Course Background and Objective

Strategic Project Leadership® (SPL) is an advanced, research-based approach, which is upgrading the foundations of traditional project management to help organizations focus projects on business results and value creation, rather than just meeting time and budget goals. It is also boosting timely delivery and operational efficiency by adapting project management to specific levels of innovation.

The course is delivered in two ways:
a. Two two-days modules – SPL Foundations, and SPL Applications
b. Full four-days course.

The course is transforming project managers into business leaders of their projects, who are taking ownership of their project’s outcome and benefits, not only its output delivery. They are learning how to integrate the strategic and business aspects of projects and learn to lead winning teams with vision, spirit, and fun. They are also learning how to deal with the innovation and adapt their project to “one size does not fit all.”

40 PDUs
-
PMI Talent Triangle Share of PDUs:
Business Leadership Technical
24 10 6

What Will Your Learn

  • Learn to function as the project’s business leader, using a strategic mindset for highly profitable and winning projects
  • Learn to deal with ‘one size does not fit all” and adapt your project to it’s specific level of innovation for better timely delivery
  • Learn to lead with vision to inspire your team with passion and fun
  • Acquire a formal strategic tool-kit, which you could immediately apply
  • Receive the full "SPL Handbook," with all documentation needed to implement SPL, including outlines, cases, guidelines, tools, and samples

Who Should Attend

  • Project and program managers
  • PMP Certificate holders – (You don’t need a PMP to take the course)
  • Team members and team leaders
  • People preparing to become project managers
  • Executives, directors, and PMOs

Course Topics and Outline

 

1. Introduction – The Project Leader Responsibility

  • Traditional project management advantage and weakness
  • Why projects don’t make it? Cases: Boeing 787, Q Phone, Segway
  • The story of great projects – What’s missing in “The Book”
  • Turning the art of project management into science
  • Case – Ford Taurus
  • The project leader’s responsibility – Project’s Chief Executive
  • Toward a new definition of a project – outcome, not output
  • First introduction to Strategic Project Leadership®

 

2. A New Model for Project Success

  • Sydney Opera House, LA Subway stories
  • Project success Model – The five dimensions
  • Success dimensions for different project types
  • Case – New area code
  • Effectiveness versus efficiency in project management
  • Individual cases: - Each one has his/her story
  • Exercise - Project and product definition

 

3. The SPL Planning Framework

  • Why project managers complain about lack of power
  • The project leader assets – “make the power”
  • The powerful missing link in most plans
  • The elements of an SPL plan
  • Exercise – Redefine your project and product
  • Why you need to adapt your management style

 

4. Reviewing Traditional Project Management as a Foundation

  • The traditional elements of planning
  • The five process groups and nine knowledge areas
  • Review scope, WBS, networking, risk, etc
  • Additional planning areas

 

5. The Business-Focus Approach – Building Project Strategy

  • What is strategy?
  • The project strategy model
  • Cases - Nokia, iPhone
  • Strategic idea – Basis for differentiation
  • Building competitive advantage
  • The competitive map tool
  • Strategic focus
  • Case - Formula One
  • Exercise – define your project strategy

 

6. Building Project Spirit – The Fun Part

  • How to better engage people? – It’s your job
  • How leaders inspire people and create the right culture
  • Four building blocks of spirit – your “leadership tools”
  • The project’s vision and motto
  • The project’s unique values
  • The project’s symbols
  • The social activity
  • Cases – BMW, Intel, NASA
  • Exercise – Building your project spirit

 

7. Project Organization

  • The need to organize, the spectrum of organizations
  • Advantages and disadvantages of organizational structures
  • The benefits and difficulties of the matrix - how to make it work
  • Case – the Saturn company
  • The reorganization principle
  • The technical review team

 

8. Integrating Innovation and Project Management

  • Expect change - Why you need a flexible approach
  • Why one size does not fit all
  • Project uncertainty, complexity, and pace
  • The difference between uncertainty and risk
  • The “Diamond of Innovation” Model – What’s unique in your project
  • Review Boeing 787, Y2K, iPod, Tata Nano cases
  • Your “Project Profile” - How to adapt your style
  • Exercise – Classify and adapt your project
  • Retrospective Case - Space Shuttle

 

9. Managing Projects, Programs, and Portfolio

  • The difference between projects, programs and portfolio
  • How projects differ; how programs differ
  • Money-making projects or money-saving projects
  • Review all project types
  • Case – project selection model
  • Strategic portfolio management
  • The specific criteria to project groups

 

10. Apollo 11 - Demonstrating Strategic Project Leadership®

  • From plan to crisis – The Blitz Project
  • The Diamond of Innovation
  • The focused leader
  • The strategy, and strategic focus
  • The spirit – “failure is not an option”
  • The four leadership roles
  • What different leaders did

 

11. Implementing Strategic Project Leadership Principles and Tools

  • The 12 principles of SPL
  • The SPL Diamond Guide Tool
  • The integrated SPL Plan tool
  • The competitive map tool
  • The project SPL maturity tool assessment
  • Implementing SPL in your career and organization