Project Leadership – Developing Skills to Assist in Conflict Resolution

Courses Syllabus

Introduction

Projects are becoming increasingly complex and sophisticated, but project work is sometimes performed by competent professionals who may have little or no leadership training in a project environment, particularly in the skill of conflict management.  Modern organizations cannot afford anything less than competent project management and project team members must work positively together and recognize conflict as an opportunity for making better decisions.  Establishing and maintaining team leadership skills, productive work team environments and leading teams in activities to meet goals is a challenging, every-day part of a project leader’s life.

This programme focuses on some project leadership skills necessary in project situations where a diverse group of team members works to achieve productive success.  Tight budgets and deadlines demand high levels of performance from a team that is frequently changing, often diverse in its makeup and where the working environment presents fresh challenges on a daily basis.  Conflicts can be frustrating, even painful, but dealing with conflicts is a project leader’s role.  Some people want to avoid conflicts altogether rather than try to resolve them and that is not the best way to have a successful project outcome.  Conflicts, if properly resolved, provide some good since they represent diverse views of a project.  These diverse views can work to move a project forward if handled correctly.  Properly handled conflicts can make team members more mature and team members appreciate other people’s points of view. Conflict resolution skills are a must have for today’s project professionals.

objectives

• Understand leadership and its role in the development of project teams
• Gain greater skill in working in the role of project leader
• Understand the role of stakeholders in a project
• Develop communication and human interaction skills to develop successful project teams
• Develop techniques to deal with organizational change
• Understand the role of the project leader in building an effective team and conflict management skills required to promote and sustain team performance
• Learn crucial conflict resolution skills
• Understand the significance of the leadership skill of conflict resolution to the project team and the impact of these skills on project performance
• Be able to adapt conflict resolution process to different styles of people
• Master different aspects of communication skills
• Identify ways to communicate with others in a manner that better relates to their particular style
• Develop positive attitudes that continually seek synergy and win-win outcomes in conflict situations

Contents

Day One

Leadership Skills in a Changing Project Environment

• Identification of project leadership skills
• Challenges project professionals face in changing organizations
• Conflict conditions in organizations that exist that require leadership
• The role of project team leadership in dynamic organizations
• Understanding the role of strategic management in project leadership
• How leadership skills have changed with organizational change

Day Two

Project Leadership that Generates Excellence

• The role that organization type plays in project leadership
• Developing a culture of organizational excellence in project leadership
• Learning the skill and techniques of managing project stakeholders
• Using project initiation methods to minimize scope conflicts
• Risk planning that deals with project and team conflicts

Day Three

Building Personal Relationships to Deal with Conflict

• Successful interpersonal interaction develops trust in teams
• Characteristics of interpersonal interaction
• Identification of the personal interaction style
• Individual strengths and challenges of each interaction style
• Team strengths and challenges in interpersonal interactions
• Understanding how teams work better using varied interaction types

Day Four

Communication as a Tool in Conflict Resolution

• Importance of project team leadership and communication methods
• Interpersonal communication is what is said, how it is said and the tone it is said
• Understanding of how interpersonal communication preferences differ
• Developing an active listening communication style
• Communication information distribution and presentation in project teams
• Communicating empowerment techniques in a project team

Day Five

Conflict Inherent with Innovation and Change

• Understanding how innovation and improvement can generate conflict
• Change and its role in projects and dealing with conflict resulting from change
• Leading personal change in our project teams
• Understanding problems inherent with change in individuals and teams
• Preparing project team and individuals for change