MPA Seminar

I attended the following Major Projects Association seminar on the 16th June 2009 on “Success is Soft People Skills”. The seminar summary is now available to download from the Public Area of the MPA website. The MPA website address is http://www.majorprojects.org.
I hope you find it of interest.

World of learning Conference 2009

The following conference may be of interest to those involved in the L&D field. http://www.learnevents.com/world-of-learning-2009-conference-programme.php

How To Succeed with Executing Strategic Change

Came across this summary of recent research at Cranfield that highlights specific actions that organisations need to take to improve their strategy execution capability and thought it would be of value to those in the PM world as ultimately this is what we are here for. Thoughts most welcomed.

http://www.cranfieldsom.info/apollo/showarticle.asp?link=278

McKinsey: Leadership lessons for hard times

Think this should be of interest. From the McKinsey on Strategy Newsletter: Leadership lessons for hard times. This issue of McKinsey on Strategy continues to explore the implications of the global economic downturn for strategists and leaders. In the new article “Leadership lessons for hard times,” 14 CEOs offer advice on how to lead effectively during crises.
View on the Web: http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/newsletters/strategy/2009Q3ns.htm

What is leadership and in particular for PM’s?

As of 13 May 09, Google had 420,000,000 results for leadership. There are a myriad of definitions, one of my favourites: “being forward-looking, enlisting others in a shared view of the future” put forward by Kouzes and Posner. More importantly, we believe, it is what people experience leadership as being that provides the best definition. “The Leadership Practices Inventory” from the same authors has had over 1 million responses and highlighted the following characteristics as being important for a leader:

• No. 1 – Honesty – similarly for a colleague
• No. 2 – Forward looking – 3 times more desirable than for a colleague

Gadeken similarly describes the behaviours that differentiate top performing Project Managers from studies carried out at the US Defense Systems Management College. The two behaviours that differentiated the top performers were that they were strongly committed to a clear mission and that they also thrive on relationships and influence. In many ways these results broadly reflect the results above.

There is therefore a need to develop Programme Leaders that deliver both the charismatic and instrumental aspects of leadership into the organisation to maximise everyone’s ability to contribute to delivering the vision.

Challenges faced by a Programme Manager 2 of 13

2. Balance the need for flexibility with the need for control – allowing the business to adapt to external events and innovate as appropriate while ensuring sufficient governance

Challenges faced by a Programme Manager – 1 of 13

Please find below the first of 13 challenges faced by a Programme Manager. I would welcome your thoughts on each.

1. Translate the political into a reality – understanding and then transforming organisational strategies and expectations into not only technical but also politically feasible, suitable solutions that are supported by stakeholders

Leading Rather Than Managing Stakeholder Relationships – 06/10/2009 – Sevenoaks

Event organiser: APM South East Branch

Date: Tuesday 6th October 2009

Time: 7pm Light Refreshments, 7.30pm Presentation

Venue: Best Western Donnington Manor Hotel, London Road, Dunton Green, Sevenoaks, Kent, TN13 2TD.

Presented by: Donnie MacNicol, Team Animation Ltd

A fresh perspective on how to view, influence and obtain maximum support for your project or programme

In difficult times the demand for people with effective leadership skills grows. Leaders who are forward-looking and enlist others in a shared view of the future are increasingly sought to deliver projects and programmes.

Projects are intrinsically complex situations, and people are even more complex. We are subjective creatures, and no plans, methodologies or processes can remove this so we must embrace a new way of working with the subjectivity of project management. To achieve this, project leaders must be expert at developing relationships and influencing stakeholders who may be individuals, groups or communities.

Donnie will introduce concepts, models and approaches for you to take away and use to lead stakeholders more effectively. The presentation will be interactive, provocative and entertaining. Topics covered include:

A Stakeholder Influencing Model Research carried out over 10 years with over 1000 people in 250 organisations including business sponsors, SRO’s and investors A framework to develop project leaders who are capable of managing complex stakeholder relationships. The need to accept that it is not about “them”, the stakeholder, getting “it”, the project, but rather the project management team’s responsibility to better understand stakeholders – their motivations, intentions and perception of success A technique to identify how to assess the value of stakeholders against strategic objectives The need to educate stakeholders What and how you present project information to achieve maximum support

Donnie is a director of Team Animation, and an expert on developing project and programme leadership – at an individual, team and organisational level. He is chair of the APM People SIG and member of the Acumen7 network.

This event has an APM CPD rating of up to two hours

To book visit http://www.apm.org.uk/southeast/eventLeading%20.asp?pdate=0-0&branch=12

APM conference and awards in London 21 Oct 09

Conference Title – Delivering Projects Professionally

The Brewery, London – Wednesday 21st October 2009

The APM Project Management Conference 2009 is an interactive forum that will provide you with an insight into the development of effective project professionals.

It will address issues including project sponsorship, training and development, growing the skill-set of project professionals and the benefits of the new chartered status.

In the words of APM President Dr Martin Barnes, “projects are about people getting things done and never has this been more critical than today”. As the world faces both environmental and economic challenges, change and innovation, consolidation and growth this statement becomes ever more relevant.

APM is addressing the need for professionalism in project management through its programme to achieve Chartered status. Given the emerging needs of the profession, how can you ensure that you continue to get things done and deliver real benefits?

The APM Project Management Awards will follow the Conference on the evening of the 21st October. The Awards celebrate the invaluable contribution which project management makes in all sections of society.

For more details about attending the Awards, or to make a nomination, visit www.apm.org.uk/awards.asp This is the link to the awards http://www.apm.org.uk/conference.asp

More than just golf days – Maintaing customer relationships

I was just thinking about all the things I need to be doing to keep business going well and realised that I was dealing with exactly the same situation as many of my clients were when I wrote this article last year. Essentially winning work is more expensive than retaining it, so developing strong, long-term relationships with customers is key to my success. I worked with Paul Erricker on this paper for RICS Construction journal and it introduces an effective account management regime which helps focus your efforts when dealing with your business clients.

Follow the link to ‘More than just Golf days’ Account Management article

I hope you find something useful to help you retain and develop your most important customer relationships.