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.