Does Your Project Management Training Program Work?

If you have been following my blog postings, you will know about my continuous commitment in promoting project management skills training. As I have said many times in speaking engagements, articles and webinars…everyone benefits from learning project management skills. Everyone.

Which is why I found this article by Steve Glaveski intriguing. In his article he provides us with some eye-opening statistics on learning and development programs within organizations. These statistics made me wonder about how organizations are teaching project management skills and if those training programs are working.

In my research, I have found that many organizations are using e-learning vendors that may include project management training. Some organizations have more than one e-learning vendor which opens up the opportunity to take multiple project management training programs. It’s rare to find an organization with an in-house training program for project management. I think that’s an unfortunate decision and I also believe it elevates the level of risk within your organization. All organizations have projects – in every department, business unit, and division. Why wouldn’t your organization want to have consistency in practice? Wouldn’t it be great if everyone working on a project team had the same understanding of the terms, phrases, processes, tools and approaches? Can you imagine how efficient your organization would be if everyone had the same interpretation of how projects unfold? If everyone knew what their role was, how they will be contributing the project and at what stage of the project? Can you envision that? Wow.

While you think about that vision, let me share some additional ideas for consideration.

*Develop a project management framework for your organization. The framework is the foundation of your project efforts and activities. It is not set in stone, it is flexible and will be used as a guide for what should be required for projects within your organization.

*Establish a required project management program for all staff. The main focus of this program will be the review of the organizational framework, how it works, who is responsible (correct answer: everyone!) and the resources available to support the framework (your organizational Project Toolkit). Don’t forget to include this training in your Onboarding Program as well.

*Identify a Point-of-Contact for the project management framework, training and ongoing support and maintenance of the Project Toolkit.

There are some additional ways that you can establish a meaningful project management training program internally, and I strongly recommend that by starting with these 3 action items, you will be establishing the momentum you need to kickstart the program.

If, however, you are planning to stay with an e-learning vendor that includes pre-recorded project management skills training, I would like to suggest you consider the following questions for your internal program:

*Does the project management training program align with how we manage projects in our organization?

*Will the learners understand how to apply project management better practices within the scope of their role based on this training program?

*Are there multiple programs available which can lead to inconsistency in terminology, processes, use of tools and templates and overall practice?

*Is there a project management point person who can help learners introduce what they just learned to the organization, their individual role as well as the team responsibilities?

*Is there an organizational Project Toolkit that can be used in conjunction with the project management training program to help the learners fully understand the tools and templates that are used internally?

*Has anyone from the organization, that has a project management background, taken the courses offered to provide feedback and recommendations to the organization?

Project management skills are a hot topic and can offer powerful benefits to individuals and organizations alike. Take some time to review what training is available in your organization, how it aligns with your organizational needs and goals and if the program is sustainable. Then make an informed decision on how to proceed.

Let project management work for you.