Project management and Interpersonel Skills - B (2023)

      The course is fully booked! Please sign up at the waiting list. 

      For inquiries regarding registration, cancellation or waiting list, please contact the PhD administration, Katrine Søndergaard kes@adm.aau.dk.

    Welcome to Project Management and Interpersonel Skills - B (2023)


    Description: This course is a practical ‘hands on’ workshop, which will support PhD students in their endeavors to manage the PhD project. The focus is twofold: 1) enhancing project management skills in a university culture that is characterized by unruly creative work, lack of formal structures and network organization. 2) Enhancing interpersonal skills, particularly in relation to the cooperation with supervisors and other important stakeholders.

    Research, long term experience as PhD coach and feed back from earlier participants at this course show that PhD students benefit immensely from being challenged to reflect on, discuss and experiment with their planning practice and the way they approach cooperation with supervisors and other important stakeholders.

    The workshop will introduce and illustrate a method on how to plan your time on a daily and long term basis inspired by Steven Covey (2005) and the game plan approach from the world of coaching. The course will also work with the negotiation and conflict management approach from the Harvard Negotiation project (Stone, Patton and Heen, 2010) as a tool to explore interpersonal communication structure. Key issues in the relationship between PhD student and supervisor will be identified and analyzed by means of practical exercises.

    There will be a possibility for an individual follow up coaching session after a month for those PhD students that find it beneficial.  

     Target group:

    • PhD students preferably during their first year

    Time schedule for the workshop: One workshop will be held in the spring and one in the fall

     After the course the PhD student should be able to:
    • Understand the challenges of project planning as a PhD student
    • Reflect on ones own planning practice and the specific pittfalls and resources one poses
    • Develop strategies to address those pittfalls and provide feedback to other PhD students
    • Practice a more realistic and efficient planning
    • Understand the individual needs and challenges in specific cooperations with supervisors and other important stakeholders
    • Apply important negotiating skills 

     Course structure:
    • 2 consecutive days consisting of a mix of introductions and exercises individually and in groups.
    • Two assignments related to actual skills is to be send in before the workshop

    Completion of the course: Handing in assignments and participating in the course are criteria for passing the course.

    Course program: A detailed program will be send by email upon acceptance and in due time for preparations.

    Course literature (Primary in bold): 
    Covey, S.R. (2005). The seven habits of highly effective people. ISBN 9780743268165

    Stone, D., Patton, B. and Heen, S. (2010). Difficult conversations. How to discuss what matters most. Penguin Books. London, England.

    Patton, B. (2017). You can’t win by avoiding difficult conversations in Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing 3274, 553-557. Emerald Publishing Limited. ISSN 0885-8624

    Heim, C. (2012). Tutorial facilitation in the humanities based on the tenets of Carl Rogers in Higher Education 63: 289-298. Springer. DOI 10.1007/s10734-011-9441-z

    Prochaska, J. O. , Norcross, J.C and Diclemente, C.C. (2007). Changing for good.  A Revolutionary Six-Stage Program for Overcoming Bad Habits and Moving Your Life Positively Forward. HarperCollins Publishers, New York, USA.



    Organizer: Pia Bøgelund - pb@plan.aau.dk

    Lecturers: Pia Bøgelund - pb@plan.aau.dk and Henrik Worm Routhe - routhe@plan.aau.dk

    ECTS: 2.0

    Time: 6-7 November 2023

    Place: Aalborg University, Fibigerstræde 14.58, 9220 Aalborg


    Zip code:     9220

    City: Aalborg

    Number of seats: 20

    Deadline: 17 October 2023


    Important information concerning PhD courses: We have over some time experienced problems with no-show for both project and general courses. It has now reached a point where we are forced to take action. Therefore, the Doctoral School has decided to introduce a no-show fee of DKK 3.000 for each course where the student does not show up. Cancellations are accepted no later than 2 weeks before start of the course. Registered illness is of course an acceptable reason for not showing up on those days. Furthermore, all courses open for registration approximately four months before start. This can hopefully also provide new students a chance to register for courses during the year. We look forward to your registrations.