Testimonials and endorsements
The days of table thumping are gone. Experience shows that excellent communication, negotiation and persuasion is essential to effective Project Management in the real world. Peter shows us how NLP techniques can be applied to get the message not only transmitted, but also received
Effective Programme and Project management is about more than methodology. This book helps you to reflect on the skills and behaviours you use day to day and offers helpful routes for improved results and development as a PPM professional.
There is still lots of room for improvement in project delivery performance in all sectors. In most cases vast improvement can easily come from all project players really understanding each other better and having higher quality relationships and interactions. NLP is a perfect technique to help all project players to improve in this area – enabling misunderstandings to be avoided or spotted and difficult issues confronted which will lead to better project outcomes. I recommend that all project players spend time to learn from this topic and improve their own capability and performance.
Projects don’t manage themselves, so we need project managers. And the softer ‘people’ skills that help to communicate and deliver results through project activities are already essential managerial competencies. This invaluable book provides a fascinating insight into how NLP can help people to deliver better projects, written by someone with a wealth of project and management experiences to draw from.
I first spoke with Peter about three years ago about the need to develop self awareness and soft skills in project managers in order for them to become better leaders, and I was impressed with Peter’s application of NLP at the time. It appears that this conversation seeded a book, and an excellent one too. Well done!
I was introduced to the world of Neuro-Linguistic Programming via my involvement with sports coaching. This exposure to NLP illustrated to me what a fantastic tool this could be for the Project Management profession. We generally recognise that our people are our greatest asset and that we operate in a world where relationships are key, however, so called ‘soft skills’ can often be the hardest to master. With NLP our people can learn to be even more effective in their dealings with their teams, clients and key stakeholders. The release of Peter’s book is perfectly timed and fills a large void in the market.
For me, the book on it’s own would not be enough, but having now completed 5 days of NLP4PM training with Peter Parkes, the book content has been taken to a different level. The techniques have come alive and their application is very clear, all I need to do now is practice. 5 days training based on the book has enabled me to significantly change my limiting beliefs but has also enabled me to understand how best to build rapport with people in a way that I would never have thought possible. I understand how the application of NLP techniques will change my approach to delivering very successful projects. I would recommend the book and the course to everyone. A very enlightening experience and one that I will never forget.
‘I would struggle to recommend another book that covers the tricky subject of how we become better at the people aspects of project management. I think the mark of any good book is that you find yourself recommending it when in conversation with others, which is what happened just the other day. A friend, who is currently working in a change management environment, was talking about interesting times in her organisation. It was the age-old problem of a few “trouble makers” who are showing resistance to change. I piped up that there are loads of examples and approaches you could take with NLP, and there’s this book I’m reading…
I found the book very well structured in the way it combined the theory of NLP (at not too intense a level) with practical exercises and examples, and very well written. I thought that a PM who took it seriously and followed the book right through would develop some very good people skills, whether or not they decided to take it any further. The book is about the ‘soft skills’ of Project Management, which are so often ignored; indeed I would strongly recommend it to any Manager who recognises the need to work with and through people.
Peter has done a great job outlining 1) Project Management, 2) NLP, and 3) How NLP can enable a step change improvement when managing projects. However I think the book deserves a wider readership. Much of business today is about managing projects, and with it change. I’d recommend the book to any manager or director involved in change. Which I suspect is most of us.