the most important tracks.
A special treat was the Awards Ceremony for Young Crew, where Young Crew Chair Michael Gessler masterminded a wonderfully intimate get-together for hundreds of young project managers and us older folks who support them. Bill Duncan and I (Stacy Goff), together with IPMA leaders from around the World, each presented half-day Young Crew sessions on topics that most of us don't begin to understand until we are ancient ... The eagerness and thirst for competence of the Young Crew members we encountered is stirring.
Shanghai itself is a wonder. Imagine Paris, 100 years from now: That's my impression of Shanghai, with its combination of Euro influence (from the 1800's) and the collection of magnificent skyscrapers, each architect trying to outdo the others for innovation, creativity, and wow-factor. The food was "different", and very good. We loved the lazy susan of a hundred dishes, each replaced or replenished when low.
The next IPMA World Congress is in Crakow, Poland, 18-20 June 2007. This will be the first World Congress in Europe since Budapest 2004, and y'all should plan to attend.
At right: Ruchira and Adesh Jain (India), with Rose and Stacy (USA) enjoy the dinner and Chinese wine on the final Congress evening. Thanks to Vladimir Voropaev (Russia) for the photograph.
|
