Save 3 1/4 Hours a Week:
Facilitation Skills for Project Professionals

(Download Course Brochure Here)

Learn how to build on your training and your experience:

• Save 3 1/4 hours a week, or even more.
• Get things done without line management authority.
• Make your project meetings and conference calls work even better.
• Engage your stakeholders, your project team and even the public.

Announcing our flagship event: 3-4 June 2009, Leicester

Which of these challenges do you have right now?

• More and more is expected of you, especially in the current climate.
• Your time is more precious than ever.
• Delivery is more important than ever.
• Projects are more complex than ever.
• Teams are split up and spread out geographically.

It's tough, isn't it?

At the same time, meetings and conference calls take up a big chunk of your week. Our research shows that project professionals typically spend between two and four days each week in meetings! Is this the best use of your valuable time?

Nine Project Problems You'll Leave Behind:

1. I spend so much time in meetings that I don't have time to do my real work

Meetings can be so much more effective! Save up to a third of your time in meetings, leaving more for you to do your work. You'll learn the right questions to ask when people want you to attend their meetings too.

2. In my organisation, people usually aren't sure why they have been asked to a meeting. We often take 15 minutes at the start waiting for people to arrive and more time talking about what we want to cover.

You'll learn how to have a clear structure and purpose so that people know where they need to be, by when and why.

3. I don't have line management authority over the project team as I’m in a matrix organisation. This makes getting things done much more complicated!

The skills that you’ll practise on this course won’t just help with meetings. They provide ways for you to get the most out of your team, in ways that motivates them to do their best for you and your project.

4. ‘One or two people usually dominate the meeting, whereas others are quiet and speak up only when it’s too late.’

You’ll learn and practise tools and techniques to get the right information from everybody at the right time.

5. ’Actions just don’t get done!’

By using our methods to create and record actions, people will be much more committed to carrying them out. You’ll learn a technique so that agreed actions are already documented when you leave the meeting room!

6. ‘How do I deal with stakeholders? They are so many different types and I have no control over them!’

The skills that you’ll practise on this course will help you to deal with a range of stakeholders in ways that encourages their involvement and motivates them.

7. ‘It’s hard to get to a decision. Our meetings tend to turn into talking shops’

You’ll learn a range of techniques that work when making decisions with groups.

8. 'Our project team is spread across several sites and we can’t always have face-to-face meetings.’

We’ll cover remote meetings and conference calls too.

9. ‘I hate to say so, but our meetings are often so dull that I can’t remember what I spent the last three hours doing!’ 

Don’t worry! We’ll show you appropriate ways to make your meetings easy to recall.
 

Meet the project facilitators who will guide you through the two days:

Dr Penny Pullan

With a successful track record in project management, business analysis, training and facilitation in blue chip multi-nationals over 15 years, Penny now runs Making Projects Work Ltd.

Penny is well known for her innovative, yet practical methods, which make meetings and projects come alive.  Her flair for generating ideas and really getting people on-side is pure gold.

Penny is an experienced Project Manager, certified as PMP, PRINCE2 and MSP Practitioner. Her success stories range from creating global business processes through to working with the UN, governments and industry to reduce child labour on cocoa farms. She’s also a Certified Professional Facilitator (CPF), who runs the full range of project meetings from vision to project reviews, as well as government consultations. Her PhD in Nanotechnology is from Cambridge and she is a Chartered Engineer.

Neil Williams

Neil’s project experience has taken him all over the world. One project was to design and implement new global corporate learning processes and IT for a multinational. The stakeholders were spread across every continent - except Antarctica! Neil ran this successful project remotely. He knows all about making conference calls work, as well as face to face meetings. Neil is also a graduate in Mathematics from Nottingham.

As a facilitator of change and a natural coach, Neil provides a clear framework and environment for team members and stakeholders to find ways forward for themselves. His coaching shines on the football pitch too, with his youth team having lots of fun. He works hard to build a cohesive environment and excellent team spirit.

Recently, Neil’s stretched his skills in a different setting: he’s working with groups of parents through very complex and entrenched issues. He’s been fascinated to see how similar to project work this is - from recognising the ‘as-is’, identifying areas of focus, exploring possible ways forward, to taking responsibility and committing to action.

Between us, we have clocked up years and years of experience working on projects, and as facilitators and trainers.  We were responsible for developing project management and facilitation skills, in Mars Inc. which is well known for excellent training. We saw the extra effectiveness that this combination gave to project professionals and to their success. 

We’ve worked with corporate, government and charitable clients in the UK and abroad, and saved countless hours through really effective meetings and projects.

We will make sure you will too.

What we’ll cover together on our two days together:

What works for us already:

We’ll start by listening to everyone’s objectives and exploring how we’ll work together.  We’ll explore what already works in our projects: focusing on our meetings.

And then

•  Exploring what great groups have. What can we aspire to?
•  Understanding how teams form: introducing some useful models for projects (no psychobabble)
•  What roles do we need in a meeting? What is a facilitator? What other roles should we use?
•  Preparation: how to be really effective in the shortest possible time.
• How to start up a meeting for maximum success.

Working with groups:

• Getting input from all, not just a few,
•  Understanding and handling conflict,
•  Decision making in a group,
•  Problem solving in a group.
•  Building trust and commitment without line authority.
•  Building engagement with your stakeholders. 
• When to intervene to get your meeting or project back on track, and when not to.

Practice in a project context: you’ll work on examples from your own experience and projects.

Making it work when your group isn’t together: conference calls, videos and webinars.

Working on your next challenge: return to work with your own action plan in place.

What other help is out there?

Putting it all together with:

 Chances to practice skills and review your learning in a positive, supportive, safe environment.
 Linking your learning to the work that you do, so you can apply it immediately on your return.
 Find out a host of ways to make a positive impact on your meetings and project relationships.

You’ll finish with tons of practical skills, together with ideas and plans for your meetings, projects and engaging your stakeholders.

Date and Location: 3-4 June 2009 City Rooms, Leicester.

The City Rooms are in a listed Georgian building in the heart of Leicester, an upcoming and vibrant city. They are just ten minutes walk from the train station, with regular trains to London, the East, the Midlands and the North.  Nottingham East Midlands airport is half an hour away. Parking is available close by.

You can choose to stay in a luxurious suite at the City Rooms themselves. Alternatively, there is a range of hotels very close by, from the brand new boutique Maiyango Hotel, to the Holiday Inn and Ibis. With award winning restaurants close by and a brand-new shopping centre, Leicester is a great city to spend a night or two. Both the City Rooms and Maiyango were featured in the Guardian’s City supplement recently.

How many more hours can you afford to waste? Reserve your place today.
An alternative: In house courses - tailored to your organisation
Does this sound great, but you’d like to tailor the course to fit your own exact requirements or perhaps you have five or more people to train?
Contact us directly at courses@makingprojectswork or 44 (0)1509 821691.
 

Don’t just take our word for it...
Here are the great things that people say:

 ‘I’ve gone from feeling engulfed by project meetings to feeling more empowered!’
James Marchant

‘Great course leaders/facilitators. Lots of opportunities to practise.’
Lisa Talifero, Director, EngagementWorks Ltd.

 ‘Group dynamic was good and encouraged. Practical nature also meant learning by doing/experience - excellent.’
Jon Bugge, Project Manager, Save the Children

‘I liked the ahas, lots of practice, safe environment, nice number
Maduri Rajkumar, HR Services Manager

 ‘[The course] was really good... Penny is a fantastic trainer and I got so many good ideas from her.’
Ruth Jones, Volunteer Development Manager

‘I really valued the opportunity to try things out in a safe environment and have genuine feedback on my facilitation skills’
Lucy Oakshott, Save the Children UK

‘I found the whole experience so professional right from the invitation through to the course. It far exceeds the experience I’ve ever had with other training.’
Lisa Talifero

 ‘An opportunity to learn about models/techniques to help improve my practical experience.’
Joanna Swiers, Corporate Impact Co-ordinator

How did they feel after the course?

I’ve gone from feeling that meetings were a necessary evil (slightly out of control) to having a stepping stone with energy that can be channelled.
Very excited about trying out the new approaches and techniques I have learned.
I’ve gone from feeling nervous about project meetings to being excited to try new things.

What do they say to you?

Do it! Recognise it as a skill that needs training.
I recommend it.
Be prepared to get involved. You will have a great time and you will learn some great techniques. Watch and learn from the way the course leaders facilitate. They are excellent at it.
If you want a set of tools to help improve your projects/meetings/facilitation - Sign Up!
Go go go!!

Who else do we work with?

Our recent clients include:

AstraZeneca

Capital One

Cummins Turbo Technologies

Johnson & Johnson

National Grid

Pearson Education

ESI

A major FMCG Multinational

Manchester University

The Open University

Various Government Bodies

Project Consultancies

and more

What you can expect from the Workshop:

Practical, pragmatic tips from experienced project managers: We know what works and what doesn’t.

Too often, ‘soft’ skills courses don’t understand the work of projects and programmes. Ours do. Only experienced project managers who are also excellent facilitators train our courses.

Practice the skills as you learn: You’ll get lots of opportunities to practice as you learn throughout the day. By the end of the course, you will have tried out the skills and be ready to use them on your own projects.

A relaxed and friendly environment: We believe that people learn most when they are enjoying themselves and feel supported and safe. We positively encourage discussion and the sharing of ideas and feedback during the course. People learn from each other and from the huge variety of project experience in the room.

No Death By Slides: We will use our facilitation skills to keep you engaged and interested. We promise to keep slides to a minimum. Where it’s appropriate, we use graphical techniques to capture what people say on huge sheets of paper to support even more effective communication.

Tailored to your needs:  We limit the size of the group to no more than eight per instructor, so you’ll get plenty of individual attention, focused on what you need in your role.

We ban ‘psycho-babble’ from our courses: jargon gets in the way. We translate the most useful concepts and models so that you don’t have to learn a whole new language to use them.

You can expect to leave with practical tools that you can apply straight away. These are tried and tested - we have used all of these in projects to make sure you get just what you need.

Make progress on your project while you’re on the course: We’ll be working on your own real examples (if you wish) so you’ll have moved your project on.

We realise that life as a project manager is busy, and that it is all too easy to fall back into old ways of working on your return. We provide a range of ways to support your learning and to encourage you to take action. You’ll receive a short reminder of the best ideas each week for a month after the course. We’ll invite all participants to a teleseminar a month later too.

Your investment:

You’ve experienced Making Projects Work through our tips and perhaps our talks.

In these two days you will gain in confidence and get to practise tools and techniques to save time and build success. You’ll learn how to save hours of time, both for yourself and for your team. You’ll be even more effective with your team and stakeholders.

Your investment for this first workshop will be just £799. This covers the two day course, your workbook and course binder, lunch, refreshments, a follow up e-course and the telephone conference a month afterwards.

For this course only, there is absolutely no VAT to pay!

Book by 12th May at www.tinyurl.com/save3hours to receive bonuses worth £100: 

•  A discount to bring the price down to £749 all inclusive (worth £50)
• Our Meeting Start Up Template in A0 and paper poster form (worth £50).

Or call us on 01509 821691.
Or download our brochure here and send in the order form.

Book online by 12th May at http://www.tinyurl.com/save3hours

____________________________________________________________________

P.S. Any doubts? Here's more from the last course.

What will you gain from this experience?

• Cut the time you spend in meetings, but get more out of those you have.
• Engage your project stakeholders
• Get things done, even without line management authority
• An extra 3 1/4 hours per week - what would you do with that?

James Marchant went from 'Engulfed' to 'More empowered.'

Jon Bugge went from 'A necessary evil. Slightly out of control' to 'A stepping stone with energy that can be channeled.' 

            ;        

Lisa Talifero went from 'Quite confident in basic facilitation but I lacked creative ideas for capturing/recording inputs and outputs' to 'Very excited about trying out the new approaches and techniques I have learned.'

Maduri Rajkumar went from 'Nervous' to 'Excited to try new things'

Joanna Swiers went from 'OK, but keen to make them better (a bit jaded)' to 'Keen to try new tools and tips to get more out of them.'

Lucy Oakshott went from 'Apprehensive' to 'Confident and armed with lots of theory and practice.'

The course was full of thinking, participating, working with groups, improvising, talking and presenting!

• Fantastic group of people. Great course leaders/facilitators. Lots of opportunities to practise. The techniques used to facilitate the course were role models for learning.
  
• Group dynamic was good and encouraged. Practical nature also meant learning by doing/experience - excellent. Great to take time to focus on one particular skill.
• Ahas, lots of practice, safe environment, nice number
• Having an opportunity to learn about models/techniques to help improve my practical experience.
• Chance to try things out and get feedback
• I really valued the opportunity to try things out in a safe environment and have genuine feedback on my facilitation skills. It was also really valuable to have forums to try and try again after receiving feedback. This enabled me to practise what I had learnt.

Yes, Yes, Yes, Yes, Yes, Yes, definitely, Yes, absolutely!!

Ruth: I think it’s all brilliant really. Very good. And I can’t think of any improvements.

Lisa: Penny, I found the whole experience so professional right from the invitation through to the course. It far exceeds the experience I’ve ever had with other training in terms of it being a whole experience rather than you go away for a couple of days and that’s it. And I think having conference call like this and so on, it’s so good in terms of reinforcement and retention.
Neil:  I would like to second that.
Liza:  I like having the booklet and all the photographs and stuff. That was fabulous.

Jo:  I was just saying I think compared with the other courses that I’ve done, I love that booklet that we downloaded [pictures from the course and notes of what happened]. And I just think it’s so much better than just having sort of notes from a course which you put in a file and never look at again. And I think the email thing is great as well. I mean it’s just really a good way to get follow-up rather than just come away with a big bunch of stuff that you just put in a file and don’t look at. I think it’s great to have a bit at a time. And I definitely think the book is really fantastic. I’ll definitely use it. And it’s just interesting to look at. It was quite funny to look at pictures of yourself and think ‘I was there’. That’s great. I can’t think of a way to improve it. I really like it.
James:  I really like getting these little nuggets from time to time. And I look at them and I think, yes we did cover that, and it reminds me of stuff that we went through. I think in bite size chunks it’s great.

Save 3 1/4 Hours Per Week is available as an in house course to suit you or will run as an open course again on 3 and 4th June 2009. Book your place here, see our brochure or ring 01509 821691 or e-mail penny @ makingprojectswork.co.uk.