Speaker Bio
It is a pleasure to introduce Jeff Freeman as todays speaker. He lives by the philosophy of focus and execution is the deliver to a high productivity, operational effectiveness and positive financial results.
Currently, Jeff Freeman is the IT Program Manager at Cisco Systems where he oversees large scale healthcare IT clients. Prior to Cisco he was an IT Program Manager at Disney, British Telecom, Infonet and other large-scale organizations. Jeff is a PMP and ITIL certified professional specializing in managing complex telecom refreshes and installations, large-Scale office moves and warehouse upgrades. He has managed projects for fortune 500 companies, such as, Disney, Accenture, TRW, Proctor and Gamble (P&G), Unilever, Nestle, Bristol Meyers Schibb (BMS), to name a few.
Non-Profit Background
Jeff is the co-founder of a non-profit organization called Innovos Robotics, Inc. This Robotics community (www.innovosrobotics.org) is a competitive high school level robotics organization aimed to innovate the robotics competition environment. The organization competes head to head on a special playing field with robots they designed, built, and programmed. Innovos’ mission is to inspire young people to be science and technology leaders.
In addition, Jeff is a published author of the book titled Unleash the Beast In You – Go from Good to Great: The Eight Pillars of Optimum Performance (EPOP) Link: http://a.co/d/4uO6ZMl
In his spare time, Jeff enjoys his family life with his wife of 25+ years and college age son in Anaheim Hills, CA. He is also an active member of the Project Management Institute of Orange County (PMI-OC), and an active member in his church, in Yorba Linda, CA.
Mr. Freeman is fortunate to have the opportunity to be a long-time Youth Sports coach in the Orange County community. He’s had the pleasure of coaching Pop Warner Football, NJB Basketball, and Little League Baseball. In addition, he enjoys International Traveling, gardening, cooking, and golf.
Ice Breaker
This seminar was nowhere close to a typical format. The participant was immediately invited to a challenged. What 3 things would I bring if I were going to be stranded on an island?
The following snapshot displays the items of your choice and the rules to the ice breaker. Try it with your co-workers or family members. It is an excellent subject of discussion at the dinner table.
New Ways of Working
Jeff takes us on a trail of understanding where our modern and future teams are traveling. No longer is the team structure as our predecessors with the stringent function approach to business. We are now jetsetters to take on business with the agile approach better known as Project Economy. Keep in mind that it is not just making every little task into a coined reference as project, instead recognizing that we will also encompass true business agility on this journey. Business Agility is the ability to compete and thrive in the digital age by quickly responding to market changes and emerging opportunities with innovative, digitally-enabled business solutions. This is a great advantage as every project will require a team equipped with a comprehension of business agility and its application in every project success. Let’s examen Business Agility a little closer before moving on to an in-depth at Team types.
There are seven Core Competencies of Business Agility.
There is a need to identify a business opportunity and research where the business opportunity can be leveraged with an endgame of continuous value or the production of a minimum viable product. Normally this process requires 2 to 6 months.
Team Types
Let us take a closer look into the types of teams will either work with or manage and their corresponding project types. A Complex Team may be comprised of several leaders known in their fields for solving complicated, multi-factorial problems. Next on the list is a Virtual Team having utilized technology bestows benefits of additional skilled resources, reduction in cost, less travel expense the proximity or those team members to the suppliers, key stakeholders, or customers is priceless.
We are grouping the next few team types not because they are worth a separation and mention of their individuality but rather recognizing that they work so closely together, it gives every team member the trifecta power. Multi-Functional, Cultural, and Generational teams is a very powerful advantage to any organization.
A work group consisting of employees from diverse backgrounds, various areas of expertise, and sharing current and legacy input on any project is often dismissed but when embraced provides a unstoppable force to a company’s success infinitely rather than a typically taken finite approach. Diversity shouldn’t just focus on gender, age, faith, socioeconomic or ethnicity.
The last 3 stops on our Teams Roadmap provide bonus areas when the road is safely travelled. The benefit of a diverse workforce fosters productivity, creativity, profits, employee engagement improvement and cultural insights. Innovation and creativity exudes from this team of all-stars, they adapt to not only to problem-solve but form bonds of respect and trust which are the vital components to meet our fast changing technology filled society.
Adaptability In Teams
How might a team member or reader of this article take on the challenge of formulating a new mindset? Accept the possibility of relaxing inhibitions of the noisy ego and embrace a new soft skill or accept the neuroplasticity of long ignored. You have the ability to both lead and follow will maintaining skills in facilitation, motivating others and managing change. A quick reference of soft skills and power skills so desperately needed for each of project community members. We have all heard of the pay forward method, the time is now to promote and participate in the philosophy.
Summary
As we wrap up another insightful Advanced Topics Seminar let’s look back at our journey together. Reflecting back on Business Agility, we will acquire a renovated outlook on Project Economy as everything is “Projectized” but we need our teams to overhaul the formation and become strategic in that approach. What is the key performance indicator in this revitalization? It is YOU! See you all soon at our new ATS. Register at PMI-OC.org.
Speaker Contact
If you would like to reach out Mr. Jeff Freeman for speaking engagement, he has provided the following contact information.
