This book provides step-by-step directions in preparing for and leading collaborative planning events that result in a shared vision of project success and the project approach.

This practical guide to facilitating planning meetings will enable you to effectively jump-start your projects and lead to success. Rigorous planning is vital to your project execution and success. Projects are often multifunctional, requiring input from various stakeholders. Project planning often tends to be done piecemeal or not at all, often leading to missing and/or incomplete information and correspondingly poor results. This book will show you how to do it right. How to Facilitate Productive Project Planning Meetings is a guide to help you plan your projects by showing you how to effectively facilitate productive face-to-face kickoff sessions (both in person and virtual) and ongoing planning meetings. Effective planning meetings will help you not only develop key artifacts but also provide continuous team building. You’ll also learn about the impacts of culture (organizational and global) on team dynamics and discover methods to ameliorate these impacts. A case study of building a sustainable house will help you understand the concepts and grasp the terminology. The book will also feature dozens of illustrative stories (from the authors as well as other practicing project managers) that will illustrate meeting techniques that went well (or not so well). Numerous templates, sample schedules, and checklists round out the value of this book in helping you facilitate effective meetings.

Step by step, Facilitating the Project Lifecycle guides theproject manager/facilitator in making smart choices about when andhow to pull key talent together to spell success for the projectand ultimately the organization. The authors will help youunderstand the benefits of using facilitated group work sessions toget real work done during a project and get it done better and moreefficiently than more traditional individual work approaches. Inaddition, the book includes: Recommendations for capitalizing on group knowledge toaccelerate the building of key project deliverables and ensuretheir quality as they are built A work session structure for planning, delivering, andfollowing up facilitated work sessions Guides for building key project deliverables Sample agendas Proven techniques for managing the group dynamics

A how to guide for implementing project management techniques; presented simply for anyone who is responsible for delivering to a goal.

A how to guide for implementing project management techniques; presented simply for anyone who is responsible for delivering to a goal.

A Short Guide to Facilitating Risk Management is for all those who need to make sound decisions in important but risky situations; people who work with groups to identify, prioritize and respond to risks, and who wish to deliver value. The authors provide readable and practical advice in terms of avoiding pitfalls, understanding risk management and the role of facilitator. They include guidance for running workshops, and working with small groups and individuals.

Waiting until the end of a project to identify “lessons learned” is too late. By that time, the project may be ready for the scrap heap. But if your projects and programs include multi-level learning, you’ll not only be fostering continuous improvements for the future, you’ll be well-equipped to reduce the risk of failure while projects are “in-flight” so you can deliver maximum value to your client organization. Facilitating Project Performance Improvement helps any organization: • Reduce time to market for new products, systems, processes and technologies • Improve customer and end-user satisfaction with project outcomes • Reduce risk of failure, wasted investment, and project runaway • Improve productivity, quality and teamwork • Continuously improve delivery both within and across projects. Organizations simply cannot afford to leave learning to chance on their mission-critical investments. Facilitating Project Performance Improvement provides a practical approach to structured learning and reflection that enables teams to innovate and improve, ensuring both immediate and long-term project success.