Shape the Future of Management in Tech: Three Key Trends

On November 23, more than 120 project management professionals gathered in Lviv to discuss the primary risks and trends in the field and to share their experiences in overcoming professional challenges.

During the one-day conference, IT Meets: ​​New Risks Today. Maintaining Focus Amidst Uncertainty, participants and speakers discussed how to achieve business goals in times of uncertainty.

Automation and AI

“So far, few people know how far it will go. But now AI helps project managers work more efficiently and productively,” says Daria Hruntovska, Account Manager at Sigma Software.

The company has created a self-hosted ChatGPT assistant that helps analyze documents and prepare extracts from large amounts of information faster. AI is also used to make presentations and analyze data. IT Meets speakers note that AI is a good assistant, but it cannot completely replace a project manager. However, the development of general artificial intelligence can replace most of the PMs on projects.

Facilitation is the new hard skill

Meetings are expensive, and good facilitation skills can save a company money and make meetings more effective. Olena Kizimenko, author of the course Facilitation of Group Meetings and Agile Coach at Kyivstar.Tech, notes that, according to the State of Meetings study, 52% of business leaders in North America say that low engagement in meetings is their biggest problem. Participants don’t speak up, don’t participate, and don’t provide enough information during meetings.

“A manager who knows how to be a facilitator knows how to avoid this and make sure that everyone on the team understands that their opinion is important, and they can make decisions together. This is a big step towards team self-organization, realizing that the team is one organism,” adds Olena Kizimenko.

The expert highlights the following rules for conducting effective meetings:

• define its purpose and goal
• objectively assess the time required to achieve the goal
• analyze the participants: whose expertise is definitely needed and who will be satisfied with just sending a follow-up
• determine what to do at the end of the meeting. For example, choose what to do next if ideas were generated during the meeting.

Management 3.0

According to Denys Prylutskyi, Director of PMO at SoftServe, Management 3.0 is the future. This approach to management and leadership aims to separate the capabilities of teams, promote collaboration, and increase organizational flexibility.

Management 3.0 is based on five principles:

• Involving people and maximizing team interaction
• Improving the system. The system is not just one team but everyone who interacts with it. Management 3.0 involves changing the entire system, not just one part of it.
• A happy client. Customers are not only customers but all participants in the system. You should meet the needs of all customers, not just colleagues or other stakeholders.
• Manage people, not the system. It is commonly believed that changing people’s behavior is complex. However, when the environment changes, people will have to adapt. In addition, by changing the environment, people can better manage themselves.
• Collaborative environment. Employees create things together. And working together is also about giving feedback to each other. It makes cooperative behavior.

See you on December 14 at the final IT Meets on HR: defining the main KPI of 2023. 

Media partners of IT Meets: Management. New Risks Today. Maintaining Focus Amidst Uncertainty – Happy Monday and Speka.media.