Podcast appearances and mentions of andy crowe

The podcast by project managers for project managers. Join us in celebrating 200 episodes of Manage This, as we embark on a voyage through the intersection of project management and sailing with captain and author, Andy Crowe. Andy is our Velociteach founder and author of the best-selling textbook: The PMP Exam: How to Pass on Your First Try, he brings a wealth of experience both on the open waters and in project management. Table of Contents 01:33 … 200 Episodes03:50 … An 1,800-Mile Journey05:19 … Planning a Sailing Project07:16 … Planning for Obstacles08:24 … Precise Communication11:53 … Know Who to Listen to14:36 … Deciding Who Needs to Know18:30 … Keeping an Even Keel21:08 … Know Your Project24:35 … Kevin and Kyle25:20 … Isolation and Self-Sufficiency28:03 … The Broken Steering System30:23 … How to Prioritize33:46 … A Flexible Schedule35:21 … Managing Regulatory Compliances37:39 … Do Your Research43:39 … Benefits Realization for Andy45:45 … Closing ANDY CROWE: …but a lot of the skills that I practiced as a project manager prepared me for elements of this so much.  You know, thinking about good communication skills, thinking about, resource management, all of this, it matters.  WENDY GROUNDS:  Welcome to Manage This, the Project Management at Sea episode.  Today we're navigating the waters of project management with a seasoned captain at the helm.  I'm Wendy Grounds, and in today's episode Bill Yates and I have the privilege of diving into the world of sailing with Andy Crowe, a dedicated captain who is also the founder of Velociteach and of this podcast. BILL YATES:  Yes, he is.  It's so fun to have Andy in the room with us in the studio.  Andy is the author of one of the most respected books that people turn to prepare for the Project Management Professional certification exam.  It's called “The PMP Exam:  How to Pass on Your First Try.”  And that was the impetus for Velociteach.  Andy started the company in 2002 with that book.  That book has become the most trusted and authoritative volume on PMP Exam prep.  I know many of you have probably used it to pass.  Andy's book has been reprinted 27 times in five editions and sold more than a quarter of a million copies worldwide.  At Velociteach we offer live instruction, over 280 hours of self-paced, online education, and blogs, and podcasts.  Velociteach is a community of leaders, project managers and hardworking team members, here to support your growth and success. 200 Episodes WENDY GROUNDS: Today marks the 200th episode of our podcast, and we couldn't be more thrilled to have you join us for this momentous occasion. Now this is someone here who's been at the podcast since episode one! BILL YATES: I cannot believe two hundred episodes! That's amazing! It's incredible! It feels like just yesterday we started this adventure, and now here we are, reaching this incredible milestone. WENDY GROUNDS: Yeah, and Bill you have been faithfully on every episode. Myself and Andy and Nick have jumped in and out but you have been consistent. None of this though would also have been possible without our incredible listeners. You've been with us every step of the way. Supporting us, sharing your thoughts, and inspiring us to keep pushing forward. BILL YATES: That's so true. We've had the privilege of interviewing some truly remarkable guests, exploring fascinating topics, interesting projects, delving into stories that we never would have known all the details of, they've really touched our hearts and inspired us. Today, we want to take a moment to express our gratitude to each and every one of you who has made this journey so rewarding. WENDY GROUNDS: Yup, and the journey doesn't stop here. In fact, this is just the beginning of what is going to be even more exciting chapters for our podcast. We have some incredible guests lined up, some thought-provoking topics to explore, and plenty of surprises in store for our listeners. Also,

ANDY CROWE ● BILL YATES ● NICK WALKER ● DAVID GIBSON NICK WALKER: Welcome to Manage This, the podcast by project managers for project managers. It's a chance for us to get together every couple of weeks and have a conversation about what matters to you as a professional project manager. We'll cover subjects such as project management certification, doing the job of project management, and get inside the brains of some of the leaders in the industry and hear their stories. I'm your host, Nick Walker. And with me are our resident experts, Andy Crowe and Bill Yates. They are project managers who mentor other project managers and those working toward that title. Andy and Bill, a lot to look forward to today. Andy, we've had some amazing guests lately. ANDY CROWE: We really have. And I think today's going to continue that trend, Nick. We're excited to have Dave Gibson in the studio. NICK WALKER: Well, let's get right to our guest. I know we've got a lot to cover. David Gibson is the Vice President and Division Manager of McKean Defense Group in Washington, D.C. He guides, mentors, coaches, and develops program managers. His experience includes strategic planning, customer engagement, and business development, and much more. Among other projects, he was the program manager for the Pentagon's MRAP, M-R-A-P, the Mine Resistant Ambush Protected military vehicle. David, welcome to Manage This. DAVID GIBSON: Thank you. I'm glad to be here. NICK WALKER: We really are anxious to talk with you about this program that you were involved in. And even though it's been a while, it's such an involved program. It was a major part of your life; wasn't it. DAVID GIBSON: It was. It was a wonderful seven years. It was a hard seven years. But it was very rewarding, probably the highlight of a career. NICK WALKER: It's nice to see that you've come out on the other side intact. DAVID GIBSON: Thank you, thank you. NICK WALKER: So David, what was your role in this project, your specific portion? DAVID GIBSON: Yeah, so on a program like this, you know, obviously the government has the lead role; right? And the government, it's an inherently governmental contract. They're managing it. But I was on a team that was sort of a staff augmentation. There's areas we can help; there's areas where we can't help. You know, we can't commit the government to dollars. You know, so while I'm talking about the program today from an overall perspective, my role was on the contractor side, in support of the government's efforts. And when I started initially on the program, I was a project officer. I came up through the ranks. I became the deputy program manager and then eventually the program manager. I sat in the program manager, on the contractor side, seat for about five years of the seven. Or actually it was a little bit less than that. It was probably closer to four. And then on the government side, you know, the first government program manager was a gentleman named Paul Mann. Second one was Dave Hansen. And Dave and I came into the program manager, respective program manager positions about the same time. He was a couple months after I was. Such a rewarding experience to work with Dave. Dave was a huge inspiration to me. And, you know, we've continued to keep in touch. We're off doing our own things now. He's managing another Marine Corps program. I'm back working with the Navy at McKean Defense. And it's – but, you know, it's mutually supportive. NICK WALKER: Tell us a little bit about how this all started. Give us a little background. DAVID GIBSON: Okay. So if you remember back in 2006, that timeframe, U.S. forces were in Iraq and Afghanistan. And we would see on the nightly news the Humvees that were being destroyed by IEDs, and the service members that were dying or being disfigured because of it. BILL YATES: And, Dave, what's an IED? Just explain that. DAVID GIBSON: An IED is an improvised explosive device. ...

The podcast by project managers for project managers. Mastering effective meetings is essential for project managers, as successful meetings contribute significantly to project success. Rich Maltzman and Jim Stewart say we should apply the same strategic mindset to meetings as we do to projects, and they offer insights to enhance your facilitation skills to conduct successful meetings. Table of Contents 03:07 … Great Meetings Build Great Teams04:30 … Criteria for a Good Meeting05:44 … Allow Humor to Influence Meetings06:46 … Making a Sad Meeting Better08:32 … Why People are Attending a Meeting09:55 … Project Manage Meetings13:27 … A Meeting Planning Mindset15:12 … Don't Worry about Being Liked17:06 … Kevin and Kyle18:12 … Dealing with Conflict in a Meeting21:12 … Goa the Garrulous23:16 … Pat the Passive-Aggressive25:56 … The Fear of Forage28:29 … Risk Register29:45 … Virtual Meeting Success34:01 … Get in Touch35:00 … Closing JIM STEWART: If you blow the meeting, you get to make first impressions once.  So the level of planning should be commensurate with the meeting. WENDY GROUNDS:  You're listening to Manage This, the podcast by project managers for project managers.  I'm Wendy Grounds, and with me in the studio are Bill Yates and our sound guy Danny Brewer.  You can catch us wherever you listen to podcasts.  One of the apps that we've come across is Podurama.  It's a free app for podcast lovers, and we are also there.  If you want to listen to us, take a listen on Podurama.  You'll find a link to them on our transcript. We love having you join us twice a month to be motivated and inspired by project stories, leadership lessons, and advice from industry experts. One little thing to mention is we got an email from Feedspot, which is a content reader that helps people keep up with their websites.  And they told me that we are one of the Top 30 podcasts for managers on the web.  So we were very excited to hear that.  Shout out to Feedspot.  Thank you for voting for us. And we have some industry experts joining us today.  We're very excited to bring you Jim Stewart, as well as a previous guest, Rich Maltzman.  Since 2003, Jim has been the principal of JP Stewart Consulting, and he's a certified PMP, and he possesses multiple agile certifications.  He is a longtime member of the Project Management Institute and served for several years on the board of the local chapter.  With Rich Maltzman, he also is the co-author of the book “How to Facilitate Productive Project Planning Meetings” and its update, “Great Meetings Build Great Teams:  A Guide for Project Leaders and Agilists.” Rich Maltzman also has his PMP.  He has been an engineer since 1978 and a project management supervisor since 1988, including a two-year assignment in the Netherlands. Rich is also focused on consulting and teaching, and has developed curricula and taught at several universities.  But we're very excited about their book “Great Meetings Build Great Teams,” and that's what we're talking about today. BILL YATES:  Yes.  This is a key to success for project managers is being able to successfully facilitate effective meetings.  So this is going to be a great conversation.  Plus, just reading through the book, there are so many familiar names and concepts that are there.  They make reference to Andy Crowe and the “Alpha Project Management Study” in his book.  They make reference to Alan Zucker, our instructor, who's fabulous, and some of the blogs and research that he's done.  And they also talk a bit about Wayne Turmel and virtual meetings.  We had him on Episode 64.  Wayne was terrific.  And also Carole Osterweil.  She was on number 90, Episode 90 with us, talking about facing uncertainty.  So lot of familiar folks that are being referenced here, and we look forward to talking about having more effective meetings. WENDY GROUNDS:  Hi, Rich; and hi, Jim.  Thank you so much for being with us today.

The podcast by project managers for project managers. How can agile project managers create conditions for self-organizing teams to thrive? In the agile world of a self-organizing team, the trend is to empower the team so the individuals doing the work can make decisions. So, what role do project managers play?  Hear about the three responsibilities of the new agile leader and some important skills to level up in order to lead an agile project. Table of Contents 03:03 … Humanizing Work03:50 … Empowering Decision-Makers05:21 … Changing the Role of Managers08:20 … Challenges for Project Managers09:32 … Complex Systems11:33 … Defining the PM Role13:58 … Coordinate and Collaborate16:35 … Who Does It Well?18:29 … What's in a Title?20:33 … The Three Jobs of Agile Management23:49 … Project Manager Skills27:25 … Visualization Skills33:10 … Is Agile Right for Me?36:39 … Contact Peter and Richard38:19 … Closing PETER GREEN: ... one of the things that has been an underlying theme to these amplifier skills we've talked about – coaching, facilitation – is a real trust that the people doing the work can figure out how to solve it if I do the three jobs well.  If I create clarity, if I increase capability, and if I improve the system for them, they will be able to knock this project out.  They don't need me to manage it... WENDY GROUNDS:  You're listening to Manage This, the podcast by project managers for project managers.  My name is Wendy Grounds, and with me in the studio are Bill Yates and our sound guy, Danny Brewer.  We're so excited that you're joining us, and we want to say thank you to our listeners who reach out to us and leave comments on our website or on social media.  We love hearing from you, and we always appreciate your positive ratings.  You will also earn PDUs for listening to this podcast.  Just listen up at the end, and we'll give you instructions on how to claim your PDUs from PMI. Our two guests today are from Colorado and from Arizona, so we're kind of jumping around the place.  But we're very excited to have Richard Lawrence and Peter Green from Humanizing Work join us.  Richard's superpower is bringing together seemingly unrelated fields and ideas to create new possibilities.  Richard draws on a diverse background in software development, engineering, anthropology, design, and political science. He's a Scrum Alliance certified enterprise coach and a certified scrum trainer.  His book “Behavior-Driven Development with Cucumber” was published in 2019. Our other guest is Richard's co-worker, Peter Green.  At Adobe Systems, Peter led an agile transformation and he co-developed the certified agile leadership program from the Scrum Alliance.  He's also a certified scrum trainer, a graduate of the ORSC coaching system, a certified leadership agility and leadership circle coach, and the co-founder of Humanizing Work.  What I found interesting was, with all his other creative activities, Peter is also an in-demand trumpet player and recording engineer. BILL YATES:  Which will appeal to Andy Crowe, our founder, because he loves to play the trumpet.  Wendy, we are delighted to have Richard and Peter join us.  We've had conversations planning for this today with them, and they bring so much knowledge and experience to the table.  Here's the thing.  Project managers traditionally are taught to direct and control team members.  So what role does management play in the agile world of a self-organizing team?  If my team's self-organizing, what am I supposed to do; right?  How can they create conditions for self-organizing teams to thrive?  What is the function of managers in this new world, and what does an agile organization need from its management team?  Those are some of the questions that we want to tease out with them today. WENDY GROUNDS:  Hi, guys.  Thank you so much for joining us. RICHARD LAWRENCE:  It's great to be here. Humanizing Work WENDY GROUNDS:  We first want to find out a litt...

The podcast by project managers for project managers. Manage This podcast is celebrating two milestones: seven years and over one million listens! Bill Yates shares about his background in project management and the insights he has learned from our many distinguished guests. Listen in for some Manage This moments as we recap conversations with some of our interesting guests, and we recollect some of the valuable lessons learned from project managers who are working on truly remarkable projects. Table of Contents 00:23 … Celebrating Manage This02:51 … Bill's Thoughts on the Podcast03:38 … Bill's Beginnings in Project Management04:59 … Value in Project Management05:48 … Velociteach06:51 … Behind the Scenes08:15 … Lessons Learned08:37 … Kory Kogon - Productivity10:00 … Doreen Linneman - Finding your Why11:03 … Kieran Duck - The Complex Project Toolkit11:39 … Elizabeth Harrin – Multiple Projects12:29 … Antonio Nieto-Rodriguez - Project Management Handbook13:07 … Henk Van Dalen - Be Bold14:28 … Phillipe Schoonejans - International Cooperation15:49 … Ian Crockford - Project Planning17:01 … Keith Ward - Resilience18:30 … Matt Cooke – Facing Challenges19:45 … Women in Project Management21:05 … Innovation in Project Management22:44 … Scott Miller – Listen First24:12 … Dan Ward – Psychological Safety26:08 … Scott Berkun – Stay Curious27:17 … Stefano Mastrogiacomo – Team Alignment28:49 … What's Next?29:31 … Closing NICK WALKER:  Welcome to Manage This, the podcast by project managers for project managers.  This is our chance to talk as professionals in the field of project management.  We want to address your concerns, your needs, and to give you not only some tips on bettering your game, but to encourage you in it.  I'm your host, Nick Walker. WENDY GROUNDS:  Now, wasn't that a surprise, hearing Nick Walker's voice again. BILL YATES:  Loved that. Celebrating Manage This WENDY GROUNDS:  We are so grateful for what he brought to Manage This. He's not in the studio with us, unfortunately.  And if you're wondering why we're having this throwback, today we're celebrating over seven years of Manage This.  And we also have over one million listens to the podcast.  Nick was our excellent host for the first 100 episodes. BILL YATES:  Yeah, yeah.  We've got a lot to celebrate, and we have so many fun memories to go through, I mean all the podcasts that we've had, the first 100 with Nick, and you've stepped in and done such a marvelous job since then, Wendy.  It's been wonderful having you in here, too.  And we've just heard so much great advice, learned so many interesting things.  We just want to thank our listeners for the recommendations.  They have connected us with authors, with interesting projects, with all kinds of ideas.  And we love it.  Keep those ideas coming. WENDY GROUNDS:  Yes.  Yes, yeah.  Nick's shoes were very hard to fill.  This was definitely outside of my comfort zone.  I was quite happy just doing the behind-the-scenes work.  But it has been fun.  It has really been probably the most fun I've had in a job. BILL YATES:  Well, it's a delight having you in here.  And I love having somebody with a perspective that is as diverse as yours in terms of the industries that you've worked in.  And you've never been a project manager.  It's been another hat that you've worn.  And so I think you bring some simplicity to some of the questions where I get myself a little tied up trying to think, how do I ask this question?  And you jump right to the heart of it, and I love that. WENDY GROUNDS:  I've certainly learned a lot about project management.  And we are grateful to Andy for starting this podcast.  What we're going to do is pop back and forth and hear excerpts from previous episodes.  And the first one we're going to start with is Andy.  We asked Andy a while back why he decided to start Manage This, so let's take a listen. ANDY CROWE: ... project management is a really difficult job for a lot o...

The podcast by project managers for project managers. Andy Crowe shares project management advice and reflects on 20 years of training project managers at Velociteach. Hear about his bold move to step away from a successful project management career to launch Velociteach, and what he learned along the way. Listen in for tips on how to find balance if you're overwhelmed, dealing with uncertainty, and managing changes. Table of Contents 01:20 … Behind the Book03:05 … Comparison to Other PMP Exam Textbooks05:05 … Defining Success05:48 … Lessons Learned Starting Velociteach07:14… Challenges that PMs are Facing Today11:07 … Kevin and Kyle12:45 … Most Successful Project13:31 … Project Manager Competencies15:33 … Acquiring the Technical Knowledge17:15 … Tools and Techniques18:52 … A Team Replaced or Project Cancelled?21:07 … The Overwhelmed Project Manager22:50 … Finding Balance25:19 … Managing Changes and Unpredictability29:07 … Best of Project Management30:15 … Closing ANDY CROWE: To me it's such a joy to bring order into chaos.  It's such a joy to deliver a solution, to make something, to build something.  I love that.  WENDY GROUNDS:  Welcome to Manage This, the podcast by project managers for project managers.  We are so glad you're joining us.  If you like what you hear, please visit us at Velociteach.com, where you can leave a comment on our Manage This Podcast page.  My name is Wendy Grounds, and here in the studio is Bill Yates and Andy Crowe.  Bill, this is a very special day today; isn't it. BILL YATES:  Yes, we're celebrating 20 years, a 20-year birthday or... WENDY GROUNDS:  Love birthdays. BILL YATES:  ...anniversary for Velociteach.  That's right, Velociteach started up in September of 2002.  And we just wanted to invite Andy into the studio just to pause and reflect on 20 years of Velociteach, and then ask him some personal questions; you know?  What makes a project manager successful?  What's it like when your project gets canceled?  Tell us about starting a business.  So this will be a fun conversation, just to get inside the brain of Andy Crowe, CEO of Velociteach. WENDY GROUNDS:  And I think he has a lot of great advice for younger project managers or project managers who are struggling.  He has some really good advice.  So take a listen. Behind the Book Hi, Andy.  Welcome back to Manage This. ANDY CROWE:  Thank you.  I'm excited to be here. WENDY GROUNDS:  Yeah, we're excited to talk with you today.  So Velociteach, it all started with a book.  And writing a book is a huge project.  Could you tell us a bit about your book, “The PMP Exam:  How to Pass on Your First Try,” and your motivation to write it? ANDY CROWE:  You know what, I was motivated because when I read other books I wasn't happy with them.  And they didn't explain things the way I did.  So, you know, certainly there were a lot of resources out there, and people definitely passed the PMP before this.  But it was something that I like to explain things.  I love to write.  I just write a lot regardless.  And so it was a good marriage of things.  As I was going through, I took all of my notes that I had used previously to study for the PMP and kind of put them to use and organized them.  And then it evolved over time. BILL YATES:  I've known you for a while, and I think that's a  natural evolution for you.  That's part of your DNA is you look at something, you go through something personally like the PMP Exam.  And you go, you know what, I think I would have done better if I'd had this, or if.  It makes sense to me that you would go through that, pass the PMP Exam, and then go, you know, I think I could write a book about this. ANDY CROWE:  Well, and also, you know, it was something that, as I'm going through trying to explain things, there were just things that I thought I would love to have stated that differently.  I would love to have explained this a different way.  And so, you know,

The podcast by project managers for project managers. Andy Crowe shares project management advice and reflects on 20 years of training project managers at Velociteach. Hear about his bold move to step away from a successful project management career to launch Velociteach, and what he learned along the way. Listen in for tips on how […] The post Episode 160 – Velociteach: Celebrating 20 Years of Project Management Training appeared first on PMP Certification Exam Prep & Training - Velociteach.

The podcast by project managers for project managers. Join us as we take a look behind the scenes with Gabriel Sterling. He took on the role of project manager under the title of “Voting System Implementation Manager,” and worked to roll out the use of new voting machines for the 2020 Georgia state elections. Table of Contents 01:37 … How Gabriel Got the Job03:12 … Request For Proposal Process04:45 … Procurement08:56 … Team Collaboration11:15 … Defining the Success of the Project17:31 … “What Kept You Up at Night?”20:01 … Conquering the Beast of Long Lines21:41 … Communication Methods with All Locations23:42 … Paying Attention to Stakeholders25:41 … A Risk Event31:15 … Transparency and Honesty33:59 … How to Stay Motivated36:33 … Lessons Learned38:05 … Biggest Surprises on the Project41:38 … Final Words of Advice42:50 … Closing GABRIEL STERLING: ... we did get in the details, but we didn't get stuck on the details.  And never make the perfect the enemy of the good. I know this sounds cliché.  Strive for perfection; accept excellence in all your projects.  You can always make that goal. But if you are trying to get to perfection, and you get so focused on that that you lose focus on everything else, your project's going to fail. WENDY GROUNDS:  Welcome to Manage This, the podcast for project managers by project managers.  I am Wendy Grounds.  Joining me by Skype today is Bill Yates, and we have a special appearance by Andy Crowe in the studio.  He's in town for a little while and just wanted to be part of the podcast today.  So we're excited to have him with us. And then we have our guest, Gabriel Sterling.  Gabriel Sterling is a politician and elections official for the state of Georgia.  He was the Chief Operating Officer in the office of Georgia's Secretary of State, and in 2019 he took on the role of project manager and has worked as an independent contractor for the state of Georgia when they were implementing their new voting system.  And he had the title of Voting System Implementation Manager and worked to roll out the use of the new voting machines purchased from Dominion Voting Systems for the 2020 Georgia State Elections.  He was put in a very public, high-pressure situation which became a point of national interest as the elections continued.  And we want to hear his perspective.  Gabriel, welcome to Manage This.  Thank you for joining us, and we're excited to hear your story today. GABRIEL STERLING:  Well, thanks for having me. How Gabriel Got the Job WENDY GROUNDS:  Project management stretches across all industries.  There's so many different types of project managers that we've talked to on this podcast.  And you really stepped in the role of the Voting System Implementation Manager for the state of Georgia during our recent elections.  I want to know what prompted you to volunteer for this job. What made you take on this challenge? GABRIEL STERLING:  The word “volunteer” is very loosely used at that point by you there, Wendy.  Because what happened, when I came to the office, I was the Chief Operating Officer.  And I have experience on that.  I've stood up accounting departments, built out warehouses, put together manufacturing facilities.  So there's various levels.  And one of my favorite things to ever do in a million years is to do a facility walk with somebody who knows how those systems work.  That's where you can really get into the weeds of understanding how things happen. And I used to be a consultant, and one of the great things for any consultant is you look at everything with fresh eyes, and you look like a genius for the first three days you're there because everybody else is used to seeing things the way they always have been.  But what happened in this particular case is I had been on a City Council in Sandy Springs, which is a city just north of Atlanta.  And we did some large projects, and I've been around a lot of bidding situations.

VELOCITEACH Manage This The podcast by project managers for project managers. Dana Brownlee shares tools for managing up that challenging boss or stakeholder, while creating alignment and clear communication. Table of Contents 00:58 … Meet Dana 02:18 … The Inspiration for The Unwritten Rules of Managing Up 03:54 … Managing Up Research Study 07:02 … It Begins with Self Awareness 08:20 … A Definition of Managing Up 10:05 … Managing Up Mistakes 11:30 … Six Difficult Boss Personality Types 14:32 … A Closer Look at the Clueless Chameleon 19:03 … A Closer Look at the Meddlesome Micromanager 22:40 … A Closer Look at the Tornado 25:22 … The Compliment, Document, and Pivot 27:37 … More Taming of the Tornado 29:32 … Self-Analysis for the Project Manager 31:28 … Get in Touch with Dana 32:24 … Closing WENDY GROUNDS:  Hello, and welcome to Manage This, the podcast by project managers for project managers.  I'm Wendy Grounds and with me in the studio is Bill Yates.  Bill, I have a question for you today.  How often have you experienced a difficult stakeholder or a difficult boss?  What's your experience? BILL YATES:  Oh, man.  This is such a loaded question.  You're going to get me in trouble.  Andy... WENDY GROUNDS:  Yeah, we don't have to talk any current. BILL YATES:  Okay, good, yeah.  I was going to say, Andy Crowe's not in the room right now, but he will definitely listen to this.  So, got an outstanding manager now.  But yeah, I mean, this is just a part of life; right?  We have managers who – sometimes our boss, our manager is super supportive and great.  Other times there are challenges, and so fortunately we have Dana to talk with us about some of those challenges. Meet Dana WENDY GROUNDS: So our guest today is Dana Brownlee, she is a PMP, and she founded Professionalism Matters, which is an Atlanta-based corporate training company.  Her business expertise has been featured in Forbes.com, CNN, The Wall Street Journal, to name a few.  And Dana likes to give project managers tools they can use.  Dana, welcome to Manage This. DANA BROWNLEE:  Thanks so much for having me. WENDY GROUNDS:  Dana, won't you first tell us just a bit about yourself and how you entered the project management field? DANA BROWNLEE:  Certainly.  Well, I started my company back in 2003.  I'm dating myself a little bit, can't believe it's been that long.  But I started in project management I guess in the early ‘90s.  And in fact I remember it was so long ago, I remember applying for my PMP in handwritten paper. BILL YATES:  Oh, okay. WENDY GROUNDS:  Wow. DANA BROWNLEE:  Like printing it off and writing it out and actually mailing it in, putting a stamp in, so I'm officially old.  But I worked in corporate for a number of years, and then I started my own training company, and I went out, and I teach training classes and give speaking events.  But I do think that I've always been wired kind of as a project manager, I dot my I's; I cross my T's. In fact, my husband laughed.  He said, you know, “This is definitely for you.  You've got a knack for telling other people what to do.”  So some of it is kind of in my blood.  But I love it. The Inspiration for The Unwritten Rules of Managing Up WENDY GROUNDS:  Dana has written an excellent book that Bill and I have both enjoyed reading.  It's called “The Unwritten Rules of Managing Up:  Project Management Techniques from the Trenches.”  And in this book we read about different types of bosses and techniques that you can implement when working with these different types of managers.  Dana, what inspired you to write the book? DANA BROWNLEE:  Actually, my audiences inspired me to write the book.  I never intended to speak on this topic, to write on this topic, but let me tell you what started happening.  I give talks, and I provide training on a wide range of topics.  So I might be out speaking about communication skills,

The Podcast for Project Managers by Project Managers. As we celebrate 100 episodes we thank our listeners who have joined us for the journey. In this podcast Nick expands on some lessons he has learned about project management from his time on Velociteach's Manage This. Table of Contents 00:06 … Celebrating 100 Episodes 03:29 … Nick's New Adventure 07:00 … Reviewing Past Conversations 08:33 … Conducting Effective Meetings 10:13 … Virtual Team Communication 14:38 … Being Transparent and Maximizing Potential 17:59 … The Essential Components 19:27 … Importance of Integrity 22:45 … Building Blocks of a Project 24:24 … Dealing with Stress 25:34 … Cybersecurity: Creating Awareness 28:44 … Story from a Vietnam Veteran 31:55 … Learning Superior Processes 35:12 … Stimulate Progress and Maintain Excellence 39:00 … Great Leaders Bring Calm to Chaos 43:14 … Nick Signing Off Celebrating 100 Episodes NICK WALKER:  Welcome to Manage This, the podcast by project managers for project managers.  We are so proud and so excited to mark our 100th episode.  Everybody's here to celebrate:  Andy Crowe and Bill Yates, producer Wendy Grounds, engineer Andie Leeds.  And we're so glad you have joined us for the celebration, too, but also for joining us and supporting us in our Manage This journey over the past several years. Andy, I'm going to ask you, go back in time, tell us the story behind the podcast.  What was your vision for the podcast then, and has that changed over the years? ANDY CROWE:  Well, Nick, that's an interesting question.  You know, if you go back in time, I used to be on the project management speaking circuit quite a lot. And so one of the things that always happened is people would come up and say, “I've been listening to these CDs”  we used to produce CDs, now they're digital downloads.  But Bill Yates and Louis Alderman and I were on there, and people would come up and say, you know what, “I've been driving around in the car, I've been listening to that.”  One person said that when their child misbehaved in the car, that they would actually make them listen to 30 minutes of that. NICK WALKER:  Oh, cruel and unusual punishment. ANDY CROWE:  It was a really funny interchange. BILL YATES:  I'll get feedback on that one. ANDY CROWE:  One of the things that I figured out during that series of conversations, though, is people would always come up afterward. And so they didn't want to talk about what I had spoken on that evening at the project management meeting, they wanted to talk about the audio series that we did. And I told Bill, I said, you know, there's a few things.  Number one, project management is a really difficult job for a lot of people because you're effecting change, and the world resists change.  So you have people trying to create something that doesn't exist, to make something different, and this gives us a chance just to have a conversation with people.  Every couple of weeks we get a chance to talk, and it is, it is a conversation, so I like to think of it that way. You know, so we get feedback from listeners, and we try and incorporate that into where we're going.  But that was the whole goal is just to engage people, and part of it to say, look, we know it's a tough job.  There are easier ways to make a living than being a project manager.  And at the same time people who do that for a living, a lot of times it's more of a calling than a profession. So it's something that you, you know, you can't imagine doing anything else, it's a chance for us to engage with people, and that's the whole goal.  You know, we don't monetize this podcast, we don't sell ads, we don't ask for donations, we're doing it because we love this profession, too. BILL YATES:  It's a way for us to connect with our tribe.  When I think about some of the podcasts that have meant the most to me, it's when people are going through some of the same struggles that I have as a project manager.  Nick,

Hear how to support your team's success when transitioning to Agile. The adaptation of the Aikido principle of Shu Ha Ri, as well as more info on Disciplined Agile. Table of Contents 00:58 … Meet Alan 02:07 … Defining Agile 04:20 … Shu Ha Ri 08:26 … Non Traditional and Non Profit uses of Agile. 14:43 … Challenges with Transitioning to Agile 17:41 … Disciplined Agile Train the Trainer Seminar 21:48 … Choosing your WoW 23:14 … D.A. and Lean 26:01 … Value Stream Mapping 27:33 … Fundamentals of Agile InSite Course 29:51 … Closing Alan Zucker: ...as long as you are stepping in and making those decisions, the team won't.  So you really need to focus on stepping back and giving the team that space to make those decisions and allowing them to stub their toes and skin their elbows. So that they will become successful over time. NICK WALKER:  Welcome to Manage This, the podcast by project managers for project managers.  We're back with another episode, bringing the kind of information you've been asking for.  We hope you'll keep the requests and comments coming in.  You can always comment right there on your listening app, or on Velociteach.com, or on social media.  We love hearing from you. I'm your host, Nick Walker, and with me are the two guys who guide our discussion, Andy Crowe and Bill Yates.  And this time around we're featuring a member of the Velociteach family.  And like most of the folks around here, Andy, he has credentials a mile long. Meet Alan ANDY CROWE:  He does indeed, Nick.  And we have Alan Zucker on the show today.  And Alan and I go back a good ways.  He and I interacted back before he worked for Velociteach.  We had a relationship.  Somebody I have deep respect for, and I'm really looking forward to today's podcast. NICK WALKER:  Before we hear from Alan, I want to tell you a little bit more about him.  He's a certified project management professional, an ITIL Foundation certificate holder, a Scrum master, a scale Agilist, and an Agile certified practitioner.  Alan Zucker is a keynote speaker, and he has more than 25 years of experience as a leader in Fortune 100 companies.  In 2016 he founded Project Management Essentials to provide training and advisory services.  He recently completed a new course for Velociteach titled “Fundamentals of Agile.” Alan, welcome to Manage This.  We want to talk Agile today. And before we really get into it, can you tell me a little bit about what Agile is, particularly for my benefit and for the benefit of those who maybe are coming from a predictive or waterfall background. Defining Agile ALAN ZUCKER:  Sure, Nick.  Well, first of all, Andy, thanks so much, it's great to be on the podcast again. So Agile is a way of managing projects and it goes back formally about 20 years. And it started out as a way of developing software using incremental and iterative development techniques. So what we try to do with Agile is try to develop our projects and deliver our projects in smaller pieces. And then learn from what we've delivered in order to make things better with each of the successive increments. BILL YATES:  Those are some of the keys; right?  Small batches, quick iterations, quick turnaround, get it in the hands of the customer, deliver value quickly.  Those are some of the keys. ANDY CROWE:  Value, value, value. BILL YATES:  Yeah, value, value. ALAN ZUCKER:  And so I think one of the other really big pieces of Agile is that it changes the way we work, and it really focuses on having empowered teams and people really engaged, both from a customer's perspective, as well as from the technology team perspective. In our traditional projects, particularly our waterfall projects, there's a big separation between the customers, the business, the development team, the testing team, and on an Agile project we try to get everybody to collaborate together more effectively. So, it's really interesting,

The Podcast for Project Managers by Project Managers. In the 1900's, a fungal pathogen which causes chestnut tree blight destroyed 90% of nearly 4 billion American chestnut trees. In this episode Dr. Bill Powell shares his vision and research processes which bring hope to this majestic tree. Table of Contents 01:10 … Meet Dr. Powell 02:57 … What Happened to the American Chestnut Tree 05:27 … The American Chestnut Foundation and Backcross Breeding Program 08:47 … Hypovirulence and Finding a Solution 10:03 … The Solution Process 11:20 … Blight Tolerant Samples 11:56 … The Regulatory Process 13:10 … Dr. Powell's Career Vision 15:09 … Overcoming Challenges 16:33 … A Prepared Ecosystem 18:21 … American Chestnut Tree Project risks 19:36 … Responding to Critics 21:59 … Identifying Genetic Loci and using Oxalate Oxidase 23:40 … American Chestnut Tree Restoration Project Team 24:50 … Keeping Communications in Sync 25:38 … Project Funding 27:12 … Lessons Learned 28:14 … How to get Involved in the American Chestnut Tree Project 29:00 … Preparing the Next Generation 30:17 … About the Chestnut 32:18 … Learn More about the American Chestnut Foundation 33:24 … Closing BILL POWELL: Our grandparents knew the chestnut tree.  We did not.  But our grandchildren will know it again. NICK WALKER:  Welcome to Manage This, the podcast by project managers for project managers.  Every couple of weeks we meet to talk about how people like you are managing projects both big and small.  Our guests include speakers, authors, and trainers, but also those who are right there in the trenches, getting the stuff of project management done on a daily basis. I'm your host, Nick Walker.  And before we get to today's guest, we are thrilled to acknowledge the return of one of the founding fathers of this podcast, Andy Crowe, back from, well, I guess the project of a lifetime.  Welcome back. ANDY CROWE:  Thank you so much, yeah, we've taken a short break. The boat, which is named Gratitude, is in Grenada right now. So we've sailed it from Florida, all the way down through the Caribbean, down to Grenada, which is really close to South America, and are waiting out hurricane season there. NICK WALKER:  Well, we're going to talk with you more in detail about your adventure in the next podcast but... ANDY CROWE:  Great. Meet Dr. Powell NICK WALKER:  So let's meet our guest, Professor William A. Powell is the director of the American Chestnut Research and Restoration Program.  Dr. Powell received his Ph.D. in 1986 at Utah State University, studying ways to bring back the American chestnut tree, a tree that became functionally extinct after being devastated by a fungus from Asia.  Approximately 90 percent of the nearly four billion trees were killed by blight. In 1989 he became a faculty member at the State University of New York's College of Environmental Science and Forestry at Syracuse, New York.  There he began collaborating with his colleague, Dr. Charles Maynard, and the American Chestnut Foundation, researching methods to develop a tree resistant to the blight.  He's worked for the last three decades to reintroduce the American chestnut to the wild, and their efforts are succeeding.  Dr. Powell, so great to have you with us, welcome to Manage This. DR. BILL POWELL:  Thank you. NICK WALKER:  So let's start off the conversation by learning more about your career path and how you became passionate about the American chestnut tree. DR. BILL POWELL:  So like most people, when I was younger, I actually hadn't heard about the American chestnut, you know, it's been gone for a while.  But when I went to graduate school I was very fortunate to get into Dr Neal Van Alfen's lab, and there we worked on the fungus that causes chestnut blight.  And that's where I kind of learned the chestnut story, and it's a fascinating story because the American chestnut was once one of the most common trees in the east...

The Podcast for Project Managers by Project Managers Table of Contents 01:14 … Velociteach Beginnings 04:22 … Lessons Learned Stories 07:47 … “Bad news Does Not Get Better With Time” 11:59 … AI 14:49 … Getting Past the Storming Phase 18:22 … When and How to Conduct Meetings 22:50 … Monitoring Projects 27:13 … How to Properly Close Tasks 29:12 … The Future of Project Management 33:17 … Closing BILL YATES:  But I saw the opportunity to, again, join a really – a growing enterprise that would really put a thumbprint on project management, be able to really influence an industry.  And that was exciting to me. ANDY CROWE:  A shameless plug.  I think that's the best thing for me about this career is that we've been able to help people. NICK WALKER:  Welcome to Manage This, the podcast by project managers for project managers.  This is the time we've set aside to discuss with you the subject of project management and touch on some of the issues that are important to you as a professional project manager. I'm your host, Nick Walker, and with me are the two guys who make this podcast happen, Andy Crowe and Bill Yates.  And so guys, now, in a previous podcast we talked with the two of you about some of the specific questions our listeners have.  It was a great discussion, and today we want to continue in that same vein, trying to get to the heart of what our listeners are chiefly concerned about. But before we dive into some of these questions, can I just ask each of you a little bit about your background, I'm curious, Andy, how did Velociteach come about?  I know you're the founder of this organization.  How did this get started? Velociteach Beginnings ANDY CROWE:  Well, it started – our birthday is September 30th, 2002.  But how it got started was kind of fun, I was a director of projects for a publicly traded company here in Atlanta. And I was traveling nonstop, and so it was one of those things that I decided, okay, I'm going to need to – I had a young family at the time.  Children were small.  And I said, “I need a break.” And so I left that job, and that was an insane career move because I made too much money to quit, and I left and started Velociteach shortly after that. So a lot of it was just processing with my wife, look, I love to write, I love project management, and I enjoy the classroom, and it really brought those things together that it was a good marriage of those skills. And you know we've talked before about Jim Collins's Hedgehog Concept, which is – Bill, remind me.  It's what you can make money at, what you're passionate about... BILL YATES:  What you can be best in the world at. ANDY CROWE:  What you can be world class.  And so it kind of fit that, I felt like, you know what, I do have a passion about project management, it's a profession that's going places now.  So there were some economic opportunities, and I felt like there were things that we wanted to build a world-class organization, so that was the goal. NICK WALKER:  Bill Yates, how did you get into this organization?  How did you become a part? BILL YATES:  Yeah, well, you can hear it from Andy.  I mean, he's got passion, and he's got direction and a vision which was really compelling to me.  So, we started talking, I think in 2004, and I left my job to join Velociteach in 2005, my experience had been with utilities, tax software, tax and compliance software for utilities – gas, electric, and telcos – and had been doing that really for 18 years with different organizations. Went from a small company to one of 90,000 at EDS, then we bought our company or bought our product from EDS, so we went to a company of eight.   So I think we were around 20 back in 2004 when I started talking with Andy.  But I saw the opportunity to, again, join a really – a growing enterprise that would really put a thumbprint on project management, be able to really influence an industry.  And that was exciting to me.

Project planning meetings for PM's Table of Contents 01:24 … Meet Rich 03:58 … Bad Meeting Victims 07:21 … Research 08:44 … Large and in Charge 11:28 … Sponsor Involvement 15:59 … Pre-Meeting Steps 18:56 … Kick-Off Meeting Time Line 20:35 … Risk Register 25:32 … Meeting Goblins 32:46 … Virtual Meetings 35:15 … Naysayers 37:40 … Final Remarks RICH MALTZMAN:  I think you need to just step back and say, “I'm a project manager.  I'm going to project manage this meeting.”  Seriously, a lot of the same skills that you are applying to your project, you just need to step back and realize that this is a project itself. NICK WALKER:  Welcome to Manage This, the podcast by project managers for project managers.  Every two weeks we meet to discuss the things that matter to you as a professional project manager.  We're here for you, to encourage you, to give you some ideas you can use, and to help you get to your best and maintain it. I'm your host, Nick Walker, and with me is the one who is instrumental in helping us be at our best, Bill Yates.  And Bill, before we get to our guest, we should remind our listeners where our other partner in crime is right now, Andy Crowe. BILL YATES:  Yeah, Andy Crowe is not in the room.  He is in the water.  He is on a boat, he is.. NICK WALKER:  Not in the water. BILL YATES:  Yeah, that's true.  Good point, yeah.  Hopefully he's on top of the water in his sailing vessel.  So we don't know exactly where he is, but he's not here.  If people want to remember, we actually had an episode dedicated to that where we talked with Andy and Karen, Episode 74, for all the details. NICK WALKER:  And of course we'll be checking back in with Andy from time to time and probably even talk with him on one of our future podcasts. Meet Rich But right now we've got a great guest with us today, Rich Maltzman, PMP, recently retired from a 40-year career in the telecom industry, the last 30 years focusing on project management.  He's currently a senior lecturer at Boston University, developing and teaching classes in project management, and qualitative and quantitative decision-making.  Rich is the cofounder of EarthPM, LLC, a company devoted to integrating sustainability thinking into the project management world.  He has authored or coauthored several books, including “Green Project Management,” which won PMI's Cleland Award for Literature; “Project Workflow Management:  A Business Process Approach”; and “Bridging the PM Competency Gap.”  His latest book is titled “How to Facilitate Productive Project Planning Meetings.”  And that's much of what we want to focus on today.  Rich, thank you for being with us here on Manage This. RICH MALTZMAN:   It's great to be here. NICK WALKER:  Before we get into the subject of what makes successful planning meetings, let's find out a little bit more about you.  Now, you spent 40 years in the telecom industry.  How did that prepare you for your work today? RICH MALTZMAN:  Well, being in industry gets you familiar with all of the kinds of situations.  And I should back up and explain that only 30 years of that was in project management. NICK WALKER:  Only. BILL YATES:  Oh, okay. RICH MALTZMAN:  So a good portion of it was in engineering, and some was in project management, but all of that experience involves meeting with a vast amount of people and a wide variety of different people.  So I'd say that that experience prepared me for, amongst other things, being able to talk, I hope somewhat intelligently, about how meetings can be improved. NICK WALKER:  And you're a lecturer at Boston University.  How did that come about? RICH MALTZMAN:  Well, if you look at my background, even way, way back in the beginning of my career, which ashamedly goes back to the ‘70s, I was doing training back at that time.  And I found I really liked that part of the job.  So even back in the ‘80s I was doing some teaching at local community colleges.  And I found that that was exceedingly rewardi...

The podcast for Project Managers by Project Managers - Stakeholder Engagement Table of Contents 00:53 … Meet Laura 04:21 … Learning and Development 05:18 … Working Internationally 11:44 … Representing H.Q. Remotely 15:56 … Culture Differences 17:11 … Inheriting a Position 22:30 … Stakeholder Engagement 24:56 … Reading a Room 28:21 … Empathy and Humility 30:47 … Building Trust 33:27 … Mistakes to Avoid 36:38 … Closing LAURA BUTCHER:  I think, because now my work is largely about serving clients and building relationships with clients who are my customers in my work now, I think stakeholder engagement is so essential. NICK WALKER:  Welcome to Manage This, the podcast by project managers for project managers.  This is our time to meet and talk about what really matters to you in the field of project management.  Our desire is to give you some perspective, some ideas, some real-life examples of what success looks like and how to get there. I'm your host, Nick Walker, and with me are the two guys who guide our discussion, Andy Crowe and Bill Yates.  And today we get to talk with someone who truly has a global perspective as a project manager. Meet Laura Laura Butcher is an organization and leadership development consultant.  She began in human resources at GE Appliances and GE Aircraft Engines; then at NationsBank, where she led teams following the NationsBank/Bank America merger.  After that, she made the move to London as Delta Air Lines Director of Human Resources in Europe.  Laura is the co-founder and principal of Blue Key Partners, a consulting practice focused in the areas of learning and leadership development, including executive assessment and coaching,  Laura, thanks so much for being here with us on Manage This. LAURA BUTCHER:  Thank you for inviting me. NICK WALKER:  We want to talk with you about working with global customers and engaging with stakeholders around the world.  But first of all, can we just take some time to get to know you a little bit better?  Tell us a little bit about yourself and what your first experiences were like with GE as you traveled internationally. LAURA BUTCHER:  So my background in corporate America was with GE, Bank of America, and Delta Air Lines for about 15 years. ANDY CROWE:  Small companies. BILL YATES:  Yeah. LAURA BUTCHER:  And then began my consulting practice about 12 years ago, largely in the areas of organization development, leadership development.  But my early experiences were in the human resources function, where I became very passionate about learning and development.  I had experiences supporting many global joint venture partners with GE Appliances and GE Aircraft Engines.  I did some work with GE Crotonville, which is the corporate leadership training institute in Crotonville, New York, where I was part of an adjunct faculty to take some of the GE Work-Out and Change Acceleration Program training to our colleagues in Asia and Europe.  So I was bitten with the bug of working internationally in my early days with GE. NICK WALKER:  What kind of prompted you?  What was it that bit you about working internationally? LAURA BUTCHER:  I think I always enjoyed the experience of seeing new places, experiencing new things, eating new cuisines, seeing sights and the history of places.  But I think beyond that I began to really appreciate working with people who see the world differently from myself.  So I think that's what I found particularly engaging about it.  So oftentimes the work that we're doing in human resources or in training and development is complex anyway because we're dealing with human behavior.  But when you add the dimension of culture differences on top of that, it can be quite interesting work, and fulfilling. NICK WALKER:  What countries did you deal with when you were with GE? LAURA BUTCHER:  Well, we had joint venture partners in Asia.  So we were establishing a joint venture site with a Korean fi...

  The Podcast for Project Managers by Project Managers. Table of Contents 00:59 … Meet Heather 02:46 … Orbital Space Debris 04:10 … LEO and GEO 04:41 … Policy Standards 06:14 … Regulating/Interagency Debris Coordination Committee 08:24 … Assessing and Mitigation 10:24 … Coordinating with Multiple Teams 11:38 … OSD Observatory on Ascension Island 15:53 … Effective Communication 18:26 … Is There an End to this Project? 24:09 … Career Advice 25:57 … Measuring Success 27:31 … Learn More 29:03 … The Bill and Nick Wrap Up HEATHER COWARDIN:  But we need to figure out a way to kind of control its growth and make sure that all space users can utilize the space environment.  And that's the best we can do right now. NICK WALKER:  Welcome to Manage This, the podcast by project managers for project managers.  Every couple of weeks we meet right here and have a conversation about what matters to you in the field of project management.  We talk with real people, doing real jobs, and find out what makes them successful and what keeps them motivated. I'm your host, Nick Walker, and with me are the chief motivators, Andy Crowe and Bill Yates.  And Bill, for those who have ever said that the sky is the limit with what we do around here, well, they may need to rethink that perspective a little. BILL YATES:  Yeah, they're in for a treat today.  Heather is going to talk to us about the orbital space debris issue that I didn't even know existed.  This is going to be exciting stuff. Meet Heather NICK WALKER:  We all know how much we rely on satellites in orbit around the Earth.  These provide us with services such as navigation, meteorology, climate research, telecommunication, and human space exploration.  Unfortunately, with increasing space activities, a new and sort of unexpected hazard has started to emerge:  space debris. Dr. Heather M. Cowardin serves as the section manager and project manager for the Orbital Debris Research Section under the Science and Exploration Department of the JETS Contract with NASA Johnson Space Center.  She also leads the NASA Orbital Debris Program Office Research and Development Task Group. Dr. Cowardin, it's an honor to have you with us here on Manage This.  Can we start out just getting to know you a little bit better?  How did you get to where you are today? HEATHER COWARDIN:  Well, I guess let's go all the way back a couple of decades and talk about my childhood dream.  I wanted to be Batman, a garbage collector, or an astronaut.  And here we are, a couple decades later, and I feel like I've hit at least two of those three points.  I'm a superhero trying to protect space assets in space from garbage.  So not doing too bad. NICK WALKER:  Excellent. HEATHER COWARDIN:  So I guess where I kind of got to from there is I went to space camp in seventh grade after I won a fellowship from the Society of Women Engineers.  I was going to school at University of Houston, got an internship that turned into a full-time job, that turned into basically being a lead, into a deputy manager, into a full-on manager, to here we are now.  So been at NASA a good 15 years. NICK WALKER:  So you're concentrating on space debris.  I think this is something that maybe escapes the radar of a lot of people. HEATHER COWARDIN:  Aha.  See what you did there. Orbital Space Debris NICK WALKER:  Yeah.  What is orbital space debris? HEATHER COWARDIN:  Right.  So it's any manmade object that no longer serves a useful purpose.  So what does that mean?  Spent upper stages.  Mission-related debris.  Carriers for multiple payloads.  Even something as small as paint flakes, those can be very damaging. NICK WALKER:  How much of it is there? HEATHER COWARDIN:  There's about 19,000 objects in space right now that are greater than 10 centimeters.  That threshold is basically the limit of where our sensors can track debris.  But in general there's probably a good 23,

Project Planning for Project Managers. Table of Contents 01:04 … Meet Karen Crowe 02:36 … Project Planning and Integration 07:40 … Project Spike 09:13 … Project Scope 12:00 … Cost Management 13:08 … Learning New Practices 15:13 … Gratitude 16:16 … Project Resources 17:33 … Risk Analysis 21:11 … Stakeholders 25:00 … Communication 26:51 … WBS and Project Conclusion 31:25 … Follow the Journey KAREN CROWE:  I think any time you are organizing, thinking ahead, categorizing, you're managing a project.  This is definitely – I would say this qualifies. NICK WALKER:  Welcome to Manage This, the podcast by project managers for project managers.  We're glad you've joined us for a conversation about what matters to you in the field of project management.  It's a podcast where we routinely talk with experts, trainers, mentors, people who have been where you are now and where you're headed. I'm your host, Nick Walker, and with me are two guys who guide our conversation, Andy Crowe and Bill Yates.  And guys, I'm excited about this podcast for a couple reasons.  It's a chance to get to know our own people a little bit better, both professionally and personally.  But it's also a chance to hear about managing a project like none we've ever talked about before here on this podcast.  And to help us, we have an extra special guest in the studio today.  So Bill, why don't you tell us a little bit about who's with Andy today. Meet Karen Crowe BILL YATES:  Yeah, we have Karen Crowe in the office today, in our podcast booth.  It is so good to have you here.  This is clearly a case of the better half of the Andy and Karen marriage is here.  Andy is like me in that he out-kicked his coverage.  And I think today our guests have a chance to understand a bit more about that.  Welcome, Karen. KAREN CROWE:  Thank you, Bill. BILL YATES:  We're excited to hear more about the project.  But first, Karen, I think for those who are not as familiar with Velociteach, you were involved with the company before I started, right from the start.  And just share with our listeners a little bit about that. KAREN CROWE:  When Andy and I started Velociteach, well, it was a little overwhelming.  We knew, like we had a solid plan.  Andy had spreadsheets; and, I mean, you know, he's a project manager, so he had the plan.  But there was just me and him to carry it out.  The main thing that I have been involved in and continue to be involved in was creating the workbooks for the live training classes, specifically the mind maps.  That's my... BILL YATES:  Yeah, there are some listeners right now that are going, “Oh, my gosh, I love her.”  Others are going to, “The mind maps, they drove me crazy.” KAREN CROWE:  I hate them.  You either love them or hate them, that's true. BILL YATES:  Yeah, yeah, but it's such a great memorization device that we use.  And you're really – you're the mother of that.  You really are. KAREN CROWE:  And I feel very – they are my baby.  I feel protective of them. Project Planning and Integration NICK WALKER:  So Andy and Karen, the reason we're all together here is that both of you are headed on what amounts to not only an adventure, but also sort of a project management challenge like none you've ever encountered – a long-term sabbatical aboard the sailing vessel Gratitude.  It's a project that has obviously involved untold hours of planning and preparation.  But before we get into this, Andy, why?  What's the reason for all this? ANDY CROWE:  I think because it's there, Nick.  You know what, this is something that started out as a question.  We're not retiring.  But it started out as a question:  Is this something we could do and enjoy in retirement?  And I think after we explored and answered that question, the next question began to be, well, why wait till retirement? BILL YATES:  What triggered this for you both?  I know, you know, I see Andy a good bit in the office.  I know he started getting this desire to be on the water.

Table of Contents 01:08 … Meet Jamie Champagne 04:11 … Effective Elicitation 07:40 … “Talk Story” 12:35 … Asking Good Questions 16:19 … How to Get Feedback 21:00 … How to Take Negative Feedback 23:55 … Stakeholder/Sponsor Resistance 28:05 … Leveraging Elicitation Skills 32:38 … Get in Touch with Jamie Effective Elicitation and the PM JAMIE CHAMPAGNE:  I have no shame with business analysts ever being called a "miracle worker."  We're happy to help. NICK WALKER:  Welcome to Manage This, the podcast by project managers for project managers.  This is our every other week time to meet and discuss what project management is all about.  Our purpose is to get to the heart of what matters to you as a professional project manager.  We've asked you what you want to hear about and the kinds of guests you'd like to hear from, and today's podcast is a response to those requests. I'm your host, Nick Walker, and with me are the guys who are the ones who make it all happen, Andy Crowe and Bill Yates.  And it's appropriate that we talk about eliciting feedback from our listeners because today we're going to talk specifically about elicitation. ANDY CROWE:  Okay, Nick.  That's one of the bigger words.  What is that?  Five syllables, right, that we're getting into.  So that may be a record for a topic for us.  But it's going to be really interesting to see where this goes in terms of how to ask questions, how to elicit responses, and how to get quality responses back. Meet Jamie Champagne NICK WALKER:  Well, we're going to elicit some responses from our guest today.  Our guest today is Jamie Champagne.  As a business analyst, speaker, and trainer, she teaches others how to improve their analysis skill sets and how to be more accomplished professionals.  She calls herself an "overly passionate BA."  And through her company, Champagne Collaborations, Jamie joins forces with organizations around the world, training teams to be wildly successful.  When she's not collaborating with her business partners, you can find her collaborating with her friends and family on the Hawaiian waters on a surfboard.  In fact, she's joining us via Skype from beautiful Hawaii.  And Jamie, welcome to Manage This. JAMIE CHAMPAGNE:  Good morning.  Welcome.  Thank you for having me.  I'm very excited to be here today. NICK WALKER:  Now, we want to start off by just knowing you a little bit better.  Can you tell us a little bit about yourself, your business, where you are right now? JAMIE CHAMPAGNE:  Sure.  I love the title of an overly passionate business analyst and project manager because that's what I do live for.  I am located all the way here in Hawaii; and, yes, we do work.  We don't sit on the beach all day long.  We actually help get some good change projects completed all the way through.  And so I find myself spending a lot of time doing mentoring and coaching project teams on helping be successful, as well as doing a lot of training and speaking about what is business analysis, project management; how do they work together; and really leveraging skills to really be effective.  That's I think our biggest goal is everyone wants to do a good job, and people are looking for ways to do that.  And I'm fortunate enough to get to work with some really great people, mentoring and coaching. ANDY CROWE:  Jamie, it's interesting how project management and business analysis have come much closer together.  And it used to be that there were processes to project management.  And then the BA went off and did their magic and just brought back this treasure trove of information.  But now they've started to develop the processes around that and made terrific progress there, as well.  So it's really matured in the past few years. JAMIE CHAMPAGNE:  Oh, absolutely.  I think the highlight is not just here's an activity, but those skill sets; and that we've relied so much on project managers to do everything and then go, oh,

Table of Contents 00:46 … Meet Jane 03:40 … Gender Gap in IT 09:11 … Transitioning to Non-Profit 18:07 … Dealing with Diverse Cultures 21:08 … Communicating Project Status 24:02 … From CARE USA to World Vision 27:02 … Collaboration Tools and Techniques 28:19 … The Not-For-Profit Work Environment 31:34 … Back to Corporate 33:37 … Increasing Cultural Diversity Advice 35:47 … Cultural Awareness Testing 37:39 … Closing   NICK WALKER:  Welcome to Manage This, the podcast by project managers for project managers.  This is our time devoted to you, the professional project manager.  Our goal is to encourage you and perhaps to challenge you, to give you a peek into the way other PMs are doing the stuff and creating successes. I'm your host, Nick Walker, and with me are the two guys who make this all happen, Andy Crowe and Bill Yates.  And Andy, we're going to explore a subject that we really haven't dealt with in depth before, something we call “cultural intelligence.” ANDY CROWE:  This is a fascinating topic, Nick.  We're going to start peeling back some of the elements that really matter to project managers and organizations in general. Meet Jane NICK WALKER:  Well, let's meet our guest to talk about that.  After establishing a successful IT consulting career in the corporate world, Jane Canniff invested a decade leading global development projects and programs for World Vision International and CARE USA.  A leader in project and program management, Jane is currently the owner of Tango Consulting LLC.  Jane, thanks so much for joining us here on Manage This. JANE CANNIFF:  Thank you very much for having me, Nick. NICK WALKER:  One of the top challenges that many projects managers list as their greatest hurdle is this thing called “cross-cultural management.”  Now, nationality is one cultural difference that we talk about.  But there are many others:  gender, ethnicity, age group, even professional and organizational culture.  They're all part of a person's cultural identity.  Now, you've had the experience of working in various multicultural environments.  Can you describe what some of those were like? JANE CANNIFF:  Yes, I can.  And I would want to start this conversation by saying I don't see myself as an expert in cross-cultural environments and how to work successfully in them.  As someone who has journeyed through those environments, I have my own experiences – and of course those come through my own filters – and can offer those experiences and lessons learned to others.  As we discussed prior to the podcast, everyone's journey is different, and everyone's experience in that is different.  And so I would want our discussion simply to prompt questions and to encourage people to engage in dialogue. So with that being said, the experiences that I've had, first as a woman entering the IT workforce; and then later as a project manager managing teams of people who were not like me and/or who could be older than me, as well; and then moving from the for-profit IT consulting environment into the global development environment posed even a massive set of cultural shifts and changes, everything from the fact that I used “development” to refer to software, and they used “development”... ANDY CROWE:  Right, to raising funds, yeah. JANE CANNIFF:  To raising funds and/or to the programs that they execute on the ground to achieve their end goals.  So while we may all be using the same word, each one of us could be thinking something completely different. Gender Gap in I.T. NICK WALKER:  Let's talk first about the gender gap sometimes that we see in the IT world.  You mentioned that.  Were you like the only one, or one of very few? JANE CANNIFF:  Yes.  I was one of very few.  And I also recognize that there were a number of people who paved the way for me because there were a lot of women who were in more what I would term “data processing” roles,

The Podcast for Project Mangers Table of Contents 00:50 … Meet Mike 03:12 … Active vs Passive PM 09:14 … Micromanaging Teams 11:14 … Managing Multiple Projects 12:59 … PM Tools and Processes 17:21 … Setting Expectations 21:40 … Communicating Solutions 23:24 … Keeping Projects on Task 27:16 … Know When to Pull the Plug 30:24 … Closing MIKE PONDISCIO:  Absolutely.  For an active project manager, you really want to be one or two steps ahead of your team.  In other words, bowling analogy:  You need to clear the lane, set up the pins so that your team can knock them down. NICK WALKER:  Welcome to Manage This, the podcast by project managers for project managers.  Every two weeks we get together for the express purpose of talking about what matters to you as a professional project manager.  We interview guests who can speak from experience.  We share in their successes and learn lessons from their challenges. I'm your host, Nick Walker, and with me are the resident experts, Andy Crowe and Bill Yates.  And Andy, this time around I think we're going to be able to speak to where a lot of our listeners, perhaps even the majority of them, live every day. ANDY CROWE:  You know, Nick, a lot of project managers are managing multiple smaller projects.  It can get chaotic.  It can be frenetic.  And there's a lot to learn there.  So I'm looking forward to this episode. Meet Mike NICK WALKER:  Well, our guest today is Michael Pondiscio, who has 20 years of experience in project management.  Since 2013, Mike has been a solutions consultant and product manager at Avtex Solutions.  He's a seasoned project manager who delivers creative solutions to tough technical challenges, and he does it on time and within budget.  Listen to this list of his current expertise:  engagement management, delivery management, bulletproof management, business analysis, consulting, process mapping, and RFP response management.  Mike, welcome to Manage This. MIKE PONDISCIO:  Well, thank you very much for having me.  I'm excited to be here and share what I can. NICK WALKER:  Well, that's a long list of things that you're involved in.  Obviously, you've been doing this at least for a little while.  Tell us how you got into this business. MIKE PONDISCIO:  I started out in this business working in a small telecommunications company.  And as you would find in a small company, everybody has multiple roles.  So one of my roles was engineering, and the other role was project management.  And naturally I moved to the project management role because, as I was watching the projects be delivered, I realized that I could do a better job of it. So I said, “Let me go ahead and start helping these people out.”  And I sort of, just by natural propensity, ended up going down the project management path, but still managed to do some of the technical experience work as well – engineering, solution engineering, and going out with sales teams.  But that's how I really started out was getting into telecommunications, starting in a smaller company, and then just growing with the field as it became Voice over IP solutions. ANDY CROWE:  I believe that going out with a sales team, being a presales engineer, is like the greatest job in the world because you don't actually really have to deliver it.  You just kind of make a bunch of promises. MIKE PONDISCIO:  Yeah, you just promise it. ANDY CROWE:  I hook ‘em, you get to fry ‘em; right? Active vs Passive PM NICK WALKER:  Is that what we mean by “active project management” rather than “passive project management”? ANDY CROWE:  Probably not. NICK WALKER:  Well, that's an important thing, though.  Obviously you were an active participant from the get-go.  How does that compare with maybe others who take a more passive approach? MIKE PONDISCIO:  Well, there's very much a difference between an active and passive project manager.  And those are my terms, of course.

The Podcast by Project Managers for Project Managers. Table of Contents 00:53 … Meet Jennifer 01:56 … Difference between Introverted and Extroverted Leaders 07:36 … Introvert Superpowers 09:52 … Competing with the Extrovert 11:11 … Taking on Extrovert Roles 13:36 … Introverts Leading a Team 17:05 … Assessments 18:45 … Empowering the Introvert 21:20 … Extroverts Leading Introverts 22:54 … Four P Process 27:16 … Brainwriting and Meeting Strategies 29:03 … Ambiverts 30:28 … Closing   JENNIFER KAHNWEILER:  We need to really talk about these in our teams and our work spaces.  When I research, my research now is about organizations that are introvert friendly.  And one of the characteristics I'm finding is that it's out in the open, just like any other element of diversity we have to talk about.  And when we do, it becomes not a really big deal. NICK WALKER:  Welcome to Manage This, the podcast by project managers for project managers.  Every couple of weeks we meet in an effort to get to the heart of what matters to you as a professional project manager.  And the way we do that is by getting inside the brains of the best in the business, people who specialize in helping others either get started or rise to the next level. I'm your host, Nick Walker, and with me are two guys who are leaders in this effort, Andy Crowe and Bill Yates.  And today, Andy, we're going to examine what role introverts play in the field of project management. ANDY CROWE:  This is a topic that we've discussed a lot around the office.  Lot of people have been reading a book circulating around, and we're excited to have the author here today. Meet Jennifer NICK WALKER:  Well, let's meet her.  Jennifer Kahnweiler is known as the champion for introverts.  She's a PhD, certified speaking professional, and an author and global speaker.  Her bestselling books, “The Introverted Leader,” “Quiet Influence,” and “The Genius of Opposites” have been translated into 16 languages.  Jennifer has consulted with hundreds of organizations, including Freddie Mac, TEDx, GE, NASA, and the CDC.  She has conducted leadership programs from Singapore to Spain.  Her work has been featured in Forbes, Time magazine, and the Wall Street Journal.  Jennifer serves on several boards and is a mentor to many professional women.  Dr. Kahnweiler thanks so much for being with us here on Manage This. JENNIFER KAHNWEILER:  Oh, it's my absolute pleasure, Nick, thank you. NICK WALKER:  Now, I'd like to get things started with a quotation from your blog.  You say, “The most effective leaders are not prone to project their ideas onto the team, but listen first to what ideas emerge.  The best leaders also engage with people and are truly present with them, gaining their trust and respect.”  Is that your description of the introverted leader? JENNIFER KAHNWEILER:  I think that's a good start in thinking about what an introverted leader does so well.  And they are present.  When you ask people, Nick, who was your best manager, whether project manager or other type, oftentimes they will describe somebody with those exact qualities that you read.  And that's what really intrigued me about looking at further research about really what makes those people tick. Difference between Introverted and Extroverted Leaders NICK WALKER:  Well, let's talk a little bit about the differences between the introverted leader and the extroverted leader.  What are some of the traits we'd find in each? JENNIFER KAHNWEILER:  Well, I think it's very similar to when we think about extroverts and introverts.  Extroverts get their energy from other people, from the world outside, from the stimuli going on around them.  Introverts, on the other hand, are reflective and get their energy from the source within.  And over the years, in studying this, I've collected so much anecdotal data. And I think the simplest way to think about it and consider whether or not you're an introvert or extrovert,

The podcast by project managers for project managers. Table of Contents 01:00 … Meet Andy and Bill 04:07 … The Evolution of the PM 06:40 … Managing Stakeholders 12:42 … Common Challenges in Consulting Projects 19:24 … Technology Development and Non-IT Workgroups 23:10 … Is Agile Truly Being Used? 26:22 … Recommendations for New PMs/PMO Role in Agile 31:20 … Starting out in Project Management 33:02 … Wrap Up ANDY CROWE:  But I would start out not focused on the letters after my name, not focused on the alphabet soup, but focused on the fundamentals of project management and learning it. NICK WALKER:  Welcome to Manage This, the podcast by project managers for project managers.  This is our time to talk with you about what really matters to you as a professional project manager.  We want to encourage you, to challenge you, to give you some new ideas and perhaps a fresh way of looking at the profession. I'm your host, Nick Walker, and with me are the two guys who make this podcast happen, Andy Crowe and Bill Yates.  And Andy, today we're actually going to hone in on some questions that we've gotten from our listeners. ANDY CROWE:  I like that.  We've gotten some good feedback from our listener community.  And I'm looking forward to diving into that. Meet Andy and Bill NICK WALKER:  I think it would probably be a good idea, though, to maybe learn a little bit more about you two guys.  I mean, we've gone for so long talking to different guests, learning about them.  But who is Andy Crowe and Bill Yates?  Andy, you are an author, a speaker.  You've done so many things.  How did you get into this? ANDY CROWE:  And I'm also an existentialist, so that's a really interesting question that you're asking.  Who am I?  Why am I here? You know, Nick, I have been doing this a while.  I've been managing projects really since the late ‘80s; but technically, formally, with the title since the early ‘90s.  And seen a lot of changes come through.  You know, when I started, it's funny because I was there, you know, for the birth of Microsoft Project, and we all thought this was amazing.  And that turned out to be a really interesting thing for project managers because it could reformulate a schedule.  It could do things like that.  But it didn't make people better project managers.  Just like handing Microsoft Word to a writer is not going to make them a better writer; handing a good microphone and an amp to a speaker isn't going to make them a better speaker or a better communicator. And so, you know, when I started with this, the tools that were coming along were useful, but they also just enabled a lot of bad practices.  So I put my career and my energy into learning project management, learning how it should be done, probably learning enough to be really dangerous because then I had a hundred different ways to do something that probably just needed a simple solution. I've written a few books on project management.  I've written a couple of test-oriented resources for the PMP Exam, “How to Pass on Your First Try,” and the PMI-ACP, which is the Agile Certified Practitioner exam, “How to Pass on Your First Try.”  And then “Alpha Project Managers,” which is my favorite of the three.  It's not the one that's been the most commercially successful of the three, but it was the most fun to really get in and research the practices.  It's called “What the Top 2% Know That Everyone Else Does Not.”  And it looks at the practices that make some project managers successful and maybe sets them apart from their peers. NICK WALKER:  We're looking forward to tackling some of the questions using your background and expertise in getting into some of these things that our listeners have asked us.  But let's meet Bill Yates. BILL YATES:  Yeah. NICK WALKER:  Bill, we've heard your voice.  We've sort of gotten to know you a little bit through the podcast, but tell me a little bit about your background. BILL YATES:  So who is this guy; right?

Manage This, the podcast by project managers for project managers. Table of Contents 00:50 … Meet Tricia Molloy 01:59 … Our need for goals. 03:00 … How to identify goals? 05:04 … Obstacles/Distractions to goal setting. 09:30 … Stress – good or bad? 12:50 … Energy management. 15:15 … Vision Boards and RAS. 16:53 … Creating and using Vision Boards. 25:25 … Vision Board for a Project team. 28:28 … Wrap Up TRICIA MOLLOY:  We live in a world where there's so many distractions.  And in order for us to focus, it really makes sense to think about what goals are most important to us in order to get that done.  So, I'm a big believer in thinking about what goals are important, and writing those goals down, and having a plan. ANDY CROWE:  Welcome to Manage This, the podcast by project managers for project managers.  Normally you'd be hearing the voice of Nick Walker right now; but Nick also has a job chasing storms, and Nick is involved right now in some weather activity.  And so this is Andy Crowe.  And I am playing kind of host here, along with Bill Yates.  We have a very special guest in the studio today.  Bill, tell us about our guest. Meet Tricia Molloy BILL YATES:  Yes, we do.  Our guest today is Tricia Molloy.  Tricia's an author and speaker who presents programs on reducing stress, achieving goals, and improving work-life balance, all things that we can improve on, for sure.  Tricia consults with a number of organizations, for example, Marriott, Kellogg, The Home Depot, Deloitte, and the Network of Executive Women.  She facilitates vision board workshops.  We'll have a lot more to say about that.  And she's worked with employees at the CDC, Verizon, and Ernst & Young.  Tricia, welcome to Manage This. TRICIA MOLLOY:  Thank you. ANDY CROWE:  Tricia, one of the things that we're very excited to talk to you about are these vision boards.  But I feel like we need to set the stage first and talk a bit about goals. TRICIA MOLLOY:  Yes. Our Need for Goals. ANDY CROWE:  So thinking about goals – and this is certainly something that project managers have to focus on a lot; right?  We have a lot of goals.  But why do we have goals in work and in other aspects of life?  We have to set goals to get things done personally.  What is it about us?  What is our need for goals? TRICIA MOLLOY:  Yeah, we live in a world where there's so many distractions.  And in order for us to focus, it really makes sense to think about what goals are most important to us in order to get that done.  So I'm a big believer in thinking about what goals are important and writing those goals down and having a plan. ANDY CROWE:  I like that.  You know, Stephen Covey in his “7 Habits for Highly Successful People” book talked about beginning with the end in mind. BILL YATES:  Right. ANDY CROWE:  And so a lot of times it's useful to kind of envision an outcome.  And it doesn't always turn out the way we plan, I guess, but it's a useful exercise, huh. How to Identify Goals BILL YATES:  That's for sure.  Now, Tricia, I know you've worked with a number of organizations and with individuals who struggle in this area, and you have the chance to really coach them and help them identify goals.  Let's say you're meeting with me, and you're talking through my need for goals, and you've kind of sold me on the idea.  How do you help me identify goals? TRICIA MOLLOY:  Oh, that's a great question.  Sometimes you think first about what you don't want in your life. BILL YATES:  Okay. TRICIA MOLLOY:  And then those goals just naturally evolve from there.  So that's one way to do it.  Another way is to think about what you want the final outcome to be.  And then of course there are steps before that.  And each of those steps inevitably becomes a goal. BILL YATES:  Okay.  That's good. ANDY CROWE:  Is this intuitive to most people?  Do they know how to set goals?  Do they walk in with misconceptions?  What do you think? TRICIA MOLLOY:  Huh.

The Podcast for Project Managers Evolution of the Business Analyst   Table of Contents: 0:47 … Meet Laura 1:49 … Evolution of BA functions 3:00 … Value of BA on a project 6:00 … BA past vs present 8:38 … Types of BA projects today 9:48 … BA and Agile projects 11:50 … Roles of the BA on a project 13:41 … Unique challenges for the BA 16:10 … Customer advocate role 18:21 … New skills required today 19:46 … PM transitioning to BA 21:32 … BA processes 23:48 … New skill topics 25:22 … BA training options   NICK WALKER:  Welcome to Manage This, the podcast by project managers for project managers.  This is our time to meet and talk about the things that matter to you as a professional project manager.  Our guests include some of the masters in the field, professionals who have proven themselves and enjoy helping others reach their goals. I'm your host, Nick Walker, and with me are two guys who are experts in their own right, Andy Crowe and Bill Yates.  Andy, today we're going to be talking about the role of the business analyst, and we've got the person who literally wrote the book on the subject.   ANDY CROWE:  This is going to be good.  You know, this isn't the first time we've touched on business analysis.  But it intersects so tightly with project management that I don't know that we can get enough of it.   NICK WALKER:  Well, let's meet our guest.  She's a trainer, course developer, and speaker.  Laura Paton has been a business analyst practitioner for over 32 years, with experience across various industries in both project management and BA roles.  As a consultant in the International Institute of Business Analysis and the Project Management Institute, Laura is also the chair and author for PMI's “Guide to Business Analysis,” the PMI's “Business Analysis for Practitioners:  A Practice Guide,” and “A Guide to the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge.”  She's the founder of BA Academy, a consulting/training company based in Orlando, Florida.  Laura is passionate about helping organizations and individuals mature and improve their BA skills and practices.  She is with us from Orlando via Skype.  Laura, welcome to Manage This.   LAURA PATON:  Thank you for having me.   Evolution of BA functions   NICK WALKER:  Well, as I mentioned before, we want to talk with you today about business analysis, and specifically the changing role of the business analyst.  How have the primary functions of the BA evolved over the last few years?   LAURA PATON:  I think there's been quite a bit of an evolution.  Where my mind would go first with that question is thinking about Agile.  I know early on our project teams, when Agile started to become more mainstream outside of software companies, as you know from the framework, “business analyst” is not a role that's specifically defined.  So many, many years ago BAs started to feel a little bit nervous, didn't know really where they placed value, whether they would be called to work in these teams. That whole mindset has completely shifted.  And what I mean by that is, whether organizations went forth without the BA, or teams ended up failing on their projects for not focusing enough on business analysis, teams are looking to have BAs engaged from the beginning.  So that has been one area we have seen where BAs are now asked to play a role on an Agile team which in the past, like I said, there was that inconsistency about whether there was a position for them.   Value of BA on a project   ANDY CROWE:  Laura, this is Andy.  I've got a question for you.  It was years into my career as a project manager before I worked with a dedicated BA on the team.  So I had never worked with a business analyst.  Explain to our listeners what that value is, what a business analyst will do on a project, kind of how that works.   LAURA PATON:  Sure.  And that's a really great question because that just shows the evolution of the role, as well.

The Podcast For Project Managers. Table of Contents 00:35 … Meet Steve Kraus 01:27 … Defining Agile / Waterfall 04:38 … How to know which one is working for you? 05:40 … Is Agile right for me? 06:35 … Are PM careers still in demand? 10:00 … In demand skill sets 14:10 … A scrum master story 19:00 … Where are you more comfortable? 23:29 … Getting the skills to make the transition 25:55 … Move on, Move up, or Move in? 28:09 … Wrap Up NICK WALKER:  Welcome to Manage This, the podcast by project managers for project managers.  Every other week we get together to discuss what you have told us matters to you as a professional project manager.  It's our chance to meet with some of the experts in the field, get inside their heads, and see what has worked for them.  It's a place to share ideas and philosophies, all with the purpose of improving our own game. I'm your host, Nick Walker, and with me are the two guys who make this podcast happen, Andy Crowe and Bill Yates.  And Andy, we're fortunate enough to have an Agile expert in the house. ANDY CROWE:  And this is going to be a really interesting slice that we're taking on Agile.  We're going to be looking at it a little bit differently than traditionally. NICK WALKER:  Well, let's meet our nontraditional guest; all right?  As a Certified Scrum Master and Certified Scaled Agile Coach, Steve Kraus has more than 15 years' experience assisting organizations in transitioning to the Agile mindset.  As the CIO of a mid-sized company, he led the conversion of their Waterfall-based software construction efforts to an Agile approach.  He served as a senior consultant at Deloitte Consulting, as well as a senior principal with Daugherty Business Solutions.  He's currently engaged at a major local insurance company, assisting them with Agile training, coaching, and planning, as they begin their Agile journey.  Steve, it's a privilege to have you with us. STEVE KRAUS:  Thanks. NICK WALKER:  Now, we should probably start off by defining our terms just a little bit.  Waterfall?  Agile?  Let's get into that just a little bit.  What is Agile, and what is the difference between that and Waterfall? STEVE KRAUS:  Right.  So since the pyramids were built, people have been applying kind of traditional project management approaches; right?  So kind of the classic PMI, PMP certification.  The iron triangle, you know, scope, cost, resources, quality.  How do you make those tradeoffs; right?  And then how do you manage a project using a very structured approach to completion?  That's kind of classic what people call Waterfall; right? Agile, you know, a lot of folks got together probably in 2002 in a hotel room, literally, and said this ain't working for us.  We're seeing a lot of projects that are running over.  Almost all of them.  Many projects fail.  So a lot of money wasted.  And they said, you know, is there – and by the way, one thing we saw a lot of and they saw a lot of was IT kind of getting a black eye.  So I'm an IT person.  I'm not in construction. BILL YATES:  Right. STEVE KRAUS:  I'm not building a Mercedes Benz.  I'm building software.  So IT almost got a bad reputation.  It's like projects always run over.  Projects never do what they're supposed to do.  The end result of the project isn't really all that useful or that much value.  And so Agile kind of said, let's flip that whole thing on its head.  It's about value delivery.  The goal is not to finish on-time, on-budget.  The goal is to deliver something of value.  It may not be the entire thing we originally aimed at.  So scope is flexible; right?  Resources are flexible. The second thing Agile kind of brought into the picture was saying, you know, those traditional approaches of let's design it, let's build it, let's test it, right, and then a big bang delivery at the end; right?  No, let's deliver little pieces of value, and then even change direction based on those pieces.  So love that.  Hate that.

Table of Contents 01:00 …Meet Bill and Matt 01:45 …Home Depot Backyard 09:30 … Arthur Blank 11:43 …Mercedes Benz Stadium 12:30 …LEED Platinum Rating 16:11 …Stadium Planning 22:22 …Bill's Career Advice 28:22 …Dealing With Stress 37:07 …Surprises Along the Way/Communication 40:07 …In Retrospect/Know Your Managers 44:45 …Wrap Up BILL DARDEN:  That was a neat moment.  I'll admit emotions got me that day I walked in.  The fans were let in, if you recall, just to walk around.  And the documentary crew was following.  And I had my family with me.  It just hit me for the first time that all I saw was smiling faces. NICK WALKER:  Welcome to Manage This, the podcast by project managers for project managers.  Every couple of weeks we like to meet and talk about what matters to you as a professional project manager.  We draw on the opinions and experiences of experts in the field.  We see what's worked for them and talk about lessons learned on the job.  We want to help you up your game and your team's game. I'm your host, Nick Walker, and with me are the two guys who have made it their mission to improve your game, Andy Crowe and Bill Yates.  And Andy, we've got a full house today.  Two experts. ANDY CROWE:  It is packed in the studio, and the amount of expertise is starting to overflow. NICK WALKER:  All right.  Well, let's don't let it overwhelm us; okay?  Let's meet these two guys here.  First, we've got one Bill in the room all the time, but let's meet the other Bill in the room today.  Bill Darden is the President and CEO of Darden & Company LLC, a full-service project management firm.  Its focus is on the development, design, construction, and tenant improvements for a variety of real estate projects.  Darden's recent big project was the construction of the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, the home of the Atlanta Falcons. Also with us is Matt Dale, Vice President of Darden & Company, working especially on the construction of the Home Depot Backyard.  Guys, thanks so much for being with us. MATT DALE:  Thank you for having us. BILL DARDEN:  Thank you. NICK WALKER:  Now, there are a lot of things we want to cover on this podcast in a short time that we have.  Let's talk first about this latest project, the Home Depot Backyard.  We're talking about 11 acres of green space adjacent to the stadium for gathering and tailgating.  Matt, let's start with you.  What's the vision for this space? MATT DALE:  Yeah, so since starting on the project of Mercedes-Benz Stadium and joining the team back in 2013, even early renderings and early planning included a green space and a community asset where the Backyard is currently being constructed.  So Arthur's original vision was not only to have a collegiate atmosphere of just camaraderie and tailgating where the Backyard will now stand, but more importantly was to have a community asset and several amenities that the Westside could utilize on nonevent days.  And that's 300 days a year where they'll be able to go over there, have yoga, playgrounds, picnics, farmers' markets, arts festivals, you name it.  They've got a whole team all working together to try to create a vision.  And that has always been Arthur's vision is giving back to the Westside. BILL YATES:  So have you already contracted with different groups besides those on game day? MATT DALE:  On almost a daily basis we have a tour of a different group, be it a concert, a yoga group, a nonprofit, anything that's a charity fundraiser.  It's constant. ANDY CROWE:  It's like Piedmont Park West. MATT DALE:  That's right, yeah. BILL YATES:  Who is going to manage that?  Like who do you hand this over to once you guys have completed the project? MATT DALE:  Very similar to Mercedes-Benz Stadium, we'll hand it over to AMB Sports & Entertainment.  And they operate the Backyard, while Georgia World Congress Center owns the land.

Table of Contents Wayne Intro………………………………………………..…..…..00:39 The Challenges of Remote Leadership………….......…...01:38 The Human Dynamic………………………………….……..….03:26 Leading Remotely is Leading differently……….....…..…05:02 Advantages of Remote Teams………….....….….………..…08:02 Organizations Struggling with Remote Teams? ….......10:37 Tools: Richness vs. Scope of Media…………......…..…..…12:59 3 Dimensional vs 2 Dimensional Communication….....22:41 Use Technology to Build Relationships………..…....…...25:21 Where to find Wayne…………………………………….....……31:08 NICK WALKER:  Welcome to Manage This, the podcast by project managers for project managers.  This is our chance to sit down and talk about what matters to you as a professional project manager.  We get inside the heads of people who are doing the job and doing it well.  We talk with them about leadership, we talk about methods, and we talk about what works and what doesn't work, all with the purpose of learning and improving our game. I'm your host, Nick Walker.  And with me are the two guys who never stop learning, Andy Crowe and Bill Yates.  And Andy, I'm anxious to hear what we can learn from our guest today. ANDY CROWE:  You know, I definitely think there are things we can learn today.  We're going to be diving into remote leadership, long-distance leadership, remote teams, that kind of thing.  And it's going to be very informative.  I can feel it. NICK WALKER:  Well, let's meet our guest.  Wayne Turmel is the cofounder of the Remote Leadership Institute and the author of many books, including Association for Talent Development's “10 Steps to Successful Virtual Presentations.”  He also coauthored a book with Kevin Eikenberry, “The Long-Distance Leader:  Rules for Remarkable Remote Leadership.”  Wayne and Kevin cofounded the Remote Leadership Institute to help remote leaders succeed in a virtual workplace.  And Wayne, I think it's appropriate that we are speaking to you remotely today from Chicago.  Thank you so much for being here with us on Manage This. WAYNE TURMEL:  I'm delighted to be here, guys.  This is going to be fun. NICK WALKER:  Now, you state in your book that today, according to the Project Management Institute, 90 percent of project teams have at least one member, usually more, who aren't colocated with the rest of the team.  Remote leading, that's got to be a challenge.  What are some of the challenges of it? WAYNE TURMEL:  Sure.  Well, you know, you're more likely to find pandas mating in the wild than a project manager that has all their people in one place anymore.  So it's absolutely – this is now a fundamental skill, right, that we need to get our mitts around.  On one level, not much has changed.  I mean, if you look at the job of the PM, what's the job; right?  We need to help figure out scope.  We need to assign resources.  We need to coach periodically.  All the stuff that we need to do.  Nothing's changed.  I mean, Peter Drucker said the greatest project job of all time was building the pyramids, and we've just been trying to live up to that ever since. BILL YATES:  Right. WAYNE TURMEL:  The difference, of course, is the guy who built the pyramids was at the pyramids.  He wasn't trying to flog people by email.  So if we think about what we have to do, in many ways it's not that different.  What has changed radically is how we do it.  We're now forced to communicate through technology, which fundamentally changes the way people interact.  It changes the human dynamic.  And I know a lot of PMs get real nervous when we talk about human dynamic, right, because it's all about process.  But the fact of the matter is that communicating through technology is radically different than the way we were born and raised to communicate.  And some people adapt naturally, and others need to be very mindful of how we do that. ANDY CROWE:  You know, Wayne, it's interesting because I think for a long time,

Table of Contents 1. Meet Stephen 2. The Telos Corporation 3. Addressing adversity with excellence 4. Cut and Run vs Building trust 5. Get the 1st call when news is bad 6. Intellectual and Emotional courage 7. Creating Desire 8. Communicating respect 9. Get in touch with Stephen Time 00:46 02:28 02:49 06:15 09:00 13:50 17:37 24:25 27:09   NICK WALKER:  Welcome to Manage This, the podcast by project managers for project managers.  Every two weeks we meet to discuss what matters to you in the field of project management.  We talk with the movers and shakers, those who have been through the wringer, PMs just like you, about their successes and their failures, too. I'm your host, Nick Walker, and with me are the guys with a long string of successes behind them, Andy Crowe and Bill Yates.  And Bill, we have somebody with us via Skype from Tampa, Florida, someone who has been a leader in just multiple capacities. BILL YATES:  Yes.  Steve, we are so excited to have you as our guest.  You've got experiences recently in the private sector.  But for 28 years you served our country.  We thank you for that, and I'll let Nick describe more of that.  But welcome to the show. STEVE CORCORAN:  Thank you. NICK WALKER:  Yeah, let's meet Steve.  Well, Steve Corcoran retired from the United States Marine Corps after 28 years of active service.  In that time he was recognized for distinguished service in combat and peacetime.  Steve is now the Chief of Cyber Strategy for the Telos Corporation, successfully taking his leadership knowledge from the Marine Corps, and also from the National Outdoor Leadership School, into a corporate environment.  He mentors other veterans transitioning into the civilian workforce and sits on the Board of Directors for Warriors at Ease.  Steve, thanks so much for joining us here on Manage This. STEVE CORCORAN:  Thank you for having me. NICK WALKER:  I am intrigued that you've made that transition from a career in the military to a career in the corporate world, and that you actually help others in that transition, as well.  Was that an easy transition for you?  Did it come naturally? STEVE CORCORAN:  Well, you know, I was very fortunate.  You know, United States Marine Corps is what I considered a bubble of excellence.  And when I made my transition, I left the United States Marine Corps, I just lifted up another bubble of excellence and walked into that, which was the Telos Corporation.  And that for me was a very, very easy transition.  And I didn't realize that, you know, until quite a few years.  I've been with them for six years.  And they're absolutely a phenomenal organization on many different levels.  But the reason why I'm staying with them is because of the leadership that is there and the lessons that they've taught me.  And what I've been able to do is take those lessons and impart them to veterans and to other individuals that are transitioning in. BILL YATES:  Let me ask a quick question.  What does that company do?  What do you do?  What do you do, and what does the company do at Telos? STEVE CORCORAN:  Telos is a top 25 internationally ranked cybersecurity company, and we primarily work in cybersecurity, standard cybersecurity.  We work in mobility and also identity management. BILL YATES:  Excellent.  Steve, when we were talking before, one of the things that you said you realized after you had transitioned from a long military career was you realized, okay, wow.  I benefited from years and years of leadership excellence.  I had excellent leaders I worked with.  I had excellent training.  I had excellent preparation.  And then when you moved into the private sector you were fortunate enough to find that again.  And two of the key words that you've said that really stick to me is what made that clear to you was how the organization handled adversity and uncertainty.  So tell us, in your transition,

Table of Contents Kupe intro……………………………………………………..00:46 The BA and PM coexistence…………………………..05:45 The greatest value a BA can deliver……………….10:00 Helping others make decisions………………………11:22 Lean BA & Course………………………………………….14:10 Learning from Amazon 70% Rule……………………18:32 Agile………………………………………………………………20:09 Decision Responsibility Matrix....……………………21:40 Role of culture in an organization…………………..24:10 Taking a hit and the outcome……………………….26:00 Where to find Kupe………………………………………30:40 KUPE KUPERSMITH:  The moral of the story is you've got to keep your eyes open for opportunities and say yes when they come about. NICK WALKER:  Welcome to Manage This!, the podcast by project managers for project managers.  Twice a month we get together to talk about the world of project management, and what matters to you is part of that world.  We talk with experts, veterans in the field, and those who are finding creative ways to take the profession to the next level. I'm your host, Nick Walker, and with me are the guys you might say are at a level of their own, Andy Crowe and Bill Yates.  And Andy, I cannot wait to see what today's guest holds for us. ANDY CROWE:  This is going to be a good one.  You know, Kupe is kind of famous around the office here, and so a lot of people know him.  He's got a good reputation.  And I'm really eager to get into this new topic for us of business analysis. NICK WALKER:  Well, we should mention that we recently took a survey of our listeners, and one of the topics they requested was the subject of business analysis.  So today's podcast is a result of those requests.  So let's meet him. Kupe Kupersmith is an accountant, an IT consultant, a writer, speaker, coach, trainer, and improv comedian.  He helps individuals and businesses achieve their goals through focusing on professional skills, business analysis, project management, and leadership skills.  Kupe is the author of “Business Analysis for Dummies” and is known throughout the industry as someone who can make you laugh while learning.  He has stated that one of his life's goals is to meet everyone.  Kupe, we're bringing you just a little bit closer to that goal here today.  It's great to have you here on Manage This. KUPE KUPERSMITH:  And I'm excited to be here. NICK WALKER:  Now, I think we need to talk about that unique combination first of business coach and improv comedian.  How did that come about? KUPE KUPERSMITH:  Yeah, I think it all started – well, I think I'll start with the end in mind.  The moral of the story is you've got to keep your eyes open for opportunities and say yes when they come about.  So I was 17 years old, didn't know what I wanted to do with my life, and was going to college and didn't know what major to pick.  And my dad said:  “Jonathan, you love math.  Why don't you become an accountant?  Everybody needs an accountant.  You'll have a good job, benefits.”  I was like, “Okay, Dad, I'll become an accountant.” So I went to school for an accounting degree.  I got my degree.  Was pretty bored along the way but thought, you know what, I graduated.  Now I've got to use this degree.  And sometimes, I hate to admit it, but what do all good accountants try to do in the end?  They try to get their CPA exam.  So I'm two years into my career, sit for the CPA exam, and I still think I'm on record as being the best failure of the CPA exam. BILL YATES:  That's an honor. KUPE KUPERSMITH:  I knew that was kind of like the tipping point for me of, okay, well, you know, I wasn't too excited about this career.  Maybe I need to look into something else.  And I had this creative itch.  So I kind of looked into becoming a comedian.  I was actually, you know, in the early ‘90s there was a lot of standup comedy in Atlanta.  So I went to a show, and it was like, I think I can do that.  Well, I failed at standup comedy as well as I did the CPA exam.  But... ANDY CROWE:  A debit and a credit walk into a bar...

NICK WALKER:  Welcome to Manage This, the podcast by project managers for project managers.  Every other week we get together to talk about the things that matter to you as a professional project manager.  And it doesn't really matter whether you're a PM veteran or someone simply exploring what the field is all about.  We're here to offer some ideas, some perspective, and draw on the experiences of others who have been down that road and have realized success. I'm your host, Nick Walker, and with me are two who are still on that road, Andy Crowe and Bill Yates. ANDY CROWE:  Thanks, Nick.  We've had so much interest in the topic of artificial intelligence within project management, and we've got somebody here who knows a lot about AI who's going to be processing that with us. NICK WALKER:  Our guest here in the studio is Chris Benson.  He's an artificial intelligence machine learning strategist, a solution architect, and a keynote speaker who specializes in deep learning.  That's the computation technology that is driving the artificial intelligence revolution. Chris is the co-host of the Practical AI podcast, produced by Changelog Media, designed to make artificial intelligence practical, productive, and accessible to everyone.  He's the founder and organizer of the Atlanta Deep Learning Meetup, one of the largest AI communities in the world, with nearly 2,000 members.  Chris, it's great to have you here on our podcast. CHRIS BENSON:  Thank you very much.  Happy to be here. NICK WALKER:  Could we start off by just defining for our listeners what artificial intelligence is? CHRIS BENSON:  So artificial intelligence means a lot of different things to a lot of different people.  In my view it's really a marketing word more than it is anything else because over the years the definition of artificial intelligence has changed and evolved.  So what you might have thought of in the 1980s is vastly different from what it is in 2018.  So before I define it, I want to point out I was in a group of artificial intelligence experts that Adobe was hosting about six weeks ago.  And in doing that, they asked us all that same question; and all 10 of us gave 10 different answers. ANDY CROWE:  Well, and the joke is, if you ask two economists for a definition, you get three answers. CHRIS BENSON:  Absolutely. ANDY CROWE:  Same idea, huh. CHRIS BENSON:  Yup.  So it was very much that.  So I wanted to note that.  Take what I say with a grain of salt. ANDY CROWE:  What do you think it is, yeah. CHRIS BENSON:  So what I think it is, is a narrow definition.  I would consider that in 2018 artificial intelligence is synonymous with deep learning, which is the application of deep neural networks. ANDY CROWE:  Interesting.  Well, learning is certainly a part of AI that I think that's almost a universal component that goes across most definitions.  Most definitions talk about the ability to imitate intelligence and things like that, imitate human intellect.  But that ability to learn and grow as a neural network is an interesting part of it.  So how do machines learn? CHRIS BENSON:  So there's different techniques.  And those all broadly fall under the definition of machine learning.  The thing that separates deep learning, which is how I'm defining AI, from the rest is that it can take an enormous number of inputs – we call them “features” in data science – and process them in a highly nonlinear manner and give inferences, which are essentially probabilistic predictions on what the answer might be. For instance, to make it real:  If you have machine vision, and you are putting a cat in front of the camera, and it will come back and identify that it thinks it's a cat.  It might come back 97 percent.  But the difference is these technologies aren't going to come back with 100 percent.  They're probabilistic technologies.  But they can make these identifications using a model that is many orders of magnitude ...

NICK WALKER:  Welcome to Manage This, the podcast by project managers for project managers.  It's our chance to meet with you and discuss what really matters in the world of project management, whether you're new to the field or have been doing it for decades.  We want to encourage you and challenge you, to cheer you on and help you avoid some of the pitfalls that can come along the way.  We talk to the experts, people who have gone before us, so we can benefit from their experiences and their successes. I'm your host, Nick Walker, and with me are the guys who make it all happen here, Andy Crowe and Bill Yates. ANDY CROWE:  Nick, it's great to be here today, and I'm really excited about this ‘cast. NICK WALKER:  Okay.  Spoiler alert, it's very possible that we're going to laugh some today.  Our guest is Sean Glaze, an author, speaker, and teambuilding facilitator who is all about inspiring groups to have fun laughing together so they can have more success working together.  He's the author of three books:  “The Unexpected Leader,” “Rapid Teamwork,” and “The 10 Commandments of Winning Teammates.” Sean has been a successful basketball coach, an educator for more than 20 years, and in that time has gained some valuable insights into how to develop winning teams.  He's the founder of Great Results Teambuilding, which he uses to share those lessons all over the country, through entertaining speaking engagements and teambuilding events.  Sean, thanks for joining us here on Manage This. SEAN GLAZE:  Appreciate it, Nick.  Looking forward to being here and sharing some great information with your audience. NICK WALKER:  Sean, I'm always fascinated how skills developed in one area can transfer over into others.  For example, when did you realize that the lessons you've learned from years of coaching basketball could translate well to business leaders? SEAN GLAZE:  That is a tremendous question.  And honestly, it was probably about eight years into my coaching career when I realized I wasn't as good a coach as I thought.  I had spent most of that first decade as a coach, like many project leaders, like many team leaders regardless of industry, focused on strategy.  And for basketball, that's X's and O's, and that's skill development and strategy.  And you realize after you go through a couple of seasons where you know you've not gotten as much out of your talent as you should have that there's something missing.  And what I had neglected for nearly a decade was culture. And everybody has probably heard culture eats strategy for breakfast, but as a young coach I had never heard that.  But I certainly lived it.  And so the eye-opening mirror moment for me was recognizing, at the end of a really tough losing season, I'm going to have to change if I want my team to change.  And leading teams as a project manager, as a coach, you realize that strategy is what you want to do.  Culture determines how well your people are going to do it.  And so the relationships and connections that I then began to focus on made us far more successful in the future.  And I realized that what I had done with my team could hopefully help other leaders with their teams, regardless of athletics or business or others. ANDY CROWE:  You know, as I listen to this, Sean, I'm thinking, strategy you could change over a long weekend.  But culture is a slow turning ship a lot of times to turn that around.  And especially if you've got a toxic culture or a problematic culture, to reframe that in a positive way takes a lot of time and tremendous energy. SEAN GLAZE:  Absolutely.  And that's something I think first as a leader you need to know what it is you want.  Because if I don't have clarity about what I want my culture to be and what actually constitutes culture, I can't deliver that or influence that on my team.  So a lot of my growth as a leader was me educating myself.  And hopefully those are some things that I'll be able to share toda...

"I always like to say that common sense and respect get you about 90 percent there to avoid sexual harassment claims." - Sarah Lamar NICK WALKER:  Welcome to Manage This, the podcast by project managers for project managers.  Every two weeks we meet and talk about what matters to you as a professional project manager.  Whether you're a newcomer to the field or a seasoned professional, we offer opinions, advice, and real-life experiences from those who are right there in the trenches right now and those who have been there before. I'm your host, Nick Walker, and with me are two who have been there before and lived to tell about it, Andy Crowe and Bill Yates.  And today, Andy, we're going to lay down the law when it comes to business and corporate environments. ANDY CROWE:  You know what, Nick, we're really fortunate to have an expert in an area that's on a lot of people's minds these days. NICK WALKER:  Our guest is Sarah Lamar, a partner with the Savannah law firm of HunterMaclean, where she practices in the area of employment law.  Sarah has experience in state and federal courts in the areas of discrimination, harassment, wage-hour questions, breach of contract, and tort claims.  She also conducts in-house training for employers and advises clients on a variety of employment law issues, including immigration and affirmative action. She received her B.A. degree from Yale University and her law degree from Emory University.  Sarah is currently the co-chair of the State of Georgia Society for Human Resource Management: Government Affairs Committee; and a past chair of Alpha International, a global legal networking organization.  Sarah, it is a privilege to have you here with us on Manage This. SARAH LAMAR:  Well, thank you.  I'm thrilled to be here. NICK WALKER:  Now, there are so many topics that we hope to get into, and we could get into right off the bat.  But maybe this would be a good place to start.  We've seen over the past year so many publicized cases of sexual harassment and discrimination as more individuals come forward with complaints.  Is this a problem that is becoming more widespread, or is it just simply the reporting and the prosecution of it that's increased? SARAH LAMAR:  Well, that's a good question.  I think that for the most part this is an issue that has just been more widely reported, and the awareness of harassment has increased over the last, really, only since about October 15th, which was when the #MeToo movement went viral.  And in fact it had been a movement.  It was a thing before October 15th.  The movement #MeToo was started in ‘06 by an activist trying to address sexual harassment and abuse.  But when the actress Alyssa Milano tweeted on October 15th words to the effect of, “If you've been harassed or abused, tweet back #MeToo,” that's when it really took off and went viral.  And that tweet was about a complaint regarding Harvey Weinstein that had been reported in the media. NICK WALKER:  Do you think there are still some people who don't really understand what sexual harassment is?  I mean, is there a working definition we can go with? SARAH LAMAR:  Well, yes.  There's a working legal definition.  And I'll spare you the legal geekdom on all of that.  But the essence of it is that someone is subject to unwelcome harassment, unwelcome behavior based on sex, that creates a severe and pervasive change in their working environment.  And then there has to be a way for the employer to become liable.  That's the definition that comes from federal civil rights law.  There are some other definitions that come into play with criminal law or other claims.  But that's the fundamental definition.  Were you subjected to unwelcome conduct that severely and pervasively interfered with your working environment?  And essentially was the employer involved, or did they know about it? NICK WALKER:  Now, this is something obviously that project managers need to be aware of.

NICK WALKER:  Welcome to Manage This, the podcast by project managers for project managers.  This is our every-other-week time to meet and discuss what matters to you as a professional in the field of project management.  We talk about trends in the profession.  We share opinions and perspectives.  And we pick the brains of some of the best in the business, getting to the heart of what motivates them and what makes them successful. I'm your host, Nick Walker, and with me is the one who is never hesitant to share his opinion, Andy Crowe.  Bill Yates is on vacation; so Andy, it's all on you today. ANDY CROWE:  And I've got an opinion about Bill choosing to take a vacation, but yeah. NICK WALKER:  Uh-huh.  Well, today we are privileged to talk with someone who has built her reputation on bringing out the best in people.  Kim Brainard is a trainer, a coach, a facilitator, and consultant.  It is her passion to help organizations and individuals develop a vision for their potential growth and development.  Through her company, Agile Brain, she utilizes creative tactics and street-style coaching that brings out the best in people.  Kim has over eight years of Agile experience, and 15 years of experience in IT project planning, implementation, and execution.  She is a certified Scrum professional and an active participant in the Scrum Alliance community Kim is also the founder of Santa Pays It Forward, a nonprofit organization committed to giving back to elderly men and women who are without family and in need.  She implements the Scrum framework and Agile principles to make the organization successful.  Kim joins us from the Washington, D.C. area.  And Kim, thank you so much for being here on Manage This. KIM BRAINARD:  Andy and Nick, thank you so much for having me.  Happy Monday. NICK WALKER:  Over the years, Kim, you have become what some people have called the “People Whisperer,” connecting with people on an intimate, individual level.  What is it about your techniques that have earned you that name? KIM BRAINARD:  So it's very interesting.  In fact, I just had a meeting last week with someone I had interviewed for a position with a client.  And one of the things they said was, “Well, we felt maybe you would never act that way or be that way in front of a client.”  And I said, “Oh, I'm sorry, which way is that?”  And they said, “Well, you were a little goofy, and it almost just seemed like I was sitting down with you, and we were just having a good time.  Would you really act that way at a client site?”  I said, “Absolutely.” That's why I say I'm a little unconventional, because it's about humanizing work.  Sometimes we get dressed up in our three-piece suits and our heels, and we go out, especially in the D.C. area, and we speak one way, but we mean the other.  And what I mean about meaning the other is humanizing what we do and say.  And so we all get dressed and go in to work, but let's not forget to be human.  And so my approach to things is let's sit down and form relationships and build relationships.  Let's get to know one another so we can have a sense of trust.  And so that's what it's – it's just whispering, “Let's be human to one another.” ANDY CROWE:  You know, Kim, I started my career when I was in college, co-oping with IBM.  And that was a really amazing experience.  But it's funny because I did not at that point get the importance of being human.  It almost felt like everybody there was on their “A” game all the time, that they were so incredibly professional.  And again, this is in the '80s, and things have changed with IBM.  IBM's an amazingly resilient and adaptive organization, so they aren't the same as they were then.  But I was intimidated to no end.  And I never wanted to bring anything personal into that office.  I was all work, all the time. KIM BRAINARD:  Oh, yeah. NICK WALKER:  It seems like this is almost a paradigm shift maybe for some organizations.  Is it?

MIKE GOSS:  I believe that everything in life in one way or another is a project.  So if that's true, how do I increase my chances of it being successful, and who can I help with it? NICK WALKER:  Welcome to Manage This, the podcast by project managers for project managers.  Every two weeks we get together to talk about the ins and outs of project management and what matters to you as a professional in the field.  We'll talk with some of the leaders in project management to find out what motivates them, what drives them to succeed, and to get some encouragement and inspiration from them. I'm your host, Nick Walker, and with me are the two main motivators around here, Andy Crowe and Bill Yates.  And Bill, today we have with us via Skype someone who has made it a life goal to inspire people. BILL YATES:  Yeah.  And Mike, I'm excited about having you on this ‘cast because you've been entertaining our operations team for weeks and weeks and weeks.  I can always tell when they're on the phone with you, so I'm looking forward to this. NICK WALKER:  Well, let's meet Mike.  He has held sales and leadership positions with four multinational companies, several small and mid-size businesses, and three of his own businesses.  He's an accomplished sales trainer, a project management trainer, contract project manager, speaker, and author.  And one of Mike's lifetime goals is to reach 10 million people with a message of hope and inspiration.  Today he'll get a little closer to that goal right here in our studio.  Mike, via Skype from Portland, Oregon, it's great to have you with us here on Manage This. MIKE GOSS:  Well, I'm honored to be here.  I'm glad I was invited because this – Velociteach, Andy Crowe, Bill Yates – this is the big-time.  I got invited to the big-time.  Hallelujah. NICK WALKER:  Well, you know, that goal of reaching 10 million people might seem unusual to a lot of people.  Why did you set that particular goal? MIKE GOSS:  A few years ago I had open heart surgery.  I had chest pains and didn't tell my wife.  And when she finally found out, things happened, and suddenly I'm having a five-way heart bypass.  When I woke up, I checked around, and I said, “I'm still alive.”  I wiggled my toes.  They're still working.  I tried my fingers.  They're still working.  I couldn't talk because they had these huge things down my throat.  But I thought, you know, I must be here for a reason.  God must still not be done with me. So I set a goal to see how many people I could enrich.  And if you're going to make a goal, you might as well make a big one.  I didn't set out to enrich 10 people.  I set out to enrich 10 million in one way or another.  And when I speak or when I create a course or when I'm teaching boot camps, it's all about making the other person better off.  I want to be able to say I did something; I made my mark by helping others. NICK WALKER:  Well, let's go way back.  Way back, I guess, even when the first little seeds of your career began to be planted.  You had the nickname of “Otis” in junior high school and in high school.  Tell us why. MIKE GOSS:  I lived in Pendleton, which had a total of four elevators – Pendleton, Oregon.  But I was always fascinated by the box moving up and down with people or materials in it, the counterweight behind it, all the mechanical and electronic things that had to happen to make it work.  I was fascinated with it, and I always talked about it.  My friends got very tired of listening to it.  I made scale model elevators and entered them in science fair projects.  It just went on and on.  And eventually I got to work for my dream company, Otis Elevator. NICK WALKER:  As a matter of fact, I understand one of your usernames is ElevatorFan.  Would that be true of you? MIKE GOSS:  Well, yes.  When I was setting up my account in Skype it said, “What handle do you want?”  And I, well, thinking Otis, somebody took Otis.  So I said ElevatorFan.

NICK WALKER:  Welcome to Manage This, the podcast by project managers for project managers.  Every couple of weeks we meet to discuss what matters to you in the wide and diverse field of project management.  It's our chance to reflect on our purpose; to take stock in how we're doing; and, when needed, challenge ourselves to step it up.  We talk with project managers about real-life situations.  We pick their brains to discover their ideas and motivations and find out what has worked for them. I'm your host, Nick Walker, and with me are the two main brains of the outfit, Andy Crowe and Bill Yates.  And today, Andy, we're talking with the guy who literally wrote the book on measuring strategic gold. ANDY CROWE:  Nick, I have been looking forward to this all week, just to get into the topic of strategy, to look at it; and to also look at it from a project management standpoint. NICK WALKER:  Well, let's get right to it.  Joining us via Skype is David Barrett, a professional speaker, a regular blogger, a podcast host, an education advisor, and author of five books.  His career includes the creation and directing of a conference business; a training company; a software development firm; a speakers bureau; and, most recently, a TED-style event series for project professionals across North America.  He specializes in helping people and organizations manage the uncertainty by creating healthy projects and strategies.  David Barrett, thanks so much for joining us today here on Manage This. DAVID BARRETT:  I'm thrilled to be here, gentlemen.  Great to join you. NICK WALKER:  You've recently coauthored a new book, coming out just in a few days, titled “Seven Elements of Strategy Execution.”  David, what prompted this book?  How did it come about? DAVID BARRETT:  Well, 25, almost 30 years later into this business, and things have changed a lot.  It's no longer build it on time, on scope, on budget for all of us project managers.  The day is now here where we're being asked to step it up, to be more involved in the organization, to add value, and to be more than just the tickbox project manager that many of us grew up to know.  So this whole piece of strategy is, in my mind, a natural evolution on many different fronts.  I think it's now to everyone's benefit, to everyone's favor to start understanding why we're doing the work we're doing. And this portfolio of work that we're managing and working on is huge.  It's mission critical.  It's driving the business.  And so the day has come that we're being asked, and we should be asking, why are we doing this?  How does it fit into the strategic plan?  So this is the connection of the work of all of us, of this wonderful community of project managers worldwide, to the “why.”  In my opinion, just to that one word.  Why are we doing this?  How does this fit into the bigger picture?  And that's a strategic plan. ANDY CROWE:  I've heard it said before, David, that a man with a “why” can defeat a man with a “what” any day. DAVID BARRETT:  Absolutely.  The “what” is important.  The “what” is important to know, to see that vision down at the end of the road.  But just to drive us down to some object is not going to work.  It never has.  It never will.  But to give us purpose to build, which gives us passion for what we are doing, it's so important today.  You know, we're no longer staying with these organizations for many days, for our lives.  We have options.  So on both fronts it's important that we're connected. BILL YATES:  That's true.  David, I've seen this with PMI, as well.  They've really, as they look at the performance that leads to exceptional project managers, those who are able to recognize the why, to see that context and understand how strategy influences their day-to-day decisions, they bring more value to their organization.  I think even of the Talent Triangle when PMI rolled that out.  Strategy is really, you know, it's named a little bit differently.

NICK WALKER:  Welcome to Manage This, the podcast by project managers for project managers.  Every other week we meet in an effort to get to the heart of what matters to you as a professional project manager.  We do that by talking with some of the leaders in the field, sharing their successes and sometimes their failures.  And we dig deep to find out what motivates them to be at their best. I'm your host, Nick Walker, and with me are two guys who are always at their best, Andy Crowe and Bill Yates.  Andy, our guest in the studio today will be familiar to football fans, but he's actually moved on to a different field. ANDY CROWE:  Yeah, and we've got a lot of energy in this small podcast studio today, though.  We're kind of bursting at the seams.  It's a good thing. NICK WALKER:  But you know it's not every day that we can refer to a former NFL star as “Doctor.” TOMMY JACKSON:  Ah, that's what I'm told, that's what I'm told. NICK WALKER:  Yeah, but Dr. Tommy Jackson was a defensive tackle for the Atlanta Falcons and the Kansas City Chiefs.  He now serves as the Director of Advising for University College at Kennesaw State University.  Jackson holds five university degrees.  Count ‘em:  a Master of Business Administration, Master of Public Administration, Bachelor of Arts in Public Administration, a Master of Education, and a Doctorate in Philosophy and Adult Education with Higher Education Administration. TOMMY JACKSON:  A lot of “tions,” right. NICK WALKER:  Yeah, yeah. ANDY CROWE:  That's a long business card, my friend. BILL YATES:  It's typical for a football player. NICK WALKER:  Of course, yeah, exactly. TOMMY JACKSON:  That's why you just put “T.J.” on the card.  It makes it so much easier. NICK WALKER:  Well, you know, as a student at Auburn University, Dr. Jackson received an All-SEC honor both in football and in academics.  As a television sports analyst, he's been nominated for an Emmy Award.  And in between his work in education he was also the program director for the at-risk student program within the city school system in Opelika, Alabama, his hometown.  Dr. Tommy Jackson, it's a pleasure to have you with us here on Manage This. TOMMY JACKSON:  I am so glad to be here. Thank you for having me. Truly, truly. NICK WALKER:  You had a stellar career in football, both at Auburn University and for two NFL teams.  And in that career you developed, should I say, a reputation for destroying your opponents on the field.  But also you have a passion for building people up. TOMMY JACKSON:  Yeah. NICK WALKER:  And helping them succeed in life.  How do you sort of reconcile those two extremes? TOMMY JACKSON:  You know, because it's very funny, you have to basically have the same mentality for both, whether you know that or not; right?  And people are like, wait, what do you mean?  Hold on, I'm going to explain it. No, working with people is something that takes a lot of – it takes having a passion for it.  And that's something I've always had, whether it was playing football, whether it was working with students, you have to have a great passion for it because in order for you to be successful at anything, you have to have a high degree of passion, and you have to have a high degree of education.  And that doesn't necessarily mean degrees from that standpoint.  But it's like having an understanding of what you're doing.  That's what really – that's what buys your credibility.  People are able to say, “Ah, he's done it.  He'll do it.”  And these are just things I've done over life. So, yeah, I enjoy football that way.  I was always in the classroom.  I was always looking at video.  I was always studying my opponent.  And it's the same thing you do when you work at a university or you work in the private sector.  You're going to study.  You're going to study your opponents.  You're going to study everything you do. BILL YATES:  Can we call you Tommy?

NICK WALKER:  Welcome to Manage This, the podcast by project managers for project managers.  We take time every couple of weeks to get together and talk about what matters to you as a professional project manager.  It's one of the ways we try to keep the fires burning, keep you motivated, and keep you at your best.  And one of the ways we do that is by talking with people who are out there doing the stuff of project management, people who don't just watch things happen, but make things happen. I'm your host, Nick Walker, and with me are two guys who are always making something happen, and it's usually good stuff, Andy Crowe and Bill Yates.  Andy, our guest in the studio brings a wealth of knowledge in the fields of technology and education today. ANDY CROWE:  Nick, one of the best things about this job is we get to interact with some really bright people.  And I think we've taken that up a notch today. NICK WALKER:  Yeah, no doubt about that.  Dr. Elke Leeds is the Associate Vice President of Academic Affairs responsible for technology-enhanced learning at Kennesaw State University, north of Atlanta, the third largest university in the state of Georgia.  Before taking on that duty, she played a key role in developing the first online degree program at Kennesaw State.  She holds a Ph.D. in Information Systems and is actively engaged in research relating to student retention, engagement strategies, and teaching competencies.  Dr. Leeds, thanks for joining us here on Manage This. ELKE LEEDS: Oh, Nick, my pleasure. NICK WALKER:  Well, first let's talk a little bit about Kennesaw State University because it doesn't have the maybe national reputation on the national stage of the... ANDY CROWE:  Easy, Nick, you're talking about my alma mater here. NICK WALKER:  Oh, is that right?  Oh, okay. ELKE LEEDS:  Let's go with “not yet,” or maybe it's got more of a... NICK WALKER:  Yet, not yet. BILL YATES:  They're not on ESPN as much. NICK WALKER:  That's right, exactly.  I mean, football fans... ELKE LEEDS:  ESPN3.  We're on ESPN3. ANDY CROWE:  Yeah, and we won our conference in football this year.  So, yeah, let's... BILL YATES:  Okay, okay. NICK WALKER:  All right, okay.  Sorry.  All right, sorry.  Okay.  Didn't mean to offend here.  But granted, okay, football fans nationwide, they know the University of Georgia, the football powerhouse traditionally at Georgia Tech.  But Kennesaw State University in terms of number of students is just right up there. ELKE LEEDS:  Nick, we've got over 36,000 students right now.  We've grown, in the last 15 years since I've been there, from 15 to 36-plus thousand students, 10 academic degree-granting colleges, national prominence in business and cybersecurity, engineering, nursing.  The institution is just amazing.  And we've actually just learned we have one of the highest conversion rates from applicants to acceptances.  When students apply to Kennesaw State, they are intent on coming here. NICK WALKER:  So it's grown, obviously.  I mean, people here in the area have seen the growth right before their very eyes.  But it's also grown in terms of a merger with another local university, and you were a big part of that. ELKE LEEDS:  Yup.  Kennesaw State is what we, I guess back in 2013, when – and we call it a “consolidation.”  I think the system really didn't want to think of it as a merger.  They wanted to think about two institutions coming together to form a new university.  And that's Southern Polytechnic State University, which is about 10 miles south of Kennesaw off of I‑75, and Kennesaw State University.  So it really took two incredibly fine institutions and made them one much larger, much more prominent, and much more impactful institution. NICK WALKER:  And in your position, obviously, you were right in the thick of that from the very beginning. ELKE LEEDS:  I was right in the thick of that.

NICK WALKER:  Welcome to Manage This, the podcast by project managers for project managers.  This is our every-other-week meeting to talk about what matters to you as a professional project manager.  Our aim is not just to help you survive, but also help you grow in your talent and your influence.  We talk to those who have been through the wringer and come out on top, people who want to share their successes and their failures with you. I'm your host, Nick Walker, and with me are two success stories, Andy Crowe and Bill Yates.  And Andy, we welcome back to Manage This a friend and a colleague. ANDY CROWE:  Yeah, Alan Zucker.  I'm excited he's back here.  The last time we were talking about Agile specifically, and this time we're diving into something kind of interesting that's near and dear to my heart. NICK WALKER:  Well, for those who don't know him, Alan Zucker holds numerous certifications.  He's a certified Project Management Professional, is an ITIL Foundation certificate holder, a Scrum Master, a scale Agilest, and an Agile Certified Practitioner.  He has more than 25 years of experience as a leader in Fortune 100 companies.  He's delivered thousands of successful projects for them and managed multimillion dollar programs with hundreds of resources.  In 2016 he founded Project Management Essentials to provide training and advisory services.  He is frequently called on as a keynote speaker and is also an adjunct instructor at Northern Virginia Community College. Alan, welcome back to Manage This. ALAN ZUCKER:  It's really a pleasure to be here. NICK WALKER:  There's something I believe most of us share, and that is the fact that we're busy; we're active; we're constantly creating something.  But unlike a product that we can hold in our hand, what we create is less tangible.  It's hard to see.  Kind of reminds me, in contrast, of my first real job.  When I was a teenager I worked in the mailroom of a local community newspaper.  Our product was obvious.  You could see it; feel it; read it.  It rubbed off on you in more ways than one. But not every paper was fit to send out.  Some of them were smudged.  Some of them were torn, wrinkled.  And at the end of the day we gathered up the waste and tossed it.  Like our product, our waste was easy to identify.  We knew exactly how many papers came off the press, exactly how many we had to throw away.  But how do you measure waste in this intangible world of project management? ALAN ZUCKER:  You know, it's really interesting.  There's a big movement afoot, which is the Lean movement.  You know, when Lean came to us from manufacturing, particularly from Toyota... ANDY CROWE:  Toyota. ALAN ZUCKER:  Yeah, Toyota Lean Manufacturing Model.  And when you're talking about cars, waste is clear.  Waste is inventory.  Waste is transport.  Waste is the scrap that they throw away at the end of the day.  When we're talking about knowledge work, it's really harder to see waste and to manage waste.  And a lot of times when people talk about waste in knowledge work they try to use the analogy, say, of manufacturing.  They talk about transport and inventory and scrap, and it really doesn't carry over that well. And so when we talk about waste in knowledge work, there's eight or nine different forms of waste.  And it's things such as extra features.  It's work that's started that's never finished because you start work; you put forth effort; but until that's a final product in your boss's hands – it's either software that you've developed, it's that presentation, it's that report – it doesn't provide any value. Heroics is another big form of waste, and we see that in a lot of cultures where you've got that hero culture, and you've got one person that's the hero, and that's the go-to person.  And we all love the hero.  In a lot of cultures we love the hero.  But what you've got is you've got one hero, and you've got the rest of the team that's not working.

NICK WALKER:  Welcome to Manage This, the podcast by project managers for project managers.  Every two weeks we meet up to talk about what really matters to you as a professional project manager.  We're dedicated to helping you grow, to help you get better at your job.  And we do that in several ways.  We interview guests who are managing challenging projects in the real world, and we learn from their real-life experiences.  We share tips and tools and trends from authors and experts in the field of project management and program management.  We want to help you reach that next step. I'm your host, Nick Walker, and with me are two guys who have enough real-life experience that we could spend hours picking their brains, Andy Crowe and Bill Yates.  And Andy, we're always on the lookout to help project managers improve, and we're devoting today's podcast to the subject of certifications. ANDY CROWE:  Yeah, the credential, the PMP Exam.  And you know what, Nick, it's fun because this really does impact people's lives in some significant and measurable ways. NICK WALKER:  Now, the Project Management Institute released a Sixth Edition of the PMBOK Guide in September of 2017.  The PMP Exam changes on March 26, 2018.  So today we're going to focus on two main topics:  an update on the changes found in the Sixth Edition, and some practical advice and tips for those who want to pass the exam. And to do that, to help us out today we have another expert joining us, Louis Alderman.  He has a lot of letters after his name:  MBA, PMP, PMI-ACP, and CSM.  He's the Manager of Curriculum Development at Velociteach.  Louis, thanks so much for joining us today. LOUIS ALDERMAN:  Thank you, Nick.  It's a pleasure to be here. NICK WALKER:  Now, before we dive in, I'm just wondering if you can talk a little bit more about your role at Velociteach. LOUIS ALDERMAN:  Well, you mentioned my title is Manager of Curriculum Development.  My role is to do anything and everything that it takes to accomplish that that is not illegal or immoral. NICK WALKER:  Good, good. LOUIS ALDERMAN:  My background is engineering and project management, and I've enjoyed bringing all of those skills and abilities to Velociteach.  I've been here since 2005 developing curriculum.  And it's a lot of fun. NICK WALKER:  Well, we're so glad you're with us today.  And so let's dive right in.  Let's talk about the new and much bigger PMBOK Guide.  Bill? ANDY CROWE:  Holding it in my hands here right now, Nick. BILL YATES:  It's big. NICK WALKER:  Okay, guys.  How much bigger are we talking about? ANDY CROWE:  It's bigger.  It's significantly bigger.  It's about 30 percent bigger.  So the Fifth Edition, just page count, had 589 pages.  The Sixth Edition, a whopping 756 pages.  And Louis did some analysis on the inputs, tools, techniques, and outputs. LOUIS ALDERMAN:  I did, Andy.  You know, officially there are 665 instances of inputs, tools and techniques, and outputs.  But some of those tools are groups of tools.  If you include all of the sub-tools in those categories, the total actually goes up to a whopping 1,444. BILL YATES:  Whoa. ANDY CROWE:  It is whopping, and I don't think you can really do an honest analysis without counting them that way.  I mean, we've looked at it and sliced it and diced it a number of ways.  Fourteen hundred and forty-four, it's incredible. BILL YATES:  You know, a quick example of that, like you look at data analysis, that's one of the top levels.  But then underneath that you've got all these other types of analysis. LOUIS ALDERMAN:  Okay.  Let me be the engineer here.  Twenty-seven different types of analysis in that category. ANDY CROWE:  Twenty-seven types.  So that's how you get to 1,444. LOUIS ALDERMAN:  It really mushrooms. BILL YATES:  Man, that's a lot. NICK WALKER:  So let's get started.  We've got a long way to go, 1,444 items to talk about.  Let's take them one by one.

NICK WALKER:  Welcome to Manage This, the podcast by project managers for project managers.  Every other week we meet to discuss the things that matter to professional project managers and those who aspire to the position.  The reason we're here is not only to encourage and challenge you, but to show what others are doing in the field so you can find some takeaways to apply to your own situation.  We do that by getting inside the heads of some of the people who are making a difference in project management. I'm your host, Nick Walker, and with me are the two guys who have been making a difference in the field for some time, Andy Crowe and Bill Yates.  And Andy, today we are crossing the pond to get a British perspective on project management. ANDY CROWE:  But you know what, Nick, it's a really timely topic, as well, because we're talking about collaboration, collaboration tools.  And I think in a lot of ways it just illustrates the fact that we're talking to someone thousands of miles away in real-time.  And it kind of underscores the point, doesn't it. NICK WALKER:  It is mindboggling, when you think about it.  We're Skyping today with Elizabeth Harrin.  She's the award-winning blogger behind GirlsGuidetoPM.com.  She has over 15 years' experience in leading IT, business change, and process improvement projects in the U.K. and in France.  Today she works in healthcare and also runs her own company providing copywriting services to project-related businesses.  Elizabeth is the author of four books:  “Communicating Change,” “Shortcuts to Success:  Project Management in the Real World,” “Collaboration Tools for Project Managers,” and “Customer-Centric Project Management.”  Elizabeth, thank you so much for joining us on Manage This. ELIZABETH HARRIN:  Well, thank you very much for having me on your podcast today.  It does feel like I'm in the room with you, even though we're miles away. NICK WALKER:  Well, I wonder if you could help our listeners get to know you just a little bit better.  Can you quickly give us a rundown of your experience as a project manager? ELIZABETH HARRIN:  I've done lots of different things in my role as a project manager over the years.  But I think that's helped because I started out as a project manager.  I know lots of people come to the job later in life, or later in their careers, having found that their expertise lends itself to moving into that kind of role.  Whereas for me, I was lucky enough to identify that project management was a real job quite early on after I'd left university and was able to choose that as a career path.  So I'm one of the few people who perhaps are not accidental project managers who started out on this pathway.  So I suppose my experience has really grown from that and from a love of what it can offer me in my job. NICK WALKER:  We're so glad that you recognize that project management is a real job.  That's great. ELIZABETH HARRIN:  Well, who told you that when you were at school?  People told me I could be a vet or an astronaut or, you know, the Prime Minister.  But nobody said, oh, you could be a project manager.  It's not one of the career options that I even knew existed before I went to work in business and saw that there were teams of people managing projects.  And I thought, yeah, I can do that. NICK WALKER:  So as a project manager, what industries and subject matters were your projects touching? ELIZABETH HARRIN:  Well, I started out in financial services, so I worked mainly on internal communications projects, doing things like Intranets and supporting more experienced project managers on some of the projects that they were running with financial and IT elements, working in IT.  Most of my career has been in IT, but delivering business change.  So I'm a big believer in the fact there's no real thing as IT projects.  We deliver – we use IT as a way to serve the business.  Business projects within IT elements is mainly what I've be...

NICK WALKER:  Welcome to Manage This, the podcast by project managers for project managers.  Every couple of weeks we meet and discuss what matters to you as a professional project manager.  We get into the nitty-gritty, the real stuff of the job.  And we do it by talking with some of the greatest minds in the business, people who have seen it all and lived to tell about it. I'm your host, Nick Walker, and with me are two guys who will be the first to tell you that yes, you can live to tell about it:  Andy Crowe and Bill Yates.  And Bill, we here at Manage This have reached a milestone and lived to tell about it.  We're celebrating our 50th podcast today, and there's no sign of stopping. BILL YATES:  Isn't it amazing?  Fifty.  To go back and look at the conversations that we've had, it's just amazing that we've piled up 50 of them. ANDY CROWE:  When you're married, you have a golden anniversary at 50.  So maybe we should think about that. NICK WALKER:  We're golden, yeah. ANDY CROWE:  Yeah. NICK WALKER:  Well, to help us celebrate, we have in the studio today someone close to the heart of the Velociteach organization, and with good reason.  Alan Zucker has more than 25 years of experience as a leader in Fortune 100 companies.  He has delivered thousands of successful projects for them and managed multimillion dollar programs with hundreds of resources.  In 2016 he founded Project Management Essentials to provide training and advisory services.  He holds numerous certifications.  He's a certified project management professional, is an ITIL Foundation certificate holder, a Scrum Master, a scale Agilist, and an Agile-certified practitioner.  He's frequently called on as a keynote speaker and is also an adjunct professor at Northern Virginia Community College. Alan, welcome to Manage This.  Now, you are knee-deep in a world that for many is probably still a little foreign.  I'm talking about the world of Agile practices.  And I need to confess right off the bat that this world is not just outside my playing field, but it's on a different planet from my playing field.  What is it about Agile that makes it so different? ALAN ZUCKER:  You know, I think the really interesting thing about Agile is, if you step back, it's sort of how we learned to play as kids.  You know, when we were kids, you'd go to the beach, and you'd make a sand castle.  You wouldn't, like, yeah, maybe draw a couple lines in the sand and say “This is where we're going to be,” and “This is where we're going to digging.”  We didn't have detailed plans.  And you just start building.  It's like, yeah, I like that.  Let's build a little bit more over here and a little bit over there. And that's sort of the way Agile is.  And I think there's a real natural rhythm to Agile.  And I think that particularly, when you look at traditional project management Waterfall, it became very rigid and became very highly structured, and it really wasn't effective in terms of particularly developing software, which was really most of my background. NICK WALKER:  So if Agile is the way you describe trying to get into a kid's mind, it seems like it might be intuitive.  Have we sort of learned to not be like a kid anymore?  Have we grown up too much? ALAN ZUCKER:  You know, I think so.  I mean, I go back, and I think about my own experience.  I came to project management – I have a master's degree in economics.  And my first job out of school I was developing a model for a company, developed it in Lotus 123 Release A, a million years ago. ANDY CROWE:  Wow, we're going back. ALAN ZUCKER:  I'm older than Bill. BILL YATES:  Barely. ALAN ZUCKER:  And, you know, the way Bill did, I was working with a guy.  I was an economist.  I was working with a guy who was a senior economist.  And I'd build a little bit, and I'd show it to him, and I'd build a little bit, and we'd fix it, and we'd test it, and I'd learn new functionality,

NICK WALKER:  Welcome to Manage This, the podcast by project managers for project managers.  Every other week we meet to address the issues that matter to you as a professional project manager.  We have something for everyone, whether you've been in the field 30 years or 30 days.  This is where the rubber meets the road.  This is our way of helping you be more productive, more creative in the world of project management. I'm your host, Nick Walker, and with me are two of the most creative and productive guys I know, Andy Crowe and Bill Yates.  And Andy, we have in the studio today not only an expert with some pretty impressive credentials, but also a member of our team. ANDY CROWE:  Yeah, he's an expert, and he's one of our favorite people here.  Bob Mahler's joining us, and I can't wait. NICK WALKER:  Well, let's meet him.  Bob Mahler has more than 20 years of project management experience, beginning as a Green Beret in the Army, serving in Egypt, Kenya, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait.  Later he managed projects in the telecommunications field with Nextel, Nextel Partners, and Sprint Nextel.  He worked on disaster recovery projects during hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma; in response to California's wildfires; and the Virginia Tech shootings, as well as other federal law enforcement projects and with the Department of Homeland Security.  He is the Director of Business Development and an instructor with Velociteach, preparing project managers for the PMP exam.  Bob, it's a privilege to have you here with us on Manage This. BOB MAHLER:  And it's a privilege to be here.  Thank you for that rousing and somewhat fanciful introduction. NICK WALKER:  Well, first of all, we want to thank you for your service to our country and the armed forces.  I'm curious to know how your experience as a Green Beret kind of prepared you for your other roles to come later. BOB MAHLER:  That's an interesting question.  First of all, you're very welcome.  I served because it's amazing what you can do when you're a young 20 year old, and you have no idea that you shouldn't be doing it.  One of the things about being in Special Forces for me was that, while in the regular Army, you're very task focused; and then when you wander off to be more than you have already been, as you do in Special Forces, you become very people focused, relationship focused.  And so that was an easy transition while performing small projects there into the civilian space. NICK WALKER:  And sometimes people focused into very difficult situations that you've been involved in.  I mean, recovery from hurricanes and from wildfires?  That must be a little bit difficult. BOB MAHLER:  Well, the one difficult commonality I find in all of my projects are people.  Without people, all of my projects would probably run very smoothly. ANDY CROWE:  Right.  This would be a good gig if it weren't for the stakeholders; right? BOB MAHLER:  Absolutely correct. NICK WALKER:  Well, let's talk a little bit about this because already I'm impressed with you because Bill has informed me that, not only were you a contributor to the PMBOK Guide, but you were – Bill, what's the wording again? BILL YATES:  A “significant contributor.” NICK WALKER:  A significant contributor. BILL YATES:  And I'm looking, I mean, this is page 652 of the Sixth Edition PMBOK Guide.  So I'm not making this stuff up.  He's a significant contributor. NICK WALKER:  It says so. BOB MAHLER:  Did they spell my name correctly? BILL YATES:  They spelled it correctly, yes. BOB MAHLER:  Then I just have significantly done something.  I wouldn't get too – I wouldn't start singing my praises as far as being a significant contributor because, when they put the word out for volunteers for risk subject matter experts, a total number of four actually responded.  And I think they were just happy to get that many. ANDY CROWE:  And Bob, this is something like those situations where ...

NICK WALKER:  Welcome to Manage This, the podcast by project managers for project managers.  Every two weeks we like to come together and talk about what matters to you, whether you're an experienced expert in the field or a newcomer to project management.  This is our opportunity to take a bold and objective look at where we are in this industry and the role we play in it. I'm your host, Nick Walker, and with me are the guys who have the experience.  They are the in-house experts, Andy Crowe and Bill Yates.  Andy, it is always a treat to have someone in the studio who's a coach, a motivator, a mentor, someone who's out there calling on us to be our best. ANDY CROWE:  It is, Nick.  And this topic is overdue for us.  We've needed to address this for a good while, and I think it's very timely. NICK WALKER:  Well, let's meet our guest.  Monique Russell is an executive consultant helping leaders and teams communicate effectively at work.  As a part of Clear Communication Solutions LLC, she's consulted on marketing and communication strategies with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, other national associations, as well as corporate organizations.  She is a teacher, having taught communications and public speaking at the university level.  A proponent of lifestyle leadership, she hosts an annual Forbes recommended leadership conference, Leadership Alpharetta.  Originally from the beautiful islands of the Bahamas, she loves the ocean, and we're told she's quite fond of sushi.  Monique, thank you so much for being with us here on Manage This. MONIQUE RUSSELL:  It is a pleasure, an honor to be here with you today.  Thank you for having me. NICK WALKER:  Well, first off, we'd like to get to know you a little bit better.  Can you tell us about your experience as an executive coach? MONIQUE RUSSELL:  Well, I will say let's go all the way back to the beautiful islands of the Bahamas. NICK WALKER:  Okay, that sounds good to me. MONIQUE RUSSELL:  I always knew that I was interested in public speaking, and I started early in performing arts, started acting, and moved through high school debating.  And I just loved it so much that I knew I wanted to get on TV.  That was my number one goal.  So I ended up leaving the warm, sunny island and going all the way to St. Cloud, Minnesota. NICK WALKER:  Oh, what a contrast. MONIQUE RUSSELL:  You know about St. Cloud, Minnesota weather; right? NICK WALKER:  It's cold. MONIQUE RUSSELL:  Yes.  So anyway, I studied journalism, and I continued on to marketing and advertising; and I got out, and I hustled, hustled, hustled, trying to get my way in the door, and I couldn't get my way in the door.  So I started off in executive support.  And I didn't know it then, but that was my training ground for what I'm doing today.  I had no idea that what I did then was what I would be doing or connected to what I'm doing today. NICK WALKER:  Well, we are so glad you're with us because I know a lot of people in project management positions tend to be very logical and analytical.  They have a tendency to not get caught up in feelings and emotions on the job.  But you are an expert in the field of emotional intelligence, or EI, where feelings do matter.  And I'm sure there's a lot of project managers listening to this going, “Yes, I need that.”  So how does EI impact the role of the project manager? MONIQUE RUSSELL:  Wow.  You know, EI is like – it's like your warning sign, if you will.  So I want you to think about your gas light in your car.  And when that gas light comes on, and that check engine light comes on, it's like that warning sign that says, hey, something's coming down the pipe.  You need to take action.  So you can ignore it, but sooner or later you're going to end up on the side of the road.  Right? BILL YATES:  Right. MONIQUE RUSSELL:  So EI is like our warning sign.  It's our indication that, okay, something's happening.

  NICK WALKER:  Welcome to Manage This, the podcast by project managers for project managers.  This is our time to meet and talk about what's important to you in the fast-paced, sometimes puzzling, but always compelling world of project management. I'm your host, Nick Walker, and with me are two of the most compelling individuals I know, Andy Crowe and Bill Yates.  And Andy, it looks like we have another first here on Manage This.  This is our first guest to actually have a star named after her. ANDY CROWE:  This is going to be fascinating to dig into today, Nick.  And I'm looking forward to it, not just from the project standpoint, but also just out of pure curiosity about this.  This is really going to be interesting. NICK WALKER:  Well, Tabetha Boyajian is joining us via Skype from Louisiana State University, where she's a professor and astronomer.  She has a degree from the College of Charleston and a Ph.D. from Georgia State University.  She studied the sizes of nearby stars similar to the sun using Georgia State's CHARA array, located at Mount Wilson Observatory in Southern California.  She was awarded a Hubble Fellowship designed to encourage promising scientists in their independent research.  She was the lead author of the 2015 paper titled “Where's the Flux?” which investigated the highly unusual light curve of the star known as Tabby's Star, named in her honor.  Tabetha, it's a privilege to have you with us here on Manage This. TABETHA BOYAJIAN:  Oh, thank you.  It's nice to talk to y'all. NICK WALKER:  Now, before we get into the details of your project, I should say that I recognize the official name of Tabby's Star is KIC 8462852.  But do you mind if we just continue to call it Tabby's Star? TABETHA BOYAJIAN:  Yeah, that's certainly fine.  It doesn't really roll off your tongue when you say KIC 8462852; right? NICK WALKER:  It really doesn't.  But so cool to have a star named after you.  How did that come about? TABETHA BOYAJIAN:  It was probably by accident, I suppose.  The star got, well, the story of it went a little viral.  And a colleague of mine was talking to a reporter; and, instead of saying “KIC 8462852,” he said “Tabby's Star.”  And that reporter put it into print, and then it just kind of caught on after that. NICK WALKER:  Well, if stars can be celebrities, this one surely qualifies because it's been sort of the center of this mystery in science circles.  It seems that every so often the past few months the star has become dimmer, a lot dimmer, sometimes for days at a time.  Can you give us some background on the star and the current project surrounding it? TABETHA BOYAJIAN:  Yeah, well, it all started with the NASA Kepler Mission.  So this was a mission launched in 2009 to find planets around stars.  And what it did is it stared at a single piece of sky for four years straight, taking brightness measurements of over 100,000 stars in that one tiny field.  And it was looking for the chance alignment of a planet to be crossing in front of a star.  So we would see it periodically dim the starlight that we were observing.  And it did that, and it did that very, very well.  And that's how this star was identified, because this star was one of the 100,000 or so that it looked at.  And instead of seeing a periodic small drop in the star's brightness with time, this star had very irregular drops in its brightness. NICK WALKER:  So I know that there have been a lot of theories that have come out about why this is happening, some of them a little maybe farfetched. ANDY CROWE:  Oh, come on, Nick.  Farfetched?  Alien megastructures?  Dyson Spheres?  That's not farfetched. NICK WALKER:  Okay, you said it, you said it. ANDY CROWE:  Or dust clouds, or comets, yeah.  There's a lot of possibility here. BILL YATES:  A dimmer switch. ANDY CROWE:  It's a big universe, and that's the point. BILL YATES:  It is, it is.

NICK WALKER:  Welcome to Manage This, the podcast by project managers for project managers.  It's our every-other-week opportunity to talk about what matters to you, whether your project is a multiyear, multimillion dollar venture, or a short-term undertaking with a small budget.  We want to give you some principles that will work for you wherever you find yourself on the spectrum.  And we do that by talking to people who, like you, find themselves taking the lead on projects big and small. I'm your host, Nick Walker, and with me are a couple of guys who are always thinking big, Andy Crowe and Bill Yates.  Andy, today we're going to get an insider's view on a project that has already made a mark on America's pastime.  We're talking baseball. ANDY CROWE:  Yeah, this is an interesting one for me, Nick.  It's always interesting to see, get insight into a project that's different than anything I've ever managed.  And so I'm thankful to have our guest, Chris Britton, today.  And, by the way, Happy Thanksgiving to our listeners. NICK WALKER:  Well, let's meet him.  Chris Britton is Division Manager at Brasfield and Gorrie, one of the largest privately held construction firms in the nation.  The company has built its reputation on a variety of types of projects, from commercial to educational, aerospace to governmental.  It's a company that prides itself on giving back to the community.  Among the projects they've been involved in are the Georgia Aquarium Dolphin Expansion and Sea Lion Exhibit, the College Football Hall of Fame and Chick-fil-A Fan Experience, and the Emory Sports Medicine Complex.  One of its most recent projects was the two-and-a-half-year-long construction of the new home for the Atlanta Braves baseball team, SunTrust Park.  Chris, it's a pleasure to have you here on Manage This. CHRIS BRITTON:  It's great to be here. NICK WALKER:  Well, let me run through a few statistics on SunTrust Park; okay?  I'm sure you're familiar with all these:  over one million square feet, 41,500 seats, 4,000 club seats, 32 premium suites totaling 144,000 square feet, three club lounges, four seating decks with 90-foot overhangs, 10 escalators, 14 elevators, and that's not the half of it.  This was, in many observers' eyes, at least a five-year project, maybe more.  It was finished in 29 months. CHRIS BRITTON:  That's correct. NICK WALKER:  How did that happen? CHRIS BRITTON:  It happens in 29 months with a lot of planning; right?  So early on in the process Mike Plant, the Atlanta Braves, they hired Populous as the Architect.  Populous has a number of consultants that are part of their project team.  We were brought onboard as the construction manager, and we're actually – it wasn't just Brasfield and Gorrie.  We formed a four-way joint venture which was American Builders 2017, which is Brasfield and Gorrie, Mortenson, Barton Malow, and New South.  We brought four different companies together to be able to build the job.  We got involved early on in the design process. ANDY CROWE:  I want to ask you there, you brought four companies together.  But what was your company's role?  What was Brasfield and Gorrie's role in managing or working with those other companies? CHRIS BRITTON:  Yeah, we were the managing partner, so we were in charge of the joint venture. ANDY CROWE:  I guess that's a fun place to be.  I'm a big fan of the model of one head to pat and one butt to kick.  So you were the one head, and the other end of the equation, as well. CHRIS BRITTON:  That's right, that's right.  So back to the question.  So we got involved early on in the design process of the project.  And Populous, they actually had a pretty big challenge ahead of them because they had a very short period of time to be able to design the project.  And as soon as they started putting those conceptual designs together, we had to start putting costs together on it.  And as those drawings went from conceptual all the way up th...

ANDY CROWE. BILL YATES. NICK WALKER.   NICK WALKER:  Welcome to Manage This, the podcast by project managers for project managers.  Every two weeks we meet to discuss what is important to you, no matter where you fit into the world of project management.  If you're a leader, we want to equip you.  If you're on a project team, we want to encourage you.  This is the place to share ideas, be challenged, and remind one another of what we are capable of when we work together. I'm your host, Nick Walker, and with me are the chief idea cultivators, Andy Crowe and Bill Yates.  Andy, we're going to talk about something that many project managers look forward to with anticipation, and others maybe await with dread. ANDY CROWE:  Yeah, you know, we're going to be talking about the PMBOK Guide today, and specifically the Sixth Edition.  And Nick, I saw something that made me laugh out loud.  When I got my copy in the mail, I opened the package, and the book – the way it was oriented was on the back of the book.  And the very back of the book says “By Project Managers for Project Managers.”  And I thought, somebody's listening to this podcast; right?  It's funny to see ideas creep in.  So, yeah. NICK WALKER:  Yeah, great minds think alike.  Hey, before we start, let's welcome Bill back from a whirlwind trip on the other side of the world.  Tell us, Bill, where have you been? BILL YATES:  Thank you.  It's good to be back.  This was really a bucket list item.  Beth and I have wanted to take a trip down the Rhine River, and so we took a cruise down the Rhine River.  We started, we actually went into Berlin first, had an aunt and uncle there.  So we spent some time in Berlin and then started in Amsterdam and went all the way down to Switzerland, to Basel, and had an incredible time.  I can't even tell you what my favorite part was because I saw so many beautiful sites. NICK WALKER:  Oh, wonderful. BILL YATES:  And amazing projects. NICK WALKER:  Oh, yeah, yeah.  I'm sure, I'm sure. ANDY CROWE:  Well, don't worry about us.  Nick and I have just been laboring away here. NICK WALKER:  Yeah. ANDY CROWE:  Keeping things going. BILL YATES:  Dissecting the new Sixth Edition PMBOK Guide. NICK WALKER:  Well, I hope you enjoyed your trip.  And it's back to reality now; okay?  We've got to jump in with both feet. BILL YATES:  Absolutely.  Yup, yup, back into it, the fun and thrill of PMBOK Guide. NICK WALKER:  Well, Andy, you mentioned that you just got yours in the mail.  I imagine a lot of project managers have gotten this new PMBOK Guide in the mail.  It's sitting there on their table, this big thick gigantic book, and maybe they're looking at it wondering, what do I do with this now?  And we want to let folks know, if they're thinking that, they're probably not alone. ANDY CROWE:  I agree.  That's part of the problem is people get this, it sits there, maybe it collects dust.  It's kind of like a religious text.  You know, you look at it, maybe you feel guilty for not reading it, maybe if you do try and read it you're not completely sure you understand it.  So we're here to deconstruct a little bit of that and talk about, okay, what do you practically do with this book now that it's arrived? NICK WALKER:  And it's big.  It's bigger, I guess, than it's ever been. BILL YATES:  It is big.  It is.  As we've said before, PMI every four years updates the PMBOK Guide.  And this printing that came out in September of 2017 is the Sixth Edition.  We were looking at just doing a page count.  And if you go back to the Third Edition, it had 388 pages.  We're about double today what we were then.  So from Third Edition to Sixth Edition, we've gone from 388 pages to 756 pages.  And Andy, I'm not even counting the Agile Practice Guide which came along with. ANDY CROWE:  Right.  But you know what, Bill?  If you go back in time – so I want to go back for a moment in time.

ANDY CROWE ● BILL YATES ● NICK WALKER ● ROGER DUKE NICK WALKER:  Welcome to Manage This, the podcast by project managers for project managers.  Every other week we get together to discuss the topics that matter to you, whether you're in charge of a large team in an international company or leading a small group in a local business.  The guiding principles are the same, and we want to share them with you through the eyes of others who are doing the stuff of project management. I'm your host, Nick Walker, and with me are the resident experts, Andy Crowe and Bill Yates.  And Andy, talk about experts, we have someone in the studio today who is not only in the thick of managing projects himself, but he teaches others and is involved in numerous community projects. ANDY CROWE:  And a really smart guest, as well.  This is going to be a good one.  And I think his passion is going to connect with a lot of our listeners' passions. NICK WALKER:  Well, let's meet him.  Roger Duke is the engineering project manager at the Department of Energy's Savannah River site, where he has been for the past 40 years.  He's also currently assigned as the Agile coach for the first Agile project there.  He holds mechanical engineering degrees from Auburn University and the University of South Carolina.  He is an adjunct professor at Augusta University Hull School of Business, teaching project management.  He is a newspaper columnist, a conference speaker, and has served as director and officer of more than 10 nonprofit organizations.  Roger, welcome to Manage This. ROGER DUKE:  Thank you, Nick.  Glad to be here. NICK WALKER:  Now, I know one thing that you are involved in is the community.  It's important to be involved in the community.  How can project managers be involved, and why is that important to you? ROGER DUKE:  Well, one thing that I discovered in some of my organizations I worked in is that, when you build a board for a nonprofit, they typically look at things like legal, marketing, businesses that can be sponsors.  And when I got in there, I found out that these organizations are great at coming up with ideas and dreams, but they don't know how to implement them.  And there was a niche for somebody on the board to actually follow through and do something; okay?  And that's where the project management approach or significance came in is that they can come up with the ideas, but you need somebody on the board to actually execute them. ANDY CROWE:  And you know, Roger, I've experienced that, as well.  I've been on fewer than you have, but quite a few boards.  And what you have is a lot of passion, and then sometimes they struggle with process.  And sometimes they downright resist process, I've found, because it gets in the way of the passion.  You know, there's all this energy, all this passion, and project managers can maybe help channel that. ROGER DUKE:  There were a couple of big projects that were sitting out there, ready to do, but the sponsors that were supporting them were going to take their money away because nothing was happening, you know.  And so I just stepped up for one in particular to put a marquee on an historic theater, and it was just a great project, very exciting, big difference, big impact on the community because of its visibility. And that's when I realized project managers need to be on the boards.  You've got to have somebody with that perspective on how you're going to actually execute and make something happen.  And it just grew from there.  And so as I got more involved in the community and different organizations, I would just take on projects at each of those and really could make a difference. BILL YATES:  One of the things that we talk about in the role of project manager is project managers get things done.  You know, we've had PMs sit in here and talk about, well, my CEO had a vision, but I had to come alongside and get that vision and break it down and then recruit a team...

ANDY CROWE ● BILL YATES ● NICK WALKER ● JESSE FEWELL NICK WALKER:  Welcome to Manage This, the podcast by project managers for project managers.  Every two weeks we like to come together and talk about what matters to you, whether you're a seasoned veteran in project management or a newcomer to the field.  It's a chance to take a step back and try to get a fresh and objective look at the state of the industry and our role in it. I'm your host, Nick Walker, and with me are two guys who always seem to be playing an ever-expanding role in project management,  Andy Crowe and Bill Yates.  And Andy, it looks like you're going to be able to put on your nerd hat today. ANDY CROWE:  We've got a good 'cast today.  You know, I'm excited to have Jesse on the podcast, and also it surprises me that we've gone this far and not had him on. BILL YATES:  That's true. ANDY CROWE:  So it's long overdue. BILL YATES:  Yup. NICK WALKER:  Jesse Fewell is an author, he's a coach, and a trainer in the domain of innovation, collaboration, and agility.  He's the founder of VirtuallyAgile.com and has been instrumental in helping project teams all over the world succeed and improve their results.  He also founded the original PMI Agile Community of Practice, co-created the PMI ACP Agile Certification, and co-authored the Software Extension to the PMBOK Guide.  Jesse is the world's only certified project management professional to hold the expert-level designations of Certified Scrum Trainer and Certified Collaboration Instructor.  He's the author of “Can You Hear Me Now:  Working With Global, Distributed, Virtual Teams.”  Jesse, welcome to Manage This. JESSE FEWELL:  Man, I want to meet that guy. NICK WALKER:  Oh, yeah.  Impressive résumé there.  But I love a quotation from your website.  It says, “Everywhere I go” – this is what you say.   “Everywhere I go, I see breakdowns and breakthroughs, idiocy and innovation, pain and promise.  I believe,” you say, “the difference between the two is leadership and whether our managers actually do it well.” All right.  That might sound simple; but, if it were, I doubt if you would have to devote a career to it. JESSE FEWELL:  Yeah.  I say those things because it reflects what for me was a pivot point in my career, which was switching from being an individual contributor on a technology team to moving into project management.  And it was a critical moment where exactly what you just happened, that there were some stupid things and some amazing things.  And then I realized I could be the greatest engineer in the world, and our projects were still going to fail because of leadership issues.  And so I traded my T-shirt, my programmer's T-shirt collection for the project manager's blazer and never looked back because I figured that's how I could have an impact and just amplify results, rather than – no matter how good I was as a contributor. NICK WALKER:  It's more than a wardrobe change, though, I guess.  Was that transition difficult? JESSE FEWELL:  Well, I guess perhaps I've always been – and I think, Andy and Bill, you guys can relate to this – I've always been the achiever mode kind of person.  And maybe perhaps project managers are drawn to the role because of that.  And so when I made the switch, I read every book there was.  And I started having one-on-ones with my team.  I started setting smart goals.  And I was just like, I was a little Energizer Bunny, like I'm going to be the best manager ever.  Watch. ANDY CROWE:  You were that guy. JESSE FEWELL:  Yeah.  So the transition was difficult only with respect to that, as somebody that had not yet been beaten down and embittered, I was moving a little bit too fast for a lot of the people around me. ANDY CROWE:  Jesse, when I first started – to kind of date myself because I think I'm probably a few years your senior.  But when I first started, Blanchard's “The One Minute Manager” was the only one of those books in pu...

ANDY CROWE ● BILL YATES ● NICK WALKER ● MIKE PLANT NICK WALKER:  Welcome to Manage This, the podcast by project managers for project managers.  Every couple of weeks we reserve this time to meet together and discuss the things that matter most to you in this diverse and ever-changing realm of project management.  We want to support you, embolden you, reassure you, and maybe even light a fire in areas that have grown cold.  And we do that by exploring the experiences of others who have been where you are or are there right now. I'm your host, Nick Walker, and with me are the two guys who fill the room with experience, Andy Crowe and Bill Yates.  Andy, if our listeners are into sports, teams, leadership, our guest today is the guy they want to hear from. ANDY CROWE:  We're bringing it all together today, aren't we, Nick.  This is going to be a good ‘cast. NICK WALKER:  Well, let's meet our guest.  Mike Plant is in his 14th season with the Atlanta Braves organization, his second season as President of Development.  He's been instrumental in establishing a new home for the team at the newly opened SunTrust Park and its adjacent development, The Battery Atlanta. Before he joined the Braves organization, Mike was Executive Vice President of Turner Sports.  He managed the Goodwill Games, has helped organize various phases of the Olympic Games, and serves on numerous committees and boards for the U.S. Olympic Committee.  A former Olympian himself, Mike Plant was a member of the 1980 U.S. Olympic speedskating team, and continues to lead speedskating and cycling organizations in this country and internationally.  Mike, it is a privilege to have you here on Manage This.  Thanks for joining us. MIKE PLANT:  Thank you, thank you. NICK WALKER:  You bring a lot of experience to the table, and we want to get into some of that.  But I'm guessing that that kind of experience is probably sort of a prerequisite for all that's involved in building, not only this new stadium, but the adjacent shops and restaurants and parking facilities.  That kind of project could probably overwhelm a lesser human. MIKE PLANT:  Yeah, well, my dad told me a long time ago, don't become a legend in your own mind.  So I try to keep that in perspective.  But, you know, if I look back on my athletic career and all the things I did after that in the world of sport, young people ask me, what's the one word that you think would define who you are and where you got your drive from?  And I think it's really – it's perseverance.  It's understanding how to persevere through some very challenging times, daily or project-wise, and don't lose sight of what the ultimate objective is. And so, I mean, you'll get there.  And if you have to jump over, go under, push over, go on the side of the hurdle, just there's a way to get to the end.  And if you can align all the people that are with you to understand sort of that philosophy, have fun while you're doing it, work hard while you're doing it, but persevere through some tough times.  You'll get to the end, and you'll accomplish what you set out to do. NICK WALKER:  Well, most recently, how did you end up in the position that you're in right now, the President of Development? MIKE PLANT:  Well, I mean, fortunately, I'm one of those individuals, and I try to also tell young people this, is you've got to find something you wake up every day and kind of pinch yourself and say, I can't believe they actually pay me to do this.  So if you can do that in your life, and when you set out on your career path, that obviously is something I've been fortunate to accomplish. I mean, I transcended from my field-of-play athletic career into a world of sport, way back when it was in its infancy.  I mean, I sold my first sponsorship deal in 1980 when I'm 21 years old, banging out a proposal on my mom and dad's electric typewriter with Wite-Out.  But I knocked down $375,000 from the Atari Corporation,

ANDY CROWE ● BILL YATES ● NICK WALKER ● CHUCK CASTO NICK WALKER:  Welcome to Manage This, the podcast by project managers for project managers.  Every other week we carve out some time to meet and talk about what matters to you in the field of project management.  We pick the brains of some of the top performers in the profession, hear their stories, explore their methods, and celebrate their successes. I'm your host, Nick Walker, and with me are a couple of guys who are the top of the tops, Andy Crowe and Bill Yates.  And Andy, last time we had a thought-provoking discussion with someone who has been right in the middle of managing crisis situations; and we get to hear more from him today. ANDY CROWE:  I would say he's been more in the middle of it than anybody I know personally.  And so it was a wonderful discussion about the Fukushima disaster. NICK WALKER:  Chuck Casto, President of the Casto Group, brings with him a long and prestigious career in nuclear safety and regulatory issues.  He was a member of the Senior Executive Service at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, holding the position of Regional Administrator.  He has been asked on numerous occasions to resolve complex policy issues for clients and for Congress and was the recipient of the Distinguished Executive Award from President Obama in 2012. Chuck was the director of site operations in Japan during the Fukushima nuclear plant accident.  He helped reestablish that country's regulatory body after the accident and also established criteria to restart nuclear plants that had been shut down in Japan.  Dr. Casto, once again may I say what a privilege it is to have you here on Manage This. CHARLES CASTO: I'm happy to be here. Thank you, Nick. NICK WALKER:  Well, last time we met we talked about responding to this international crisis and what it took to lead people through it.  So let's recap just a little bit.  Can you just briefly describe where were you when you first heard about this accident? CHUCK CASTO:  Friday, March 11th, like many of us, I saw on television that the nuclear plant and – well, the earthquake had happened, and the tsunami had happened.  And then we had learned somewhere late that afternoon that the nuclear plant had experienced a devastating tsunami attack, 45 feet high at least, and had wiped out their cooling systems. For me, I was working construction projects for several reactors under construction here in Georgia and South Carolina, not really connected to the operational part of the house any longer, had been with the operational part for decades.  So Washington was handling the crisis.  I was here, remote Atlanta, working a construction project in obscurity when Prime Minister Kan called President Obama and asked for help.  And as they looked for people to lead the team in Japan, my name popped up, and I was chosen. I guess the first real interaction, I was actually nearby here, getting gas, fueling my pickup truck.  And my neighbor called me and said, “Chuck, what's up with this nuclear plant in Japan?”  And I said, “Well, John, they'll get power and water back to it, and everything will be just fine.”  Well, I was quite wrong.  And later on, when he found that I was leading the effort, he said, “You, Mister, everything's going to be okay.  You're leading the effort.”  So it was – the outcome was much different than we had expected. And when I finally got the call, I had three hours' notice to grab my passport.  I was in downtown Atlanta.  I had to have my wife get some few clothes together and a passport, and drive back north and then back down to the airport, meanwhile on cell phone getting charters and getting calls from the chairman and other people about the role.  I think, as a good crisis leader, I put on a shirt that had a logo, had a nuclear logo on it. BILL YATES:  Yeah. CHUCK CASTO:  And I jumped on an American flight.  And as I got on the flight,