Blog / Newsletter

Thanks, and giving, reflections on all who contributed to PMI-SFBAC…

 

As we approach the end of this year, especially this extremely challenging year, most of us shift our attention to the next year.  This year we are trying to get through these last days of 2020 and eager to say good riddance to the past and move on to the future. Onward and upward, right?

 

I want to say 'Hey wait, not so fast'. This has been a challenging year but look at how we still have been able to move positively forward this year.  Please take a bit of time for a critical, and often forgotten key to growth: reflection.

 

I believe that building and strengthening the habit of reflection is actually a big deal. NASA has a regular practice of documenting and indexing lessons learned across their organization. Emergency responders’ practices “After Action Reviews” after every important activity or event.

 

Regardless of how last year went, you learned a lot. It would be a big mistake to break for the holidays without having mined this year’s successes and challenges for insights you can carry forward. So, as we enter the holidays and prepare for a better new year, I would like to reflect and acknowledge all the accomplishments of your PMI SF Bay Area Chapter.  We have gained many volunteers during this year and have had more virtual events than ever before.  This has been due to our soon to be leaving CEO, Vijay Rathinam who reinvested in the mission of our Chapter and accelerated our technology capabilities while getting our volunteer leaders to harness their unique skills and talents to better contribute to our members.  On a personal note, I would be remiss not to take this opportunity to wish our CEO, Vijay Rathinam all the best as he has scaled up for next year to serve PMI Global as a Region 1 mentor.  I am glad to know you are leaving a leadership role in our Chapter to help a whole PMI region where many Chapters are going to benefit from your leadership.

 

As this is my last year and article for PMISFBAC, I am looking at the end of this year as a time of gratitude and reflection for my involvement with many of you and for helping to lead the Chapter to have so much greater impact on our community beyond what I thought.  As I leave, I see the Chapter scaling up even greater and playing a role in the new Project Economy.

 

I have learned from the events and helped to plan and organize the Chapter to play a role in the local PM Community and work with the new leadership and strategy at PMI Global. 

 

I have been able to get clearer on how to apply what we have learned from this past year to my path forward for next year.  I have discovered the biggest driver of my professional growth and the Chapter’s impact on next year’s growth resides in this past year’s challenges.  Again, I urge you to take some time to ask yourself or imagine if we could come together collectively to answer questions like, what happened this year? Have I as a team member done everything the team set out to do? And what did we learn?

 

I recall a story of success I was part of this past year — it was a project I am supremely proud of what the PMISFBAC Board team was able to accomplish.

 

Under the Leadership of the Board President, Dina Tasiou, we have been working as a Board to organize our Policy, Processes, and Governance methods.  There have been so many issues and changes that the Board had not focused on its own organization.  With the thought, diligence, and focus of our CGO, Stephanie Salazar who lead the Board as a team, we reviewed and regrouped all our files, reviewed our history, and put in place up-to-date policies and procedures for the PMISFBAC Board of Directors.  We all were trained, or retrained, on Policy Governance and implemented consistent monitoring reports for the Chapter.  This may seem rather mundane but with all the exciting opportunities and challenging issues that always arise we have not before been able to take the quality time needed to get our Board Management items well in order.  As a Board member in the background has been a learning growing experience and this process has given me pause to reflect on how far the Chapter has come in the last 5 years.  While we on the Board helped navigate through all the CoViD challenges we were able to work through many of our internal challenges to better represent the members and help the CEO lead and grow the Chapter.

 

Further, as I reflect on the many great friends and relationships I have built through PMI, I am grateful and honored to have been involved during this historically challenging time of CoViD where we have been there for each other, all be it via all the different communications channels we have learned to master like never before.

 

Tyrone Navarro currently serves on a number of bay area boards: as President of Instituto Familiar de la Raza, a local SF non-profit and Chief Governance Officer for Project Management Institute San Francisco Bay Area Chapter, and as a Planning Commissioner for the City of American Canyon. Tyrone obtained his Bachelor’s degree at UC Berkeley, and his Master’s in Business Administration from the University of San Francisco. He enjoys an active lifestyle of running, biking, and swimming and is a self-confessed geek. He lives in San Francisco and American Canyon with his wife, where they enjoy independent films, dining, gardening, volunteering, and large family gatherings.