Greg Githens leads a 2-day public workshop titled Leading Strategic Initiatives (Program Management) that is publicly available about 5 times per year through PMI SeminarsWorld (see www.pmi.org for details and registration):
Greg has tailored and delivered this seminar for internal strategy and program management groups. He also has a intensive-planning session for structuring and chartering strategic initiative programs.
Brief Workshop Description: Strategic initiatives are one of the newest tools in the strategic management toolkit and are increasing in importance and popularity for businesses, industry, government, and NGOs. Strategic initiatives are those cross-functional, cross-organizational programs that are crucial to achieving an executive vision and delivering benefits to stakeholders.
This is an Advanced-Level course suitable for anyone who wants practical leadership concepts for turning strategic intent into action. Your expert facilitator, Greg Githens, is a top-ranked, enthusiastic seminar leader who will share practices and insights that will increase your effectiveness. Where appropriate, the class will include concepts from the latest edition of PMI’s Program Management Standard. However, the workshop’s primary objective is to provide proven leadership practices, skills, and insights specific to strategic initiatives and programs. You will exit the seminar with tools, perspective, and confidence to make instant, positive contributions to your organization.
Workshop Contents
Module 0 – Introduction
Module 1 – Introduction to Program Management
Module 2 – Strategic Initiatives as a Change-the-Business Tool
Module 3 – Some Good Things to Know About Strategy
Module 4 – Delivering a Rolling Wave of Benefits
Module 5 – More Useful Tools (LIDS & BREAD)
Participant Comments
“I really enjoyed your seminar and it was hands down better than any other session I attended.”
“Since attending the seminar I been able to convince my management that in order to progress the ambitions of our organization it is critical to change how we use program management from a loose collection of projects to a mechanism to deliver strategic initiatives.”
“I want to again thank you for putting forth such a great effort with your class. I was not exaggerating when I said it was the best class I’ve taken in 30 years.”
“There were several things that I will take away from the training, all of which I think are going to help me personally grow my career and really take some of my communication and leadership to the next level. I found myself starting to apply the material and learnings to specific situations I have experienced in the past and will have coming in the next couple of weeks. I feel like this course has given me perspective on the frame of mind, types of questions to ask and the important things to help drive during these types of conversations. I know that I now have some perspective and am beginning to understand the mindset I need to have to be a successful contributor and play a leadership role in helping to drive this initiative through our organization. I truly feel that some of the lessons and way of thinking that we discussed will help me take my career to the next level.”
“Your ears should have been ringing a short while ago when I was telling a colleague how great a course LSI was and what a fab instructor you are!”
“Greg engaged the audience in lively conversations around strategic topics like balanced scorecard, effective program metrics, and program vs. project leadership competencies. He also forced us to practice tough skills like analyzing and preparing for difficult conversations. Mixed in with a case study, and plenty of story-telling examples, Greg shared a lot of tools and techniques that will help in any facilitation setting. It was fast-paced and well presented two days!”
“Greg did a great job of adapting the course material to integrate our strategy into the lesson plans. His passion for the material shines through and provided us a great environment for our team to engage and learn.”
“I just want to thank you again for an Excellent class. Of the many classes I’ve taken through and for PMI, it was the richest and most abundant, certainly worthy of more than a 2 day seminar. You covered a lot of ground, and did it with enormous enthusiasm, something we all appreciated. It was clear that you truly enjoy teaching the subject.”
“Thanks again for making me think! ”
“I LOVE the organic, natural opinions rather than the structured, rules-based, formulae that are so common in project management.”
Webinars and Other Offerings
Selected overviews of the Leading Strategic Initiatives content are available in a webinar format.
Other high-quality workshops are available for How to Think Strategically and Apply Business Acumen, Risk Management, Capturing Requirements, Fast and Flexible Projects (Agile), Program Management, Metrics that Matter, Strategic Planning, and Portfolio Management.
Contact Greg Githens for more information (GregoryDGithens [at] cs [dot] com; 01 419 424 1164).
Leading Strategic Initiatives 
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Thanks. That was very helpful. There is a lot of activity going around in my company about scrum and some teams are having daily stand ups etc. Do you think that like PMP, having a Scrum certification will help me in my career?
As a general rule, certifications are always helpful. However, in some companies care about the certification and reward for it, and others do not. Certification tends to mean that you have knowledge, which is not the same thing as skill. Thanks for your question!