The Sad State of Project Management Training

Perhaps I should have entitled this blog, The Sad State of Education In General, rather than just singling out project management training. The reason for the sad state of education is that very few subject matter experts (SMEs) know how people learn. Furthermore, they believe that if they impart information they have given you knowledge, and it simply isn't so. I can tell you that the volume of a sphere is 4/3 pi times the radius cubed. Wonderful, I've imparted information to you. But unless you know something about solid geometry, the information is absolutely useless, and certainly does not constitute any real knowledge.

Now as for how people learn, it makes no difference whether you are learning content or skills, you must ultimately apply or perform them in some way to really learn them. When you took math in school, the teacher showed you how to solve problems. Nevertheless, you didn't really know how until you sat down and worked through a number of problems. And the same is especially true of skills--you don't learn to ride a bike until you get on, fall off a few times, and over time learn to balance yourself. It is also very important to note that you can't teach someone else to perform a skill that you can't do yourself.

So back to project management training. I said you can't teach skills that you can't perform. Can you imagine a physician trying to learn surgery by just reading a textbook or being taught by someone who has never done surgery? A retinal surgeon told me (in the days when they still did surgery with a scalpel) that you learn how to perform surgery by watching someone else demonstrate, then by doing it yourself, and finally, by teaching someone else! This is extremely significant. I have learned more by trying to teach project management than I did when I was actually performing it.

Now this will sound harsh, but it is absolutely true: you can't learn how to be a project manager from a college professor who has never been one. Managing projects is all about people skills. How do you get people in your team to do what needs to be done when they often have no commitment to your project and you have zero authority over them? If you've tried it, you know the difficulty you face. Professors usually don't.

Furthermore, it is unfortunately true that many former project managers can't teach you either, because they approach the learning environment with a death-by-lecture approach, and they employ 400 coma-inducing PowerPoint® slides, which means they can kill you even faster than they could in the days before the technology came along.

So a word of advice to you: If you need training, select a program taught by someone who has actually been a working project manager. Find out how they teach. Ask for references from former students and also from the instructor's former employer (if they are new to the business). Find out whether it is worth your time. And find out whether your employer will support you in applying what you learn. If they won't, you probably should wait until you work someplace where you will be supported, because lack of support on the job is one of the major reasons why training appears to fail.

If you have found a really first-class program somewhere, that you would recommend to others, post a link to it in the comment section below. I'm sure other readers would appreciate the referral.

For suggestions on a project management curriculum, you can also visit my web site to download a brochure on courses that you will find helpful: www.lewisinstitute.com.

Let me hear from you,

Jim