Talks

We regularly give talks on Project Management across all aspects of the PM Body of Knowledge around the UK and sometimes abroad. These book out really fast so register for a newsletter for updates if you are keen to attend one.  See our current program below.

Contact us to discuss speaking at an event for you

See a flier here

Link to reviews on APM website for: Cambridge, Warrington, Thales

And in Network magazine

Also on Resilience at Milton Keynes, Norwich, Sothampton, Birmingham and Stoke

Peter Parkes running 1 day workshop in London

28th September 2010 ‘NLP for Project Management: making soft skills less hard’, APM Thames Valley Branch, Swindon

11th January 2011 ‘NLP for Project Management: making soft skills less hard’, APM East of England Branch, Marshalls, Cambridge

24th February 2011 ‘NLP for Project Management: making soft skills less hard’, APM North West Branch, Warrington

15th March 2011 ‘NLP for Project Management: making soft skills less hard’, BCS Project Management Group (Proms-G) PM Spring School, London (book via www.BCS.org)

16th March 2011 ‘Integrated Assurance’, APM Scottish Conference, Edinburgh (book via www.apm.org)

22nd March 2011 ‘NLP for Project Management: improving communications in complex projects’ for the BCS Project Management Group (Proms-G) PM Spring School, London (book via www.BCS.org)

31st March 2011  ‘NLP for Project Management: making soft skills less hard’, APM Dragons Den, Aberdeen (book via www.apm.org)

18th May 2011  ‘NLP for Project Management: making soft skills less hard’, APM Scotland AGM, Glasgow (book via www.apm.org)

1st June 2011 ‘NLP for Project Management: making soft skills less hard’, APM Wales, Newport (book via www.apm.org)

9th June 2011 ‘NLP for Project Management: making soft skills less hard’, APM Midlands, Milton Keynes courtesy of Santander

14th June 2011 ‘NLP for Project Management: making soft skills less hard’, Earned Value Management Conference, London (book via www.SWProjects.co.uk)

16th June 2011 ‘Re-thinking project leadership’, Women in Project Management Annual Conference, London (book via www.apm.org)

28th June 2011 ‘NLP for Project Management: making soft skills less hard’, Bovis Lend-Lease, APM London (book via www.apm.org)

12th September 2011 ‘NLP for Project Management’, PMI hosted by Jaguar Land Rover, Coventry

5th October 2011 speaking on ‘NLP for Project Management’ at the ‘Achieving Excellence conference, Hilton Stansted, hosted by Enable East (an NHS Trust)

12th October 2011 ‘NLP for people new to project management’, APM Inspire, hosted by Thales, Crawley (book via www.apm.org.uk/events)

9th November, Netherlands via www.oppidum.nl/nlp

17th November 2011 ‘NLP for Project Leadership’, BCS London (Book via www.bcs.org.uk)

24 November 2011′Making it happen! The People Skills every Project Manager should have – Managing Conflict, Motivation and Change’, Pharmaceutical Industry Project Management Group, Eisai Knowledge centre, Hatfield

20th February 2012, NLP4PM 1 day workshop, Berlin

22nd February 2012, NLP4PM 1 day workshop, Westminster, London

24th February 2012, NLP4PM 1 day workshop, Prague

27th February 2012 at the Masters for the UK Defence Academy at Shrivenham

13th March on Stakeholder Management at BCS Spring School for Project Managers in London

29th March 2012 ‘NLP for resilience and stress management in projects’, IoD / APM courtesy of Santander, Milton Keynes (Book via apm events)

24th April 2012 ‘Building resilience and managing stress management‘, Leeds Metropolitan University (Book via apm events)

26th April on Stakeholder Management at the PMO SIG annual conference, Coventry

29th May on Governance and Sponsorship to a joint AIPM / PMI event in Perth, Australia

30th May on Lessons in Governance and Role of the Sponsor to the PM Masters programme at Curtin Univeristy, Perth, Australia

12th June 2012 to the PM Masters programme at Manchester Business School

13th June 2012, ‘The compleat Project Manager’, for PMI at York University

29th June 2012, ‘NLP for Project Managers’, joint BCS / PMI event in Zurich

3rd July 2012 ’Building resilience and managing stress’‘, APM East of England at Norwich (Book via www.apm.org.uk/events)

10th July 2012  ’Building resilience and managing stress”, Southampton (book via apm events)

12th July 2012  ’Building resilience and managing stress‘, for the People SIG at Birmingham University (book via apm events)

4th October 2012  ’Building resilience and managing stress’, for Midlands Branch in Stoke (book via apm events)

22nd October 2012 ‘Stakeholder Management: hard tool and soft skills’, at the BCS Autumn School for Project Managers, Bristol

12th December 2012 ‘Stakeholder Management: Hard tools and soft skills’, Northampton  (book via BCS)

22nd January 2013 Webinar – ‘NLP for PM: A tool for developing behavioural competences’ (book via apm events)

13th February 2013 Peak Performance announce tie up with Milton Keynes College to deliver Higher Apprentices for Project Management and launch at Institute of Directors event – see write-up here.

11th April 2013  ‘NLP for Project Managers’ for ITMPI  New webinar taking bookings in the USA (book here)

25th April 2013 ‘Building resilience and management stress’ at the Police firearms training centre in Stockton for the APM – book here.

25th July 2013 ‘Developing the profession and professional development’ on PM competence and capability for the Nuclear Engineering Task Force hosted by CH2MHill in London

25th September 2013 ‘How to make all your projects succeed’ for Canadian National’s PM forum in Montreal

10th October 2013 ‘NLP for Project Management: developing behavioural competences’ 1 day course in partnership with the APM in London – book here

24th October 2013 ‘Governance of Government’ on governance of project management and management of portfolios hosted by Ipswich council for the APM – book here

26th October 2013 Keynote address ‘Learn to fail or fail to learn’ for the Potential Plus UK in Leamington Spa

30th October 2013 ‘Behavioural competences for PM’ at the Project Management Student Conference conference hosted by University of Westminster Business School.

Testimonials and Endorsements

Having spent the last 30 years in and around projects and programmes of all shapes and sizes, it is refreshing to read a book that provides insight into the critical aspects of project performance – the people. The effectiveness of project leaders is defined by their level of emotional intelligence in conjunction with real experience in end to end delivery. Peter demonstrates both and we are pleased to work with him. His new book gives away some of his trade secrets and all project professionals would benefit from buying a copy.

Matt RawsonMBA (Project Management), Certificated Project Manager Director, Programme, Project and Change Management Practicus - The Outcome Delivery Partner

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

David Newport-Peace

Project Managers need a range of hard and soft skills to drive project management processes to deliver successfully. I am clear that using associated PPM tools and applying learning is not enough on its own. Peter’s book brings analysis, insight and valuable pointers to improving those very important soft skills such as building rapport with stakeholders, handling difficult situations and being assertive. I recommend Peter’s book, read it and help improve both your personal performance and your team’s performance.

Paul Hirst

Project failures, whether in terms of delivery or benefits realisation, continue to grab the headlines and there is a widely held perception that the project management profession does not learn from its mistakes. Methodologies and processes are clearly part of the answer, but we also need to address the people dimension of project and programme management, and this means looking beyond traditional approaches premised on the rational economic man paradigm of incentives and sanctions. Let’s be clear, there is nothing wrong with such approaches, apart from the fact they don’t work! They may be necessary, but are rarely sufficient – the difference that makes the difference is to apply approaches that engage people in terms that tap into their creativity and desire to contribute to a worthwhile cause. This is where NLP, and this book in particular, is key. Read it, apply it and not only will it make you a more effective project manager, it will also ensure the projects you are engaged in are more successful.

Steve Jenner FAPMAuthor of 'Realising Benefits from Government ICT investment - a fool's errand' and co-author and chief examiner of the OGCs 'Management of Portfolios'. Chairman, Portfolio Management Specific Interest Group, APM (Formerly Director of IT for Criminal Justice)

‘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…’

Lindsay Scott, Director, Arras People project management recruitment

Efficient and effective transformation projects in the public sector will need to be delivered by astute, mature, experienced project managers with a real sense of self awareness, and awareness of what the customer wants and needs. Enable East has been inspired by Peter’s structured NLP framework to give project managers a practical, common sense, approach to develop their own self awareness and soft skills and tune into key project stakeholders in order to ensure project success.

Sam BrownDirector of Projects, Enable East (an NHS Trust)

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

David Newport-PeaceProject ManagerRolls Royce

Even in IT projects, soft skills are very important and Peter, a well respected author and speaker, has shared his insight on this resulting in an extremely useful guide on behavioural competences.

Funmi Adeusi Chair, BCS London Central Branch

Soft skills are the difference that makes the difference in leadership of change. Getting change to work well is really all about people. Peter tirelessly promotes this in project management, both through Alchemy, and more specifically in this book, which is a major contribution to the discipline.

Paul Matthews

One of the main reasons for projects of all sizes failing to deliver is the project manager’s lack of soft skills for managing people. In this book Peter helps you to develop the skills in dealing with team members and stakeholders that are essential to be a successful project manager.

David LillicrapDavid LillicrapHead of Programme Management, London Borough of Ealing