Webinar Topic:

Bias, Reaction, and Reflection: How to Truly Choose

Topic Summary:

Whether addressing projects, programs or portfolios we all believe that we are considering our options and choosing. Or guiding teams to choose. Actually, we typically ‘decide’ and seldom choose. This is also true in our personal lives. Without choice, we cannot meet either individual or social human potential. Human physiology is programmed toward bias. Society and cultural frameworks reinforce bias without our awareness. (Bias is not prejudice, which is an incorrect association.) Bias is neither good nor bad. It just is. Bias is a subconscious reaction to sensory input. Subconscious means unaware. Lacking awareness, you cannot truly choose. Changing biases can be a worthwhile, lifelong effort, yet does not meet immediate needs. In our world of sensory overload, biases are triggered at a rate that overwhelms our neural systems beyond their recovery capacity. Overwhelm prevents cognitive processes - reflection. Tools and techniques may guide decisions, not choice. Simplified, the cognitive process requires a focused cycle of awareness, alternative identification, reflection, choice, and action. Reflection requires significant physical and neural energy, and can only occur through awareness and careful preparation. Action (and more often repeated action to overcome bias) is necessary to enable and reinforce choice. Join us as we help you to explore bias and to offer you awareness, the first step toward truly choosing.

Speaker:

Steven M. Fullmer, MBA, PMP, PMI-PBA, CQ

For more than forty years Steven Fullmer has applied his career in technology development, project management, business analysis and education toward enhancing human potential.
He has been employed as a leader, architect, creative problem solver, course creator and educator across the supercomputer, financial, security, telecommunications, Internet, and adult education sectors. As a speaker, author, and coach he shares his research and expertise in the field of neurosociology toward enhancing the understanding and application of human frameworks and processes. Systems designed to thrive are often used only for survival. 21st century knowledge and technology are just beginning to reveal the true potential available to individuals leading global change. Through his independent consultancies, Steven M. Fullmer, LLC and Blue Sphere Solutions, LLC shares his passion for guiding ideas and clients to new horizons.
He is an established project management, risk management, business analysis and operating systems author. He has also contributed to articles, white papers, edited collections, and detailed statistical analysis for more than a dozen publishers across his fields of expertise and personal interests. He is a founding contributor to the Institute for Neuro and Behavioral Project Management. His upcoming book, On the Other Hand – Choice in a Complex World¬ is slated for publication before year end.
He currently resides in Phoenix, Arizona with his wife of thirty years, Rhonda Fullmer who is also a nationally recognized project manager. Their two adult children practice as a successful satellite project engineer and a marine biologist, both affecting positive change.

Presentation Synopsis:

Frequently we hear from clients, “We’d like you to help us mature our PMO, can you get us there in the next 3 – 6 months?”  Why is it that organizations think they can fit maturity into their desired duration?  This session will discuss the Project Management Journey and walk through the challenges and experiences every organization faces over time as their project delivery function matures. We established the Project Management Journey to help organizational leaders understand that it takes time to mature your PMO or Project Delivery function.  One of the definitions of mature in the Merriam-Webster dictionary is; “of or relating to a condition of full development.”  Each organization will have its own expectations for what full development means for their PMO but most likely it won’t be reached within 3-6 months. 

About our Speaker:
Joe Pusz, PMO Joe is an internationally recognized leader in the Project Management and PMO community.  He is a frequent Keynote Speaker, Author, Project Management Innovator and was recently named one of the Top 8 PMO Influencers in the World by the PMO Global Alliance.  He is the Founder and President of THE PMO SQUAD, a Phoenix-based PMO and Project Management Consulting firm serving clients across the United States.

He is the host of the Project Management Office Hours Radio Show and Podcast providing Project Management Leaders a voice within our community.  Now in the 5th season, the show has over 40 million plays and downloads featuring guests from around the world.  Joe is also Co-Founder of VPMMA, the Veteran Project Manager Mentor Alliance which is a 501c3 Non-Profit Organization assisting Veterans seeking to transition into civilian Project Management careers.