Presidents Message

Frank Pugh, PMI Tallahassee Chapter President

PMI Tallahassee Chapter Members and Friends: 

I am happy to report that our yearly chapter planning, and charter renewal processes have gone well. We are aligned with PMI at large and are on a mission to sustain our successes while still finding new ways to connect with you. Your PMI Board is at full strength with the leaders that you have elected, with all these board members trained, connected and contributing at a high level. We wasted no time delivering content for you starting early January this year! Our plan is to continue bringing you the best of PMI combined with Tallahassee's local distinctiveness to further the profession, to help you get or keep your certifications and to provide opportunities for leadership and business and technical growth.     

We plan to bring you the same high level of engagement as last year and add additional opportunities to interact with us through online experiences, volunteer work and fun and engaging special pop-up events. PMI has recognized, and we fully embrace, the fact that we cannot always adopt a "build it, and they will come" approach. We must also add our message to events run by partner organizations and other smaller focused activities led by other professional groups and educators. As such, expect to see us at career nights, community meetings and focused service events. In short, we want to engage with you, your associates, and mentees in the community.   

We are very committed to keeping project management relevant and valuable in this pivotal time in history. This year is shaping up to be a transformative one. It seems as though everywhere that we look we see systems, businesses, associations and organizations as well as complete paradigms undergoing transformative change. Some of these undertakings are under control, and some are not. It was not long ago when we felt liberated and powerful thinking that we could make small managed changes, which in turn would add up to significant and beneficial products, processes or results. Before that, we had thought that predictive planning and faithful execution across some 49 key processes shaped successful and intended outcomes. As it turns out, no matter what way of working one may choose, transformation is challenging and no single approach or doctrine is going to get the job done.      

At the same time, we see that the principles of project management and key process groups have evolved from PMBOK version 7 to the new version 8. This enhanced way of looking at the principles and domains reemphasizes the “thinking” part of project management. We must continually adapt! Put another way, we strongly advocate for the active, cognizant, and situationally responsive application of the knowledge, tools and techniques of Project Management.  We maintain that PMBOK 8 gives us the best and most flexible way to plan, manage and achieve controlled, resilient and successful transformative change.   

Your PMI Tallahassee Chapter is leaning into this year of transformation. We are bringing you speakers and other professional development content that will add to your existing understanding of transformations. We want to hear from these experts why some transformations seem well managed, and some seem driven by externalities.  We aim to learn with you about what transformations were successful, which weren't and why. We will highlight lessons learned from all corners of the project management profession that help our members to recognize transformational patterns, both good and bad.  Our so equipped members will recognize those who overpromise and are likely to miss, and those who are just as likely to miss opportunities to make real and beneficial transformational change. Spoiler alert: we expect that the successful transformational leaders are using patterns derived from, or at least consistent with, the best practices found in PMBOK 8. 

We hope that you will join us in our endeavors, both large and small, to further the profession, learn and have some fun while we are at it.   

Hope to see you soon!