To be held on Septmeber 19th & 20th at the Chatham Bars Inn

The CHAOS University Retreat for 2011 is on how to coach executive sponsors to insure success of a program or project. The Standish Group research on executive sponsorship has been ongoing for 15 years. However, over the last eighteen months there has been a concentrated effort to focus on the best practices of executive sponsors. We have developed 10 areas of competence and 50 best practices.

Participates in the event will develop techniques to identify the most urgent areas of ineffectiveness and how to successfully coach executive sponsors to improve. A Standish moderator will facilitate each workgroup. A workshop will run for 30 minutes and focus on a single area and related best practice. The groups will look at how to coach and encourage executive sponsors to adapt the best practice. In the workgroup we will also consider the hurdles and how to overcome these hurdles..

• Peer Collaboration
• Moderated Workshops
• Best Practices
• Common Understanding
• Improve Expertise

Feedback from our past CHAOS University retreats indicated that workshops and their presentations were the most valuable parts of each event. In addition, many executives have stated that they are squeezed for time; therefore, we have streamlined the event to one and half days and focus on workshops and roundtable discussions.

Here is a general description of these activities:

Workshop Overview: A Standish moderator facilitates each workgroup. A workshop will run for 30 minutes. In these workshops The Standish Group will outline a story around a persona and problems associated with the persona that relates to a given area of concern. The group will then consider ways to improve the executive sponsor habits and methods. Each workshop will have a different story and persona. There are ten workshops.

There will be two short presentations and on the afternoon of the second day we will end with roundtable discussions by way of liquid encouragement.

Jim Johnson - Chairman, The Standish Group International

Opening Remarks
In the opening talk Jim Johnson will set the stage for this Executive Retreat. First, Jim will define the goals of the retreat and the individual workshops. Second, he will provide the rules of engagement and how each workshop will be handled. Third, he will provide a set of common definitions to be used throughout the workshops. Fourth, Jim will discuss some of Standish's primary research and how it applies to the retreat and the workshops.

Jim Johnson is the founder and chairman of The Standish Group. He has been professionally involved in the computer industry for over 40 years and has a long list of published books, papers, articles and speeches. He has a combination of technical, marketing, and research achievements focused on mission-critical applications and technology. He is best known for his research on project performance and early recognizing technology trends. Jim is a pioneer of modern research techniques and continues to advance in the research industry through virtual focus groups and case-based analytical technology.

1. A better grasp of how to understand early warning signs of project challenges from the executive sponsor behavior.
2. A greater visibility into project executive sponsor?s challenges and how to coach him or her to overcome them.
3. A better grasp of how to understand the relationship between the executive sponsor and the rest of the organization.
4. A wealth of knowledge pertaining to the overall executive sponsorship project management environment and how you could make it better within your organization.
5. An improved comprehension of how to evaluate the skills of an executive sponsor and your project managers.
6. A full understanding of the executive sponsor success factors and best practices.
7. A list of probing questions to use for your own executive sponsor evaluation.
8. Techniques for general coaching of high-level executives gathered from peer groups.
9. Network with other IT and business executives to discuss relevant issues of the day and ways to solve some of your most pressing issues.
10. Personify effective leadership. Attached is a draft agenda of the event. Overall you will find this experience highly valuable and see the long-term positive impact.

A partial listing of the companies and organizations represented at CHAOS University^® in the past.

Space is limited, so apply online to reserve your place to the seminal executive workshop.