Webinar for PMI Northern Italy Chapter 30.3.2020

1. A PRANZO CON IL NIC
THOMAS WALENTA
30.3.2020

2. A PRANZO CON IL NIC
“How to become a better person
in order to be a successful project
leader”
Thomas Walenta, thwalenta@online.de
o With IBM 1983-2014, PM since 1988
o With PMI 1992-todate
o PMP 1998, PgMP 2014, Fellow 2012
o Frankfurt Chapter President 1998-2015
o PMI Board 2006-2008, 2017-2019
o Ethics Review Committee 2011-2016
o born and lives in Germany
o Connect me www.linkedin.com/in/thwalenta/
2
Click on the icon to insert photo of the
speaker

3. Yusra Mardini from
Damascus, Syria
Swimming Champion,
17 years old
A motor dhingi designed for 6,
loaded with 19 - 2015 from Turkey to Lesbos, 25km
Ø motor stopped, boat took water
Ø Yusra jumped in sea, followed by 3 others
Ø pulling the boat, keeping it afloat
Ø after 3 hours motor started – all were saved
A good person, a leader

4. What does it mean to be good (ethical) person?
• What can I be to make project success more probable?
§ How can I interact with others for this?
§ How can I support the team to be effective?
me
Behave
ethical
they
Build trust
we
Lead
effectively
it
Succeed
with the
team

5. A PRANZO CON IL NIC
Ethical values describe triggers to our emotions
5
Responsibility, accountability
Respect, mindfulness, tolerance, diversity
Fairness, justice, equitable
Honesty, truth, integrity
Freedom, autonomy
Community, family, relatedness
Compassion, Care, Love
Humility, reverence for life
8 human values found in most human cultures observed (Rushworth Kidder)
Compassion, care, love, help
PMI Code of Ethics and
Professional Responsibility

6. How fairness and reciprocity developed during evolution

7. A PRANZO CON IL NIC
Ethical behavior + Influencing skills = Positive Leadership
Ethical values – voluntarily limit options for my action
(tools can be used for ethical and unethical purposes)
Values connect, Beliefs divide
Ethical decision-making types:
• Good-bad (easy)
• Good-good (dilemma), needs balance, experience (depends on situation)
• shall I be honest and tell him he has a stain on his shirt or shall I respect
him as he is and not embarrass him? Honesty vs. respect.
• I am responsible to reduce headcount, how to be fair and respectful
• Moral courage (heroic), personal danger

8. A PRANZO CON IL NIC
Neuroleadership – SCARF (David Rock)
Understand (and mitigate) automatic emotional reactions engrained in our brain
to observe/manage yourself (self-control) and influence others
Flight (fear)
Attack
(aggression)
Minimize
danger
Maximize
Award
Fairness
Certainty
Autonomy
Relatedness
Status
ThinkLimbicSystemPrefrontal
cortex
SCARF: five emotional responses of the limbic
system to be damped, if you want to be rational
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Trigger

9. A PRANZO CON IL NIC
Fairness
In order to lead and influence, we have to understand motivations that
drive our reactions and try to smooth the triggers that might result in
emotions
Certainty
Autonomy
Relatedness
Status
As a Project Manager, ….
I am the one that helps people feel safe, makes things
happen, makes ideas come true
I create a path forward (a plan) to make sure client and
team understand what to expect and when
I decide for the best way solving problems
I get all the support from my team because I ensure they
can do meaningful work and we together have success
I ensure that everybody is involved and trusts fellow team
members and clients
SCARF
(David Rock)
davidrock.net/
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10. Values support positive emotions to enable ethical decision making
Responsibility,
accountability
Respect, mindfulness,
tolerance, diversity
Fairness, justice,
equitable
Honesty, truth, integrity
Freedom
Community, family
Compassion, Care, Love
Humility, reverence for
life
Status
Certainty
Autonomy
Relatedness
Fairness
8 human values
(Rushworth Kidder)
5 automatically triggered
emotions (David Rock)
Compassion, Care, Love
fear
lonely
forced
inferior
unjust
courage
hope
protected
empowered
valued
equal
How humans feel if emotions are
triggered positively/negatively

11. A PRANZO CON IL NIC
Reminder: Emotional Intelligence – a base for leadership
self awareness:
confidence,
authenticity
self control:
mindfulness, resilience
empathy:
learning,
understanding, listen
influence:
leadership, impact
Compassion:
Self-motivation,
flow,
resilience

12. How to plan to be a good / ethical person?
inform yourself,
become aware
Read, learn,
discuss about
Ethics
know your
biases, feelings
build EI self-
awareness
set your
targets,
measurement
Eulogy virtues
> CV virtues
“how to
become a good
ancestor”
one good deed
a day
develop habits,
prepare
strategies
what if …, then
I will do …
be empathetic,
mindfulness
have a mentor,
look for role
models
choose your
workplace and
your friends
let people know
become a
mentor
show morale
courage

13. Eulogy virtues
Often reported last regrets of people dying:
o I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me
o I wish I had not worked so hard
o I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings
o I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends
o I wish I had let myself be happier
Eulogy statements are mostly referring ethical behavior
o ‘champion for those who had none’
o ‘caring for those in need’
o Generous, humble, helping, friendly, humorous, giving, ..
o a good mother, father, boss, ..

14. How to make good decisions?
stay calm,
avoid stress
build EI self-
control
search for
ethical
issues
decisions:
avoid
rationali-
zations
publicity test
is it OK if
published?
mirror test
what do I think
about this
decision maker?
generalization
test
is this a good
example for
others?
resist social
pressure
change
perspectives
deontology
(action / duty
based)
follows
prescribed
moral principles
- Codes
utilitarism
(consequence
based)
it provides
highest value to
most
virtue ethics
(Aristotle /
Confucius)
it shows I am a
morally good
person
ownership
= be
responsible
obtain help
ombudsman,
mentor,
frameworks

15. PMI’s Ethical Decision-Making Framework (EDMF)
on pmi.org

16. How to improve and learn?
reflect, check
targets
debrief,
retrospective,
measure
ask for
feedback
affected
people,
observers,
mentors
avoid
unethical
people /
environments
alternatively;
build resilience
identify/review
strategies
to deal with
dilemmas
to deal with
unethical
encounters
share
examples
use
story telling
LinkedIn,
pm.com
help others
give feedback
become a
mentor
this is best way
to learn

17. Leadership can be seen when you observe a shift ..
From To
Uncertainty Certainty
Chaos Structure
Fear Hope
Vision Results
Activism Plan
Waste Discipline
Hesitation Decision
Core Leadership Competencies (Bradbury/Greaves)
Strategy
Vision
Acumen
Planning
Courage to lead
Action
Decisiveness
Communication
Mobilizing others
Results
Risk taking
Results focus
Agility

18. A PRANZO CON IL NIC
Leaders on Corona virus and AI
Elon Musk 6.3.2020:
“The coronavirus panic is dumb”
Bill Gates 28.2.2020:
“I hope it’s not so bad, but we should assume
that it will be until we know otherwise”
Emotional Intelligence is the ability to identify, understand, and manage emotions in ourselves and others.
“The world hasn’t had that many technologies that are
both promising and dangerous — you know, we had
nuclear energy and nuclear weapons,”
“I am really quite close, I am very close, to the
cutting edge in AI and it scares the hell out
of me. It’s capable of vastly more than almost
anyone knows and the rate of improvement is
exponential.”
What do you feel reading Musk and Gates? Scared or hopeful?
Who is managing your emotions in a way you like?
Both influence.

19. A PRANZO CON IL NIC 19
Everyone
is a
Leader

20. 20A PRANZO CON IL NIC
I prossimi “pranzi” con il NIC
PMO e cultura di project management
Maria Cristina Barbero
20 marzo
The journey towards Agility: lessons learned from successes and failures (part I)
Simona Bonghez
23 marzo
The journey towards Agility: lessons learned from successes and failures (part II)
Simona Bonghez
24 marzo
Knowledge workers come fattore di successo del progetto
Tiziano Villa
27 marzo
How to become a better person... in order to be a successful project leader
Thomas Walenta
30 marzo
Il tempo sospeso
Michela Ruffa
31 marzo
An introduction to program management
Sergio Pellegrinelli
2 aprile
Riflessioni sull’essere e il fare virtuale18 marzo
Giusi Meloni

21. 21A PRANZO CON IL NIC
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21
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