Dr. Aaron Shenhar, PMP, PMI Fellow
Professor of Project Management and Leadership.
CEO, TLI, SPL
Dr. Aaron Shenhar is widely regarded as one of the world’s leading experts in project management, innovation, and leadership. He recently received the IPMA Research Achievement Award and the PMI Fellow Award. He was also the first recipient of the Project Management Institute (PMI) Research Achievement Award, as well as Engineering Manager of the Year of IEEE. He holds five academic degrees in engineering and management, including a PhD from Stanford University.
After a career as executive in the aerospace industry, Dr. Shenhar served as tenured professor, founding new academic programs in project management in four universities. He is one of the most published and cited authors in the field, and his work has influenced project and technology management research and education throughout the world. He also served as consultant to major corporations such as 3M, NASA, Honeywell, Dow Jones & Co., U.S. Army, and Tata Group. His recent book, Reinventing Project Management, is the first project management book published by Harvard Business School Press.
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Projects, Business, Innovation, Leadership*
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Managers |
Executives & CEOs
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| 1 | Building Your Next Project Management Skills: Leading Strategic Innovation & Having Fun More Information |
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| 2 | The “Diamond of Innovation” - Why One Size Does Not Fit All More Information |
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| 3 | Strategic Project Leadership® - Turning Project Managers into Leaders of Winning Teams More Information |
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| 4 | Building Superior Leadership Skills, While Getting Politics Out of the Way More Information |
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| 5 | A New Project Management Vision: Integrating Business, Innovation, and Leadership More Information |
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| 6 | The “Diamond Opportunity”: From Cost-Cutting to Strategic Execution Leadership More Information |
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| 7 | Building a Value Creation Society in Your Company More Information |
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| 8 | Presentation Based On Any Blog Topic More Information |
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Building Your Next Project Management Skills: Leading Strategic Innovation & Having Fun
Back to top Projects today are more complex, highly uncertain, and changing faster than ever; they are also greatly impacted by the business dynamics, and “one size does not fit all.” These changes require a new approach. The next generation of project management will transform project managers into leaders of innovation who learn how to deal with the strategic and business aspects of their projects, actually improve time and budget performance, and build a vision to inspire their teams while having fun.
We present Strategic Project Leadership® (SPL), which was built on the foundations of traditional project management during twenty years of research and work with corporations. SPL helps organizations deal with their projects in a flexible and adaptive way, and focus their projects on business results by creating value, competitive advantage, and winning in the marketplace. This integrated, industry-proven, and PMI award-winning approach combines the business-related needs of projects, the operational aspects of getting the job done on time and budget, and the leadership perspective of inspiring and motivating the team. It also deals with adapting each project to its specific level of innovation by using “The Diamond of Innovation,” for improving timely delivery. We use lessons from several famous projects to show how project teams can integrate Strategic Project Leadership® into their current practices by building new skills on top of their traditional project management skills.
“The Diamond of Innovation” – Why One Size Does Not Fit All
In a fast changing world, no organization can survive without innovation. But innovation is a risky business and too many good ideas never make it to market. For successful innovation you must understand that “one size does not fit all” and learn to adapt your project to its specific level of innovation. Ironically, project and innovation management have often evolved in different directions, and were addressed by separate communities and studies. In reality, however, they are part of the same process – the process of turning ideas into useful products and profitable businesses.
We present “The Diamond of Innovation” as a unified framework for technology, marketing, project, and innovation management. “The Diamond of Innovation” is a part of Strategic Project Leadership® (SPL), which is a comprehensive, research-based, and industry-proven methodology that transforms managers into leaders of business and innovation who take ownership of their project’s business outcomes. They must learn to combine the strategic aspects of innovation; the operational needs of timely delivery, and the leadership perspectives of inspiring and motivating teams. We demonstrate the method on several famous projects and illustrate how careful planning for the right kind of innovation will contribute to better project and business success.
Strategic Project Leadership® – Turning Managers into Leaders of Winning Teams
Strategic Project Leadership® (SPL) is the new research-based approach to project management, which is transforming project managers into leaders of winning teams. By focusing teams on the business and innovation sides of their project, they become accountable for the project’s business outcome (not just for delivering its product). As “CEOs of Projects,” they learn to deal with the project’s strategic goals, the operational needs of getting the job done, and the leadership aspects of inspiring and motivating the team. They also learn how to adapt each project to its specific level of innovation by using “The Diamond of Innovation,” as part of an integrated strategic project plan.
We use real life success stories to demonstrate how the new leadership approach unleashes the hidden team energy to look for more ways to win in the marketplace (and have more fun while doing it). Finally, we show how teams can easily integrate Strategic Project Leadership® into their current practices while developing new skills on top of their traditional project management tools.
Building Superior Leadership Skills, While Getting Politics Out of the Way
The typical transition of team members into management and leadership positions is often difficult and sometimes traumatic. Even highly successful technical people are often lost in this new role, and are typically not prepared to deal with the people and political issues that exist in every company and team. The situation is even worse in a dynamic and changing project environment, where leadership makes a difference and politics stands in the way.
In this presentation we outline a roadmap for managers, which could guide them in their self-development career-planning process. We present a framework for defining a leader’s roles, and identifying his/her responsibilities as well as strengths and limitations. We discuss how to develop the mindset, skills, and qualities needed to lead, motivate, and inspire project teams to their maximum potential. Finally, by using different animal analogies, we analyze the “Political Jungle” in the company and show how to live with it in peace, get it out of the way, and even leverage it.
A New Vision for Project Management: Integrating Business, Innovation, and Leadership
Projects today are more complex, highly uncertain, and changing faster than ever; they are also greatly impacted by the business dynamics, and “one size does not fit all.” Furthermore, in a fast changing world, no organization can survive without innovation. As a result, modern businesses can no longer rely on traditional project management skills. In the next generation, project managers will evolve into leaders of business and innovation who take ownership of their project’s business outcome (not just it’s product delivery) and continuously for more ways to win in the marketplace. They will also learn how to adapt their projects to the specific level of innovation, and build a vision to inspire and motivate their teams while having fun.
We present Strategic Project Leadership® (SPL), which integrates business, innovation, and project leadership in one strategic model. SPL was built on the foundation of traditional project management during twenty years of research and work with corporations, involved dozens of studies, and six PhD dissertations. We show how SPL frameworks such as, “The Diamond of Innovation” and “The Project’s Strategic Plan,” could be integrated naturally with the common building blocks of the profession.
The “Diamond Opportunity” From Cost-Cutting to Strategic Execution Leadership
Many company efforts in the last two decades have focused on extensive cost-cutting programs such as Lean Manufacturing and Six Sigma. But there is a limit to how much you can improve. The real source for growth are new initiatives, such as innovation, and change, which actually require projects. However, most projects today still fail to meet their expectations, and most project problems are not technical but managerial.
Ironically, project management and execution are often not on the agenda of executives, who are typically focused on markets and strategy. This situation presents a tremendous opportunity for executives to improve their business performance.
In this presentation we focus on innovation and project management as an untapped opportunity for companies for more growth. We present the Strategic Project Leadership® and the “Diamond of Innovation” frameworks for “pushing” strategic thinking down to the execution level. This approach is empowering project teams to be accountable for a project’s business outcome, (not just it’s product delivery) and continuously find more ways for winning in the marketplace. We demonstrate how this approach can make project management a powerful competitive process for any company and how it actually achieves outstanding business results.
Building a Value Creation Society in Your Company
A company’s strength depends on its ability to create new value by initiating, developing, and quickly bringing innovative ideas to market. Unfortunately, the “value creation players” in many companies are often part of two “underrepresented groups.” In fact, many of them were let go, during years on continuous cost-cutting cycles.
The first group includes the engineers and scientists who were laid off, just as anyone else, and sometimes even faster (for lack of political skills). Furthermore, technical executives who represent them are often weaker than the financial executives who are constantly looking to lower operational costs.
The second group of value creators involves project managers who “make it happen.” They too, are often ignored by the top and are typically left on their own. Few organizations have a clear career path for project managers, and rarely do companies have a “Chief Project Officer,” who is focused on building skills of these “value creators.”
We outline two ways in which organizations and executives can reverse this trend and implement a value creation strategy and culture. First, growing, nurturing, and retaining the engineers and project managers who create the highest value, even in times of cost cutting and downsizing. Second, investing extensively in improving the value creation processes of innovation and projects; treating them as investments, not costs; and turning them into strategic execution processes for stronger building of competitive advantage.
