Elizabeth HarrinDirector| RebelsGuideToPM.comLondon, England, United Kingdom
I'm trying to build an internal community of project managers which is going to be very informal as we don't have a corporate PMO and the business is very devolved, with project activity happening all over the place, often with people doing the role of project manager as part of their day job, and sometimes as their day job, without the job title.
I've set up some webinars but I'd like to do more. What training and community-building activities do you do in your companies? I'm looking for ideas for things that are preferably free as we have no budget, so we can't bring everyone together for a big off-site networking day, for example. Thanks! Saving Changes...
Bala S DuvvuriProject Manager| ShellBangalore, Karnataka, India
May be you can organize the sharing the best practices and lessons learned sessions among all the project managers.
May be you can ask some project managers to share their experiences on projects handled by them.
May be you can come up with some initiatives like risk management etc and allot to some project managers and ask them to share their expertise on those topics with other project managers. Saving Changes...
Mary Elizabeth DiabDirector| Leadership FormationTallassee, Al, United States
Lunch and learns can be very effective if the team is located in the same physical location. You can have team members share an experience in their areas of expertise. They can create a presentation or even a small white paper for their colleagues. Often, we learn the most from others in the trenches with us, sometimes just how to avoid the mistakes they made! Saving Changes...
Anonymous
In my organisation we have quarterly meetings for all those managing projects in the organisation (not just PMs) and one or two people present to the rest of the group. It helps stimulate discussion and can help people to realise there are others who have done similar projects. It helps with networking (we are co-located in one building). In my experience people are only willing to talk about successes and successful techniques. Rarely will they open up publicly about mistakes.
We also talk about the current project portfolio although we have no direct influence on this.
These sessions are of limited interest, to be honest and if they are too frequent or too long people don't turn up. Saving Changes...
Ganesh SrinivasanGanesh PMO (PMP, PMI-SP, ITIL-F)| MNC BankChennai, India
Dear Elizabeth, thanks for the very nice question. The answers indeed helpful for me also as PMO i'm also planning to develop the community and training.
Here we have Social networking site in our bank, that helps create groups and try to involve people like linkedin/fb.
Lunch Learning is very good option, so that people will not say they are busy :) and no cost constraints, we arranged small Brown bread sessions like this monthly, good repsonse from PM's and very helpful :)
Thanks
Ganesh Saving Changes...
Markus KopkoAI Enabler for Project & Program Mgmt | Founder PMotion.ai / The PM
AI Coach| PMotion.aiHamburg, Hamburg, Germany
Hello,
may be the method "The world cafe" could be a good option here:
Elizabeth:
Great start; have you surveyed the group to ask them what they want/need? Many times if you drive the development too much; it won't be embraced and used by the community. What are the goals/outcomes for the professional development? Make sure they are aligned with what your vision is; gain their feedback, input and have them help take the lead on the research, launching and leading the various offering/postings. I've done lunch/learn, birds of a feather, informal speakers/experts, lessons learned sessions, tool reviews with a speaker and PMI chapter dinner meetings. Look forward to hearing more from our community on their experience in this area. Saving Changes...
Elizabeth HarrinDirector| RebelsGuideToPM.comLondon, England, United Kingdom
Thanks, everyone, these are great suggestions. And Naomi, no, I didn't even *think* about asking them what they want. Doh. I will certainly do that! Saving Changes...
