PM Fundamentals -- worth the time?

Next week, I'll be teaching a Project Management Fundamentals class. This is a one-day class that we run at our facility and at our clients' sites.

The question is, can you teach project management in a single day? I have taught many project management courses and programs, including a 28-week program I currently run at major university. However, many of those students are there to either (1) learn how to manage a project or (2) get some formalized training.

Most of the students who take the one-day course are typically team members. They work with project managers and need to understand what they go through in order to properly manage a project. Ironically, many project managers fly by the seat of their pants and actually know less from a formal standpoint. Although these project managers may be very good, they could be much, much better.

So is a one-day PM course worthwhile? For team members who want a high-level snapshot -- YES! For actual project managers -- it would be ideal to pass and take a longer program.

Selling on the fly

I just returned from the training that I wrote about yesterday. Play along and ask me how it went.

It went well, as usual. Did I get to teach what I believe in? You betcha. I arrived early and was determined to spend part of the time discussing my rationale for covering certain topics. I also said that I would de-emphasize some of those areas but I need to spend a minimum amount time because it was all integrated. To make a long story short, he nodded in agreement and the show was on!

By the time I completed our first day of training, the sponsor said it was nice to have someone who really knows what he's talking about to steer the class toward the right direction.

The lesson? Try to do what's right, even it you have to use your sales training to do so.

Let the SME do what you are paying him to do

Tomorrow, I'll be heading to a client site to deliver IT Project Management training. This will be conducted over 3 days at their facility and I'm really dreading it. Why? Because it's not the training that I believe in. What I mean by that is that the client dictated what topics to cover and what not to cover.

I understand that the client pays and we do what they want. However, when you ask for a subject matter expert (SME) to come in to do what they do best and then handcuff them, what do you think the result will be? Probably not good, right? And if the end result is terrible, who does it reflect on? You get my point.

To make it worse, the guy who asked for this training for his team attended a speaking engagement that I was at last year. Trying hard not to be immodest but most people who meet me learn to trust me. They take my words to heart because every word that comes out of my mouth has truth behind it and is filled with my passion. Yet from time to time, I meet people who are as green as a Pebble Beach fairway in August who think they know more than someone who does this every day.

So you must be curious at this point, what are they asking me to do? I'll just give you a single example and you'll see the picture. The request is to not discuss network diagramming but spend as much time as possible in MS Project. For those of you who still do not fully understand, it's the equivalent of teaching a first grader how to use a calculator before they know why they have to add in the first place. It'll be easy to teach them how to push the buttons but will they really understand why they need it?

More speaking...

Tonight and tomorrow night, my PSU classes will be delivering their project presentations to me. This is the pinnacle for the course for them.

Unlike some instructors, I will be spending a good deal of time providing feedback. I also expect them to apply that feedback to their presentation for their next course.

Why? Because presentation skills are one of the more underrated, yet valuable skills to have as a PM. The top PMs (we can assume in prestige and salary) give presentations regularly. They present changes to boards, updates to executives, design info to teams, etc... Any time they have to stand in front of a room, they're presenting!

Have you ever left a meeting where the presenter was dull? That's probably all you remember. How about a meeting where the presenter was dynamic? That meeting is probably still very vivid in your head. Remember what I stated in one of my previous posts, content can easily get lost if not delivered well.

So tonight will be fun -- for me, that is. It will be fun for the students too but they don't know it yet.