• Constructive Project Negotiations - (2 day seminar - May 10 and 11)
• Recovering Troubled Projects - (2 day seminar - May 10 & 11)
• Contracts and Procurement - (1 day seminar - May 10)
• Lord Devon's Demise™ and Gold of the Desert Kings™- (1 day seminar - May 10)
• Effective Estimating - (1 day seminar - May 11)
• Leadership and Team Management - (1 day seminar - May 11)

There are at least 13 sources of conflict that can throw your project off course. When you identify the underlying causes of conflict among people with different agendas, you'll be able to develop options to help you reach consensus sooner. How you manage these conflicts and the people and situations that create them, can affect the project's quality, delivery, and effectiveness.

John Nevison, a founding principal of Oak Associates, is the author of six books and numerous articles on computing and project management. He has served as both an internal and external management consultant to Fortune 100 companies in the course of his career. Throughout this two day session, John will help participants understand the underlying causes that shape conflicts and will give participants the skills to deal with any type of conflict in the future. Oak Associates has developed this seminar - Constructive Project Negotiation, as part of their Project Management Certificate Program.

This highly interactive seminar follows a well-defined process. You will use real projects that you and your peers are working on - effectively advancing your projects while learning. You will leave the program saying, "I can apply this to my project immediately!"

Upon completion of this seminar, participants will be able to:

• Define constructive agreement
• Manage stakeholder expectations
• Build win-win, principled agreements
• Know three ways to prepare for negotiations
• Know what concrete actions to take during a negotiation
• Separate exploring issues and options from forging agreements
• State the seven attributes of a constructive agreement
• Work together on a negotiating team
• Recognize a difficult negotiator
• Know three tactics for dealing with difficult negotiators
• Coach others on their negotiating skills

Seminar Size - 25 individuals

Projects in crisis can be resurrected by using sound project management techniques and strategic approaches to assessing project issues. This presentation will examine strategies for quickly evaluating project health and assessing the capabilities of the project team, stakeholders and the validity of the requirements. In addition, the presentation will take the attendees through the development of a checklist of alternatives that can be applied as they seek to revive projects in their own business environment.

This session will provide participants with a method to:

• Examine a key set of questions and project evaluation techniques to quickly assess the potential success/failure of an information technology project.
• Determine the buy-in that exists from key stakeholders for the project, and discuss alternatives to determine if that buy-in should/could be increased or modified.
• Learn techniques to assess the level of commitment present from key project team members and discuss alternatives for injecting energy into the project team.
• Examine processes to assess the status of the " dependency path" in addition to the critical path as a means of increasing project success.
• Evaluate the communication plan(s) in place as part of the project management methodology; can these be improved to reset project expectations and communicate status?
• List techniques for understanding the degree to which project team member and organization skills are being leveraged in support of project success.
• Applying these principles in your workplace - Discuss methods of applying the techniques discussed to enable you to influence your projects NOW.

Bob McGannon, the course instructor is a founder and Vice President of Mindavation and has spent over 20 years in the I/T and business development field, 17 of those with the IBM Corporation. He is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) and has earned the Certified Project Executive status while with IBM. He is a specialist in Information Technology (I/T) management, technology planning, outsourcing contracts and management, process analysis and quality, and general project management. Bob has an extensive background in client server and mainframe operations management as well as business plan and strategy development, and business performance management.

Seminar Size - 25 individuals

This hands-on, interactive workshop teaches participants how to successfully handle contract issues and procurement. During this one-day workshop, participants will learn about industry best practices, legal and government guidelines, and "project procurement management" following the Project Management Institute (PMI) processes. This session is intended for project managers, team members, managers of project managers, project consultants and project clients or stakeholders.

The seminar discusses how to:

• Develop a straightforward procurement process, specific to their environment
• Logically differentiate between must-haves and nice-to-haves
• Explain to stakeholders the trade-offs associated with procurement constraints
• Identify viable sources within the project constraints
• Create and apply quantifiable criteria to select a source
• Identify and avoid common contract mistakes
• Understand the different types of contract payments
• Create and use quantifiable inspection methods to ensure quality
• Use a contract change control system
• Negotiate successfully with vendors

Eric A. Spanitz is a successful consultant, trainer and project manager who will bring real life, practical experiences and techniques to both projects and the classroom. He has sixteen years experience running an international project management training and consulting business and has used his expertise to implement innovative project strategies. Eric has a successful history of working in strategic alliances with consulting organizations, educational institutions and leading project management firms.

Seminar Size - 25 individuals

Eagle's Flight® delivers programs designed to reflect situations in the workplace. Powerful learning emerges as experiences are linked to real-world situations. Eagle's Flight® uses experiential learning concepts to impact performance and their model enables people to make permanent, effective changes in behavior. Find out how experiential learning can work for you!

Lord Devon's Demise - Morning Session
Eagle's Flight®

Lord Devon's Demise™ is a highly interactive session that focuses on process management and communication. Participants are introduced to a series of tools that, when applied repeatedly throughout the program, improve their results. Participants learn to operate with greater efficiency and become more effective as communicators, specifically in the areas of clarity, encouraged interaction and distinguishing between fact and opinion. During this session, seven key principles to run an effective, results-focused meeting will be presented as well as a process to gather, evaluate and organize information quickly. The program also impacts team dynamics by highlighting the value of a leader, encouraging input from all individuals and demonstrating that shared understanding leads to enhanced productivity.

The Experience:

As representatives of Scotland Yard, participants in Lord Devon's Demise™ work on a realistic crime scene investigation set at a grand English estate. The intense, information rich environment forces participants and teams to share, evaluate and organize an abundance of information in a short period of time using the tools provided. They have the opportunity to hone their abilities in a hectic fact-finding mission that challenges even the most organized and detailed investigator.

Participants will learn how to:

• Define productive processes
• Create common team language
• Respond quickly and efficiently to change
• Increase effective communication
• Share information
• Set team standards
• Build leadership
• Improve team effectiveness

Gold of the Desert Kings™ - Afternoon Session
Eagle's Flight®

Gold of the Desert Kings™ addresses the issue of effort verses productivity. Participants are placed in circumstances with limited time and resources and must reply on their team to achieve their goals. Without upfront planning and effective use of information, teams spend most of their time "fighting fires" instead of achieving productive outcomes. The pressures and anxiety experienced during this exercise will be similar to those experienced daily in a hectic work schedule. Participants will deal with deadlines, a perceived lack of resources, other's points of view and the pressure to just do something while trying to accomplish team objectives.

The Experience:

Teams rush to compete against each other in a challenging race across the desert. Their goal? Battle the elements to get to the mountains, mine for as much gold as possible and return home alive. Teams are forced to be as productive as possible with limited time and resources. Participants will experience the benefits of teamwork, planning, setting goals and taking necessary risks.

Participants will learn how to:

• Increase productivity
• Gather and apply information to the decision making process
• Manage resources for maximum productivity
• Plan for success
• Distinguish between results and activity
• Work through change
• Achieve exceptional team results
• Manage necessary risk
• Work smarter, not harder

Seminar Size - 25 individuals

This workshop presents estimating best practices and techniques, beneficial to any type of project. Construction, IT/IS, high-tech, engineering, publishing, research and manufacturing projects are discussed and used as examples, along with examples from recent real-life projects that Eric Spanitz has worked on. This workshop covers all types of estimates, including cost, effort, resource, time, scope and risk estimates.

This seminar is intended for project managers, project team members as well as subject matter experts. Methods and recommendations are included in this session from the Project Management Institute (PMI), Software Engineering Institute (SEI), American Society of Professional Estimators, Society of Cost Estimating and Analysis (SCEA), and International Society of Parametric Analysis. Support is also provided after the session through access to a participants-only website.

This seminar provides participants the ability to:

• Understand and apply many practical estimating techniques
• Effectively gather necessary information for estimates
• Apply continuous improvement to estimating practices as well as estimating best practices
• Provide better estimates!

Eric A. Spanitz, the presenter of this session is a successful consultant, trainer and project manager with Spanitz Consulting Inc and Synergest. He has sixteen years experience running an international project management training and consulting business and has used his expertise to implement innovative project strategies. Eric has a successful history of working in strategic alliances with consulting organizations, educational institutions and leading project management firms.

Seminar Size - 25 individuals

The toughest job for a project manager is handling the "soft skills" required to manage customer perceptions. Keeping project teams on track, buoying their motivation and keeping them focused on the goals at hand is a formidable exercise. Rather than relying solely on instinct and intuition, this class provides tools and techniques that will assist the project manager in negotiating the quagmire of individual and team interactions.

• The Type-Styles Leadership Model
  • Personality Types
  • Communication/Action Styles
  • Your Style Preferences
  • Your Team Members Preferences - Identified!
• Team Assembly and Kickoff
  • Stages of Team Development
  • The SHAPED Team Model
• Managing Conflict
• Recognition and Motivation Techniques
• Sources of Authority/Influence

PMBOK areas covered in this session include Project Human Resource Management and Project Communications Management.

Denise DeCarlo is President of Mindavation, a company that provides project management training, consulting and coaching, as well as team building workshops, leadership seminars and keynote addresses to companies worldwide. She is a specialist in Information Technology (I/T) management, technology outsourcing, delivery measurement, and quality and has an extensive background in applications development in midrange, client server, and mainframe architectures. She is a recognized project management specialist and is frequently sought after for her problem-solving prowess.

Seminar Size - 25 individuals