Project Management Ideas Worth Sharing

To prepare us for the PMI marketing transformation that is ahead, I was lucky to participate in a preview of the type of audience and content PMI is currently exploring.

TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) is a brand many of us know well. With over 3,100 talks, it’s no surprise. The content is recognizable, meaningful and quotable. From learning about the strange world of sloths, agricultural revolutions, or the importance of vulnerability, the 20-minute presentations on topics that the world faces become rallying cries thanks to the incredible curation by the TED team and the amazing story-telling ability of the speakers.

Simon Sinek: How Great Leaders Inspire Action 

Amy Cuddy: Your Body Language Shapes Who You Are

Pierre-Majorique Léger | TEDxMontreal | Et si vous connaissiez les émotions de vos utilisateurs?

TED 2019, held in Vancouver, had some new faces this year, notably those of PMI members. Thanks to PMI and the Brightline initiative’s partnership with the event, a handful of PMI members were invited to join TED Emerging Innovators initiative, a group of professionals from PMI, Google, Facebook and others, tasked with moderating Table Talks and sharing the TED experience on social media. Thanks to our chapter’s strong social media community and content creation, I was honoured to be chosen to represent PMI-Montréal for the five-day, life-changing experience.

Why should PMI and the Brightline Initiative be at TED?

TED’s tagline is “Ideas worth sharing”. But ideas remain abstract, until someone decides to do something about them. The make-it-happen people, a.k.a Project Managers, possess the skills needed to make these world-changing ideas into actions that actually change the world. Bringing these two groups of people together; the dreamers and the project managers, is an important step to opening PMI and the Brightline Initiative to a larger audience and highlighting the importance of project professional roles.

Experiences Worth Sharing

It had been a long time since I last received a vacant look when I mentioned project management. The fact that I found myself having to explain what a project manager does to people I met at TED means we still have a long way to go making these skills known outside of our PMI and professional bubbles.

The most important lesson from this event was the importance of sharing, and I cannot stress this enough. We are nowhere as a chapter, as a community, or as a planet, without the sharing of knowledge and experience. One of the team members lost her luggage and shared the news with someone sitting next to her at the airport, who was also attending TED and happened to design clothing. The next morning, she found herself with a new wardrobe. This is a perfect example of the types of experiences we all had at TED, the connections made with new friends, old colleagues and inspiring speakers from around the world, and the simple potential of helping others solve problems by sharing stories.

Ambassadorship should be expected of all PMI members. It’s the challenge made by PMI-Montreal President Henri-Jean Bonnis last December; not just for the chapter, but for the profession, and finding the right words to communicate the importance of a project manager for project success remains one of our biggest challenges. 

Advocating that project managers can bring about the changes that are necessary for our communities not just to survive, but to thrive, is about making more people aware of what you do.  Partnering with an organisation like TED is a step towards recognition and cultivating the best way to communicate this to a larger audience.

Be a part of this transformation of the profession, and make sure to share your experiences, successes, failures and stories about the critical importance that an intervention by a project professional can make to turn an idea into reality.

TEDsters are optimists who get great ideas in the shower: the Brightline data experience at TED2019

Stay tuned for more content from TED2019 and how PMI is harnessing this partnership to support their transformation.

More from TED :

Truth, Tribes, and Possibility at TED2019

Brightline Initiative and TED Case - How InSTEDD Transformed the Way We Manage Pandemics