Training Courses and Project Management UK, Pearcemayfield

Three Reasons to take your course with pearcemayfield:

The Problem

Project managers have bodies of knowledge, methods and frameworks, as well as tools and techniques such as MS Project and Critical Path Analysis. Yet despite all these frameworks, techniques and tools, project managers and leaders of business initiatives often only get moderate results. Something vital is missing.

The Solution

Different research studies are beginning to identify that 'something'  as the 'people thing'. The emerging picture is fairly consistent: High performers all seem to have a strong bias to relationships. Stakeholders and engaging them seems to matter, and matter more than most project managers perhaps realise.

Engaging your stakeholders from Patrick Mayfield

 Nature of this Workshop

This inspirational and practical workshop will give you a comprehensive approach to effective stakeholder engagement within any change initiative, i.e. a project or a programme. You will experience the power of various practices and techniques, which you can use to your advantage immediately after the workshop.

We call it "stakeholder engagement", not stakeholder management. With the engagement mindset, people are treated as people, not resources or blocks, and we are finding that this yields far better results. We help you move from a merely transactional approach to stakeholders towards a relational and collaborative approach.

Project success rates are dramatically increased, delays are reduced, and requirements met, through the counter-intuituve emphasis on engaging with people.

Research-based, proven approaches

This workshop emerged out of pearcemayfield's own research into high-performing change leaders, project managers, and programme managers. It cuts to the chase and focuses on specific practices of the high performers that yields results. Delegates find that they gain immediate improvements in the performance of their projects as they put elements of this workshop into practice.

Opportunities to Resolve Your Own Challenges

This workshop is designed in such a way that your own challenges with people in and around your project can be used as practice topics. Delegates leave with concrete steps that make an immediate difference to the success of their projects.

"Many thanks for the really useful and informative workshop yesterday in Oxford." Operational Manager

Collaborative Approach

The task of engaging your stakeholders doesn't need to rest all on one person's shoulders, nor should it. In this workshop you will explore how this is done within a team. You will discover how to mobilise and lead high performance teams in engaging a variety of stakeholders.

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world: indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” Margaret Mead

Avoids Irrelevant Theory

The material in this workshop is principles-centred, in that we have identified for you a few key elements that always work. It is also practice-oriented. We have designed this workshop with a key learning objective of leaving you with the ability to take practice steps immediately.

"Following the workshop I scheduled coffee with a colleague from another department ... He will be able to influence [his] group. I started with [applying one of the principles you shared. As a result] he’s setting up a focus group for me using his contacts and is behind the proposed approach." Group Marketing Manager

100% of delegates (that's all of them) who have been on this workshop rated its usefulness to the future performance of their job as "Very useful' or "Extremely Useful".

Our unique on-line resource forum

We have built and developed growing and rich resource set that supports you after the workshop. This contains a growing number of files, templates, case studies, and discussions, all of which are freely available to you after the workshop.

This is uniquely available to delegates on this workshop.

Experienced Workshop Leader

You will find that your workshop leader is an experienced facilitator and subject matter expert. He or she will lead you through four key steps of our 7-step engagement model.

Our experience is that delegates gain more value from our workshop leader as they practice various techniques and exercises. Although content-rich, at least 55% of the timetable is devoted to individual and group work, making this a deeply practical experience.

Over 83% of delegates felt that the facilitator answered their questions "Very well" of "Extremely well".

"The course was professionally presented and managed." Project Manager

Our Practical Handbook

One of our design aims was to avoid the usual arid PowerPoint copies so common in much management training. Instead you will be given a 110-page full-colour "Practical Handbook". This is used as your core reference on the workshop. Our Handbook is designed and used as an ongoing practical reference for you after your workshop, with further references and practical tips.

Dealing with Difficult Stakeholders

One of the most popular sessions in the Workshop is on dealing with difficult stakeholders. This recognises that 'difficult people' are a fact of life on most projects. How do you deal with them? Here we will take you through a sensitive and robust seven-step negotiating framework.Delegates find this framework equips them to gain better results in such tough situations.

Other topics covered

• The danger of missing important people, and how to avoid that
• Prioritizing your stakeholders and your time
• How to run a good stakeholder workshop
• Things to consider in profiling a stakeholder
• Assessing both resistance to change and readiness to change
• Being aware of the least natural allies to change
• Shaping your game plan of engagement
• How to use a transition model or a change model
• Putting on different hats in influencing stakeholders
• How to adjust communications styles during the life cycle
• Choosing the right engagement medium
• Influencing with the right people in your project
• Timing your messages
• How to deal with the 'gatekeepers'
• Delighting your customers

                               Results of post-course evaluations as at January, 2013

WHAT DO I DO NEXT?

We can coach a large group of staff, tailor this and any of our courses or workshops to your specific needs or create a bespoke course to meet your organisations requirements.  Contact us for further details.