Trainings

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Courses and Trainings

YGGDRASIL is specialised in the development of professional training. The topics range from project and environmental management to complex international and EU projects. Project design, strategies and management of proposal writing for funding by national or international funds are offered. Since 1999 more than 10.000 customers from private business, research, management and administration have attended YGGDRASIL’s courses. YGGDRASIL’s expertise is based on more than 25 years experience in the area of scientific work at numerous universities or High Education Institutions in Germany and abroad, as well as on more than 20 years’ experience as a consultant in the private business.

The methodology focuses on lectures and knowledge input on one hand and group work on numerous exercises on the other hand, with a one-to-one-assistance and deep discussions to work through the exercises. Case studies and work on templates complete the course. We try to deliver our topics as tailor-made as possible to the client's needs.

Please contact us! Together with you we will design a useful program matching to your needs.

Management / Strategies
Fundamentals of Project Management
Advanced Project Management
Risk Management
Writing competitive Proposals for international, EU and national Projects
Excel, a tremendous tool for Project Management Jobs Zeitmanagement
Process Management
Project Design and Project Proposals by Logical Framework Approach
Environment
Environmental Management
Waste Management

Languages
English
German for Foreigners

Course contents

1. Fundamentals of Project Management

Overview of the Course:
Project Management is a key issue and the base for Management, Administration, Research and private business alike. It determines the success or failure in projects, careers and personal life planning. The demanding course presents all tools of project management in applied topics and exercises. The aim of the course is to get acquainted with the numerous techniques and philosophies of project management and to encourage them to start managing their own projects professionally. The focus is to explain the principal thoughts and to make the participants open and trusting to adjust these thoughts to their own needs and demands. Only then they will gain ownership in project work and an efficient reactivity in rescue and emergency situations. For this course no experience in Project Management is necessary and no experience with Project Management software.

Contents:

Life Cycle and conflicts in projects
Planning techniques
Project Management Instruments (Charts, Diagrams, Work package Breakdown and others)
Gantt Charts and Strategic considerations
Team (Composition, Building, Motivation, Control)
Communication
Time Management Principles
Risk Management
Running a Project on a Day-to-Day Basis (Implementation of Strategy, Quality Standard, Ensure that all understand their Role)
Monitoring and Control
End of Project, Quality Control, Post-Project-Review

The Method:

focuses on lectures on one hand and group work on numerous exercises on the other hand, with a one-to-one-assistance and detailed discussions to work through the exercises. Case studies and work on templates will complete the course.

Target Group:

2. Advanced Project Management

Overview of the Course:
The aim of this two day course is to motivate project managers and to develop skills in managing complex projects and in leading a complex project consortium.This is a core skill in today´s fast moving business environment. The aim is to teach modern techniques of management in complex project with many players, countries, part-time personnel and different scientific topics and languages.

Contents:

Characteristics and Conflicts of Complex Projects
Project Management Tools, (Gantt Cart, Forward and Backword Planning, Critical Path Analsysis, Ris Mitigation using Gantt Charts, Responsibility Matrix)
Leadership (The Nine Categories, Project oriented Leadership, Influence Factors,, Einflussfaktoren, The Seven Leadership Principles, Horizontal Leadership),
Leading Project Organisations , Role of Coordinator, Project Maturity, Project Excellence Program PEP, Project Management Office PMO)
Communication (Intercultural Aspects, Management of objections
Stakeholder Management (Roles, Strategies, Visualisations),
Project Start
Dynamics of accurate Estimation (Estimating Techniques, Resources, Budgert, Scenarios)
Monitoring and control
Solving Problems and Emergency Actions (Symptoms, Implementation and Control)
End of Project, Review and Documentation

The Method:

Target Group:

Project Managers and coordinators, project sponsors, group leaders and workpackage leaders, experts in projects and all people interested in project management ideas and tools. They should have some basic experience in working in projects or should have accomplished a basic course on Project Management. Openness to other experts and networking is also part of the course.

3. Risk Management

Overview of the Course:
Projects have a lot of risk potential. The more innovative they are the higher are the risks. But also risks in contracts, the teams, the client and the environment can jeopardise a project. The aim of the course is passing techniques and tools to find and assess risks as early as possible, to make them visible in order to find measures early enough to mitigate the risk. We want to make the projects a success despite the potential risks.

Contents:

Definition of Risk
Three ways to cope with risks, which one to choose?
IIdentification of risks
RRisk response strategies
MManagement of expectations
eRisk Categories (financial, contractual, performance, team, management)
Risk environment (client, stakeholders , SWOT-Analysis)
Proactive und reactive actions
Delegation
Communication
Risk Charts
Emergency plan and control (indicators, damage estimate, decisions)
Backward effects
Controlling
Responsibilities
documentation
Review

The Method:

Target Group:

Project Managers and coordinators, project sponsors, group leaders and work package leaders, experts in projects and all people interested in project management ideas and tools. They should have some basic experience in working in projects or should have accomplished a basic course on Project Management. Openness to other experts and networking is also part of the course.

4. Preparing Competitive Proposals for EU, international and national projects

Overview of the course:
The aim of this course is to motivate proposal writers and to develop skills and the stamina to create project ideas and refine them into drafts and finally into project proposals. The course is aimed at coordinators and their staff who will be able to put into practice the valuable hints given during this course. You have a project idea, but shy the effort to find an appropriate call among hundreds of calls and in hundreds of programmes? You know of the potential of EU Funding, but are busy with your daily work? Qualified projects offer many opportunities to widen professional knowledge and to implement innovative products and services. EU Funding is a good opportunity to implement large projects with a small own budget and to “go international“. However, project proposals are very time-consuming. Each of them follows specific rules concerning the form, content and budget. Proposals must fulfil all criteria if they want to be successful, and proposal writers fear the large time effort and the low success rates in proposals. However, certain principles of strategy and wording and implementation and management of projects prevail in all proposals and can be transferred to the specific project programmes.

The proposal writing course teaches strategies of project conceptualising, partner search and proposal writing. An overview of the actual EU Funding scene is given, and it is discussed, how the EU functions „behind the scenes“. In a practical part, ideas of the participants will be discussed, together the participants will compose a potential proposal abstract, that withstands the five key criteria of project success given by the EU evaluation. The group work will open a dynamic discussion, trigger the exchange of experiences and strategies for the competitive proposal, it will lay the foundations to own proposals,

Contents:

The European Funding Scene (Overview, Stay up-to-date), useful websites
Funding Rate and Cost Categories
From Project idea to Funding Programme
From Project Idea to Partner search
Partner-Search-Strategies
Partner-Search-Abstract
Important issues for proposals (documents, the small prints and footnotes)
The evaluator’s eyes
Behind the scene (Strategic considerations, the Five Key Questions)
What are the parts of a competitive Proposal?
Which Skills do we need for a competitive Proposal?
The One-Page-Proposal
Time Management and Strategies for Proposal Writing
Submissions- the traps
Templates and Checks

The Method:

Focuses on lectures on one hand and group work on numerous exercises on the other hand, with a one-to-one-assistance and detailed discussions to work through the exercises. Case studies and work on templates will complete the course.

Target Group:

Project Managers and coordinators, project sponsors, group leaders and work package leaders, experts in projects and all people interested in project management ideas and tools. They should have some basic experience in working in projects or should have accomplished a basic course on Project Management. Openness to other experts and networking is also part of the course.

5. Excel – a Tremendous Tool for Project Management Jobs

Overview of the course:
Partners in projects often lack the powerful software or the time to use them for complex project management procedures. However projects must be managed on top of the daily work and breaks in communication must be prevented. MS Ecxel is available in every institution and the team members are more or less accustomed to it. Some simple techniques and some creative thoughts can turn EXCEL into a powerful tool to manage projects. This tool can be used by every project partner, thus sending files and exchanging information is very easy without losing time in complicated software and without loss of information. The team has more time to work in the project efficiently and is not stuck in technical problems. The course gives practical tools and techniques for managing projects, a lot of hints and tricks and a lot of useful templates and Macros ready to use without knowledge in software programming.

Content:

Project order and definition of success
Project planning and documentation
Project Goals, SMART, design and evaluation of target conflicts
Project team, Who is Who, communication
Project environment / stakeholders, project environment monitoring, SWOT Profile, Influence- and conflict potential
Planning techniques (Structures, deadlines, processes, costs, resources)
Top-Down or Bottom-Up?, Structuring Projects, Planning, Top down or bottom up?, Work packages (Templates), Work package Breakdown Structure (WBS), Milestones, Checklists and templates
Milestones and Deadlines, Gantt Charts, Resources, Budget, Critical path
Staff Management, Availabilities, costs, Capacity control
Cost Management, Target – performance comparison, Costs in WBS, Multiple options
Project Controlling, Milestone-Trend-Analysis (MTA), Line diagram as MTA Chart, Capital sin in performance control
Risk Management, Tables, Diagrams, Questionnaire for risk evaluation, Risk Maps
Post Project Review, Review questionnaire templates, Questionnaire evaluation
Additional Excel hints and tricks

The Method:

A theoretical short input moves to practical and tailor-made exercises with many ideas, new thoughts and discussions. Project work is optimised and more transparent by the use of EXCEL.

Target Group:

6. Time Management

Time is a precious asset, we cannot increase it. It is predicted that more and more stress and burnout cases will impact our economy and society: the number of employees will be reduced , however, the workload will grow and become more complex. This growing pressure will be distributed to the remaining staff. Time passes continuously and without return. However tools and instruments to handle the time in a conscious and productive way can be taught and trained.

The aim of the workshop is to make „Time-wasters“ visible, to set priorities and to relieve ourselves from the time pressure by controlled instruments. We learn to use our time in a target-oriented way, to rationalise our activities and to start own initiatives to move the really important things and not to procrastinate. The workshop focuses the practical implementation of the theory into the daily life.

Content:

Target Priorities and Target Conflicts, Identification and Strategy
Time Management Techniques
Individual approach to work and time
Time-waster analysis and control
Interruption Control
Individual Performance Ability and Limits
Time Management as Health Management
Avoid self-induced stress
Individual Personal Time Management

The Method:

Target Group:

7. Process Management

International Process Management skills are fundamental for scientists, engineers and the public service working increasingly in complex projects. Wrong handling and instruments can jeopardize projects, no matter how well it has been laid out in the beginning.

It is very time-consuming to manage projects. Scientists and engineers are often not enthusiastic to do project management, they see it as a burden that holds them from the content of the work. Project Support Offices (PMO) or Research Support Offices (RSO) are increasingly established as service points for the scientists and lecturers, who work in projects, These services work on the “ongoing” tasks within the ("temporary") projects, In order to make the supporting services competitive, they have to make their processes more efficient and quality-driven.

The course focus is on tools, and techniques, methodical knowledge, on quality issues and process streamlining, in order to shorten process cycles and increase quality.

Organisational structures and cultures, networks communication and Change Management processes will be considered. The participants learn instruments to keep time, budget and the daily work in control and to reach the planned goals. Tools, checklists and templates will complete the course.

The course is an opportunity to listen, network, gain experiences and test all the presented methods, it will relieve the participants' daily work and wants to encourage them to test all the learned instruments, to adapt them into their inidividual work.

Content:

Goals of Process management
Process Planning and Modelling
Key processes and phases
Process Description
Clients Identification
Flow Charts
Added Value
Interface Optimisation
Process Control and continuous Improvement
Process Stabilisation
Process Analysis

The Method:

Focuses on lectures on one hand and group work on numerous exercises on the other hand, with a one-to-one-assistance and deep discussions to work through the exercises. Case studies and work on templates will round up the course.

Target Group:

8. Project Design and Proposal Writing with the Logical Framework Approach

Logical Framework Approach (Logframe) is widely used since 1990 in the International Development Cooperation, by the European Commission and by NGOs. This very strictly structured planning, implementation and evaluation method focuses on participation, inclusion and equal levels of all participating partners from the very beginning. The core element is the LFA-Matrix that requires in structured format for all relevant project aspects from proposal phase until review and impact control.

In this demanding seminar all tools for the LFA approach will be presented, and discussed in practical and user relevant case studies.

The demanding course presents all tools of project management in applied topics and exercises. The aim of the course is to get acquainted with the numerous techniques and philosophies of Logframe and to encourage them to start designing and managing their own projects professionally. Only then they will gain ownership in project work and an efficient reactivity in rescue and emergency situations. For this course no experience in Project Management is necessary and no experience with Project Management software

Content:

Definition and Challenges
Instruments of Logframe Approach
Targets priorities and Target conflicts
Key instrument Logframe
Logic of the LFA Approach
Project Design Sequence
Stakeholder - Management
Stärken- / Schwächen – Analyse (SWOT)
Problem Analysis, problem tree, and implementation
Project phases where Logframe is useful (pre award, post award)
Intercultural Aspects

The Method:

Target Group:

Project Managers and coordinators, project sponsors, group leaders and work package leaders, experts in projects and all people interested in project management ideas and tools. They should have some basic experience in working in projects or should have accomplished a basic course on Project Management. Openness to other experts and networking is also part of the course.

The trainer: Dr. Susanne Rahner:
Dr. Susanne Rahner, graduated in Mining Geology and earned a PhD in Geochemistry, has worked in scientific research for over 20 years at universities in Germany and Israel as well as on several projects in Norway, Turkey and Greece. She runs a private enterprise in the field of environmental topics and geology and is a consultant specialised in Environmental Management, Waste Management, and Geology. Since 1999 the company specialises in training courses on Project Management, Waste Management and in strategies of successful proposal Writing. Dr. Rahner has managed more than 110 projects as a coordinator in the business and research area, and trains experts, students, graduates, and volunteers all the skills she is lecturing about.