S4E82: Why Good Project Planners are like Gold Dust with Sunchana Johnston

This episode it proudly brought to you by JustDo.com, PlanAcademy.com & InEight.com. In this week’s pod, we welcomed Sunchana Johnston. We discussed why good planners are like gold dust.  Originally from Croatia, Sunchana is a Chartered Program Professional, with over 25 years of experience consulting on complex transformational initiatives such as Brexit Programs in the financial industry, Fintech, EMEA telecoms, water utilities and UK civil service.  The main topics discussed on the podcast were:  The best planners need to demonstrate a level of secrecy given the volume of information they see  Effective planners are effective storytellers  Focus on whether you believe a candidate has a high level of intuition when trying to fill planning vacancies  A senior planner should be able to demonstrate management of a 40,000+ line schedule and how they were able to shape it It is important for planners do not own their schedules. They need to be able to quietly influence the actual owners  The most effective storytellers when discussing Brexit showed the day in the life of a prawn from capture in Scotland to a restaurant in Spain  Effective planners will look for the business case to understand why their project exists  The ability to transition between industries often depends on the speed of change. IT/Finance industries are evolving constantly whereas construction and defence industries are shower to change  Always be learning! People need to constantly improve their skillsets to make themselves more employable  The best planners will know their worth in the market. Companies will pay well for the best employees therefore it is important not to undersell yourself  AI is coming, this will change how planning works. The industry should embrace this  Links discussed:  Good Planners are like Gold Dust - https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/good-project-planners-like-gold-dust-sunchana-johnston/  -----------------------------------------  Join us next week where we’re joined by Dave Snowden to discuss Project Management under conditions of inherent uncertainty. For more information, blogs or to support our charities visit www.projectchatterpodcast.com If you'd like to sponsor the podcast get in touch via our website. You can also leave us a voice message via our anchor page and let us know if there's something or someone specific that you would like on the podcast. Stay safe, be disruptive and have fun doing it! Dale and Val