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Applying Project Management:
Our programmes help you apply thinking and processes at a number of levels
in an organisation, all of which are highly inter-dependent and must work
together smoothly for real project success.
Project manager:
You, or the person assigned to manage a project, will need to understand
generally how to apply the Project Management Institute's PMI
, PMBOK (PM Body of Knowledge) particularly in the overlapping project
processes of initiation, planning, execution, controlling and closing.
This will also provide a good base for you to enrol for the PMP Project
Management Professional Certification with PMI
NZ Chapter study groups, and thus gain the world's most accepted
PM certification.
More importantly the Project Manager will normally be required to
take a coordinating role in the project; building the team and inspiring
it to communicate and keep the customers, sponsors and other stakeholders
supporting it.
Team members:
Team members working on any aspect of a project need to understand
why we are doing the project and the processes we will use to make
it happen. It is empowering to be able to see the big picture outcome
and all be heading towards it.
Projects provide opportunities for people to build new skills and
develop their careers. That is because they often involve working
across organisations, giving participants chances to interact / network
more with others and to move sideways into new areas of expertise.
Project Teams:
Learning how to appreciate other people's different roles and strengths
is a key to an effective team. Things can be fun and we all win if
we work together and share our knowledge.
Not only are people selected to teams for the technical skills and
expertise they bring, but they also bring other team role attributes.
Understanding these helps us concentrate on the things we are good
at, improve communication and make it possible for the leadership
to organically float from person to person depending on what is most
needed at the time.
Individuals don't understand effective teamwork until they have experienced
the collective power of a team rapidly solving problems that they
could not even contemplate alone. More importantly an effective team
is highly innovative; it is able to apply its collective sensing and
wisdom to search out opportunities rather than just concentrating
on issues and risks. To make this happen we may need some different
team behaviours and processes and tools that focus our activity and
decision making.
Functional Support Departments:
These carry out specific functions on behalf of the organisations
often on a continuous "business as usual" basis. Members
will often be assigned to do work on one or more other projects as
well, but often they will not report directly to a Project Manager.
We may need new win-win business models to encourage these people
and their managers to commit their departmental knowledge and resources
and thus empower projects in this Matrix Management environment.
Organisation:
An organisation's culture is determined not by its structure or its
words, but by the behaviours of members within it. To grow a more
agile and effective "living" organisation we must therefore
evaluate internal behaviours and identity those that stunt growth
(reactive - pests) and those that open opportunities (proactive).
In some organisations the pest behaviours are so ingrained that they
become poisons that stop the germination of anything new. That is
where the power of the Tipu Ake
Organic Leadership model comes in.
A large organisation can not decide to change itself quickly, but
individuals or smaller groups working in proactive teams certainly
can, setting examples for others in the organisation to follow. We
may need new team ground rules to remind us of the type of behaviours
that are positive.
We hear talk about needing to becoming "Learning Organisations".
For projects this involves:
- Learning after doing - The conventional PM Project Closing Processes
or Post Project Review - learning from out past mistakes
- Learning while doing - New tools for sensing and reflecting in
the present can help us here
- Learning before doing - New tools for project initiation help
"ensure we start with the right thing". This is where
we find the most value and and can really exploit new ideas.
Even more important is the outcome evaluation process that happens after the project output has been delivered we work on the premise "When you focus on outcomes, nothing becomes a barrier".
Senior Executive Teams
When executive teams find their organisation needs to respond new external conditions, challenges and oppportunities, they often need to initiate a program of action involving a number of inter-dependent projects. The success of this depends on how well projects are initated sponsored and coordinated, particularly in organisations that have operated in a stable environment but now find themselves in a complex world which looks like it might turn to chaos.
Our most effective in-house workshops have been those that start at this level.
Customers, Sponsors, other Stakeholders
and suppliers:
Projects are there to deliver outcomes for their customers (those
that get the benefits). Often an independent project sponsor provides
the funds and authorisation for the project. However, no project goes
anywhere unless other key people are sponsoring their energy to make
it happen. Other stakeholders may have a negative interest in the
project, taking energy from it. Finally we have suppliers, vendors
or subcontractors from whom we need to obtain services.
For really effective projects it seems that the skill of being able
to put ourselves in the shoes of all other parties may be a core tool
for better negotiating win-win partnerships and alliances with them.
Click here or on the top
menu to see the learning programmes including in-house
workshops we offer.
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