PMI Switzerland Chapter Newsletter February, 2019

Editorial

Author: Carlos Martinez Arteaga, PMP

Dear members and newsletter subscribers,

Dealing with uncertainty can surely be tough, at least for me, who likes to enjoy a peaceful time every now and then... The way uncertainty affects me is that it does not allow me to focus 100% on my work, as it is always in the back of my mind, not allowing me to concentrate on what I am doing. It also makes me feel nervous, and I get irritated quite easily. Uncertainty for me is certainly not good at all.

I have been told that there are certain things that one can do to make these painful moments easier to handle, as uncertainty cannot be fully "managed", due to the fact that we do not know how things will turn out in the end. For example one thing we can do if we think something bad might be coming is expect the worst, and therefore when it comes we will somehow be ready to take the hit... therefore this planning in advance to the event occurring could help us deal with it better. Also we can turn it all around by thinking even further and planning how we can get the best out of the situation, thereby salvaging some bit of profit out of the bad if possible. If we picture the event, and see ourselves dealing with it, it is usually a good exercise which prepares us when having to face the moment. It is basically being positive.

Another tip I was told is to make something happen, that is, try to make certain what is uncertain, thereby making the situation more manageable. As said previously uncertainty usually makes us anxious, and this is not healthy, therefore if we make things happen this will lower our anxiety levels.

Then there is also the need to calm ourselves down. We should sit down and determine what we know versus what we don't know. Sometimes we over excite ourselves about something that in reality is minor, and when we start really thinking about the issue as a whole we realize that we can handle more than we initially thought. Then what remains as uncertainty is far less cumbersome. We then see that we can relax and will probably face the situation quite well.

Finally there is a saying that I repeat myself in these moments of uncertainty which is "There is no such harm that would not trigger something good". It comes from Spain and the translation itself might be a bit confusing, but in reality what it means is that something bad or harmful can then become the trigger for good things to happen.

Cheers,
Carlos
Copy Editor

Members Update

Author: Alp Camci, PMP

28 new members joined our Chapter, bringing the active membership to 1700 as at the end of December. A warm welcome to all!

Congratulations also to the members who obtained certifications in December: 11 PMP and 1 PMI-ACP.

The following members provided information about themselves: Margaret Braun, Simon Peak, and Dimitris Varmazis.

Message from the Board

Author: Julia Posselt, PMP

2019 PMI Switzerland Board Announced

We are happy to announce that Irina Petkova has been elected President of the 2019 PMI Switzerland Board.

Our big thanks goes to Stefan Vesenmeier and his glorious PMI Basel Events Team for a superb AMM 2019 where Michael Murray, our onstage host, led through the evening. We bid farewell to Serge Garazi who handed over to Philippe Soupart, our new VP Operations. We welcomed Thijs Wijnands as new VP Professional Development and are super happy to have Loïc Hascher reelected to continue as VP Members.

Congratulations also to Daniel Rodellar for being the “PMI Switzerland Volunteer of the Year 2018”.

Our ambition for 2019?

We start with good inspiration from the AMM Keynote "Breaking Down Barriers – 5 Decisions for a Successful Mindset" with Matthias Berg:

• We take action and focus on our ability
• We stay disciplined when things get challenging
• And we take responsibility to use our mandates for providing you, our dear PMI Switzerland Community, with the most joyful times

Our stance and attitude? Being thankful, being optimistic.

Cordially,
Julia Posselt
VP Special Projects

Event Report - Leadership Tai Chi

Author: Sebastian Dutkowski, PMP

On January 22nd the chapter held an event at the HWZ in Zürich dedicated to discovering how Tai chi could possibly relate to project management.

Tai chi, as some of you might know, is a Chinese martial arts sport, but some of its schools focus primarily on health effects and aesthetic appeal. This is similar to Japanese Kata, which is mostly known due to Karate. Those schools of Tai chi, because of its slow movements, can sometimes be perceived as closer to yoga and as a form of dance as a pose to martial arts. Practitioners of this kind of Tai chi will try to keep physically balanced while doing strenuous exercises. For example, they might try to do a particular exercise while standing on one foot only. Practitioners will also try to perform all of their movements with finesse.

So is the work of the project manager. We project managers make moves, we encourage and push people when we stand behind them, we pull them when we are in front. We embrace them when we are with them. Sometime we leave them on the ground and go high above the clouds to understand the big picture. Project management, from the moment of project initiation until project closure is a dance where project managers are making sure that things move forward, that his/her people do the right things and that his/her stakeholders help, if possible, or in some cases, stay out of the way.

The night was moderated by Julia Posselt who is an independent coach with plenty of experience from Banking and Pharma, by Norun Laahne Thomassen who is a coach with tons of experience in coaching individuals but also whole teams in the corporate environment, and by Gail Corbett-Smith who coaches in the corporate environment and individually, and works with people experiencing trauma and overwhelming situations. Continue reading article here.

PMI Switzerland Chapter Social Good team workshop with Medair

Author: Ka Yi Hui, PMP

On Friday 26th October 2018, the PMI-Switzerland chapter social good team (Agata Czopek, Ph.D., PMP; Devendra Rana, PMP and Ka Yi Hui, Ph.D., PMP) held a 5-hour project management training workshop at the Medair headquarters in Ecublens, Canton Vaud.

Medair is a humanitarian organization inspired by Christian faith to relieve human suffering in some of the world’s most remote and devastated places. In 2017, Medair served more than 2.1 million people in 13 countries. The staff in the Switzerland headquarters play an essential role in facilitating and supporting the teams in the local target countries in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia.

Medair not only provides humanitarian aid in areas with on-going crises but they also respond to emergencies like the Tsunami in Indonesia. The staff in the HQ are always ready to travel to the field and help those in need. This dynamic nature of their work poses a unique challenge for the organization when it comes to managing the human resources in projects. Because of that, we dedicated a session in the workshop focusing on this topic. Read full article here.

Event Report - AMM Keynote Breaking Down Barriers - 5 Decisions for a Successful Mindset, Basel 07.02.19

Author: Geetanjali Bhat, PMP

We have perhaps thought of what we want to be many times, but have we ever thought of how we are behaving? If we correlate “what we want to be” with “how we behave” we might learn that we actually behave exactly opposite of “what we want to be.”

This was the introductory message by the great achiever and tremendously successful lawyer, musician, sportsman, and speaker …. Mr. Matthias Berg

We define a goal, we see the stones laid on our path, but as we walk on this path arranged to reach our goal, the stones turn out to be white flowers! There will always be stones on our path, but converting them to flowers can only be accomplished through a successful mindset. That was exactly the topic from our keynote speaker at the AMM: Breaking Barriers for A Successful Mindset!

Coordination between “What we want to be” and “How we behave” is what we need to master to achieve a good mindset. Matthias took us through his tough life journey, accomplishing huge successes in his vocations and in his life breaking the biggest barrier of all – MINDSET

Matthias says the difference between “I have to” and “I want to” is the energy engaged to accomplish it. That energy will make us excellent in our work. The proof of that are his achievements, a total of 27 medals (11 gold, 10 silver and 6 bronze), being one of the most successful disabled athletes in the world and still achieving more. He currently represents disabled sports in national and international committees.

It is not important to think where fate puts us, but what we create (positively) out of it. He studied music and law simultaneously and started playing the horn at the age of just 7 years old, which led to several stories under the “diversity and inclusion” topic. The way we see the world has an impact on our success. When we see the world in a positively different way, overcoming challenges can become much simpler, which bring about breakthroughs in our lives. Read the complete article here.

Kerzerslauf 2019

Contributed by: Julia Posselt, PMP

On Saturday, 16 March 2019!

Move into action and join our PMI Swiss Running Team.

What's in for you as a PMI member?

You are invited for an après-run apéro in Kerzers from 15:00 to 17:00 opposite the train station at "Club Cafe Bahnhof".

Club Cafe Bahnhof
Bahnhofplatz 16
3210 Kerzers
Switzerland

For the apéro, register through Eventbrite after logging in to https://pmi-switzerland.ch/index.php/events

For the run, register individually and directly at the event website: https://www.kerzerslauf.ch/

Closing date for registration is Monday, 24 February 2019. See full event details here.