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Some time ago, a friend of mine in a project team from the construction industry reached out to me with concern!
Let me give you some perspective. For the last seven years, he has been working as a Project Manager, steering the execution of several high-profile projects for a leading contractor in the Middle East. Three months ago, the Corporate Project Controls Manager left the organization, and the management considering his seniority and performance, appointed my friend as the new Project Controls Manager.
While he was excited about this unique opportunity, he got into a predicament within a few days into the role. The management started bombarding him with tasks requiring core planning, costs, and risk management techniques and skills. However, having worked in project execution all these years, he was limited to only reading reports and utilizing insights on the projects he received from the Project Controls team.
He didn’t have many skills in these cross-functional domains of Project Controls that the role demanded. Now he felt that it was ludicrous for the management to have expected him to have all these skills. He had been working in a silo all these years and never really had gone beyond his specialty of project execution.
Seeing that he was not performing well in his new role, they decided to move him back to his role as a Project Manager and hired a new Project Controls Manager from outside the organization!
Unfortunately, most of us have faced similar situations at some point in our careers. So, when my friend shared his story with me, we came to a couple of conclusions:
? My friend was frustrated that his company didn’t have a culture of investing in training for employees. Including my friend, most of his colleagues, while excellent at their core domain, didn’t know much outside of that.
? Had the company invested in training their teams over the years, they would have saved precious dollars on recruiting a new hire from outside the organization. This also would have created internal promotions and growth opportunities, which would, in turn, develop a group of high-performing team members motivated enough to give the best to their projects.
The Need for Continuous Learning & Development
The importance of adopting a culture of continuous learning and development initiatives cannot be stressed enough. With increasingly challenging and complex projects, companies need to focus on establishing high-performing project teams to drive projects forward successfully.
We need to move away from the silo mentality and think more of integration as a key to delivering better projects. Time affects cost, cost impacts risk, so on and so forth. We can see that there is a broader integration and an ever-increasing overlap between different domains.
For project teams to truly achieve their potential, training across these domains is imperative. This also leads to better collaboration, shared goals, and innovation since team members are no longer working in silos, but instead, they understand how each domain complements each other to drive projects successfully.
As Andy Grove, the ex-Intel Chief, put it, ” There are only two ways a manager can impact an employee’s output: motivation and training. If you are not training, then you are neglecting half the job.”
Creating a High-Performing Project Team Comprising of T-Shaped Project Professionals
Ever heard of the term “T-Shaped Project Professional”? Well, it’s not a made-up term!
As Shohreh Ghorbani, Founder and Technical Director of Project Control Academy, mentioned in her recent article, a T-Shaped project professional possesses a broad spectrum of knowledge and skills in multiple domains of Project Controls while holding specialized skills in one which is achieved through continuous training. This is needed to develop a holistic and pragmatic view of projects, and companies need to start taking steps in the right direction to create such teams.
The below picture shows an ideal T-Shaped Project Professional.
You can see the value that a T-Shaped Project Professional adds to the project team. Now imagine a project team comprising of all T-Shaped project professionals. They would be unstoppable!
What Is the First Step that You Should Take as an Individual to Become a High Performing Project Team Member?
While it is undoubtedly essential for organizations to create a learning and development culture in their project team, what can we do as project professionals to be proactive and take actionable steps to become T-Shaped Project Professionals adding value to your organization and project teams?
Many companies provide fantastic learning and development (L & D) opportunities to their employees. Perhaps your company already has established learning and development opportunities along with flexible budgets for employees, and maybe you and your team never utilized it.
Maybe many of them may not be aware of our company policies and procedures when it comes to training. In that case, your first step would be to talk to your manager or the L&D team in your organization to figure out the various opportunities to kick start your learning journey.
Stop procrastinating! Take the first step today to becoming a high-performing team member and taking your projects to the next level!
Organizational Challenges in Implementing a Culture of Continuous Learning and Development
At Project Control Academy, we spoke to several executives to decipher the challenges companies face while implementing a culture of continuous learning and development to create high-performing project teams. Some of our observations included:
High cost of training for large group of project team members
Most companies felt that many of the training courses offered by external companies are way too costly to be implemented in an enterprise-wide format.
While some large organizations have developed in-house training programs for their employees, over time, it becomes challenging and expensive to continually create new courses based on ever-evolving trends and diverse specialized domains.
Lack of flexibility and ongoing support by instructors
Organizations are concerned if the training programs will not fit into employees’ busy schedules. Even with online training programs available 24/7, they feel that their employees wouldn’t get ongoing support from the trainers during and after the courses to clear queries.
Lack of practicality and quality
Companies want their employees to generate value from training programs and put them into practice right into their projects from the start. However, companies are concerned by the quality of training programs in general and the extent to which employees will add value to their bottom line through training.
Lack of interest and buy-in from project team members
The last but one of the major concerns that companies had was that despite allocating generous budgets toward training, employees themselves weren’t interested in exploring such learning opportunities.
Introducing a Unique Approach to Help Companies Create High Performing Project Teams
Considering the various challenges organizations face in creating an effective learning and development environment, at Project Control Academy, we designed the Enterprise Licensing and Group Training Solutions, a highly flexible and cost-effective way to train your project team.
Our training programs are highly practical and are developed in collaboration with SME’s in the industry to ensure that your project teams can start applying learnings into their jobs from day one.
The fantastic feedback that we have received from our past students from across the globe over the years stand testimony to this fact.
“Project Control Academy consistently delivers “best in class” training material and content derived from experience and delivered passionately by someone who really cares about you and your future.”- Ken Clevenger | Senior Document Control Manager, USA
“Project Scheduling Blueprint is a great way to breakdown developing a schedule. The course helped me really understand the CPM concept and how to read and analyze a schedule.”- Jacqueline Pacheco | Cost Controller / Junior Scheduler/Planner, Canada
Excellent course content – linking theory and actual practice. The Quantitative Project Cost & Schedule Risk Analysis offered by Project Control Academy provides opportunity to benchmark your own organizational risk management processes. Thanks Richard for sharing your knowledge and practical real projects experience- thanks Shohreh for organizing. All great stuff (plus the bonus free courses) Good value for money!- Larry Cebuano | Project Controls Manager, New Zealand
The course was exceptionally well presented and designed. Very impressive. I give it 10 out of 10. As a result of the training, I will be applying the knowledge and tool to projects I am involved in my organisation.- Gareth Kourie | Senior Contracts Administrator, Qatar
What makes Project Control Academy’s Training Programs the Best in the Industry?
Project Control Academy is truly unique in its approach to training programs. We painstakingly curate and develop each practical and industry-oriented course, ensuring that you apply what you learned directly in your projects.
Global Leader
Project Control Academy is the leading global provider of online training programs in project controls. We have trained tens of thousands of project control professionals globally.
Aligned with Industry Standards
Our training programs are aligned with PMI and AACE International standards. This signals our commitment to developing and providing best-in-class training in project controls.
Quality Content
We work with the best in the industry. All our trainers are top-notch industry experts, and our training materials go through a thorough review and approval process. Our project control training programs are, simply put, best in class.
Unique Features of Project Control Academy’s Enterprise Licensing and Group Training
Flexible with No Restrictions
The enterprise licensing and group training solutions are designed to flexibly adapt to the training needs of any organization, no matter the size. There are no pre-commitments required for any course. Instead, companies get access to all our training programs enabling you to apply a need-based learning approach!
Cost-Effective
Our discounts for corporate learning solutions are unmatched! We offer a highly discounted pricing structure that is truly cost-effective.
One Year Access & Support
All our training programs are valid for a year from the date of signing up for the course. During this period, you have personalized support from our team and the course instructor.
Learning Consultation
With the Enterprise Licensing and Group Training Solution, we help you choose the right courses to meet the needs of your employees and team members through learning path consultation.
Training Analysis & Reporting
We use advanced training analytics to provide you with quarterly training utilization reports to ensure employees are making progress in the training programs assigned to them.
Companies can now truly leverage the flexibility that the Enterprise Licensing Solution offers to create a high impact and value-added learning environment for their project team members.
Rather than following a one-size-fits-all approach, companies can now assign flexible training programs to each employee based on the gaps identified for each project team member.
Soar to greater heights in Project Controls and Leadership through our best quality training programs. Head to our Enterprise Licensing page to know more and download the Enterprise Licensing and Group Training Brochure!
In-Summary
With increasingly complex projects, integration of different domains of Project Controls and an understanding of how these domains overlap and complement each other is the need of the hour for organizations and employees.
Organizations need to focus on creating high-performing project team members that are T-Shaped Project Professionals through learning and development initiatives.
Project Control Academy has designed a unique approach for organizations to train their project team members through the Enterprise Licensing and Group Training Solutions to address challenges including high training costs and lack of flexible, high quality, and practical training programs. Our Corporate Learning Solutions allow companies to leverage all of Project Control Academy’s existing and upcoming training programs in a truly flexible and cost-effective way without a pre-commitment to any particular course. Download the Enterprise Licensing Brochure and get in touch with us to know more today!
We look forward to becoming your learning partner and helping your organization to soar to success!
About the Writer & Editor, Joel Jacob
With over 6 years of project management experience in the construction industry, Joel is a keen follower of new technologies. Joel has worked across diverse roles in project management, including PMO, project controls, and the customer experience in Kuwait and India. He holds a postgraduate degree in Construction Management and a bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering.
His true passion is driving people to achieve the best in their careers. Joel is also a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) recognized by the Project Management Institute (PMI) and an accredited LEED Green Associate.
Connect with Joel via LinkedIn
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