After many years of reviewing project performance and Post Implementation Reviews, it is astounding that the soft skills of Project Professionals is almost NEVER mentioned as a root cause of failure. Upon further reflection, it should not be that surprising. A blind spot is a blind spot. It’s expecting the physician to “heal thyself”.
What tends to happen is the effect is reported as the cause. Take for example the case of a project team under distress. One natural response is to “shrink the project responsibility” and put a wall up around the project team. This would be reported as a mismatch of objectives between the project and the customer when in fact it is an inability to find more constructive ways to alleviate the distress. The learning is often recorded as more governance or communication required. This response never fixes the real problem.
Another experience is the inability to speak truth to power. This leads to very late reporting of problems. In reality, the problems are known to someone early but keeping the peace is valued more highly than the truth or preservation trumps success. Again the common treatment is more governance or project controls which makes the problem worse, not better.
These are just a few examples addressed in the Advanced Project Leaders Workshop developed by Tony Sattout Consulting specifically for project professionals to address soft skill development using very simple frameworks. The workshop is designed to tap the collective genius in the room in an engaging and effective adult learning style. It is rich on interaction and immediately implementable actions, lite on PowerPoint and starved of profiling tools appealing to you hardened project professionals.
Follow the link to find out more. Advanced Project Leaders Workshop
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