Submitted by lbongaer on
in
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Dear MT-community, Dear Mark and Mike,
I would like to ask your help - your ideas, input, suggestions, etc. to organize a one-evening training on management for young engineers. This is intended as a non-profit event (free or almost free), as a service we provide for the Flemish Engineering Association (K VIV).
Of course, constraints are abundant: has to be cheap, low budget, of superior quality, where you learn something concrete, interactive, with role playing, where all participants get personal feedback, and all of that on max 3 h. Before calling this a mission impossible, I wanted to ask your input on this.
In the context of brainstorming, I accept all ideas, and I am willing to turn this upside down a few times. I had one original idea of defining a general theme of the evening, an exercise they should do in groups: namely to define the content of what a one year addendum on management skills to their engineering studies would look like. And represent that to the crowd.
I would like to open the forum for more input.
Thanks a million,
Luc
any input
Ladies, Gentlemen,
Any input? I am wondering if my question is too difficult or too general? This is about a non-profit event, and I have learned that participating in the organization of this kind of events is helpful to master your own skills.
I would like to collect some ideas from this excellent network anyways... Thanks in advance,
Luc
Some thoughts
I think it is a challenge to make a single evening training effective, which may be why you got crickets (ie, silence) in response.
Perhaps you could do a overview of the concept of servant leadership and what to expect as someone transitions from individual contributor to a first level manager.
Also, I would try and give them an overview of resources they can use beyond the training to help their journey. Obviously ManagerTools would be a prime example of where to point them.
As for hands on role playing, I think it will be difficult given the time frame and broad audience you might get. One idea that might be succinct enough to share is the principle outlined in the classic HBR article "who's got the monkey". It speaks to how to interact with directs and ensure that they keep ownership of issues rather than dumping them on the manager. It is very good and pretty easy for anyone to adopt.
Hope that helps,
Mike
Project Management?
Engineers are typically more focused on project management than "people" management. Do you know why your audience is looking for training? Is this career awareness, skill development, or training to address identified weaknesses?
The best way to plan something like this is to find out what your audience needs and why they are going to be there.
John Hack