Our Management Training Seminars

By introducing our Management Training Seminars to your staff we help ease the negative effect of change on both managerial and supervisory personnel. The change in job responsibilities, the change in personnel, job duties, and the rising challenge of developing subordinates are specific goals of our learning systems seminars. We are highly successful at helping Managers and Supervisors learn and adapt to the necessary skills and proper behaviors to be successful at work as well as in their personal lives.

For more information on our management training seminars please contact us.

As a part of our management training seminars, Managers and Supervisors will learn how to:

• Minimize the chance of miscommunication by understanding what people are really saying, and why
• Deal with difficult people, manage tense situations, and resolve conflict
• Make use of proven active listening skills to improve your ability to gain helpful information
• Be able to facilitate, guide, and close discussions in one-on-one or group settings
• Improve understanding and communication by giving and receiving good feedback
• Use ideas submitted by a member of the team without causing other members to be defensive
• Develop a comprehensive team building strategy that improves productivity of the whole team
• Emphasize the value of working toward common goals without devaluing individual accomplishment
• Define and set up a method to track staff activities
• Be able to manage time and work assignments effectively
• Conduct team meetings that capture and hold the audience’s attention
• Interview and hire the right person for the right job
• Save time and work more effectively through the use of a clear time management plan
• Understand and comply with proper hiring and managing requirements
• Communicate effectively with both superiors, peers and subordinates
• Become effective coaches for their work team
• Conduct accurate and difficult performance appraisals

 

Management Training:
Minding the Gap in Project Management Seminars

Vague or unachievable spec as part of a fixed price project is a nightmare for any project manager, yet despite us all fearing it, we still allow it to happen, with a deficit between what is required of a project and the resource available to it.

The main issue here is the question of risk and who is willing to take it. In cases of fixed price projects the risk is with the supplier, whereas with T&M it is the customer who bears the risk. Overrunning is the most common risk, and the cost of any extra time, work or resource has to be absorbed by wither the customer or the supplier.

In the fixed price scenario, theoretically the supplier would be happy to shoulder the risk as it is he (or she) who has set the timeline and decided on the price. If it comes in early they make a profit and if it comes in late they are usually covered by the extra they put in the estimate for accepting the project on a fixed price contract. Everybody ends up satisfied, except for in cases where the project comes in very late, taking the profit and contingency with it, but surely that's the suppliers own fault anyway- or is it?

Wrong. In nearly all cases it is likely that the suppliers initial estimate was negotiated down in terms of cost, or up in terms of spec. They know what they can do for what price, but most customers will negotiate and if the supplier doesn't agree then plenty others will so they are forced to come to an arrangement-often a fixed price project planned with very little margin for error, which is most certainly a risk.

Even in cases where an overrun is completely the fault of the supplier, they still need to make a profit, and running at a loss is not a way to do this. So when this occurs a supplier may scale back the project, under deliver or 'cut corners'. Then the dread 'change request' excuse rears its ugly head, and we're in territory no one wants to be in!

One potentially effective way out of the problem is to assess what the initial needs were, rather than how they are to be fulfilled or what the cost implication is. Then we can ascertain the difference between what the customer wants and what they are going to get.

A possible resolution is to go back to the initial requirements of the project, rather than the cost and how they will be achieved. From here the gap can be ascertained and the client can see earlier the difference between what they want and what they will get.

A good Project Manager can reduce the stress in the project by revealing the gap to a customer as early on in the process as possible, so the battle can be reached and resolved sooner allowing the project to continue more efficiently. This can be achieved by allowing the customer to see small sections of the work as they are completed.

We call this "Minding the Gap" and it takes a skilled project manager to employ this alone. By implementing strong project management software they can give themselves a helping hand, as bugs, issues and milestones are flagged automatically allowing them to be responsive and efficient.

Jess O'Neal: link

Subject: Management Seminars

More Management Training Tips