Topic Teasers Vol. 177: How Can I Make a Meaningful Talent Development Difference?

With an increase in business, we are short on people with project management skills. How can I learn how to bring good PM ideas into the company, train others on them, and also look ahead so that we don’t face this hiring shortage again in the future? Not everyone can start out with a certification, and real skill only comes after one embraces the concepts and has a chance to practice them.

A. If you do not already have a degree in project management, consider going back to school to obtain one. Many organizations will pay for employees to continue their education. Even if you already have a PMI certification, the only way you can grow as a project manager is with a formal degree. This will also encourage up-and-coming members of your teams to also get that education.

B. Public surveys from project managers over the world show that most successful PMs are using the information they learned from the PMBOK^© Guide—Sixth Edition. There are copies, although you may have to settle for used. Get your company to buy them for new PMs you are trying to train, and that way everyone on the staff will be using the same terms and concepts.

C. Despite classes to prepare people for certifications, good PM practices are instinctive and cannot be developed if you were not born with them. A refusal to believe this leads to more and more organizations hiring people who can never learn, or be trained, to bring good projects to fruition.

D. For the best way to learn talent development concepts and prepare your company for the future, get involved with teaching others about project management and how to develop skills with actual practice on projects. Perhaps even start with young people outside your organization that can be pulled into your teams in a few years.

Answer: D. For the best way to learn talent development concepts and prepare your company for the future, get involved with teaching others about project management and how to develop skills with actual practice on projects. Perhaps even start with young people outside your organization that can be pulled into your teams in a few years.

There is no better way to perfect your own skills as a project manager than to be active in explaining it, demonstrating it, and setting up experiences that allow others to implement wise project behavior, learn organizational skills, and become good at managing a team. That’s why people seeking a teaching degree are required to do a certain amount of time practice teaching in an actual classroom.

To facilitate college students having these opportunities to learn about project management and gain experience in the real world of running a project, PMI began a relationship with a global organization called SIPE (Students In Free Enterprise) in 2013. This encourages PMI chapter members to train college clubs on project management and help supervise them in doing actual charitable projects to get hands-on practice. SIFE was founded in 1975, had been active for almost 40 years, and was reaching out to students in 33 countries.

In 2024, SIFE rebranded itself as Enactus (standing for Entrepreneurial- Action-Us) to put more focus on entrepreneurial action. Now European Union (EUR) students, as well as students in 38 other countries, are aided by local chapters of PMI to engage in social entrepreneurship. The famous quote behind their outreach is, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.”

Enactus forms teams on college campuses, chooses outreach projects that are intended to aid others in the community or overseas, and then are coached by members of local PMI organizations. There is even an international competition by university students all over the world each year that was organized by this non-profit organization based in Springfield, Missouri. PMI created training sessions for local members who were already working in project management and part of the local chapter, and then provided them with additional training material to use with the college students they would mentor.

So, there would be great value for an organization (which is probably already paying the PMI membership dues for international and local chapters) to encourage its project managers to volunteer to be the mentor for a local college or university chapter of Enactus. If none exists in your area, this could be a sign for your chapter to get one started. This gives you “practice teaching” experience that you can bring back to the workplace and use to train in-house employees who want or need to have better skills to use on internal projects.

If you would like a little more clarity on what would be involved, Enactus has a free, interactive 45-minute project management course and digital toolkit from PMI. Once you have reviewed it, you can use it with a local chapter (or refer them to the website to view it on their own). Since it is free for use, you can also allow internal people you are trying to advance in their project management skills to view it.

Another resource you might use both in your volunteer role with an Enactus group at a school, and also with your internal employees, is the student handbook for outlining philanthropic projects and documenting considerations before, during, and after the project. It is a wonderful outline for your up-and-coming team members back at work, too.  For example, it divides things into identifying projects and implementing projects effectively.

You have the most successful project when you assign tasks basked on which person likes to do that sort of thing and has the background and skill set to do it best.  So just as you do at work, suggest the college team learn their team members’ interests and talents.

Next, student teams are advised to think through these considerations:

• What is the specific need(s) the project will address?
• Who is the target audience?
• How will your team use entrepreneurial leadership in carrying out the project?
• What are the ethical considerations your team would need to be mindful of when working with communities?
• Do I need to find a project partner?

For example, your project might be for residents of small villages in Brazil that can grow small amounts of coffee beans—but have no way to grind, package, or market them. You could arrange to have the beans shipped to your location, work with a local coffee shop to donate the grinding, find a way to design sacks that package the coffee, and create a website and payment arrangements online so that the coffee can be sold and the profits after expenses sent to the farmer in Brazil who provided the beans. Ask yourself:

• What is the project’s budget?
• What are the desired outcomes of the project’s target audience? How is the target audience trying to achieve these outcomes currently?
• How are you going to measure the direct impact of your project?
• What documentation needs to be created?

There are also some useful reading sources available on the website. Obviously, all of these ideas could be used equally successfully with your corporation’s team members. And a free template for planning projects is also included.

You may want to consider being the instigator of getting your local PMI chapter to sponsor and lead a university project with Enactus in your hometown. Not only can you take your leadership experience back to work for your own teams, you can involve them to get practical experience with managing projects and team members with the college groups before you risk organizational assets with them. Plus, you now have a source for the best interns and future employees, as you have already seen them show their skills working on an actual project that you managed.

Not only will you find satisfaction in helping others who benefit from these projects, nurturing students, and providing a place to allow your direct reports to get hands-on experience, you can also use your donated hours at the Continuing Education website at pmi.org for PDUs toward renewing your certifications.