PMI Northern Branch Meeting

Speaker: Pat de Valence, PMP

Topic: LEAD Your Way to Conflict Resolution

Location: Best Western - Ontario room
17565 Yonge Street
Newmarket ON L3Y5H6
905-895-2131.

Speaker Profile:Pat de Valence knows all about conflict. In addition to growing up in a family populated with verbally adept Type A personalities, she has been a project management professional for more than 20 years, working on increasingly large and complex projects.

Pat has managed a wide range of projects: sales conferences, marketing launches, product development projects, software and hardware implementations, system and process migrations, and acquisition integrations. She has managed projects in the professional services groups of 2 companies, which adds complexity to the role, as the PM is responsible for ensuring customer satisfaction and achieving profitability targets. She has also managed projects in the volunteer sector, where productivity can't be enforced and collaboration must be inspired.

This variety means that Pat has undertaken projects without always having depth in domain knowledge. Although this may seem to carry more risk, she has turned this into a strength-knowing what questions to ask and how to ask them, and more importantly, how to assess the answers.

Pat is currently Program Manager for Finance & Back Office operations with Open Text, a Canadian-based, global software company with more than $1 Billion in annual revenue. She manages corporate-level projects, including the integration of acquisitions. Many of the cross-functional team members are senior managers within the organization and the stakeholders are C-level executives and directors.

Description: LEAD Your Way to Conflict Resolution

Conflict is not something that might happen, it's something that will happen. How do you go about identifying and clarifying the issues,

Follow the 4 Rules to Resolution, and you may find you can achieve a satisfactory outcome.

1. Leave your ego at the Door
If you're focussed on yourself-your feelings, your needs, your objectives, rather than the project's success-this will hamper your effectiveness as a facilitator.

2. Establish the Underlying Needs of the Combatants
For any resolution to be sustainable, the needs driving the combatants must be addressed and the emotions acknowledged.

3. Apply the Right Approach
Not all conflict is bad, and it can produce some remarkable innovation. Not all conflict needs a sustainable resolution. Where the conflict will affect operations, on the ongoing work of a long-term project, negotiation and collaboration skills matter.

4. Deeds Speak Loudest
Lead by example-respect is earned not conferred.
Agenda:
6:30 pm - 7:00 pm - participant registration; networking; refreshments
7:00 pm - 8:00 pm - presentation
8:00 pm - 8:15 pm - Q & A
8:15 pm - wrap up
Cost:
Snacks and Refreshments
SOC Members $ 20.00 + GST
Non Members $ 30.00 + GST

PDU's Earned: Attendees will receive 1 PDU!

Please note: Reservations must be made by Monday, Febuary 15th, 2010.
Cancellations must be received 48 hours prior to the event, send your cancellation notice to events@soc.pmi.on.ca. The person making the reservation is responsible for all charges.

Register on Website.