In part 1 of this series we looked at 8 ways to make your project management training courses more effective. We have a further 8 suggestions. Please do let us have any ideas you may have.
9. Visual aids – I wrote a blog article about PowerPoint and placed a comment on LinkedIn. So far, there have been over 65 comments ranging from those who use it all the time to not at all. If, and it’s a BIG if, you use PowerPoint then make it communicate. There are enough articles on the web about death by PowerPoint – beware!
10. Questions – use the power of questions to establish some facts about an issue e.g. what formal processes are there to monitor your projects. Encourage questions from your course members to you and each other
11. Activities – make them enjoyable. Ensure they do not take too long – break the activities up into a series of building blocks and ensure you have process review to pick out learning from the activities
12. Great materials – I’m pleased to say my company Project Agency has had many comments saying our materials are really useful and can be used post course for referencing. Make them user friendly
13. Experiment – yes, sometimes something will come up in a course e.g. I had this problem…help that individual – use the material to show how others can benefit. Beware though; you may not always get it right!
14. Be provocative – Being proactive can be a real challenge for the group e.g. making a statement such as; “You should not be running a project without a project sponsor”. This certainly gets some comments. Use their comments to illustrate good practice
15. Car park – sometimes you do not know or cannot help. I was working with a client recently and they have issues over roles and stakeholders. I could not help them there and then apart from saying this is something that needs to be dealt with back in the workplace. I captured the issue on flipchart for a senior manager to deal with on their return
16. Post project management course activity – reinforcement of learning can be a powerful way of ensuring that your project management courses are more effective. This can take many forms e.g. coaching, buddy group work, post course projects supported via email or on site
17. Invite speakers – a good speaker can really make a difference showing how the speaker delivered their project or what project management tools really work for them
So, what’s the question?
Which of these or previous suggestions (see below for link) would make a difference to your courses?
Part 1 of this article can be found here
The final part in this series will appear next week.
photo by Ronaldo S photstream Flickr
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