Posted on 1 Comment on The Imperative to Innovate in Project Management

The Imperative to Innovate in Project Management

Professional development is not simply learning a few skills to put in your toolbox – it is about constantly improving yourself and being aware of trends. As a graduate of UW Tacoma’s Project Management program and a member of the Project Management Institute (PMI), I find it critical to stay up on both and encourage others to do the same. One recent article on PMI Thought Leadership, in particular, caught our attention here at the Professional Development Center: The Innovation Imperative (2020). We are in a time of nonstop disruption “and the need for unconventional thinking will only grow more urgent as organizations emerge from the COVID-19 crisis to face tremendous economic uncertainty.” 

Here are the three big ideas for innovative companies to focus on – and how UW Tacoma can help you: 

  • Future-Proof the Project Team 
    • Hire people with the skills. Invest in them. 
  • Put Data in the Driver’s Seat 
    • Avoid making decisions on faulty information. 
  • Build the Infrastructure 
    • Create a culture of innovation. 

According to the Project Management Institute, “three in four project leaders say their organizations will invest more to promote project management innovation over the next 10 years.” Learn more about the current trends of innovative organizations and the keys to focus.

What are you waiting for? Get all of your team up to speed on these skills and trends with our Project Management course taught by Angel Latterell, which starts on February 4th! 

Contact Christopher Cellars, or the rest of our team, at uwtpdc@uw.edu if you have questions about this program or any others offered through the UW Tacoma Professional Development Center. 

Posted on

Lessons from the Lean Transformation Conference

While the Professional Development Center staff were disappointed not to be able to exhibit at a physical Lean Transformation Conference this year, we did take advantage of many of the virtual sessions Results Washington still hosted as an opportunity for state employees to learn, share, and grow their Lean skills. The main focus of the conference may have been on state employees but the applicability of the sessions went far beyond the government sector.

The main focus of the conference may have been on state employees, but the applicability of the sessions went far beyond the government sector.

Here are some key learnings we left with:

Find the tools that work for you and adapt them

Lean is a flexible approach that can be applied to many different organizational structures, industries, and processes. Its many tools can be combined and remixed in a variety of ways to fit your needs. For example:

  • While a Value Stream Map is a core tool for identifying work pile-ups and the impact of time on a process, you may be better served by a flow chart if there are decision points involved.
  • Lean’s foundations are in manufacturing where suppliers and customers are distinct entities, but that’s not always the case in government and service work. What changes when the person who supplies you information is also the recipient of what you do with it?
  • Measurement may mean clocking processes with a stopwatch, time stamping a document as it moves through a process, or counting inventory. It all depends!

Lean, at its core

Speakers across the sessions reiterated that it can be very easy to get caught up in all the tools and processes related to Lean, but that practitioners can anchor themselves with a few key concepts:

  • Eden Teachout (“Mapping Your Path – Using Value Stream Maps to Improve” session): Lean is “work science” based on flow and how energy or items move through a system, as Joanne Gaudet and Fance Bergeron define it in “Lean: it’s not rocket science, it’s work science”.
  • PDC White Belt alum Sam Wilson (“Lean Basics” session): “Lean is always about making things better.”
  • Governor Jay Inslee (Opening Remarks): “It’s about how we get the community to work together in a more efficient, effective, and more resilient way. That’s what Results Washington and Lean Washington is about.”

Lean is about people

From the Governor’s opening remarks through the following six days of sessions, speakers emphasized that Lean is not just about processes. It’s about people. A truly effective Lean practitioner knows they must also build their leadership and management skills to lead projects to success.

Sam Wilson and Mike Fay posited that the “people side of lean” is just as important as the analytic side, building on Vann Smiley’s concept of Lean L3 (Listen, Learn, Lead) in his keynote. UWT Professional Development Center instructor Wendy Fraser taught the importance of building and repairing trust within your team, without which your efforts may fail. Other sessions covered the importance of coaching conversations, leading with integrity and intention, communication, and change management. 

The continuous process of improving yourself

Results Washington puts on the Lean Transformation Conference every year to continue developing Lean skills in our state. But you can only learn so much in a 1-hour webinar. What’s your next step?

  • Just starting out with Lean Six Sigma? Our 5-hour, introductory White Belt training will be offered online over two days (Nov 20 and Dec 4)
  • Ready to jump in and become a true Lean Six Sigma practitioner? Green Belt classes start back up in January 2021, fully online.
  • Stepping up as a Lean leader? Lean Six Sigma Black Belt is offered three times a year for active Green Belts who want to move into coaching and supervisory roles.

Contact Saralyn Smith, or the rest of our team, at uwtpdc@uw.edu if you have questions about the Lean Six Sigma program or any others offered through the UW Tacoma Professional Development Center. 

Posted on 2 Comments on Meet the Instructors: Dr. LaMont Green

Meet the Instructors: Dr. LaMont Green

[Meet the Instructors is a series intended to introduce you to one of the greatest resources the University of Washington Tacoma Professional Development Center has to offer: its diverse team of veteran, industry-tested professionals. The Center’s professional development programs are designed to be rewarding, challenging and cutting-edge. Our instructors play no small part in that, ensuring students are exposed to the most current industry trends while remaining well-versed in the tried-and-true best practices of their professions. We’re excited to share our instructors with you, and their stories are a great place to start.]

Tell me a little bit about yourself.

My name is LaMont Green. I am a descendant of the Gullah Geechee people from the Low County area of South Carolina, where I was born. I’ve lived in Tacoma for over 20 years and graduated with a degree in Social Work from UW Tacoma – I love our diverse community!

For nearly 20 years, I have worked to help local communities and governments identify and dismantle the persistent drivers of inequity across human services, homelessness, housing, behavioral health, and criminal justice systems. I have been very fortunate to lead several community-driven initiatives centered on improving care systems for complex health and historically disenfranchised populations. I received a Doctorate of Social Work from the University of Southern California with a focus on harnessing social innovation to address the Grand Challenge of Achieving Equal Opportunity and Justice for All. But, most importantly, I am the father of 2 wonderful Labradoodles – Buddy and Brodie:-)

What led you to your Special Initiatives Director position for King County?

King County was awarded a 5.4 million dollar grant from HUD – the Youth Homelessness Demonstration Program (YHDP) – to test strategies to end unaccompanied youth and young adult homelessness effectively. I was hired to implement the program and lead King County’s Campaign to End Youth Homelessness. The Youth Homelessness Demonstration Program resulted in significant reductions of unaccompanied youth experiencing unsheltered homelessness by advancing young adult voices and participation in governance, design, and evaluation of housing and supportive services.

Youth Homelessness has been an issue close to my heart for some time now. As a young man, after military service, I became homeless, depressed, and drug-addicted, struggling with my own internalized demons resulting from living in a society that constantly reminded me that due to my skin color or sexual orientation that I am inferior; I do not belong, and I am a second class citizen. Luckily, as a Veteran, there were services available to help support my recovery; however, this is not the case for many young people in our community. Black, Brown, Indigenous, LGBTQ, and Trans* youth are tremendously overrepresented in the homelessness system due to the generational impacts of systemic oppression intersecting with race, gender, and class.
I enjoy this work and learn so much from young people experiencing homelessness. Their resiliency, creativity, and bravery in the face of rejection, othering, and shaming fuels me to join with them and others to create liberating communities where we all belong and have opportunities to thrive.

Who do you see benefiting from these two day-long workshops on institutional racism in the nonprofit sector?

Anyone and everyone that works in the nonprofit sector. This training is beneficial for case managers, nonprofit executives, board of directors, program directors, senior leadership, data specialists, outreach specialists, behavioral health professionals, medical staff, etc. We all play a crucial role in ensuring that we address the persistent drivers of inequity.

What are your goals for students to bring back to their organization?

There are three things that I want students to learn and bring back to their organization:

  1. A deep understanding of the history of systemic racism and connecting that history to present-day manifestations of inequity;
  2. Gaining greater competency in identifying, describing, and undoing organizational policies, procedures, and practices that continue to drive racial disparities; and
  3. Becoming familiar with helpful frameworks and tools that can be utilized to lead programmatic and systems change efforts that eliminate racial and social disparities.

 

Join Dr. Green and Nick Bayard at their upcoming workshops September 18th, on Race, Power and Social Impact and on October 2nd, Advance Strategies for Racial Equity Within Nonprofits.