Last week, I saw the latest APM members evening for the North Yorkshire and Humber Branch. The event took place in the very impressive surroundings of the Skylounge at the Mint Hotel, which afforded superb views over Leeds city centre. The evening, entitled “Olympic Performance for Project Managers” was one that, certainly at face value, promised to be very interesting.
The core of the evening was to be a presentation by Martin Fox, a Project Management consultant with over 25 years experience in the field. Martin is also a registered Master Mind Factor coach, this is a coaching technique primarily used in the sporting world, particularly with the golfing fraternity but with a crossover to business, an area that has been developed with organisations such as Volvo, Red Bull, and Lloyd’s Banking Group.
The premise of the presentation was that there were definite parallels to be drawn between the sporting arena and the business world and because of those parallels the basics of the Mind Factor techniques were ultimately transferable between the two. The talk itself was certainly interesting and any keen amateur golfers in the audience would potentially have gone away with some useful tips on how to improve their handicap. However my feeling was that the seasoned project managers in the audience maybe found some of the concepts a little difficult to accept in relation to their everyday roles. One element in particular did generate quite a healthy discussion at the end Martin’s presentation. The topic of goal setting (or not, as the technique appeared to advocate) definitely brought about quite a bit of audience participation! The technique appeared to say that setting long term goals was counter-productive and as having a long-term goal is pretty much a pre-requisite for a Project Manager, the debate was almost inevitable.
- Lest we miss a chance to promote it further, don’t forget to make your voice heard (if you’ve not done so already). Click the image and take the 2012 Programme and Project Management Census
Although any comparisons or crossovers into Project Management were a little dubious, as with most presentations there were a couple of nuggets in there, if you were prepared to dig deep to find them. In general, though, I thought the links to Project Management, and the day-to-day application of the techniques were a little tenuous at best. Maybe this feeling was exacerbated by the style of presentation and the numerous references to golf (particularly Tiger Woods in his heyday) rather than it being specifically tailored to business or Project Management.
Having said that, sometimes it is presentations like this that are less obvious, even contentious, generate discussion and do make the recipient think laterally about the possible applications, that are the ones that ultimately prove more useful.
As always the event was very well attended and provided an ideal opportunity for networking, and discussion of the Mind Factor concepts once the presentation had concluded.
