Ashima Sharma

3/22/18

PMI SW Ohio Summit

Relevant Project Management for

rapidly changing times

Introduction

Speaker Bio

Ashima Sharma, PMP

Director, PMO

PNC Financial Services

Ashima Sharma works as Director of Retail Lending Services Project Management Office (PMO) for PNC Bank.

Ashima’s team works on compliance, regulatory, process improvement projects and successful delivery of multiple strategic programs with multi million budget portfolio. She has established a consistent methodology and process for project management at PNC. Ashima specializes in change leadership and adoption. With her leadership, the team has successfully closed over 120 projects on time and within budget. Ashima manages a team of over 70 Project Managers and Business Analysts responsible for varied scope of projects including process, procedural changes, training and technology.

Ashima is a certified Project management Professional (PMP) and holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) with a major in Project Management.

Ashima has 15 years of Project Management, Business Analysis and leadership experience. She is an avid reader and a frequent speaker at leadership and project management forums. Ashima lives in Springboro Ohio, with her husband and two children,13 and 8 years.

Ashima has been volunteering with Dayton chapter of Project management Institute (PMI) since 2008, and is currently President of Dayton chapter of PMI. Ashima volunteers for Grow up Great to support early childhood education. She started an employee business resource group chapter ‘Women Connect’ at PNC that promotes Women in leadership.

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Agenda

• Thinking Exercise

• Discuss change experience

• Change factors and influencers

• Future – open dialog

• What’s next for Project Management

• Relevant PM Do’s and Don’ts

• Relevant Leadership

• Q&A

Please note: the session is ‘interactive’ and requires vocal participation and intellectual engagement.

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5 minute Thinking Exercise

Please complete the one page document

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Change Factors and

Influencers Personal Transition Curve

Diverse workforce

Job stickiness

Today’s Projects

External uncertainty

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Personal Transition Curve 6

Fisher’s Personal Transition Curve

Diverse workforce

Multiple generations – millennials

Cultural understanding

Acceptance in delegation

Make it personal

Virtual world

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Job Stickiness

Loyalty

Emotional needs – perceived care

Culture

Social responsibility

Challenge

Learning and growth

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Today’s Projects

Agile

Stakeholder relationship

Strategy over tactics

Principles over process

Perception of red tape

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External Uncertainty

Environmental and political

factors

Industry changes

New Technology

Regulations

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Organizational

Transformation

People, Process, Technology

Top down transformation leads to low buy in

Vision plays a role – the why

Create a chain of extensive communication

Long term AND short term

Lead through the transformation

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Back to the future?

What do you think is the future of Project

Management ? Share your thoughts.

“My interest is in the future as I will be

spending the rest of my life there.” –

Charles Kettering

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Will Project Management

stay important to business?

Short answer: No doubt

There will however be a shift in thought

process

How we do it now is not how we will do it

Future of Project Management in few

words:

Leadership

Value

Collaboration

Nimble

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What’s next for Project

Management?

Get involved with the strategy – seat at the table

Soft skills, leadership matters

Replace stakeholder management with partnership and buy-in

Value proposition – add value faster – no more 5-10 year plan

Transparency of results

Be the first to remove red tape – essential processes only

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What’s next for Project

Management?

Do less, do better

Keep Learning

Effective change agents change

themselves (attitude, learning)first

Get trained and train on working

with virtual teams

What’s important to the business is

important to you

Don’t be afraid to ask why!

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Do’s to stay relevant Do

Create a sandbox where everyone

wants to play

Stay flexible, fluid planning

Balance business needs with

auditability

Measure value – scorecard

Empathize – get in the shoes of

stakeholder

Engage – seek buy in

Simplify – Waterfall or Agile – Just

Keep It Simple

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Don’ts to stay relevant

Don’t

Sell painkillers vs Vitamins

Control; it is an illusion and a delusion

Think Linear

Inflexible Planning

Distrust

Stick to triple constraint

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Relevant Leadership

Growth mindset

Manage through the heart

Create a vision and trust

Role model

Welcome input

Servant leadership

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Project Management

Wisdom “The ‘P’ in PM is as much about People Management as

it is about Project Management” - Cornelius Fichtner

“You can get a great deal done from almost any position

in the organization if you focus on small wins and you

don’t mind others getting the credit.” - Roger Saillant

“Not everything that counts can be counted.” - Albert

Einstein

“Of all the things I have done, the most vital is

coordinating the talents of those who work for us and

pointing them towards a certain goal.” - Walt Disney

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Questions? 20

THANK YOU! Sources & Support

Good Reading:

Power Questions – Andrew Sobel; Jerold Panas

Humble Inquiry – Edgar Schein

HBR – Leading Change John P Kotter

What the CEO wants you to know – Ram Charan

Be Fast or Be Gone – Andreas Scherer

The Lazy Project Manager – Peter Taylor

No nonsense advice for successful projects – Neal Whitten

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