As we kick off 2023, project leaders are looking ahead to new challenges and opportunities as well as looking back at what they accomplished in 2022. Projectified® reconnected with previous guests to discuss the biggest changes they have seen in the world of projects over the last year, their top lessons learned, plus what they’re excited about—and the skills project managers need to succeed—in the year ahead. 

Guests include Elton Soares, PMP, project manager, General Electric, Florianópolis, Brazil; Nontobeko Mathenjwa, project manager, South African National Roads Agency Limited, Johannesburg; Kierstin Gray, PMI-ACP, PMP, program director, Argodesign, Brooklyn, New York, USA; Manuel Segura Pérez, PMP, head of project and construction management, Repsol, Madrid; Malong Dong, PMP, enterprise portfolio manager, Reserve Bank of Australia, Sydney.

Key Themes 

[02:05] Changes in 2022: an increasing focus on delivering value

[04:59] How project leaders can adapt to changing stakeholder involvement and expectations

[12:32] Tips for 2023: improving communication skills and team agility

[17:07] How teams can build resiliency and embrace new tech and ways of working

To deliver an organization’s strategic objectives, project leaders must be able to look across the portfolio and decide which projects provide value and should be pursued, which go on the back burner and which are abandoned entirely. We discuss this with:

Sunando Chaudhuri, PMP, PgMP, PfMP, director of IT, Abu Dhabi National Exhibitions Company Group, Abu Dhabi: Chaudhuri discusses why project leaders must understand their organizations’ goals to best prioritize projects, the different types of business value projects can deliver—and how that factors into project portfolio decisions—along with ways project managers can keep executive leaders aligned, even in the face of personal agendas and pet projects.

B. Firat Dengiz, PMP, PgMP, PfMP, program leader, Turkish Aerospace Industries, Ankara, Turkey: Dengiz discusses the metrics and data he considers when making project portfolio decisions, how he factors stakeholders into his decision-making process and ways to build buy-in from the C-suite. 

Key themes

[02:57] The different ways to calculate business value 

[04:14] Ways to manage pet projects and personal agendas

[07:10] Ensuring project portfolio decisions align with organizational strategy

[10:28] Metrics to consider when prioritizing project portfolios

[12:01] Engaging stakeholders to build support for decision-making

[14:38] Tackling challenges project managers face when prioritizing portfolios

[16:36] Determining how to build buy-in with different C-suite leaders

From feats of engineering and art to exploring the unknown, the 2022 Most Influential Projects showcase innovative and creative efforts from teams across sectors and regions. We discuss two of these projects with:

Alicia Tkacz, partner and architect, Stufish, London: Tkacz discusses how producers, animators, architects and pop superstars ABBA collaborated to create the immersive ABBA Voyage show and the bespoke ABBA Arena, how clear decision-making processes kept team members aligned, and how the show and venue could impact the future of entertainment.

Steve Hebda, VP of farm development, Crop One Holdings, Newport, Rhode Island, USA: Hebda discusses developing Dubai’s Emirates Crop One, the world’s largest vertical farm, how team members collaborated and built trust with one another from across the globe and how this project will inform future vertical farm efforts.


Key themes

[01:24] PMI’s 2022 Most Influential Projects

[02:16] Creating the ABBA Voyage concert experience and ABBA Arena

[06:21] Problem solving to design and build a fully demountable venue

[08:40] How ABBA Voyage and its bespoke arena could change entertainment

[10:10] Building the world’s largest vertical farm in Dubai

[11:46] Creating cohesive teams with clear communication and trust

[15:06] Lessons learned for future vertical farms: Scalability and automation

Project management offices (PMOs) are evolving, taking on a greater strategic role to deliver value. We discuss this with:

Fiona Lin, PMI-ACP, PMP, VP of the enterprise PMO, agile PMO and business transformation, Snap Finance, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA: Lin discusses why PMOs must support organizations across projects, programs, portfolios and processes, the importance of including PMOs in strategy planning, and how PMOs can help adopt and encourage new ways of working.

R. Rooban Annamalai, PMP, project management and PMO lead, Christie’s, London: Annamalai explains how he’s seen the PMO’s role evolve to include more strategic decision-making, how PMOs can help push teams and organizations forward and his vision for the future of the PMO.

Key themes

[01:12]
The PMO’s evolution: Taking on strategy creation and project execution

[02:56]
Creating PMOs—and building buy-in—at a fintech company

[06:00]
Spreading the PMO’s role across projects, programs, portfolios and processes

[07:52]
3 ways PMO leaders help teams adopt new ways of working

[14:59]
How PMOs use lessons learned, business acumen to push organizations forward

[16:50]
The ROI of PMOs with a strategic role

Artificial intelligence is no longer a futuristic concept. Project leaders are putting AI to use on everything from automating day-to-day tasks to analyzing risk. We discuss this with:

Milie Taing, founder and CEO, Lili.ai, Paris: Taing explains how project leaders’ perspective of AI has changed over the last few years, how AI is helping project leaders deliver more value and what impact a larger AI ecosystem will have on project management moving forward.

Syed Ahsan Mustaqeem, PMP, senior engineer, Pakistan Petroleum, Ltd., Karachi, Pakistan: Mustaqeem talks about how AI-driven tools help him automate processes and glean insights from data, how these tools allow team members to reallocate time toward more strategic and problem-solving tasks and challenges project leaders might face using AI on projects.

Key themes

[02:20] How AI is adding value to projects

[04:26] The future of AI: Moving from early use cases to an AI ecosystem 

[05:23] How AI is changing the role of project leader

[11:01] Using AI-driven tools to boost efficiency and glean insights from data

[13:45] Why AI is pushing project leaders to further develop power skills 

[15:24] How AI can help project leaders—not replace them

It’s time to lean into the power skills—communication, problem-solving, collaborative leadership and strategic thinking—that help project leaders influence stakeholders and deliver successful projects. We discuss this with:

Swapna Yadavalli, PMP, PgMP, PfMP, VP of technology program management, Mastercard, Pune, India: Yadavalli discusses how leaders with power skills help their teams succeed, how strong communication and collaboration helped her team deliver a large-scale program and ways fellow project leaders can further develop their own power skills.

Manuel Segura Pérez, head of project and construction management, Repsol, Madrid: Segura Pérez shares why communication is a critical power skill for all leaders and how he helped foster greater communication and collaboration on a joint venture.

 
Key themes

[02:04] How power skills boost collaboration on cross-functional teams

[04:49] Using communication and collaborative leadership to deliver a successful program

[06:30] Ways project leaders can develop power skills

[08:14] Using empathy to improve power skills within teams

[11:00] Selecting future leaders with power skill potential

In today’s uncertain business landscape, companies must be more agile than ever, embracing new ways of working and nurturing a changemaker mindset across teams. We discuss this with:

Anne Cherouny, organizational change management leader, Boeing, Arlington, Virginia, USA: Cherouny discusses the benefits of organizational agility, how a lack of coordination and structured change management can hinder organizations’ agility, and how project leaders can embrace new ways of working on their teams.

Amol Pradhan, chief transformation officer, services integration hub cloud advisory and enterprise agility, IBM, Singapore: Pradhan discusses challenges organizations face when building organizational agility into company culture, why it’s important for leaders to communicate and prepare teams for organizational change, and how IBM built agility into its HR teams’ operations.

Key themes

[02:13] The ROI of organizational agility

[04:21] How lack of coordination and collaboration hinders organizational agility

[05:56] Boosting agility on teams through a shared vision and new ways of working

[12:50] How to communicate with and prepare teams for organizational change 

[14:20] How IBM built agility into its HR operations

As urbanization increases worldwide, the public transportation sector is evolving. Teams are launching projects to meet changing consumer demands and employing new technologies with the goal of making public transport systems more sustainable, accessible and efficient. We discuss this with: 

Graham Currie, director of the Public Transport Research Group and professor of public transport, Monash University, Melbourne: Currie talks about innovations in technology and public transportation infrastructure, how increased governance could affect projects across the sector, and what innovations he’s excited to see next in public transit. 

Camile Machado, project manager for new mobility, TransLink, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada: Machado discusses how the Shared Mobility Compass Card pilot experimented with new ways to link Vancouver’s various transportation options, how the team plans to use riders’ feedback for the project’s next phase, and the benefits of public-private partnerships in public transportation.

Key themes

[02:33] Innovations in ICT, infrastructure in public transportation  

[04:32] How greater governance could impact public transportation projects

[08:53] TransLink’s Shared Mobility Compass Card pilot looks at new ways to link multimodal transit options

[15:45] Determining project strategy and goals with partners to boost collaboration

The energy sector is evolving, with organizations and governments alike rethinking their options to push for a more sustainable future. We discuss this with:

Meriem Lhammoumi, senior project manager, Jesa, Casablanca, Morocco: Lhammoumi shares how green hydrogen can impact the world’s decarbonization efforts, must-have skills to execute these projects, and the need for innovation in hydrogen storage solutions.

Iván Jara, head of engineering, procurement and construction, Atlas Renewable Energy, Santiago, Chile: Jara discusses how Sol del Desierto—one of the largest solar plants in Chile—is essential for the country’s renewable energy strategy, how his team tested and implemented innovative tech to boost the plant’s efficiency, and how the project created positive social impact through increased female employment.

Key themes

[02:09] Green hydrogen’s impact on the renewable energy sector

[04:19] What skills teams need to execute green hydrogen projects

[08:06] The Sol del Desierto solar plant’s role in Chile’s renewable energy transition

[10:15] Creating positive social impact through women’s training programs 

[12:06] Testing and implementing new tech in solar projects

Organizations worldwide are putting greater focus on ESG (environmental, social and governance). As companies ramp up their efforts, leaders are determining how to integrate ESG into their projects. We discuss this with:

Mauricio Bolaños, PMP, ESG operations and program manager, VMware, Heredia, Costa Rica: Bolaños discusses how his company’s ESG office works across business units to collaborate with project leaders to integrate and track ESG efforts in their projects, the value of incorporating ESG into risk management, and why he doesn’t see ESG as a competition.

Abhay Bhavsar, PMP, head of ESG and safety, Fourth Partner Energy Private Limited, Pune, India: Bhavsar shares how his organization built buy-in for ESG practices across the enterprise, used data and stakeholder engagement to create its ESG agenda, and ensures teams utilize and report ESG processes on projects.

Key themes

[02:20] Educating and collaborating with teams to integrate ESG into projects

[06:47] Factoring ESG into risk management

[07:41] Embracing ESG to boost innovation and creativity

[10:19] Building enterprise-wide buy-in for ESG

[11:04] Using data to create Fourth Partner Energy’s ESG agenda

[14:10] Ensuring ESG processes are put into practice—and reported—on projects