Why Facilitation Is Important in Project Management Training

Learning to use a word-processing program, complete a purchase order, or perform other job-related tasks can occur without someone facilitating the learning. Even though the learner will apply those skills in working with others in the organization, there is no compelling need to look for common threads in previous experiences, gather consensus, or develop shared meaning from the learning activity. Project management is another matter altogether. Few other knowledge areas lend themselves more to facilitated learning experiences than the discipline of project management. The organizations most successful with project management have traditionally been those who continue to adapt and apply new learning as more and more of their employees become adept at project management practices and begin to hone good tools into even better ones. Facilitated project management training can lay a solid foundation for current and future learning, seeing to it that participants start from the beginning to think about how common repeatable practices can improve project performance and about how they can apply those practices to their current situations.

Facilitated project management workshops address such important issues as:

Why are we here? Your first challenge may be establishing within the workshop attendees a readiness to acquire project management skills. Starting with participants sharing their project experiences provides common ground for new learning and helps point to common needs and solid reasons for learning new tools and techniques. Without adequate facilitation, participants may fail to see value in the learning objectives and to take ownership of their learning. Your job is to see to it that the participants are active learners, not passive observers.

How do we do it here? Making project management training relevant requires a demonstration that there is commitment to the process of project management. Discussions of current practices, tools, and templates used in the organization, along with real-world examples taken from previous projects, will elevate the training experience from a theoretical exercise to a practical forum for sharing current best practices.

How does it work? By leading your participants through a series of team exercises, you make it possible for them to explore new tools and techniques in a non-threatening environment where they are able to make mistakes and learn from them without penalty. Simulations and games require debriefing and discussions about how those activities resemble or differ from the participants’ on-the-job experiences. Facilitated practice of this sort usually offers insights that individual learning activities seldom afford.

But that’ll never work here! Not all of the project experiences shared by the group are going to be glowing success stories. Don’t be surprised to hear about inadequate management support, unreasonable schedules, and numerous other negative experiences. Rather than trying to avoid these issues, you as facilitator have an opportunity to make a genuine difference in your organization by openly discussing them and pointing to project management tools that can address such realities. Your workshops should always include discussions about how to use project charters, which document agreements about the project; communication tools; and risk management as a means of counteracting negative forces that inhibit success in managing projects. Facing these issues head-on can be one of the most valuable parts of a well-orchestrated project management training effort.

Addressing these four concerns throughout the training keeps it relevant to your audience and eases the transition from the training room to the workplace. When these issues are not addressed, the training loses its credibility and applicability once the workshop is over.

Article added at: 11.16.2006 by Sally Jordan