Project Management

Bill Fournet

How to Stop Herding Cats: Leading Project Teams through the Chaos
Project Management: The Next Generation
Zero Dark Thirty: Team Performance in Action
Building the Vision: How “Bold” Projects are Changing the World
Projects in Flux: A New Way to Lead

Sara Gallagher

The Hidden Cost of Fear: How Silence is Compromising Project Teams (and What to Do About It)
You Can Trust Me: Communicating When No One Can See Your Face
PMs in the C-Suite? The Future of Project Leadership

Do you feel that managing your project team is like managing a herd of cats? Do you have people going every direction? Do you have accountability and control of the process and the team to ensure a successful project? Most project managers feel that they spend more time herding cats than actually leading the project. This presentation focuses on why this happens, and how project managers have gotten their “cats” under control.

Discussions include current project team management trends, team performance opportunities, and applying principled leadership. Participants will learn effective techniques that will address project teams’ challenges, various communication approaches, and project leadership skills that have successfully improved team interaction and results. This informative presentation not only will motivate, but will also help project managers develop the skills to create a focused, disciplined team.

Venture: To take a risk, to daringly go on a journey … With the world becoming more connected, collaborative, and mobile, project management must continue evolving to meet its demands. Project Managers must be prepared to “Boldly Go Where No One Has Gone Before.” The session focuses on what the future generation of project managers will face, a glimpse into how project management will change, and what you can do today to prepare the upcoming project managers.

To understand and ensure project management’s future, we must first understand our past and the events that have shaped today’s project management discipline. The session will examine the evolution of the project management practice, drawing out similarities of projects forty years ago to the current Millennium, as well as understanding their differences and lessons. It will provide speculative glimpses into what future projects will look like and how project managers will work. What new types of projects will emerge? Will project management remain a distinct discipline? What will project teams look like? These “visions” will provoke the participants into thinking about what they need to establish or develop today to ensure project management evolves with the times and the generations.

  • Understand the drivers and events that shaped the current views of project management
  • Identify the emerging trends affecting global projects and societies
  • Learn what today’s project managers can establish to develop future project managers

In 2011, with short notice, Navy SEAL Team Six (DEVGRU) was deployed on a mission to kill Osama bin Laden.  This elite fighting force was the frontline force in Operation Neptune Spear–made famous through the film Zero Dark Thirty and the book No Easy Day.  So, what does project management have to do with the SEALs?  At all levels in the operation–from the SEAL Team and the flight crews to the White House and CIA, there was strategic and tactical planning and execution of scope, schedule, and roles & responsibilities.  Come to this session to learn interactively how this moment in history can improve your project management capability.

Through a mix of activities, film clips, and techniques, Bill will show you new way to lead your project teams, manage your risks and assumptions better and apply lessons immediately.  You will learn how to evolve your project management capability to become more agile and adaptive to the ever-changing business needs in a disciplined organization.  These techniques may be applied to small and large projects in various types of applications–IT, engineering, manufacturing, and business change.

Learner objectives:

  • Understand how to bring discipline to an undisciplined organization.
  • Learn how to apply agile techniques without losing control.
  • Sharpen your communication skills to provide clarity, conciseness, and urgency.
  • Quickly identify and assess project risks and assumptions.

How can project management cure what ails our world?  From clean drinking water to zero-carbon impact cities, hundreds of “bold” projects are already in development or in execution. Bold projects make an impact. They “change the game” of how we live or interact with each other in the world. These projects seek to transform life on earth as we know it—and to expand into space.  These are no longer “science fiction” ideas. The greatest potential for bold projects resides in the evolving mindset of project leaders: Real project managers, like you, are making them happen. This presentation will provide insights into bold ideas, what it takes to bring them to life, and what drives the success _ or failure _ of turning them into game-changing projects that make a difference.

  • Attain techniques and lessons for implementing a vision that others may think unattainable
  • Understand the opportunities, challenges, and impacts that Bold projects have on the world today
  • Learn techniques, factors, and skills required for these mega-projects

Learn a new way to lead your teams, better manage your risks and assumptions, and apply lessons learned immediately. You will learn how to evolve your project management capability to become more agile and adaptive to the ever-changing business needs in a disciplined organization. These techniques may be applied to small and large projects in various types of applications.

Objectives:

  • Understand how to develop discipline within an undisciplined organization
  • Learn how to apply agile techniques without losing control
  • Sharpen your communication skills to provide clarity, conciseness, and urgency
  • Quickly identify and assess team risks and assumptions

Benefits:

  • More agility in your teams
  • Improved communication skills through techniques for clear and concise communication
  • Distinctly identify task urgencies and prioritization through new approaches
  • Enhanced risk analysis through a tiered assessment of potential outcomes

You’ve budgeted for equipment, personnel, and other expenses, but have you considered the cost of fear? For far too many project teams, fear is a hidden line item with real costs—stifled innovation, poor decision-making, and slow, siloed communication. In this impactful program, project team dynamics consultant Sara Gallagher explains how fear (and its damaging cousin, silence) compromises team performance and agility. She shares how building a culture of psychological safety can overcome the hidden costs of fear and build a resilient team that can adapt quickly to the speed of change.

In this session, you’ll learn how to:

• Recognize the signs of fear-based silence on project teams
• Build a culture of psychological safety that encourages open communication, collaboration, and innovation
• Empower team members to take smart risks and make faster, better decisions

Trust is essential to effective communication across your team and your stakeholders—but how can you communicate trust when no one can see your face? This engaging session will examine how the four cores of trust are impacted in a digital, global communication environment. Participants will be given the opportunity to immediately apply what they’ve learned to improve communication across their teams.

At the conclusion of this program, participants should be able to:

  • Analyze how the four cores of trust are impacted when digital or virtual communication is employed.
  • Apply specific tools and techniques to improve communication and convey trust even in digital and virtual settings.

“On time, on scope, on budget.” This is the relentless mantra of the project manager—but is our hyper-focus on tactical success hurting our bottom line? When project managers are more concerned about meeting a deadline than adding value, the answer is yes. As projects grow increasingly complex, organizations are recognizing that it takes more than a project manager to drive organizational success—it takes a project leader. Project leaders understand the big-picture dynamics influencing the project agenda, and aren’t afraid to recommend that projects be killed when they fall out of alignment with organizational strategy. And they’re poised to make their appearance in C-suites across the continent.