PW&WCBA Day TWO Begins!!!!!!

Welcome to Day Two of the PW&WCBA 2013!  Chuck Millhollan, Director of Program Management, Churchill Downs Incorporated, kicked off the session with some great professional advice for your career, as a PM or BA.

1.       Join a professional Group and get involved

2.       Subscribe to professional journal

3.       Earn professional certification

4.       Understand your value proposition

Learning does not stop with graduation, learning continues throughout your career.

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Ralph Luck, UK Olympic Delivery Authority (London 2012 Olympics) was our first keynote speaker.  He built the foundation of the project and then handed the project off others to run the Olympics.  Ralph took us through the master plan of creating the stage for the 2012 London Olympics.  A stadium must be able to contain 80,000 people for the opening and closing ceremony. A new shopping center was required for the Olympics and remains today.  This was a huge challenge, a railroad even had to be covered over temporary.  Temporary buildings were up at least a two years.  The one important note is after the Olympics the work was far from over.  The temporary buildings and constructions had to be removed.  A skeleton crew was kept to accomplish this task.  The aquatic center, basketball center were temporary and can be removed.  The basketball center is no longer standing and homes are now being built in the current location.

Needless to say the project had several challenges.  The biggest challenge came after funding was agreed upon for the huge Olympic village.  Unfortunately, there was an economic crash.  The team became very creative and innovative and pre-sold the Olympic homes to future owners in order to fund the construction.  This money was used to help create the Olympic village.  The committee also tried many other ways to earn the money required to fund such a large project.

You can still see the Olympic village today until Spring 2014.  If you have the opportunity, go to London and see this great accomplishment!

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The next keynote speaker was Naomi Karten, on Embracing Change: Transforming Ideas and Challenges into Opportunities. Naomi describes what we go through with change, how things are currently, the jolt, chaos, bumpy adjustments and the new normal.  Change can be expected or unexpected, planned or unplanned.  She began to explain how everyday things cause the jolt, which moves you to chaos.  Chaos is normal when change happens.  Below are some high level highlights:

Universal Truths

·         People vary in their receptiveness to change.  Some thrive on change

·         People’s responses are more emotional than logical or rational

·         Change involves loss

·         Significant chaos entails a temporary drop in productivity.

·         People need time to adjust to change

Naomi also provided some guidelines below are just a few highlights:

·         Minimize the compounding effect of chaos

·         Communicate the status of change

·         Let people talk about the change

·         Listen and empathize with the team

·         Do not put down how things were operating previously, discuss commonalities between the new and old

·         Do not “Mollycoddle” the team, in other words do not go overboard on empathy and understandings continue to move forward.

·         Try not to make any irreversible decisions during chaos

Above all trust must be built within the teams!  People are adaptable and will make it through the change.   Naomi wishes everyone success in managing chaos in their life.

 Hear the highlights in Naomi’s own words in the link below: