International Institute of Project Management (IIPM) hosted a Hi-Tea lecture on “Soft skills through Storytelling for Project Managers” on Saturday, 26th April 2014 by Dr. Eric Miller, Founder-Director of “World Storytelling Institute”.

   The intention of the lecture was to help Project Managers relate their day-to-day work scenarios with famous folklores, stories and inculcate traditional morals and core values in team building.

  The event commenced with an enlightening welcome address by Mr. O. Arivazhagan, B.E (Hons), PMP, PMI-RMP, PMI-SP, MBB, PMI-RMP, CEO, IIPM, wherein he interestingly explained the differences between Involvement & Commitment of Project team members with an interesting motivational story using "Pig & Hen" trying to open a bed & breakfast restaurant. In his conclusion mark Mr. Ari narrated another story from Mahabharatha taking Karna & Thuriyothana as an example to explain the importance of Humility and Ego in Leadership in Project Management.

  This was later followed by Special address from the chief guest of the event, Dr. Eric Miller, Founder-Director of “World Storytelling Institute”. In his chief guest address, he emphasized on how communication through small storytelling & story listening is a key soft skill expected of Project Managers. He narrated the values of ethics and morals in our culture through the story of Silapathigaram and informed the audience as to how this story impressed him and made him stay back in Tamilnadu.

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A lively panel discussion on the same topic was moderated by Mr. Ari with Dr. Eric Miller, Founder-Director of “World Storytelling Institute", Dr. C. Velan , CEO and Director of TRIL InfoPark ltd., Mr. Prashant Kumar K.S, Head – Delivery, US BU, Servion as the panelists. In the panel discussion, Mr.Ari quoted 5 critical areas in a project that can be improved and re-defined using storytelling, they are “Requirements gathering, Project Kick-off Meeting, HR Management, Presentations and Team building”. Dr. C. Velan gave an informative speech on “WIN-WIN” and “WIN-LOSE” scenarios in Project management with the classical “Turtle and Rabbit” story. Mr. Prashant Kumar K.S, spoke on “How to turn Fear of Failure into Success” by narrating inspiring incidences from his work experience across India, Europe and US.   One of the participants, Mr. Sivakumar, Advisory Manager, IBM narrated his experiences on how IBM converted a vendor's problem into IBM's opportunities.   It was a vivid and highly interactive discussion by panelists and the participants. The Lecture was well attended and very well received by all.

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