Intelligent Disobedience

Course Overview

This is an advanced leadership course designed to prepare project managers for successful interactions with senior management and other various project stakeholders. Intelligent disobedience is the ability to successfully counter the directions of management. This requires the project manager to challenge, push back, and make suggestions to management that defend the integrity of projects against the expectations of key stakeholders.

Intelligence disobedience is pivotal to true success as a project manager. Like the seeing-eye dog training environment that embraces intelligent disobedience as essential to success for assistance pets, project managers need to know how to "disobey their masters" as a means of saving the business just as seeing-eye dogs save and empower their masters with their vision and behavior.

Intelligent disobedience requires courage, solid presentation skills, and political awareness. It also requires a sense of balance brought forth with a sense of humor – after all you are comparing yourself to a dog as a means to be successful! This course is fun, challenging, and informative. It will provide you with a different way of looking at the challenges you face as a project manager.

Key Outcomes

Upon completion of this course, participants will be able to:

• Describe methods for proposing potentially unpopular directions or opinions
• Develop approaches for successfully dealing with senior managers and stakeholders
• Describe how to craft compelling arguments to garner business support
• Develop a decision-making process for when you should "bend the rules" or alter processes –  leveraging common sense over common processes on an exception basis

Course Outline

Intelligent Disobedience Concept and Definition

• Define intelligent disobedience and identify how it applies to project management
• Explain what intelligent disobedience is not
• Identify appropriate situations to apply intelligent disobedience
• Describe the results of using intelligent disobedience

Intelligent Disobedience Leadership

• Identify the characteristics of an intelligent disobedience leader
• Identify personal traits necessary for intelligent disobedience
• Describe techniques you can apply on your projects            

Conducting the Difficult Conversation

• Define intense conversations
• Practice intense conversations
• Formulate clarity on your conversations
• Construct the successful conversation
• Facilitate team issue conversations

Dealing with Difficult People

• Differentiate between "people who are difficult" and "difficult people"
• Create strategies for dealing with both "difficult" types
• Identify characteristics of "people who are being difficult" and of “difficult people”
• Describe recommended approaches for the project manager

Course Note: This course requires two instructors – one that is an expert in project management and leadership and another who is a therapist and expert in human resource management and human behavior. These instructors team up as facilitators to provide maximum learning benefit to students.