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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.

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.

To be effective, project managers must learn the language of the boardroom. Peter and this book will help you to do that.

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.

We can now buy almost any car and expect it to work perfectly from the start – very different from a few decades ago. So why not aspire for a world in which every project succeeds? That involves organisational change and improved processes and systems, but primarily it is about people – their attitudes, behaviours and relationships. Project management professionals are already driving this cultural shift. This book, by an eminent practitioner of both Neuro-Linguistic Programming and Project Management, makes a valuable contribution by marrying the two fields to reinforce our understanding of how people can maximise their effectiveness in managing and responding to change. It provides interesting and useful insights for those at all stages in their career development. I am pleased to recommend it.

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.

Change is the only constant’ is a well known phrase and clearly evident within progressive organisations today. NLP should be an integral accessory to the overall project, programme and portfolio managers toolkit and this book, authored by a respected practitioner, provides useful and clearly articulated comparisons between the various methodologies assisting the reader to be better prepared and able to use the right tool at the right time for their given role.

In this book Peter Parkes focuses on an increasingly valued aspect of project management. Soft skills have always underlain excellent project management performance, but the underlying concepts and techniques have not been clearly expressed. Peter has now demonstrated how NLP can help many of us, in a most helpful and engaging way. The benefits of applying, rather than just reading, his approach will become apparent to those concerned with supporting individual projects as to those governing major portfolios of programmes and projects. Knowing the depth of knowledge and experience on which this book is based I have no hesitation in recommending it.

As Project Managers, there is a continuing need to take our skill base to the highest level. This book will surely add to your skill set, particularly in the challenging area of ‘soft skills’.

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.