Master the Communication Skills You Need to Succeed

Earn our Professional Certificate in ” Program Management and the Art of Communication”

You may have heard that “90% of a project manager’s work is communication.” Well that’s even more true as a program manager. But do you know why communication is so important and what is good communication for making projects successful?

If you have even a little project management experience, you know communication is no longer just the transfer of information and giving directives to project managers and project teams. Modern communication theory is based upon creating shared understanding – “the coordinated management of meaning.” And nowhere is it more important to manage and coordinate meaning – and understanding – than in programs and projects.

Earn up to 50 PDUs as you progress in this professional certificate.

Enroll Now at edX

What You Will Learn

• How to design your communication so that you enhance your audience’s understanding.
• The power of blending logic, emotions, and your personal presence to increase your persuasive abilities.
• Best practices for effectively handling the complex information flows in programs and projects.
• How to use coordinated management of meaning tools to build program or project teams, negotiate with stakeholders, and convince executives to support your programs/projects.

Program Content

• How to communicate for understanding instead of just giving information.
• What Aristotle taught us about effective communication and why his 2,000-year old advice is still vital to persuasive communication.
• How the “Coordinated Management of Meaning” can help you develop and lead high-performing project teams and programs.
• How you can better manage the flow of program or project communication, as the information hub on your project.
• How to master both emotional intelligence and cultural intelligence when communicating with your project managers, teams and stakeholders.
• How to negotiate effectively using hidden emotional and cultural subtexts.How to effectively communicate online with a distributed workforce by being “virtually present.”
• Approaches for communicating for understanding as the foundation of being a coaching, situational leadership, and servant leadership program/project manager.
• To use storytelling as a powerful risk management tool.

This certificate program is not just about theory; I also give the working project manager aspiring to program management practical tips and tools to help them improve their most important skill: communication. You’ve worked hard to gain the Project Management Institute, Inc’s (PMI) Project Management Professional (PMP), Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM) certification or similar project management certification. And, you have mastered the PMBOK guide (“A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge) communication knowledge area while preparing for the PMP exam.

These workplace-tested tips and tools are ready to use today as you manage your programs and projects whether you have project management training in traditional or agile project management (PMI-ACP). Even certified scrum masters can benefit from this online course. Along with gaining professional development units (PDU), upgrade your project management training with the power skill of communication.

Enroll Now at edX

Target Audience

• Engineers
• Managers
• Designers
• Writers
• Creators
• Executors of all types

Whether you’re delivering a small part of a project or portfolios of large multi-million-dollar government works, these principles scale and apply to all industries to achieve delivery success.

Self Paced Courses and PDUs

The certificate consists of five individual courses and when all five are successfully completed, the certificate will be issued (for verified learners – see cost information below).  All courses are asynchronous which allows individual students to sign up and start the courses when they want and at their own pace.  Students from all sides of the project management community will also be able to collaborate with others registered in the program. The list below identifies the five courses required to complete the Professional Certificate program.

• Effective Communication for Program and Project Stakeholders and Teams (10 PDUs) – Go beyond the communication methods you learned in the project management training. Learn how to structure your program and project communications for the most effective understanding by your stakeholders, project managers, and project teams.

• Persuasion and Presence for Program and Project Managers (10 PDUs) – Logic is not enough. Program managers need presence and to move stakeholders emotionally. Project professionals only follow people they both respect and trust. Learn to apply Aristotle’s persuasion triad to create successful communication that persuades.

• Managing Conflicts on Projects with Cultural and Emotional Intelligence (10 PDUs) – Great program managers understand and heal bad communication habits and conflicts that arise within project teams and stakeholders. Learn how by leveraging emotional and cultural intelligence using the Coordinated Management of Meaning (CMM)

• Designing Project Information Hubs for Program and Project Performance (10 PDUs) – The most valuable resource on a project is timely information. Why? Because information changes the decisions that determine project outcomes. Learn the planning skills and techniques needed to manage information across complex programs or projects.

• Storytelling That Delivers Program and Project Outcomes (10 PDUs) – Storytelling is how leaders lead other leaders. Tell your project’s story to inspire your project teams, encourage your stakeholders, and gain customer commitment to project and program success.

Earn 50 PDUs for completion of all five (5) courses.

Enroll Now at edX

Fees

Each course is free for the first four (4) weeks and it takes approximately ten (10) hours to complete.  For a small fee, edX and UMD will issue a Verified Certificate which provides proof for an employer, school or other institution that the course was successfully completed by the student.  To qualify for a Verified Certificate, participants complete all aspects of the courses which can include watching all videos, participating in discussion forms, and completing any required homework and exams with a passing grade.

Costs for a verified version of each individual course in the Project Management and the Art of Communication Professional Certificate program are shown below.

• $199 per individual course
• $995 for the entire certificate (purchase all courses at once and save 10%.  Total cost would be only $895.50.  That’s only $17.91 per PDU.)

What Dr. Bill’s students say about him:

• “Bill was one of my favorite instructors at JIU. Bill is very personable, really cares about his students, and has a wonderful knowledge of project management. I worked very closely with him on my Capstone course to create a project management methodology. The core of this is still used within the IT department of my company.”
• “Professor Brantley is an incredible teacher! I had him for one of my communication classes at the University of Louisville. He really broke things down and made everything understandable and fun! 🙂 I would recommend any class that he teaches in full confidence!”

Enroll Now at edX