David Davis for ATD wrote a piece called “Let me let you in on a secret to sustaining learning!”.  Where he compared and contrasted approaches to organizational learning programs and explained why one was effective.   He said, “The secret to the success of the first program was that the project owners did a phenomenal job of socializing the new learning solution throughout the entire organization. They not only socialized the program with senior management, they targeted a very special group—the learners’ managers. Eureka! That’s the secret! In the organization that heavily involved the managers of the learners in the development, launch, and sustainment of the new learning solution, the training was a huge success”.   [end].

The reality of project management is that most managers today know the importance of the topic and understand intuitively the improvements engaging all stakeholders can bring.  But how do you train not just individuals, but entire teams and organizations?  That’s a much bigger challenge than sending a few people to project management training.

At PMO Advisory, we use a high-touch approach.  We first work with the managers and understand their issues and what keeps them up at night. We then design training programs and activities specific for their needs.  We work together to tailor the training using client’s terminologies and processes so their people can relate better. Then we test pilot and train a small group of “friendly” people before we roll out to the organization.  Best practices are achieved as our training is strategy driven, people learn by doing with shared accountability and we strive for all to embrace learning as a continuous process.

This approach works amazingly well.  For example, in an iconic US firm, we blended a combination of project, program, and portfolio management in a three day session for the newly created Strategic Program Office.  At another century old non-profit organization, we have now trained over 30% of the entire organization by embedding the project management training as a part of their project mobilization. There were many Eureka moments during those sessions, helping to jump start their projects and pave the way for the organization to achieve execution excellence. – Prof. Dr. Te Wu, the founder Project Management training firm PMO Advisory is among the few people in the world certified in Project (PMP), Program (PgMP), Portfolio (PfMP), and Risk Management (PMI-RMP).