The way that organizations view and utilize projects as a means of improving their business is changing, and as a result, organizations need to assess their skills and abilities in this regard.

Today, it is important for business leaders to have a strong understanding of change, including their goals and how to effectively implement it. This requires improving their ability to successfully sponsor and deliver projects and programs.

However, it is necessary to recognize that simply delivering a product and concluding the project is not sufficient. The “dump and run” approach is ineffective in achieving the complex, evolutionary, and behavioral change businesses now require.

While C-suite members don’t need to be experts in project and program techniques, they must be able to advocate for the vision of change. This is becoming a clear trend.

Developing the right skills and capabilities

If your primary role is to lead change, it is crucial to understand the future vision, including the desired outcomes and benefits of the change.

This involves keeping a clear vision of the overall goal, knowing the desired destination, and guiding people toward it. It is like a compass that provides direction without needing to know the specific details of how to reach the goal.

As a result, high-level executives can benefit from having a general understanding of technical best practices such as PRINCE2, Managing Successful Programmes (MSP), and Management of Portfolios (MoP).

For mid-level managers, who may have previously overseen small projects within the organization, their learning and development needs are more specific. For instance, understanding the concepts and how to effectively use best practices to manage programs and portfolios.

Assessing skills gaps may also involve recognizing the belief that anyone can be a project manager without having the necessary experience or understanding of best practices. This includes having the appropriate approach and language.

In the end, this is about establishing the consistent project and program management within organizations and being clear about the desired benefits of change.

The impact of best practice learning and certification

Which aspects of best practice from frameworks such as PRINCE2, MSP, and MoP will be most useful for professionals to have in the year 2023?

While obtaining knowledge through training is important, the key is developing the ability to apply the principles and change your thinking. This is what allows professionals to progress from Foundation to Practitioner level in various best practices.

For example, when working with MSP, the case study in the guidance helps to provide a broad overview, such as why the company is seeking strategic change. The MSP framework guides the process, but it is also important to critically evaluate the organization’s context to understand the value of change. By combining theory with experience, the practice becomes more than just a checklist.

From a leadership standpoint, it is important to clearly communicate the organization’s priorities, available resources, and acceptable risk profile. Afterward, leaders should expect their teams to follow best practice principles unless they can justify using a different approach. However, it is not about blindly following processes but rather using judgment and skill to apply the knowledge appropriately.

It is also important to consider how other complementary approaches, such as stakeholder management, can be beneficial in the project setting.

A holistic approach to change and improvement

A lot of current management is based on creating detailed plans and managing downward.

An alternative approach that may be more effective today is to clearly define the goal, constraints (such as budget, timeline, and quality), and desired outcomes, and empower people to achieve them in the way they see fit, rather than dictating the specific process they must follow.

As the role of projects evolves, there needs to be a greater emphasis on program and portfolio management to prioritize projects and allocate resources accordingly.

It is the leadership’s responsibility to maintain a focus on valuable outcomes and to structure for a strategic future while empowering qualified teams to do so.

Here at CourseMonster, we know how hard it may be to find the right time and funds for training. We provide effective training programs that enable you to select the training option that best meets the demands of your company.

For more information, please get in touch with one of our course advisers today or contact us at training@coursemonster.com

What challenges do those in charge of transformational change in organizations today face the most?

The culture of the organization that requires or wants to undergo transformation must first be understood. Effectively, change is similar to breaking eggs to produce an omelet. While taking serious action can be required, leaders must be able to adapt to the culture and interact with people effectively.

This calls for an understanding of the stakeholders and, particularly in extremely large organizations, identifying those who will be important to a successful change process but who might not be as visible.

Recognized industry best practices like PRINCE2 and Managing Successful Programmes (MSP) help establish a common vocabulary as well as a starting and ending point for a change project in this complicated context of change.

Meeting the demands of new organizational change with MSP

Studying MSP is the next step up, in my opinion as a project management professional with a PRINCE2 certification.

The vision statement, which sets the tone for the remainder of a program, is a good place to start, in our opinion, among the advice that MSP provides.

A short, snappy statement that the program board may embrace is quite helpful, and as long as the board meets regularly and is engaged with the program manager, it helps decision-making and sustains program progress.

For instance, developing a vision statement for a business importing electric scooters helped maintain constant focus on the company’s eventual goal of electrifying transportation in urban areas.

The MSP method’s use of tranches is still another advantage. Since the program manager can divide the activity into smaller portions and concentrate on the stakeholders for each tranche, this helps to eliminate time slippage in programs.

In MSP 5th edition – the current version of the guidance – the target operating model determines the outcome of a program. This goal for completion encourages everyone to adhere to deadlines and quickens the pace of work. People need to comprehend why the organization must change and, as a result, why they must also adapt – perhaps through training – to thrive in the company’s future conditions.

The career value of MSP

A best practice certification like MSP is the cream on top that is your entire career and education.

When you declare you are MSP qualified, people understand the degree of expertise you have attained, just like when you say you are certified in Lean Six Sigma. Practically speaking, it elevates your capacity for dialogue with other stakeholders and comprehension of various viewpoints to a whole new level.

Here at CourseMonster, we know how hard it may be to find the right time and funds for training. We provide effective training programs that enable you to select the training option that best meets the demands of your company.

For more information, please get in touch with one of our course advisers today or contact us at training@coursemonster.com

The issues faced by businesses develop and evolve along with the global population. It’s not a guarantee that a rise in the workforce within organizations will follow an increase in population. In this essay, we will examine in greater detail two phenomena: demographic changes and the talent gap, which will have a substantial impact on the workplace in the ensuing decades.

What are Demographic Shifts?

What do demographic changes mean? Why do we discuss the changing demographics? What elements affect demographic changes? And how do these elements play out in the workplace of today?

The demographic transition is a phenomenon that affects every country in the world. It entails declining birth rates and corresponding population aging, which have different degrees of negative effects on the economy and society.

With extremely high population growth rates, every nation on earth is experiencing demographic transformations that we have never seen before. The world population has increased from 3 to 7.9 billion people (as of May 2022), and the UN predicts that we will reach a population of 10 billion people by the year 2050. Because of this, forecasts for the next fifty years indicate a drastically different world.

These demographic changes are certainly having a big influence on the job market and related career options for younger individuals.

Demographic Changes

The term “demographic change” refers to shifts in migration patterns, birth and death rates, and population size and composition. Today’s Western developed nations are experiencing demographic change that is characterized by low birth rates and rising life expectancy.

Economically and socially, demographic change in Europe is having significant effects, and it is already obvious that many sectors will need to be able to deal with the fallout. To maintain Europe’s competitiveness, experts in every field must be prepared to respond to transformative requirements.

What is a Talent Gap? Definition and causes

The talent gap is the difference between the existing level of talent, skills, or competencies of employees and the level required to meet the organization’s objectives. It is a term used to describe the absence of skilled personnel in an organization.

The rapid advancement of technology, which makes it challenging, if not impossible, for workers to keep up with changing work equipment, is the primary cause of the skill gap in the majority of cases. In addition, PMI names three factors that are exclusive to the project management sector:

1. the rise of employment opportunities needing project management-related skills
2. Due to economic expansion, there is a growing need for project managers in emerging and developing nations.
3. Retirement rates from the workforce

The middle years of each worker’s life are when their labor production peaks in terms of the physiological span of human life. Because of this, a rise in the middle-aged population directly affects a nation’s output. On the other hand, dependent people—those who are too young or old to work (or to work very productively)—consume more than they produce via their labor, which has an impact on living standards.

To address the labor shortage and close the talent gap, organizations will need to come up with new strategies due to declining birth rates and an aging population.

But working longer hours won’t make up for the general fall in the number of people of working age. As sectors grow more project management-focused, the demand for project managers and other specialists will rise.

Talent Gap: consequences for the market

Several phenomena relating to the Talent Gap can be analyzed, according to the Talent Gap Report: Ten-Year Employment Trends, Costs, and Global Implications published by PMI in 2021.

First, there is an ongoing disparity between the demand for and actual supply of project management skills.

The population of the globe is predicted to increase dramatically by 2050, rising from 7.7 billion to 9.7 billion, and then reaching 11 billion by the end of the century.

Over the next ten years, the global business and economy will need 25 million additional project management experts, according to the Talent Gap Report released by PMI in 2021. According to estimates, the lack of resources might result in global GDP losses of up to 345.5 million people.

Based on information gathered by PMI:

• 120 million people will work in project management by 2030, up from 90 million today.
• To close the market gap, 25 million of these will be new hires (12 million will be hired to fill new positions while 13 million will be hired to fill the positions of retired professionals)

The rising demand for project professionals in emerging nations is a final contributing factor to the talent gap’s persistence; this phenomenon implies a decline in the rate of emigration to other nations, creating a true talent shortage that is predicted to result in a GDP loss of 345 billion by 2030.

Possible Solutions

If organizations don’t promote a culture of continuous learning, it’s unlikely that the demand for project management skills will be satisfied by 2030. Employers will therefore have a problem closing the talent gap: developing the capabilities of the incoming workforce. They will need to be more persistent and well-equipped for the future, paying particular attention to demographic shifts.

Five elements that could improve present and next advancements have been recognized by PMI:

• Utilizing technology more effectively: Major changes in all facets of work, including project management, will result from the adoption of new technologies and the associated Digital Transformation.
• Finding and keeping young talent: Very few businesses make investments in young talent. Instead, this might be a new perspective for businesses that wish to expand and, most importantly, keep up with change and the times. Although recruiting young talent necessitates a commitment to training, there are many long-term benefits.
• Finding talent outside of our borders: youthful talent can be found in Africa, South-East Asia, and Latin America. These new workforces could promote positive elements like diversity, equity, and inclusion in the corporate environment.
• Utilize the abilities of change agents to manage current personnel more effectively and, as a result, cut costs.
• Maintaining the knowledge of departing employees: Although efficient knowledge sharing is an important factor for the development and expansion of all organizations, it is estimated that less than half of all companies deal with the process of knowledge transfer between employees.

Conclusion

Future project managers will have the responsibility of putting equality policies into practice with the aid of human resources to support the generational gap at work by balancing new youthful talent with those staff members who are nearing retirement. The talent gap can be closed and the shortage of qualified workers can be made up for in this way.

Thus, finding and training new employees and the ensuing requirement to be competitive in the market is among the top priorities of organizations for the near future. Knowing how to “sell oneself” to potential employers as well as customers will become extremely important. Brand reputation will become a more important component of any business or corporation.

To address the increasing problem of demographic shifts, new approaches and new specialists, such as Project Managers, will be required. They will be the ones who will require brand-new abilities, like empathy and communication, along with a great capacity for change adaptation.

Here at CourseMonster, we know how hard it may be to find the right time and funds for training. We provide effective training programs that enable you to select the training option that best meets the demands of your company.

For more information, please get in touch with one of our course advisers today or contact us at training@coursemonster.com

How do organizations identify and manage risk during an international emergency, such as the current Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic?

Leadership must find a means to keep “business as usual” going and employees working when in a completely unique and alien setting under the circumstances affecting innumerable firms.

And senior executives must recognize the relevance of risk at the corporate, and strategic level, as well as how when risks become concerns, they can threaten the organization’s strategic objectives, if not its very existence.

To protect the enterprise, risk management must be a concept, regardless of the size of the organization. As a result, the Management of Risk (M_o_R) best practice guidelines are based on principles and are intended to address risk as a strategic management discipline.

Managing risk at a time of COVID-19

Right now, in the present pandemic, risk management begins with individual behavior: following government instructions to prevent becoming ill, spreading the virus, and causing additional fatalities.

Organizations are also confronted with new dangers, such as closing down operational sites and requiring employees to work virtually.

To understand the risks and how to minimize them, leaders should create a risk register, which is essentially a risk documentation tool that is designed to “capture unknown events that would damage one or more business objectives.” This should include identifying and prioritizing risks such as:

• Risk description
• The probability of the risk occurring
• Impact on one or more business objectives
• The proximity of the risk
• Risk mitigation
• Risk owner

For example, the risk register could include the following information:

• Staff who do not follow social distancing regulations risk becoming ill with the virus and putting their own lives in danger.
• Employees cannot work remotely if the organization does not give proper IT support.
• Employees who are not accustomed to working from home may experience many distractions that impair their performance and quality of work.

Organizations must mitigate many risks that have been recognized in the current climate:

• Promoting social wellbeing
  Organizing online meetings or one-on-one talks with line managers, or simply calling team members to ensure they’re okay, are important tasks to provide a business takes after its workers in uncertain times.
• Facilitating online working users must be patient in an uncommon situation, but enterprises must ensure that their IT systems can handle the volume of people signing on remotely.
• Communicating It is important to have a clear moment each day or a weekly update when senior management knows exactly what they need to tell their employees/stakeholders and communicate that information while ensuring it is both relevant and current.

“Why are we doing all this risk stuff?” is a question that is occasionally voiced about risk management. Could it never happen? ”

Nobody can think about the future, which is precisely the goal of risk management. If risks become issues and enterprises are unprepared, they will pay the price, not just in dollars and dollars, but also in brand reputation.

Here at CourseMonster, we know how hard it may be to find the right time and funds for training. We provide effective training programs that enable you to select the training option that best meets the demands of your company.

For more information, please get in touch with one of our course advisers today or contact us at training@coursemonster.com

What preparation should candidates make for the Management of Risk (M_o_R®) Practitioner exam?

If you’ve read this best practice guidance, you’ll know that it’s a strategy for identifying, assessing, and controlling risk, with a focus on portfolios, programs, and projects.

But what are the important aspects you must know to achieve the greatest possible exam result?

Exam Structure

The exam includes one imaginary scenario set in an organization in which you must apply your understanding of risk management. The questions in the exam are all based on the same scenario and can cover any of the following issues from the manual:

• Management of risk principles
• Management of risk approach
• Management of risk process
• Embedding and reviewing the management of risk
• Common techniques
• Risk specialisms

As a result, when studying for the exam, you must ensure that you have read – and can navigate – the whole manual.

Exam Timing

M_o_R is a three-hour open book exam that requires you to read the scenario and additional information.

Allow a maximum of 15 minutes at the start of the exam to read the situation but do not read the other information. Only do this when answering a specific question. If you take the exam online, you will only see the additional information when you reach the valid question.

Allow approximately 35 minutes to answer each question (all parts), including any additional information read.

Highlight the questions that you are unclear about and want to review. Use the “flag” functionality to do this online. In a paper-based exam, turn the page corner down. Put an answer down and move on; don’t waste time staring at questions you don’t understand. When you return to the question, your perspective on it may have shifted!

You will have approximately 25 minutes to review any questions you wish to review.

Question Format

The exam includes various types of questions:

• Standard classic (choose one of four answers) – for example, “which action addresses this issue?” ”
• Selecting two answers per question line is referred to as multiple responses. Both must be correct to receive a mark, for example, “which two explanations explain why…?” ”
• Matching questions need you to “match” the statements in the left column with the descriptions in the right column. Column 2 (the right-hand column) selections are typically used once, more than once, or not at all.
  • Assertion-reason – these questions are divided into three columns:
  • A statement made by the left
  • Because the word “because” in the middle
  • On the right, is a reason.
  • Answer the right-hand “reason” column first by selecting true or false. Then repeat with the “assertion” column on the left. A key in the box at the top indicates the letter to select.

Exam Preparation

Before taking the live exam, you can complete one sample paper. If you book your exam through an Accredited Training Organization, you will receive a second sample paper.

Each sample paper includes:

• Scenario booklet (similar to the one you’ll see in the live exam, but with a different scenario)
• Questionnaire booklet
• The rationale explains which option is correct and why.

Complete the paper(s) – Maybe in timed parts, if that’s simpler for you – then mark them using the rationale, carefully reflecting on the problems you got wrong. Make a note in your manual in case you encounter a question like this on the exam. Re-read the text if you scored extremely low in a particular area.

Here at CourseMonster, we know how hard it may be to find the right time and funds for training. We provide effective training programs that enable you to select the training option that best meets the demands of your company.

For more information, please get in touch with one of our course advisers today or contact us at training@coursemonster.com