Building a Powerful Project Leadership Team

Quick facts:

  • Duration: 2 days
  • Class size: 3-12
  • Location: On site
  • Follow-up coaching: Included
  • Instructors: 1 geek + 1 non-geek

Who should attend:

The leadership team of a project.

  • Project managers
  • Project sponsors
  • Technical leads
  • Other functional leaders
A two-day workshop to launch your project on a path to success

Don’t let poor relationships undermine your project.

An estimated $80 billion a year is lost to failed technology projects in the U.S., and studies show that the root causes of project failure are found in breakdowns in human relationships.  Even the most expertly engineered process can’t succeed in the face of poor communication, misaligned expectations, and mutual mistrust.

Your project needs a good communication plan.

Communication is the bedrock on which successful projects are built, but most teams fail to plan for how to keep all their stakeholders in-the-loop and on-board through the ups and downs of complicated technical projects.  Breakdowns in communication are the “canary in the coal mine” for project health; they should be detected and repaired long before they result in missed deadlines, runaway budgets or shoddy quality.

Your project leadership team can create a culture of success.

This course will show you how to:

Forecast accurately by Creating a common language for geeks and non-geeks to plan collaboratively
Propel projects forward by Establishing a communication plan for the team to follow
Save time and money by Reversing the cycle of mistrust, avoidance and blame
Create better products by Getting geeks and non-geeks to be in the same conversation
Prevent project failure by Monitoring, measuring and restoring project health

 

Course Agenda

Phase 1: Pre–course assessment

The course is driven by the needs of a real-world project, so two weeks before the face-to-face workshop, participants fill out a survey that serves to:

  • Guide the customization of course content
  • Establish baselines for how participants see themselves, their project, their roles and each other.

Phase 2: Workshop

 Day 1
Morning
  • Explore the importance of relationships for project success and the central role of emotions in managing relationships.
  • Practice techniques for deactivating destructive assumptions.
Afternoon
  • Experience the differences between geek and non-geek cultures and personality styles.
  • Practice techniques for bridging those differences.
  • Establish principles for good relationships in the specific project.
 Day 2
Morning
  • Practice essential techniques for establishing and maintaining relationships on tech projects.
  • Draft a communication plan to instill good relationships practices in the entire team
Afternoon
  • Plan the ongoing monitoring of project health.
  • Explore techniques for repairing problems before they become serious threats to project success.

Phase 3: Follow-up support and coaching

Three weeks after the completion of the workshop, we conduct a remote session to review the state of the project and the leadership team, offer coaching on issues that have arisen, and renewing the team’s commitment to maintaining collaborative relationships.