The result of my promotion
I suddenly lost the internet connection in my Dalian hotel using my laptop computer. At this stage, I have to use the hotel PC which does not have Japanese typing system, therefore I write in English.Last Tuesday, I flew to Shanghai to do the reviews for my promotion. The results just came in, which was "pass with condition" - That means, I will not be promoted until the condition is met. The condition is that - "I need to have the experience in leading a full cycle project before being promoted". Therefore I clarified what it meant by "full cycle project" and the board member replies that "there are two options - the one is the project delivery expeience from design to integration test, the other is the project migration experience from planning to cutover".I believe myself have a fully qualified experience in "project migration" therefore I just wrote a note to board members with the detailed description of my experiences in this area. I hope I can convince them to get the promotion.-------------------------------------------------------Sometimes I feel sick of dealing with my Chinese bosses, because in some ways they do not have "common sense" by the lack of understanding of how IT industries are operated in advanced economies such as US and Western Europe.My impression is, they do not know any better than their own experiences in China, which is very narrow and limited from the international point of view. I have worked in 4 countries so far - China, Japan, Australia and US. I believe I know more than they do in this area. I am always willing to give the feedback of my "international experiences" to help my bosses to have better ideas to operate this organization in the Flat World.For my promotion case, I totally disagree with the idea to limit the promotion criteria to the above mentioned two options. I think this is very stupid. So I wrote to them to suggest better promotion criteria for our company.-----------------------------------------Dear board members,I would like to take this opportunity to make a suggestion on our PM promotion process, particularly in terms of promotion criteria.During my PM board process. I was advised that "the experience to lead a full cycle project" was considered mandatory for the promotion and the definition of "full cycle project" was as (above mentioned 2 options).My argument is, this kind of criteria may not add much value for our organization. Instead, we need to be more creative, more flexible, more ambitious in our PM selection criteria, to better serve our dire needs of creating better leaders in a rapidly growing organization and ever-changing business climate.My suggestion is to go back to the PM fundamentals. What is project management? Since this concept was invented by Peter Drucker in 1946, there have been billions of good PM practices in millions of organizations of all over the world, across industries, economies and cultures, regardless large or small, public or privately owned. Each good PM practice - is based on the same principle, but its "appearance" is different from one to another. For instance, my parents run a tiny Mum and Dad business in Tokyo's outskirt and does some of good PM practies, and this "appears" quite different from that of larger organizations.In my opinion, "PM promotion criteria" belongs to "apperance" rather than "principle". Therefore it is reasonable for our company - a relatively new and rapidly growing organization, to have different criteria from a mature organization. I think it is far more productive for us to revise our own promotion criteria, aligned with our organizational goals, eg... what kind of leaders we need to have so that we can extend our business boundaries?For my own case, I do not quite understand why my role as "offering solution lead" is not considered a valid candidate for "full cycle project". This is truly a project management type of role, requiring the complete set of advanced PM skills such as organization, scheduling, financial and leadership skills. This role requires the coordination of many people from across functions, across organizations/countries who are not reporting to me. Also, this role does the full project cycle - project initiation, planning, execution, control and closing, in relation to RFP responses.This is generally considered an advanced project management role in many countries in the developed world. Also, this is the type of role that our company needs to develop so that we will grow to a larger, more mature organization. If you need more details, I am more than happy to present in writing.It will be great if you could take my suggestions seriously and take actions accordingly. Let us think together for our brighter future.Best Regards,