Soft skills training or more practical applications for future PMPs

Dana Bernstein Certified Conflict Resolution Coach (Link to my book: bit.ly/3PLlYG9)| Dare to Live Brave, LLC - www.DLBcoaching.net. East Brunswick, Nj, United States

From the PMP standpoint and if additional coursework were to be created to help future PMP's:

1. Do you think students would want EITHER a supplemental course on "practical applications" for concepts they learn for their PMP OR, do you think there is a need to have them learn more "soft" skills" (conflict, contracts, negotiations, human-connection skills).

2. Do you think the students learn those practical applications skills just from the studying for the PMP (as there are tons of books with scenarios)

3. What are the gaps in the PMI Courses and what courses would you suggest?

4. What do you think are valuable skills for the future PMP's to have as they go forth in the job market?

Thanks
Dana

Posted: Apr 10, 2020 10:38 AM (Updated by moderator: Apr 10, 2020 3:26 PM)

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Rami Kaibni

Community Champion

Senior Projects Manager | Field & Marten Associates New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada

Apr 11, 2020 7:49 AM

Replying to Dana Bernstein

...

Thanks! I teach those soft skills (I have created/presented 8 PMI webinars ranging for negotiations to human-ness... ). So, your comments are helpful ... Kiron mentioned strategic skills - so, what would you suggest
Thanks
Dana

Dana

From my point of view, strategy is a skill acquired over time and with experience.

RK

Posted: Apr 12, 2020 1:20 AM

George Freeman Thought Leader | Author | Architect| Florida, United States

Hi Dana,

The inability for a PM to properly navigate and bridge the gaps is the primary reason that projects fall short of meeting “objective success” (i.e., the original definition of success as defined in the charter).

From my perspective, all projects (by their nature) reside in the domain of the unpredictable, where one receives pushback that is equivalent to the pressure applied when forcing a standard process into place. In other words, the realm of the “unpredictable” and the realm of “standard processes/approaches” will repel each other when one attempts to force them together.

In my experience, managing and responding to the unpredictable is not a skill that gets adequate attention in educational PM settings. It’s stated as a reality and spoken to in generalities, but students often come out believing that there is a “magical project formulation,” which, when properly executed, will protect them and their projects from such influences/consequences.

So, yes, I believe there needs to be “practical application,” but that must be from the end-to-end perspective, with hard-skills viewed as rudimentary baseline knowledge that by itself is inadequate for execution. In today’s environment and even more so in the future, soft-skills and extended domain-knowledge (meaning domain understanding outside of project management) should be the focus of training for next-gen project managers, and if they are willing, existing practitioners.

My 4 cents.

Posted: Apr 12, 2020 9:16 AM

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Soft skills training or more practical applications for future PMPs

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