Author

Mike Clayton

. . . is an author, speaker, and facilitator.

I specialise in the management of change, project management, and leadership in the context of change.

I have written two books on these subjects, so far:

  1. Risk Happens!
    Managing Risk and Avoiding Failure in Business Projects
  2. Brilliant Project Leader
    What the best project leaders know do and say to get results, every time

Read more about these books and my others too, here.

Here is some background about me…
.

An experienced project manager and
business change consultant

Formerly a Senior Manager with 12 years at Deloitte Consulting, I specialised in the delivery and integration of complex change in a diverse range of private and public sector organisations.

My experience includes leading roles in a £60m programme for BAA plc, two major projects with The Post Office, an extensive infrastructure project for Transport for London, and keystone projects for MoD, General Motors and Local Government. I was Director responsible for the launch of a new business for Vodafone Mannesmann.

Working in and leading a wide variety of highly successful teams has given me valuable insights into organisational change, team-working, and leadership skills. I present a personal point of view and real tools from 13 years of consulting and management experience. This is combined with knowledge gained from working and training with some outstanding leaders in business and personal development.

Project Management and Organisational Change Management
Why are these so often treated as two disciplines?

To me, the management of projects and change are two ends of a single spectrum.  At one end are the “hard” skills of scheduling, estimating, monitoring, budgeting, and the numerous disciplines of traditional Project Management.  At the other end are the “soft” skills of dealing with people – project team members, stakeholders and bystanders.  These are the people on whom the success of your project -  and the change it’s designed to create – depends.

Dealing with agenda, sensitivities, concerns and outright resistance is not really the “soft” stuff at all.  Really, that’s the hard stuff!

Thinking, Learning, Training, Writing

I have been developing this thinking since my time as a thought leader in Deloitte’s Programme Leadership Team, where I led on the integration of Change and programme leadeership methodologies and developed the first enterprise-level programme management training, integrating corporate strategy with execution.

Since becoming independent, I have participated in international debates through social networks with project managers around the world.  My extended interview with Samad Aidane is on Samad’s Guerrilla Project Management blog.

My other passion is finding ways to articulate the sometimes complex processes and ideas around project management and leadership to a wide range of audiences.  Between 1996 and 2012, I have trained over 5,000 people in the skills of project management – all the time emphasising the importance of balancing your project management and getting the people aspect right.  My open Practical Project Management seminars have frequently attracted audiences nearing a hundred.

Now I have taken some of my ideas and started writing about them.

You can learn more about my speaking and other aspects of my work, at www.mikeclayton.co.uk

My other books are

Contact me at:

e: mike@mikeclayton.co.uk
t:     08444 14 13 49
m:   07799 64 22 24

Link to me on LinkedIn

Follow me on Twitter @mikeclayton01 

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