Systemic project management for better solutions

Fundamentals of Systemic Project Management 

• Understanding projects as social and organizational systems. 
• Identify interactions between the assignment, the organization, stakeholders, the team, and the environment. 
• Effectively combine linear planning with systemic thinking. 
• Professionally managing complexity, uncertainty, and change. 
• Systematically identify resources, risks, and influencing factors in the project. 

Setting the Course: Clarifying the Assignment 

• Make the project scope a key success factor.
• Define objectives, benefits, expectations, and decision-making parameters.
• Highlight implicit assumptions, differing visions, and conflicting goals. 
• Clarify roles, responsibilities, and mandates. 
• Effectively involve clients and other key stakeholders. 

Dealing with Project Stakeholders in a Targeted Manner 

• Identify stakeholders and relevant interest groups. 
• Analyze interests, influence, expectations, and potential resistance. 
• Develop communication and engagement strategies. 
• Deal constructively with critical stakeholders, conflicts, and differing perspectives. 
• Build sustainable alliances and support networks. 

Leading the project team 

• Effectively support project teams at various stages of development.
• Promote direction, commitment, and personal responsibility.
• Clarify roles, interfaces, and teamwork.
• Identify conflicts early and address them constructively.
• Developing leadership without formal authority to issue instructions.

Successful Meetings 

• Prepare, structure, and facilitate meetings effectively.
• Clarify objectives, decision-making needs, and desired outcomes in advance. 
• Enable participation while ensuring a focus on results 
• Managing Difficult Conversations Constructively.
• Agree on binding decisions, responsibilities, and next steps. 

Peer consultation 

• Discover peer consultation as a practical approach to reflection and problem-solving.
• Handle complex project situations in a structured manner.
• Make targeted use of others' perspectives and experiences.
• Develop and evaluate potential solutions and translate them into concrete actions. 
• Applying the framework to your own project and leadership practices.

Change Management in Projects 

• Understand change as a central component of project work.
• Turn those affected into participants. 
• Professionally assess resistance, uncertainty, and ambivalence. 
• Combining communication, participation, and leadership in the change process. 
• Embed changes sustainably in day-to-day work and within the organization. 

Conflicts and Workflow in Projects 

• Understanding Projects as Areas of Tension within Organizations. 
• Dealing with interpersonal and organizational conflicts. 
• Understand the “flow” of work in a project as a value stream. 
• Understand bottlenecks as factors that limit workflow throughput. 
• Use systemic approaches to resolve conflicts.

Important: Participants will contribute their own specific case studies from their projects and programs and use them to develop analyses and options for action.  

The content listed here should be considered a “selection” and will be addressed based on the specific nature of the participants’ case studies. Please refer to the notes under “Methods.”

Your Digital Add-On: To complement the training, you’ll receive free access to additional digital learning resources afterward. These include an e-learning course on initial applications of AI in project management, as well as a guide on how to use AI as your personal learning companion or coach to help you apply what you’ve learned in your day-to-day work.