Program Management and the Art of Communication

Program and project managers are master storytellers. They have to be in order to weave high-priority information into a memorable narrative for their people. Customers must commit to and understand their goals, and how the program is meeting them. Stakeholders need to trust the direction and stay engaged with the program intent. Program and project teams and leaders, need to understand what matters and how their work connects to the greater whole. Storytelling is not a part of the Project Management Institute, Inc's (PMI) "A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge'' (PMBOK). Storytelling is not something that Certified Associate In Project Management (CAPM), Project Management Professional (PMP), PMI-Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP), certified scrum masters, or other certified project manager credential holders will encounter on an exam. Storytelling is something that successful program or project managers learn from years of experience. If storytelling is not on the PMP exam or similar project management certification exams, why should you bother learning how to tell good stories? Because, human brains are naturally designed for stories. We have brain structures devoted to making sense of the world in cause-effect terms. Good stories are like flight simulators in that you can try out various approaches to a problem before tackling the real problem. Risk management for programs and projects is more effective when using compelling narratives. Stories are also effective ways to transmit large amounts of information to your project teams and stakeholders. People can remember more information and act effectively on that information. For agile project management, stories are how customers communicate their requirements to the agile project team. Stories are the foundation of persuasive communication and will help you become an expert communicator. In this online course of the Program Management and the Art of Communication certificate program, you will learn how great program and project managers use their storytelling skills to create compelling project visions, persuade stakeholders, and design effective risk management strategies. Earn 10 professional development units (PDUs) while completing the only professional certification program that helps you develop storytelling as part of your collection of project management tools.

Communication complexity rapidly increases even with a few program or project team members and stakeholders. Project managers are the “hub” of their project communication. Program managers are the “hub” of their organization communication to meet strategic goals. Managing these networks is essential whether you manage traditional programs or projects. Or agile programs and projects. Program managers have two additional challenges. First, they must empower their project managers with skills, processes, and assets for information management. Second they must sense and integrate the key performance data to ensure strategic objectives are met, and project processes are improved across the program. As you learned from the Project Management Institute, Inc.'s (PMI)"A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge" (PMBOK) when preparing for the PMP exam, the number of communication channels grows geometrically with team size. If there are “n” communicators, then the number of communication channels is n*(n-1)/2. That means five team members have 10 channels, but 10 team members have 45 channels to manage. That’s over four times as many channels for doubling the size of a small team! If you imagine each communication channel as a radio station, you can see how quickly the program or project manager can be overwhelmed with all the information coming in. As you gain more program or project management experience, what you learned for the PMP certification or similar professional certification is not sufficient. This course will help you go beyond the knowledge you needed to become a certified project manager. This applies to all project leaders. Whether you are a just getting started as a Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM), or a seasoned Project Management Professional (PMP), you need to manage a lot of information transfer and exchange. And this challenge is even greater for agilists, like certified scrum masters (CSMs) and PMI-ACP holders. No matter the scaling methods, having timely information is critical for agile teams at scale, who need to move fast without driving up overhead in team-to-team communication as technical scope changes. In this program and project management training course, you will learn effective and efficient project management tools to receive and transmit program and project-level information. Program managers and project managers need to ensure that information flows freely and where the information can do the most benefit. This online course will teach you how to build communication networks for your program or project’s success. Gain 10 professional development units (PDUs) while sharpening your program or project management skills.

“Everyone communicates, but few connect” is a famous book and message by John C. Maxwell on leadership. The meaning behind this message is that as leaders of programs and projects, we need to be not just communicators, but effective communicators. Obtaining your Project Management Professional (PMP) certification or Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM) or similar project management certificate is the first step. But, as you gain program management and project management experience, you realize that effective communication goes beyond what you learned in "A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge" (PMBOK). Gaining a program management certification or project management certification (such as the PMP certification) equips you with the necessary project management tools to begin your project or project management career. There is more to effective program and project communication than what is on the PMP exam. For communication from program managers and project managers to be truly effective, there must be understanding beyond what you learned from your professional certification. The communicator and the receiver must use feedback to determine how the message was received and if the communicator created the intended level of understanding in the receiver for the communication to succeed. In this course, you will learn about the Understanding Triad - know-what, know-how, and know-why. The Understanding Triad aids you in crafting just the right level of explanation for all your audiences. The Understanding Triad will make you a more effective program manager, traditional project manager, agile project manager, or certified scrum master. The Project Management Institute, Inc (PMI) teaches that project management communication is the transfer of information. The project or program manager sends messages to their project teams, stakeholders, customers, and executive sponsors. If the program manager or project manager believes that communicating a clear message is enough for good communication, then the manager may be fooled into thinking their communication efforts are complete. Even if there is feedback, the feedback is usually limited to confirming that the message was received as intended. However, communication is not merely the transmission of information. The difference can be days, months, or years of wasted time and effort; or successful, early delivery. Certified program and certified project managers earn 10 professional development units (PDU) as they learn how communication can make a difference in every interaction, and become a truly effective program or project manager. Gain the power skill of communication in this certificate program.

Every program and project has a social world. The program managers, project managers, project teams, and stakeholders mutually agree on roles and interact based on those roles. Great program managers sense, manage, and influence the social worlds across their projects. They bring order and understanding through conflict management and conflict resolution. Success is not guaranteed, and often teams clash as a new social order is established on every project. They heal divides that can grow under the stress of projects and increase the team’s problem solving ability. Dr. Pearce, the inventor of the Coordinated Management of Meaning (CMM), explains the social world as a “dance between the two faces of the communication process: coordinating actions and making/managing meaning. A social world is the site where speech acts, episodes and forms of communication, selves and forms of consciousness, and relationships and minds are made.” Our cultural differences and emotions significantly shape our social worlds. The program and project manager with good emotional intelligence and cultural intelligence (EI/CI) can better understand and navigate the social worlds of the project team and the stakeholders. High EI/CI also aids in creating understanding in program/project management communications. A program manager or project manager with high EI/CI is more adept at creating understanding because they are self-aware while understanding other’s emotions.Thus, the program manager or project manager can test if the recipient of his or her communication has the requisite know-what, know-how, and know-why understanding of the intended messages. Program managers and project managers with high EI/CI will be perceived as having a high ethos. Team members will see the high emotional intelligence and cultural intelligence even in the manager’s nonverbal communication. Being more aware of our feelings and other people’s feelings helps enhance our connection to others and make us more credible. Program managers and Project managers with high EI/CI can use pathos more effectively and make the logos portion of their communication more effective. The right balance of ethos, pathos, and logos makes the project manager more persuasive. Along with increasing the program manager or project manager’s EI/CI, this course will aid the manager in using the tools of CMM. Dr. Pearce created Coordinated Management of Meaning (CMM) in the mid-1970s. Over the years, CMM practitioners have created methods and tools to make the communication perspective visible. One such tool is SEAVA, which is an acronym for Storyboarding, Enriching, Analyzing, Visioning, and Acting. You can use the SEAVA tool to examine communication problems among your project team members and to generate a solution. Understanding the different social worlds of your program and its project team members and stakeholders will help you create persuasive communications, have a positive impact, and increase understanding among the project team members and stakeholders. CMM will help you become a master of communication and persuasion.