What makes some projects a success while others fail? For 70% of projects it is, simply, superior project management(1). It is one of the cornerstones of the success of Silicon Valley and a system that fits projects large and small, simple and complicated, from the high school prom to the Apollo space program.
The workshop will focus on project management for those of us whose job isn’t project management but who are called upon to chair a project committee or organize a group of colleagues to achieve a goal. Join the management team and executive committee of the Chamber January 28, 3:15 to 5:30 p.m. for a review of project management keys to success.
This will be a real workshop: fast-paced, hands-on, results-oriented: an immersion in the processes and skills of defining a project, organizing a team, building a realistic plan, supporting and managing the team, and celebrating success. It won’t make you a skilled project manager, but it will allow you to avoid some common pitfalls and help you build your reputation as someone who knows how to get things done.
The workshop will refer to Bare Bones Project Management: What You Can’t NOT Do by Bob Lewis, where you can go to get more information about workshop concepts. If you would like a copy you can order one when you register, to be delivered at the workshop.
(1) Charan, R. and Colvin, G., “Why CEOs Fail”, Fortune, June 21, 1999 About Bill Tysseling As the Executive Director of the Santa Cruz Area Chamber of Commerce, an important part of Bill’s job is the development and management projects. More important is his work with the several hundred volunteers who take on the roles of project managers and team members. Their projects, from Chamber events like the Community Leadership Visits and the Business Fair to the engagement in public decision on issues such as the Warriors arena, downtown planning, water, housing, education, transportation, and economic develop dedicated to improving the economic vitality and quality of life of the Santa Cruz community.
Bill says, “Effective project managers can take difficult projects, inexperienced teams, and ill-defined plans and turn them into outcomes that achieve the project’s goals. I am not a great project manager, myself; but I know one when I see one.” And, there is a good reason for that. As the Director of UCSC Extension's Business and Management programs in Silicon Valley he administered the Project Management curriculum that offered more than 500 hundred hours of instruction and trains several hundred project managers each year with more than two dozen of Silicon Valley’s finest project managers as its instructors. Tickets The cost is $15 for SC Chamber members and $25 for non-members. The book, Bare Bones Project Management is an additional $10.