News & Updates
Strategy Aligned Project Management Webinar
Close the gap between strategy and projects!
Missed the live webinar? Register to watch a recording.
You’re invited to our Strategy Aligned Project Management Webinar!
In this free webinar, Jami Yazdani and IYCON CEO Jude Chagas Pereira will offer practical techniques for aligning projects and organizational strategy.
When & Where: Wednesday, January 26, 2022, at 1 PM ET via Zoom
Registration: Reserve your seat
From project planning and assessment to project tracking and management, you’ll be introduced to strategies and tools for closing the gap between projects and organizational strategy and for supporting more agile and impactful planning.
Now on LinkedIn Live: Our Impactful Project & Planning Microtraining Series
Our free monthly microtraining series will now premiere on LinkedIn Live.
Our Impactful Project & Planning Microtraining Series will now premiere monthly on LinkedIn Live.
This series covers project management and planning topics, from leading teams and projects to strategic and program planning, via free monthly trainings that last less than 15 minutes each.
During each LinkedIn Live premiere, Jami will be responding to your questions and comments in real-time. If you miss the premiere, the session content will continue to be available on-demand on LinkedIn and via our YouTube channel.
Our next microtraining premieres on Wednesday, November 17th at 2pm ET and will focus on going From Strategic Plan to Action Plan. We’ll talk about realistic strategies for successfully implementing your strategic goals.
Our new Impactful Project & Planning Microtraining Series!
Our new (free!) microtraining series will cover project management and planning topics in less than 15 minutes.
Our new Impactful Project & Planning Microtraining Series will cover project management and planning topics, from leading teams and projects to strategic and program planning, via free monthly trainings that last less than 15 minutes each.
These short trainings will premiere monthly on our YouTube channel. During the premiere, Jami Yazdani will be responding to your questions and comments via chat in real-time. If you miss the premiere or want to watch the content again, the session will continue to be available on demand.
Our first Impactful Project & Planning Microtraining Series premieres on Wednesday, August 18th at 2pm ET and will focus on Stakeholder Engagement. We’ll talk about simple strategies for engaging with our community of stakeholders during strategic planning and when managing projects.
Stepping Back before Moving Forward
How can we take the personal interactions our users and clients enjoyed, such as networking and brainstorming sessions, hands-on support, and product demonstrations, and move these experiences online?
At our recent Supporting Successful Collaborations Session, one of the topics of discussion was effectively replicating face-to-face interactions in a virtual environment. How can we take the personal interactions our users and clients enjoyed, such as networking and brainstorming sessions, hands-on support, and product demonstrations, and move these experiences online?
Image Description: Laptop drawn on notepad, with coffee mug
A session participant talked about how effective and fun her face-to-face interactions with her users had always been. She typically worked with multiple users at one time in the same setting, hopping from user to user as they needed support, with easy access to whiteboards and other tools. Moving her services online has meant a significant increase in interactions, with individual Zoom conferences and email and text exchanges added to group meetings. Trying to replicate her face-to-face interactions has been draining her time and her energy. And would this approach of increased interaction work as well with new users, who hadn’t already had the experience of working together face-to-face?
Over many conversations and in presentations, I’ve encouraged leaders to step back and consider their goals before moving forward with a transition to online services and tools. While virtual environments are rapidly improving and increasingly seeking to mimic in-person interactions (Remo, LunchPool, and Zoom’s Breakout Room feature come to mind), adopting these technologies may have unintended impacts on staff time and might be out of reach for some organization’s budgets. Rather than merely selecting tools to imitate in-person experiences, go back to the purpose and desired outcomes of the service or interaction and consider how those goals can be best served in a virtual environment. You may find that a different type of interaction or access to content using tools you already have (and with which your users are already comfortable) will also support your goals.
How has your organization managed the transition to virtual? Are you trying to replicate face-to-face interactions, or have you moved in a different direction? I’d love to chat with you and hear about your successes and challenges!
Supporting Successful Collaborations Discussion Session
Join us for a small group discussion on ways we can ensure successful collaborations during and after COVID-19.
How do we ensure successful collaborations during and after COVID-19?
Image by Engin Akyurt from Pixabay
Join us for a small group discussion of challenges to and strategies for pivoting and maintaining our collaborative projects and initiatives during and after the pandemic.
When: Thursday, May 14, 2020 from 2pm – 3pm (EDT) via WebEx
Registration will be limited to 8 attendees to allow for a productive and open discussion, so register today!
Don’t let the Technology Overwhelm the Process
How can we adopt new technology systems and effectively integrate them into our existing environments?
10 years ago, I co-presented at a national library conference on Who's driving the technology bandwagon - the users or the librarians? My co-presenters and I wanted to discuss the pull of new technology and question the practicality of implementing every shiny system that came along. As my career in libraries and higher education involved leading technology projects and implementations, I had a lot of experience watching organizations and departments chase the next big thing, hurtling after “the system that would improve everything” with only superficial planning and minor (or minimized) trepidation. I had also observed that these systems usually didn’t produce the dramatic shift that folks were hoping for, instead offering slight improvements with some headaches that were quickly eclipsed by the next new thing.
Image by Lucio Alfonsi from Pixabay
10 years later, I still see the same dynamic playing out across various organizations, and I continue to argue for a more strategic approach. While many organizations are set up to quickly adapt to and absorb new technologies (and I’m usually willing to test drive the new technology bandwagon for myself and my business), a greater many simply don’t have that bandwidth. Implementing a new system pulls time and resources from other priorities and can become another project in a long list of “things we should be doing, but don’t have the time to do well.”
It is in these low-bandwidth environments that the technology tends to overwhelm the processes. Rather than carefully planning for how the new system will fully integrate with or change existing processes, implementation is turned over to IT or the vendor, often separating the technology from the people and processes it will touch. Time is spent installing and configuring the system, rather than constructing the environment that will make the system successful. Training sessions and answers to questions refer to generic user manuals rather than offering concrete examples about how the technology will actually be used. The focus becomes the features of the technology and not how it will transform the work you are already doing.
So how can we adopt new technology systems and effectively integrate them into our existing environments?
1) Get clear about why you are implementing a new technology.
Carefully consider the purpose and goals of the new technology. Is there a strategic or practical reason for moving forward? How will this support or impact your strategic priorities?
2) Identify the people and processes that will be touched by this new system.
Who will interact with this system and when? What are the inputs to and outputs from the system? Consider not only people and processes interacting directly with the system, but also those one layer removed (ex. Jo will be using the system to generate reports, but those reports will be used by Susan, who may have some specific needs).
3) Include stakeholders in implementation planning and execution.
Don’t leave users or key stakeholders out of planning, testing and training. Those who will be directly using the new system are often in the best position to determine how the new system will realistically interact with existing processes. Inclusion also tends to boost support for change.
4) Map out effected processes and identify intersection points.
If your processes aren’t already documented, create workflow diagrams of the current processes that will be impacted by the new technology. Identify points where the new system will intersect with these processes. Share these maps with stakeholders and IT or vendors to help determine how the new system will be configured and whether changes need to be made to existing processes.
5) Assign a liaison to the vendor or IT.
Have a designated liaison to those installing or configuring the system. Beyond serving as the main point of contact, this liaison should be able to act as a spokesperson for stakeholders and to advocate for your needs, processes and environment.
Need support to implement a new system? Want guidance on planning or improving your processes?
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