Project Management Career Start – the SPARK Method – 1/4

This course is part one of four-course series:

Project Management Career Start – the SPARK Method – 1/4

Project Management Career Start – the SPARK Method – 2/4

Project Management Career Start – the SPARK Method – 3/4

Project Management Career Start – the SPARK Method – 4/4

There is a new, practical method in Project Management that I am going to tell you about in just a minute. The very essence of the method is to answer on a question:

“How do I begin a career in Project Management in a fast, practical manner and have a successful career start?”

For centuries, ancient painters and architects used a golden ratio between dimensions inside their master pieces. They tried to find a perfect balance between them and to create the most pleasing pieces for the human eye.

Transferring that ancient approach to Project Management, we try to find:

• a perfect balance between management and leadership,
• between control and trust to your team members,

so that you can have a perfect Project Management career start and excel even as a beginner!

You absolutely need to know about this as, once implemented into your working system, you can be confident that you are beginning your career in Project Management by delivering great results and being respected as a leader by your team members.

The reason why this method is different from everything else is that finally, we truly concentrate on cooperation between team members and leadership and not on processes and procedures, like most of the courses and official guides do.

By concentrating on cooperation and communication, the most important part of Project Management, you are resolving majority of challenges immediately.

The power is in simplicity and in using knowledge that your team already has, so that you can:

• deliver projects on time,
• in budget and
• with high quality.

As a beginner in Project Manager, you will not know everything, but guess what, you do not need to know everything! It is enough to know how to cooperate with people and create environment in which they are willing to share knowledge.

With that, you can begin and make the next step in your career!

And you are making a great choice!

According to PMI’s “Project Management Salary Survey”, only in the US, the demand for Project Management Professionals will grow, by 2020, for more than 12% or 700 000 jobs! That strong demand leads to:

• a higher average salary and
• salary growth worldwide!

For more than a decade I teach, lead projects and cooperate with people around the globe. I am a certified Project Management Professional (PMP® #1702088), Agile Champion and recipient of several Service Excellence Awards and Manager Choice Awards.

It is my pleasure to present to you, the balanced approach that allowed me to be seen as a great mentor, a leader and a colleague wherever I worked, and to give you the tool that is a result of years spent in mentoring and Project Management.

When I have begun my career in Project Management, I needed to discover tips and tricks on my own, I was thrown “into the fire” immediately and needed to orient myself in a completely new area, full of procedures, processes, does and don’ts. As a beginner, I made missteps, I had setbacks, worked with angry customers, but eventually I grew out of it with a vast experience.

Now, I want to share this knowledge with you so that you do not need to go through the same pains I did.

For that purpose, I’ve created approach that is now called the SPARK Method that finds a perfect balance between control and trust and between management and leadership, necessary for a great career start.

Our first task is to reduce complexity, to remove pressure of having to know everything and to start from basics. We are moving together step by step through our method, so you can come to work and be excited while building new relationships and delivering great results!

Moreover, by going back to basics and using the knowledge of the whole team, you save a lot of time, avoid misunderstandings and build trust between team members!

The reason our approach works so well is that we take a step back and teach WHY we communicate as we communicate and then we show HOW you can do it by providing you with the practical tooling set.

By cooperating effectively and treating your team members well, you are guaranteed to have more success in your projects. PMI simply states in their paper that: “Organizations that communicate effectively have more successful projects.”

Normally, you do not receive a guide how to start in Project Management without stress, with knowledge how to communicate, cooperate and be confident that you will manage. Often, without that kind of help, people resign from a wonderful career. I don’t want that to happen to you. We will help you to understand that Project Management is not too complex, that it is fun and that you can do it too.

That is what our SPARK method is all about.

A method that focuses on cooperation and finds a perfect balance, a golden ratio, between control and trust and making sure that you will succeed in your Project Management career.

From the cooperation centric point of view, the SPARK Method introduces:

• communication strategy,
• how to plan job to be done,
• need for constant improvement,
• soft skills and
• leadership necessary to lead your team.

There is nothing more gratifying than, while implementing this approach, you get feedback from your team members like the one you will see below.

That being said, let’s move forward step by step…

—- Colleagues and students feedback reffered to in the text above —-

“…you’ve been an inspiration and positively influenced me to

learn and work and I will never forget that…”, J.

“… a great human, manager, leader, PM in one body. I had a chance to

observe his team transformation

and the outcome was bigger than anyone could imagine. People have started

communicating and talking openly, he builds a situation in this way that people don’t have to do something…

they just want to do something…”, M.

“…leaping off the page on a regular basis by being a mentor,

by leading internal knowledge sessions within his Department & Unit,

by receiving approbations for his outstanding PM performance.

It is very hard to be a manager but also a coach and mentor

at the same time but Marko succeeds…”, K.

“…very unique example of balance between recognition

of human in each employee and business results,

so important in big corporation…”, T.

“ …I could numerate several different merits

which Marko is holding to, which from my perspective

are the ones each good Manager should follow:

trust, loyalty, open and honest communication, positive attitude to people and changes, respect, good listening.

Such working environment is the one which I, as an employee

was searching for to be efficient and satisfied in…”, K.