PCCA Journal 3rd Quarter 2014 - page 14

PCCA Journal|3
rd
Quarter 2014
14
discussing homebuilding, general construction, or road build-
ing; they’ll be discussing plowing, drilling, fiber to the home,
transmission & distribution lines, and substations.
FMI has many years of experience teaching this program
and admits that the techniques of managing projects are well-
known. Training in scheduling, budgeting, and cost tracking
is available from many sources. But to graduate to the next
level, your project staff must learn to think and act like busi-
ness owners. When projects break down, they have to feel
like they are bleeding their own money. When customers are
dissatisfied, your managers and staff must take it personally.
When jobs are running smoothly, they must remain vigilant.
The three main FMI facilitators at the first PCCA PMA—
Andy Patron, Ethan Cowles, and Rick Reese—are very enthu-
siastic and engaging instructors. On the program evaluations,
participants raved about the instructors’ knowledge and their
ability to hold the group’s attention. “This is the first training
where I never looked at the clock and was ready to leave,”
said one participant. “Great job gentlemen!”
The PCCA Project Manager Academy is built around four
core themes:
• Profitable customer relationship development
• Powerful, integrated project teams
• Financial control of projects
• Planning projects for profits and customer satisfaction
During this high-level, immersion experience, your project
delivery people will examine themselves, their organizations,
and their processes. Our goal is to transform talented builders
into true construction entrepreneurs.
An entrepreneur is a self-directed person who corrals and
coordinates diverse talents and resources to service customers
and return profits. While this description may fit many “man-
agers,” there is a key difference between an entrepreneur and
a manager. While most managers are capable and dedicated
to their jobs, entrepreneurs will always act as if they have a
personal stake in the success or failure of the project.
The Journey Begins Now
The goal of this program is fundamental behavioral change.
Stop your PMs from seeing themselves as just another em-
ployee or a witness to project outcomes. Turn them into vir-
tual owners who have a personal stake in project outcomes
and the tools necessary to succeed.
The PCCA Project Manager Academy begins weeks before
attendees arrive, as each participant completes ProScan
and 360
o
personality surveys prior to the PMA and also has
surveys completed by supervisors, co-workers, people who
report to them, vendors, and customers. Once at the PMA,
participants learn about the value of honest feedback, the
qualities of effective feedback, how to best give it, how to
best receive it, and its importance to the success of one’s
company. During the PMA, each participant has an hour-
long, one-on-one session with an FMI facilitator who reviews
the specifics of their personal ProScan and 360 [degree
symbol] reports and helps them understand how the results
relate to their work and their lives.
At the first PCCA PMA, the participants were amazed by
the survey tools’ ability to accurately describe their personal-
ity and appreciative of the assistance provided by the FMI
facilitators. The participants’ comments were telling: “Thank
you for helping me understand me,” said one participant.
“Great exercise. Very eye-opening. I could have spent two
hours with this info and hearing his feedback and sug-
gestions,” said another. And finally, “It was so accurate, I
thought they were spying on me.”
“I attended the Project Manager Academy to see what it was all
about and could not have been more impressed. We will continue
sending our people. If they put 25 percent of what they learned
to use on the job, we will get a return on our investment that is
much more than the registration fee.”
– Heath Sellenriek, Sellenriek Construction
PCCA Project Manager Academy
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