Training Wheels

  ProjectsAtWork  

Capabilities, willingness and cultural fit are all key criteria when selecting a PM training partner.

Most of us stand at the crossroads of Hero and Goat whenever we go to contract for a new PM training course. We sweat through the scope, content specifications and media selection with the salespeople—and the costing, of course. Then we sweat selling the proposition to management. It's a blind buy for everyone, so we really sweat the first delivery, as if it were Opening Night at a Broadway show, where everyone's anxious for favorable reviews. With direct training costs running over $2.000 per student week, egg-laying Goats have short corporate lifetimes.

The Blind Buy

The notion of blind buying usually applies to products like mattresses, where we can't see what's inside the outer cover without cutting the product open. But we generally try out the mattress on the showroom floor, to satisfy ourselves that is meets whatever our preferences may be in mattresses.

Buying clothing, we can touch and see the product, but we can't rely "blindly" on the printed size specifications to predict how well the garments will fit. Even the mass merchandisers of low priced clothing have fitting rooms, an "essential convenience" that reduces the risks (inconvenience) of blind buying and merchandise returns.

The Paradox

Why do we blind buy $2,000-per-student-week …

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