Mastering the Art of People, Projects, and Profits
Merv Jersak has over 40 years’ experience as a systems consultant, IT Project Manager, and professional speaker. He founded his speaking and consulting business, People First Project Management™ to address one of the biggest problems most IT organizations have: NOT focusing on the human side of project management. This problem is costing organizations extreme losses in productivity and profits!
Merv is committed to helping organizations develop the powerful human factors within their project teams that lead to project success. He supports IT consulting firms and companies’ internal IT departments to increase their probability of successful project delivery by focusing on the people side of project management.
It doesn’t matter the size of an organization; projects can only be delivered through their people:
- people in the role of Project Managers
- people in the role of Project Delivery Staff
- people in the Technical Aspects of Project Management
- people in the end user organizations
Overall, IT staff are expected to be experts in the human factors of project delivery — but most of the time they are not! And projects suffer as a result of this!
Merv doesn’t just believe in offering advice — he walks his talk by delivering results based on decades of experience! He is trained and experienced in the technical aspects of project delivery; and at the same time, he deeply relates to the critical people side of project delivery. He has made it his mission to develop the skills to support the people side of project management, and has seen a dramatic difference in team development, productivity, and profits.
Presentation / Keynote 1:
Position for Success: Mastering the Art of People, Projects, and Profits
In this motivational presentation, Merv pulls from his 40 years of personal case studies and “war stories” to illustrate what works and what doesn’t when it comes to delivering successful systems. He shows how focusing on the human factors in project delivery is essential to project success and bottom line profitability.
Projects are complex undertakings with infinite numbers of moving parts and challenges. Learn why they require focused attention and strong coordination across both the project delivery team and the end-user organization to be positioned for success.
Presentation / Keynote 2:
Develop Powerful People-First Skills to Grow a Dynamic Team and Create Greater Project Success
Project managers possess highly-tuned technical skills in managing projects — yet do they know how to put people first? By adding the human factors to your projects, you begin to powerfully ignite your teams to greater productivity and project success. Timelines and To Do Lists will get your projects only so far — and instilling the “people first” skills to your project will make a lasting impact and allow your organization’s profits to soar.
The PMBOK® Guide and PMP certification, while absolutely essential, are simply not enough. Uncover the secrets and the art of these powerful people skills that will dramatically accelerate your project delivery success.
Presentation / Keynote 3:
Powerful Communication Skills for Project Managers that Unlock the Secrets to Your Success
Research shows that an average of 65% of all IT projects fail even as unprecedented numbers of IT professionals are earning their PMP certifications. Often project failures are NOT a technical Project Management problem. In this presentation you will discover the reasons why projects fail at such alarming rates and what to do to avoid these failures in advance.
In this presentation, your Project Managers will the learn power of communication proficiency, and how to use it to unlock the art and skill of putting people first in your organization. You will also uncover the human factors that are so essential to effective project delivery. So often these communication skills are assumed, or are given mere lip service, within the project delivery organization.
Learn how these skills are equally necessary to implement successful and profitable projects. You’ve heard it said that the “soft skills” are the hard skills. Well, there’s nothing “soft” about communication skills — this presentation will teach you new skills that you can begin to implement right away.
Presentation / Keynote 4:
Transform Tech-Talk into Powerful Presentations That Instantly Connect You to Your Team
In this highly interactive presentation, you will learn proven presentation skills, crafted from the perspective of a life-long Project Manager, and customized specifically for today’s Project Manager. Whether presenting an IT proposal, or a project progress report, or a technical explanation to your major stakeholders, or a pep-talk to your project team — who better to deliver it than the Project Manager? Yet, often these same Project Managers, so skilled in technical project delivery, lack basic presentation skills.
Uncover the skills to go from a liability at the front of the room to a powerful, persuasive communicator that effectively connects to the hearts and minds of your team. The ability to deliver effective presentations is a learned skill, just as the technical proficiencies of Project Management are a learned skill.
In this presentation, your tech-talking professionals will be transformed into clear-messaging presenters. They will become comfortable with the audience, the medium, and the message.
Training / Consultation 1:
Team Assessment Consultation Program
Merv consults on-site with your team during project execution to review client interaction, stakeholder awareness, senior management involvement, and overall adherence to best practices of project delivery – significant human factors in Project Management.
Project Management Checklists are used to help ensure that major aspects of the project delivery review are covered in detail. Merv also relies on intuitive processes developed over his many years of experience. His insight helps your organization understand where your projects are excelling and where there may be opportunities for improvement.
Your organization will receive actionable recommendations for immediate implementation with proven recommendations that go straight to your bottom line.
Training / Consultation 2:
Team Development Program
In this comprehensive consulting program Merv provides active instruction, role playing, scenario replay, and immediate feedback to assist your managers to make better project decisions and take more effective project actions. He works alongside your project leads to provide hands-on personalized consultation for your project delivery.
Your project leaders will uncover proven techniques for applying powerful human factors to Project Management, for utilizing technical processes and systems more effectively, for maintaining stronger team and customer relationships, and for adhering to best practices in project delivery.
Training / Consultation 3:
Executive Success Positioning Program
Merv Jersak helps end-user organizations position themselves for success from the start. He offers personalized consulting for executives to help them make effective decisions for their complex projects, to work with project delivery teams, and to prepare their organizations for their project responsibilities. Executives learn how to prepare their organizations to accept the new systems, and to determine whether their organizations’ funds and resources are being spent effectively.