ExecuTrain Austin

Human Dimensions for Project Management

Target Audience

Personnel who have been, or will be assigned, project management responsibilities and who want professional certification. Project managers, project leaders and team leaders are encouraged to attend.

Class Description

This interactive five-day course addresses the people side of project management – jumping far beyond the basics of project management. You will focus on human dimension “how-to’s” in a project management environment, and be able to distinguish between project management and project leadership.

In today’s matrixed and cross-functional environment, project managers and team members often face the challenge of gaining commitment and cooperation of individual outside their authority. You will gain knowledge about your own influencing style, and how to improve your influence skills, especially in situations where you have no positional authority.

You will also learn how to manage and track multiple projects, and effectively manage your time when you are ‘spread-thin’. You may also be required to frequently cooperate and communicate across functions, distance, and cultures. Core skills for accomplishing this, and all the other topics will be taught with case studies, exercises, and discussion.

Objectives

• Develop a team operating agreement and team charter.
• Examine project stakeholder groups and determine the most effective way to organize and manage project stakeholder relationships.
• Use the DISC personality profile to better work with project team members of differing personalities.
• Use communication skills (e.g. active listening, paraphrasing, summarizing, and feedback) to better influence the project team and team member dynamics.
• Identify tactics to successfully influence and guide project teams and stakeholders in completing project objectives and goals.
• Discuss the ethical dilemmas associated with project management and managing project teams.
• Demonstrate time management principles and effective meeting principles

Key Topics

• Ethics and organizational politics
• Facilitation skills/Conflict resolution
• Managing multiple projects – priority setting
• Communicating with distant teams
• Stakeholder relationships
• Managing projects in a matrixed environment
• Influence without authority
• Team dynamics, development and accountability
• Intentional and effective communication
• Agreed processes: problem solving, decision making and conflict resolution
• People side of project closeout – lessons learned and recognition

Processes

• Initiating
• Planning
• Executing
• Controlling
• Closing

Knowledge Areas

• Project Integration Management
• Project Human Resource Management
• Project Communications Management