Project Take Flight

  ProjectsAtWork  

Delta's chief learning officer Bill Kline talks about building a project culture, and the art of project management.

When it comes to developing management leaders, General Electric is an on-the-job university for corporate  America. The list of former GE officials with high posts at major companies is long and growing. GE "alum" Bill Kline is Delta Air Lines first chief learning officer. Kline spoke with Projects@Work about efforts to build and foster a project management culture at the nation's third- largest airline.          

Compare GE's project culture when you left to Delta's when you arrived.

Bill Kline:   At GE, there is a strong emphasis on developing people's ability to lead and drive performance, which includes project management, leadership, feedback, interpersonal skills, team-based development and Six Sigma. Delta's training is highly regulated and technical. When I arrived, there was very little on 'soft skills' or change management, and isolated pockets of project management. Different groups were using different ways of looking at quasi-project management.

What kind of project culture is emerging at Delta now, and how?

BK:   The challenge is two-fold: put some leadership around all our initiatives, and build a training infrastructure that will make a difference in how we perform. We created a common project management model, so we have a …

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