Manage This - The Project Management Podcast

The podcast by project managers for project managers. For project managers who are ready to up their game with risk management, Prasad Kodukula clarifies Next-Generation Project Risk Management and talks us through six specific risk response tools that will help you manage risks more effectively. Table of Contents 02:03 … Meet Prasad03:19 … Next Generation Project Risk Management09:12 … Tool 1: Ambiguity Risks12:49 … Tool 2: Emergent Risks14:07 … Dealing with Unknown Unknowns18:40 … Tool 3: Opportunities23:07 … Tool 4: Integration of Cost and Schedule Risks24:34 … Communicating Risks to Upper Management28:59 … Tool 5: Adaptive Technique – Iterative and Incremental methods32:02 … Tool 6: Risk Response Strategies35:14 … Get in Touch with Prasad35:44 … Closing Prasad Kodukula:  We’ve got to break down those silos so that we can communicate more freely, more quickly across different functions because when we are talking about resiliency, we want to make sure that we could put together a cross-functional team very quickly that could work cohesively together. WENDY GROUNDS:  Welcome to Manage This, the podcast by project managers for project managers.  Listeners you can still claim your free PDUs.  The steps to submit a PDU for our podcast, as well as for our InSite courses to PMI, has changed.  Our PDU claim page has been updated with the new instructions.  Make sure not to use the autofill, but type in “Velociteach” and the title when you are submitting your PDUs.  We do apologize for the inconvenience. I am Wendy Grounds, and with me is Bill Yates.  Bill, today we’re talking with Prasad Kodukula.  He is a PMI Fellow, a PMI advisor, thought leader, coach, author, and entrepreneur with more than 35 years of experience. BILL YATES:  Yeah, I think people will quickly figure out Prasad is an overachiever. WENDY GROUNDS:  Absolutely. BILL YATES:  He’s taken three big awards with PMI:  the 2010 Distinguished Contribution Award, the 2016 Eric Jenett Project Management Excellence Award, the 2020 PMI Fellow Award.  So this guy is very well decorated. WENDY GROUNDS:  He is also a self-proclaimed global ambassador of project management.  He’s spoken on project management and innovation leadership in nearly 50 countries, and I enjoy talking to him about South Africa.  He goes there quite often.  Unfortunately, with COVID, he hasn’t been able to get there. BILL YATES:  Yes. WENDY GROUNDS:  But we were able to talk a little bit about South Africa, which was really cool. BILL YATES:  Talk about home. WENDY GROUNDS:  Yeah. BILL YATES:  Yeah.  So Prasad is going to talk with us today about one of the topics that’s of keen interest to him and certainly to us.  He’s going to look at risk management and describe six next-generation tools for risk management. WENDY GROUNDS:  Prasad.  Thank you so much for joining us. PRASAD KODUKULA:  Hello, Wendy.  Thank you for having me. Meet Prasad WENDY GROUNDS:  Prasad, with a Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering, you obviously did not set out in your career intending to become a project manager.  How did you discover that this was the path for you? PRASAD KODUKULA:  Well, that’s an interesting question.  You are right, Wendy.  I did not start to make a project manager in my career.  And it happens with a lot of people.  It happened to me by accident.  So I call myself an “accidental project manager.”  So I started as an R&D engineer, and within two or three years they asked me to manage projects.  I didn’t know anything about it.  I said sure.  Sounded like a pretty good idea, sounded like a nice title to have, so I became a project manager by sheer accident. BILL YATES:  That’s hilarious because, you know, you think, okay, here’s Prasad, an accidental project manager, which you’ve won three amazing awards with PMI.  You’re a PMI Fellow, which is really the feather on the top of the cap.  That’s an amazing award.

The podcast for project managers by project managers. Kupe Kupersmith, talks with us about creating healthy Agile teams. Trust, healthy conflict, commitment, and peer-to-peer accountability build healthy teams which produce winning results. When you have “One Team” that is focused and stable, you are closer to achieving that winning team performance. Table of Contents 01:03 … Meet Kupe02:21 … Splitting a Large Team05:24 … Assessing How to Split Teams07:30 … Reactions to Team Splitting10:15 … Responsibility Diagramming14:27 … Adding Remote Complexity15:20 … The Five Dysfunctions of a Team16:31 … Lack of Trust18:18 … Steps to Build Trust20:45 … Healthy Conflict22:40 … Being Comfortable with Conflict26:16 … Commitment28:32 … Peer-to-Peer Accountability29:43 … ELMO32:41 … Producing Results34:57 … Get in Touch with Kupe35:36 … Closing KUPE KUPERSMITH: ...it’s about that team members feel that everybody has their back; that, if I do something wrong, someone’s going to swoop up and help me and be there, that I can be transparent and ask for help and feel comfortable that nobody’s going to throw me under the bus. WENDY GROUNDS:  Welcome to Manage This, the podcast by project managers for project managers.  Just a little update about claiming your PDUs.  The steps to submit a PDU for our podcast as well as for our InSite courses to PMI has changed.  Our PDU claim page has been updated with the new instructions.  Make sure not to use the autofill, but type in Velociteach and the title when you are submitting your PDUs.  We do apologize for the inconvenience.  But thank you for listening, and please contact us if you need any additional assistance. I’m Wendy Grounds, and with me is Bill Yates.  This is our opportunity to talk with you about issues that project managers are facing today.  And sometimes it’s working remotely, sometimes it’s working on teams, and sometimes it’s all of that together.  Our guest today is somebody we’ve had on before.  He is Kupe Kupersmith, and he was on Episode 62, where we talked about BAs and PMs, decision-making for superheroes. BILL YATES:  I’m excited about this topic.  I think at a macro level it’s all about healthy teams. Meet Kupe WENDY GROUNDS:  Yeah.  Kupe is the coauthor of “Business Analysis for Dummies.”  He’s had quite an eclectic career path.  He has been an accountant, an improv comedian, IT consultant, business analyst, and a project manager.  He has collaborated with us on some courses.  One was the “Overview of Lean Business Analysis.”  And currently he’s working on a course on remote Agile delivery.  Kupe, welcome to Manage This.  Thank you for being our guest today. KUPE KUPERSMITH:  Thanks for having me. WENDY GROUNDS:  I have a quick question, before we get into our discussion.  It was 2018 when we had you last on the podcast.  So what have you been doing since then? KUPE KUPERSMITH:  Wow, has it been that long?  I feel like... WENDY GROUNDS:  It’s been that long. KUPE KUPERSMITH:  I feel like I was in your office; and then, poof, you asked me to do another one.  But I guess it’s been two years.  Well, prior to 2020 I was doing a lot of keynote speaking.  And we talked some about improv, I think, and the improv work I do, and how I talk about improv and how it helps people be better collaborators, communicators, team players.  So doing a lot of that.  I’m also an IT consultant, so I’m out there with companies kind of implementing Agile practices and other practices to have effective teams and get teams to deliver the great products that our customers want. Splitting a Large Team BILL YATES:  You’ve been partnering with us on courses, and there are so many nuggets.  I just wanted to have a conversation about being a healthy team or creating a healthy team.  One of those I thought was really unique, and you talked about when your team is too large.  I think in the example you gave you had 36 team members that were needed to get the job done...

The podcast for project managers by project managers. Projects are more successful when we play to the strengths of the team. Hear about a new technology platform for building high-performing and successful teams. Create a winning team culture by identifying the unique preference, proficiency, and personality that an individual brings to the table. Table of Contents 00:05 … New PDU Claim Process00:54 … Meet Darrin02:53 … Cloverleaf: How it all Began04:56 … Consistent Team Performance09:19 … Choosing the Right Tool for a Successful Team12:10 … When to Pivot your Plan14:39 … What can Cloverleaf do for a Project Team?17:53 … Partnering with Other Assessment Tools19:49 … After the Assessment: Getting Stuff Done24:09 … Tools for Team Members27:06 … Application for Traditional or Agile Methodology27:57 … Keeping Remote Teams Motivated31:25 … Being Authentic32:32 … “Corporate Bravery”33:45 … Get in Touch with Darrin34:53 … Closing WENDY GROUNDS:  You’re listening to Manage This, the podcast by project managers for project managers.  New PDU Claim Process Just a little update about claiming your PDUs. The steps to submit a PDU for our podcast, as well as for our InSite courses to PMI, has changed. Our PDU claim page has been updated with the new instructions. Make sure not to use the auto-fill but type in Velociteach and the title, when you are submitting your PDUs. We do apologize for the inconvenience but thank you for listening and please contact us if you need any additional assistance. I’m Wendy Grounds; and as always, here in the studio with me is Bill Yates.  Please make sure to visit our website, Velociteach.com, where you can subscribe to the show so you will never miss an episode.  While you’re at it, if you find value in the show, we’d appreciate a rating on iTunes or a comment on our website.  Or if you’d simply tell a friend, that would help us out, too.  Meet Darrin We like to share stories of interesting projects, and we like to talk with experts who are doing new and exciting things which can impact the world of project management.  And that brings me to today’s guest, Darrin Murriner.  He is the cofounder and CEO of Cloverleaf.me.  It’s a technology platform for building high-performing teams.  Prior to founding Cloverleaf, he managed large and complex teams at companies such as Arthur Andersen and Fifth Third Bank.  And he is the author of a book called “Corporate Bravery,” and he’s going to tell us a little bit more about that book later on.  But Bill, do you want to tell us a bit about Cloverleaf? BILL YATES:  Yeah.  We have had conversations and dedicated podcasts to talking about team building and talking about assessing strengths.  We’ll reference some of those later in the ‘cast, I’m sure.  But we know that successful teams lead to successful projects.  So any tools that we can put in the hands of our listeners that will make them better at equipping their teams and making them more effective, man, we’re excited about showing those. Someone brought to our attention this toolset called Cloverleaf.  And fortunately, we’ve got the CEO, Darrin, who’s going to talk with us about Cloverleaf.  It’s a teambuilding tool.  And you can take something like StrengthsFinder or Myers-Briggs or DISC or other assessments that you do on your team, and you have all this data, and then you need something to help you take those next steps.  So I think this conversation will give us some ideas. WENDY GROUNDS:  Right.  A thing to note, I just want to say to our listeners, is that we don’t receive any compensation for talking about Cloverleaf.  We just came across them.  Someone told us about them.  And we want to share that with our audience.  We’re not getting a free subscription to Cloverleaf for our team. BILL YATES:  We need to ask Darrin about that, yeah.  We’re not getting anything for this.  Again, this is just a toolset that we wanted to make people aware of. WENDY GROUNDS:  Right.

The podcast for project managers by project managers. How can practitioners incorporate sustainability and social value into their current practice? Karen Thompson and Nigel Williams are the co-creators of Responsible Project Management, an initiative that aims to accelerate achievement of sustainable development goals, encouraging responsibility in the context of projects and project management. PLEASE REFER TO OUR ‘CLAIM PDUS’ PAGE TO NOTE THE CHANGES TO THE PDU CLAIM PROCESS. Table of Contents 02:12 … The History of Responsible Project Management06:42 … Comparing Responsible Management to Corporate Social Responsibility07:45 … Changing the Role of the Project Manager10:43 … Correctly Defining Sustainability12:24 … Who Might I be Hurting through This Work?16:38 … Questions to Ask as a Responsible Project Manager19:51 … When it’s Not about Success or Failure22:19 … How to Raise Awareness amongst Stakeholders24:48 … A Manifesto for Responsible Project Management29:40 … 2021 The Year of Responsible Project Management32:02 … Learn More about Responsible Project Management33:13 … Closing WENDY GROUNDS:  You’re listening to Manage This, the podcast by project managers for project managers.  I’m Wendy Grounds, and with me is Bill Yates.  And we’d like to wish you a very happy New Year.  This is 2021, and we hope it’s going to be a good one. BILL YATES:  Oh, yes.  It’s got to be. WENDY GROUNDS:  It’s got to be better.  We like to talk with experts who are doing new and exciting things in the world of project management.  And that brings us to today’s guests.  Dr. Karen Thompson is a senior academic at Bournemouth University Business School in the U.K.  She’s a project professional turned innovative educator.who has done a lot of research and education in managing projects sustainably. And we have Dr. Nigel Williams, the Reader in Project Management and research lead at the University of Portsmouth.  Karen and Nigel co-lead the Responsible Project Management Initiative, which is aimed to encourage sustainability and social responsibility in an ethical manner by project managers. BILL YATES:  Yeah, sustainability is a topic that we’ve hit on a few times.  And I know just recently we interviewed Scott Berkun, and we focused on his book, “How Design Makes the World.”  Berkun talked about four questions in that book, and the fourth question:  Who might be hurt by your work, now or in the future?  This conversation that we’re going to have today just goes right in line with that.  I think some projects produce amazing things, could be a product or a service.  But we don’t really think about the fallout. We had conversations with Henk about the ocean cleanup project; right?  Episode 106.  Orbital space debris.  We talked with Dr. Heather about that problem in Episode 75.  We all want our cell phones to work.  We want to have GPS.  But what happens when the satellite dies? Sustainability is something that we’re passionate about.  This kind of takes it to another level.  It’s challenging to me as a project manager to think about, okay, in my day-to-day work, how can I be considering these questions?  So I’m excited about this conversation. WENDY GROUNDS: Not so long ago we spoke to Kaitlyn Bunker about the Islands Energy Program.  And that was also an incredible program where they’re really thinking about what is the good that we are bringing in our projects. And with that, let’s get talking to Karen and Nigel. The History of Responsible Project Management Karen, could you tell us a little bit about the history of Responsible Project Management, how you started it? KAREN THOMPSON:  Yes, certainly.  Well, how it started was way back in 2017 I’d just finished my Ph.D.  And one of the things that I uncovered while doing that were all the claims that project management research – there were criticisms around it not being relevant enough to practice.  So in 2017 I held a sort of networking event where ...

The podcast for project managers by project managers. As the COVID pandemic began to unfold, staff at an Israeli hospital knew that clinical teams were going to be at high-risk and critically over-burdened.  The COVOD-19 Sprint project united doctors and developers to find creative technological solutions to the medical challenges of the pandemic. Table of Contents 02:19 … Meet Marina04:36 … The mission of the COVID Sprint07:30 … Volunteer Response09:45 … Marina’s Role in the COVID-19 Sprint10:14 … The Multiple Teams addressing the Challenges11:41 … Remote Collaboration13:32 … Information Sharing15:25 … Remote Leadership17:09 … Encouraging the Team19:08 … Technology Challenge for ICU Patients22:08 … Patient/Staff Protection: Portable Tent23:25 … Sharing Breakthroughs23:54 … COVID-19 Sprint Timeframe24:26 … Biggest Surprises26:03 … Lessons Learned28:51 … Hear more about the COVID-19 Sprint29:56 … Closing MARINA DARLOW: Nobody really knows what we’re doing.  We are all improvising.  We’re all doing it to the best of our ability.  And we’re all  putting everything we had.  So in this case you’re not alone in being uncertain.  And you’ll be just fine as long as you’re engaged.  People make mistakes.  We adjust, you know, like Agile methods.  You do the best you know.  And when you know better, you do better.  And you’re very much not unique in this.  All these amazing people that you work with, they operate kind of in the same mode. WENDY GROUNDS:  You’re listening to Manage This, the podcast by project managers for project managers.  To our listeners, don’t forget to claim your free Professional Development Units when you finish listening to this podcast.  I am Wendy Grounds.  In the studio today with me is Bill Yates. BILL YATES:  Hi, Wendy. WENDY GROUNDS:  We have a very interesting project that we’re going to talk about. BILL YATES:  Yes. WENDY GROUNDS:  It’s about a project that’s in Israel, which united doctors and developers to find some creative solutions to the COVID-19 challenges.  The hospital is the Israeli Hospital, Assuta Ashdod.  They knew that the clinical teams were going to be both at high risk, and they’re going to be severely overburdened when the COVID pandemic started to unfold.  And so they started the COVID-19 Sprint. BILL YATES:  Yeah. WENDY GROUNDS:  And our guest that we’re talking to today is Marina Darlow.  She was the technology projects manager and the operations coordinator of this sprint. BILL YATES:  Yes.  Marina is going to share a lot of information with us.  Just how much they accomplished, how quickly; and how they brought together talent from the medical field, from hardware, software, technology solutions that is pretty mind-blowing.  There’s some abbreviations that we need to cover, too.  So I think everybody’s familiar with AWS, so Amazon Web Services.  Amazon Web Services Israel, specifically.  There’s also mention of the IDF, the Israeli Defense Force.  They were a part of this initiative with the hospital.  And also Rafael, the Israeli defense organization, so that gets mentioned, as well. WENDY GROUNDS:  I’m really excited that we’re heading to Israel to talk about our project.  I have been trying to get many international projects, so this one is kind of exciting. BILL YATES:  We’ve been to space; let’s go to Israel. WENDY GROUNDS:  Marina, welcome to Manage This. MARINA DARLOW:  Thanks for having me. Meet Marina WENDY GROUNDS:  You are from Israel, and I’m very interested to hear your story, why you moved over to the U.S., and how you experienced that as a career change. MARINA DARLOW:  It’s been a while, actually.  We moved for my husband’s Ph.D., decided that the program he wants is only available at Brown.  And it was clearly an adjustment.  The culture is different.  I’m used to much more, was used to much more direct and abrasive, some say obnoxious, way of communicating.  So I had to temper down and learn to smooth the r...

The podcast by project managers for project managers. An episode about detecting imminent failure and dealing with project issues that could lead to failure. The project manager’s approach to supporting the team, addressing issues, and communicating resolutions is crucial for any project facing adversity. Table of Contents 01:56 … Meet Susan03:54 … Susan’s Project Story08:30 … When Nobody Speaks Up10:59 … Warning Signs15:55 … When is the Project Manager at Fault19:38 … Sequestering the Team22:25 … Maintaining Communication Channels26:40 … Root Cause Analysis28:30 … Documenting Lessons Learned31:06 … The Resolution of Susan’s Project34:05 … Get in Touch with Susan35:03 … Closing SUSAN IRWIN:  It’s not about ego.  It is about furthering the practice of project management, it is about making everybody great.  It is about working together as a unified team. Not just a project team, but a project manager team, to make each one of us great. WENDY GROUNDS:  You’re listening to Manage This, the podcast by project managers for project managers.  I’m Wendy Grounds, and with me is Bill Yates.  So an interesting thing happened to us the other day. As we were preparing to record this podcast, two days ago, we had some equipment failure. BILL YATES:  Yes, we did. WENDY GROUNDS:  And that amounts to a project failure. BILL YATES:  Yes. WENDY GROUNDS:  Have you ever had a project fail, Bill? BILL YATES:  Yes, I certainly have.  I think most who are listening to this can relate.  I think it was quite ironic that we would have a project failure, even with our episode as we were going to record this. First time.  That’s too funny. WENDY GROUNDS:  Fortunately, Danny got us fixed up, and we’re ready to go today. BILL YATES:  You know, Wendy, it occurs to me this topic is one that is really rich.  And we offer an online course by Neal  Whitten on this topic of project failure.  It’s called “17 Top Reasons Why Projects Fail.”  Neal goes through those.  He introduces those 17, and then of course talks about how we can avoid them.  So another way we can go deeper in this topic. WENDY GROUNDS:  We’re actually talking with someone who has experience in project failure.  Our guest is Susan Irwin, and she’s an adjunct professor at the University of Alabama, Collat School of Business. BILL YATES:  Wendy, this is going to be a pertinent conversation for our listeners.  And I’m excited to have Susan with us.  She has great information about both how to detect when failure is imminent with a project, and then advice.  So she gives four areas of advice for those that are dealing with project issues that could lead to failure.  So let’s get into it with Susan. Meet Susan WENDY GROUNDS:  Susan, welcome to Manage This.  Thank you so much for being our guest. SUSAN IRWIN:  Yes, thank you.  I’m so excited to be able to share my ideas. WENDY GROUNDS:  We’re looking forward to hearing your story.  But I want to ask you about your career background.  Can you tell me how you got into project management? SUSAN IRWIN:  So I’ve been doing this for about 15 years.  And so like most project managers that have been doing it for this long, I actually stumbled into it by happenstance. I was a developer by trade.  I was really content on spending my life in the development side of the house.  A manager at the time saw something in me, and this was back when project management was first starting to come into industry.  You didn’t really see it much outside of the government sector.  He asked me if I wanted to step into this role as a project manager. I really was apprehensive about it because I didn’t really see at that time the value in project management.  I felt that project managers were more of the gatekeeper and less of the facilitator of getting work done. And so I begrudgingly did it, and I fell in love with it. So I went in, I did my PMP certification, and fell in love with it.

The podcast for project managers by project managers. The sales team and the project manager - how to improve that complex relationship.  Advice for the project teams who have to deliver what sales has sold and why sales professionals should be kept engaged in the project from start to finish. Table of Contents 01:56 … Meet James 03:06 … BrandMuscle 04:17 … The Sales Guy’s Perspective 08:56 … The Pressure on the Sales Team 11:37 … How to Deliver what Sales has Sold 15:17 … Project Handoff 17:20 … Scrutinize the Contract 18:48 … Advice for the Sales Team 21:33 … The Project Kickoff 23:57 … Sales and Identifying Risks 25:13 … The Project Handoff 26:56 … Leadership Influencers 28:07 … Career Advice 29:42 … Connect with James 30:23 … Closing JAMES MORSE:  ...as you balance that relationship with sales, you naturally develop a trusting relationship between the project team and the sales team.  And that’s so helpful because then I trust the salesperson to deliver something correctly, and they trust me to actually deliver on that and make sure that that project gets in time, is in budget, is in scope, and it delivers a happy customer. WENDY GROUNDS:  Welcome to Manage This, the podcast by project managers for project managers.  This is our opportunity to meet with you and talk about issues that project managers are facing today.  We hope you’ll continue to tell us what you like and offer your suggestions.  You can leave a comment on Google, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or whatever podcast listening app you use.  You can also leave comments on the Velociteach.com website or on our social media pages.  I am Wendy Grounds, and with me in the studio is Bill Yates. BILL YATES:  Wendy, we’re going to have a fun conversation today.  We’ve got a great topic. WENDY GROUNDS:  Yes, we have.  And we have a great guest, too.  So his name is James Morse, and he serves as the Vice President and Head of Product for BrandMuscle.  He’ll tell us a little bit more about BrandMuscle coming up. BILL YATES:  Yeah.  And James is unique in that he served the project manager role and also the sales role, project manager first in his career and then later in sales, and so really what we’re going to talk about is the hatred between project managers and sales. WENDY GROUNDS:  I’d say a particularly strong dislike. BILL YATES:  Yeah, there’s so many project managers who have discovered that their sales team has made some promises or overcommitments that now the project manager and the team have to deliver.  So we’re going to talk about that. WENDY GROUNDS:  I think so, we’re going to boil it down to communication. BILL YATES:  Yes, we are. WENDY GROUNDS:  Let’s talk with James. BILL YATES:  Yes. WENDY GROUNDS:  James, welcome to Manage This.  Thank you for being our guest today. JAMES MORSE:  Thanks for having me. Meet James WENDY GROUNDS:  Can you tell us how you started your career, and how you ended up in the role that you’re in today? JAMES MORSE:  Yeah, absolutely. So I think I’m very lucky to, right out of school, have gotten an opportunity within project management, which I think a lot of my peers didn’t necessarily do.  They started with other careers and kind of paced into that, so I really hit the ground running.  I was doing new client onboardings and implementations, which has really just been a lot of the breadth of my career when it comes to project management.  And then I’ve slowly just transitioned into different opportunities, typically in SaaS and software, which has taken me to where I am currently with BrandMuscle. So I’ve been with BrandMuscle for a little over seven years, similar background even within the organization.  I started with new client onboardings and implementations in the project lead role and just slowly grew within that to project manager, to senior project manager, leading our team of project managers within implementation,

The podcast for project managers by project managers. Dr. Kaitlyn Bunker, Ph.D., P.E. is a Principal with Rocky Mountain Institute’s Islands Energy Program. Kaitlyn leads a diverse team that partners with islands in the Caribbean to support and accelerate their clean energy transitions. Their projects result in many benefits, including the use of more local, renewable energy sources and less imported fuel. Table of Contents 01:33 … Meet Kaitlyn 02:56 … The Rocky Mountain Institute 05:31 … Projects in the Caribbean Islands 08:20 … Program Partners 09:10 … Local Island Energy Resources 10:15 … Aligning Stakeholders, Local Communities and Project Priorities 13:11 … Project funding 14:28 … Compliance and Regulatory Guidelines and Knowledge Sharing 17:59 … Project Risks 20:10 … Leading a Very Diverse Team 22:27 … Leading Remotely 23:25 … The Resilience of Clean Energy 27:05 … Impact of Battery Technology 28:51 … Cultural and Communication Challenges 31:18 … Kaitlyn’s Lessons Learned and a Success Story 34:27 … Hear More about RMI 35:04 … Closing KAITLYN BUNKER:  So we really come in and do a lot of listening, meet with as many people as we can, understand different perspectives and try to bring that all together, and then pair that with our experience. WENDY GROUNDS:  Welcome to Manage This, the podcast by project managers for project managers.  Please make sure to visit our website, Velociteach.com, where you can subscribe to the show so you’ll never miss an episode, or you can join us on Velociteach Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or LinkedIn.  And if you know a friend who would like to hear our show, please tell them about Manage This. I’m Wendy Grounds, and with me today is Bill Yates.  Bill, so you know I’m always trying to find interesting projects. BILL YATES:  Yes. WENDY GROUNDS:  Projects that are all over the world, not necessarily in one spot, and so this one is all over the islands, the Caribbean islands.  Our guest is Kaitlyn Bunker, and she’s a principal with the Rocky Mountain Institute’s Island Energy Program, where she leads a team that partners with islands in the Caribbean to support their clean energy transitions. BILL YATES:  Yeah, and just to be clear, this is Ph.D. Kaitlyn Bunker, so Dr. Bunker, I just wanted to say that, Dr. Bunker.  She also leads modeling efforts related to small island microgrid opportunities.  So a microgrid, she’ll explain that further.  But it’s a new strategy for having power distributed across an island, especially in the cases of places like the islands in the Caribbean that are prone to hurricanes and other types of storms.  So a microgrid strategy is a very interesting strategy, and we’ll talk about her projects. Meet Kaitlyn WENDY GROUNDS:  Let’s meet Kaitlyn.  Kaitlyn, welcome to Manage This. KAITLYN BUNKER:  Thank you for having me. WENDY GROUNDS:  Tell us about your career path, how you got to where you are today. KAITLYN BUNKER:  Sure, so I’m now a principal with the Islands Energy Program at Rocky Mountain Institute.  But my background is that I studied electrical engineering,  I went to school at Michigan Technological University and got really excited in the field of power and energy, and also control systems.  And so bringing those two topics together led me to the concept of microgrids, which are small electricity systems that have their own sources of electricity.  So they’re able to use that to serve local electricity needs in a small confined system.  But they also typically can connect to the larger electricity grid. So they’re able to operate in kind of those two modes.  And so that was really exciting for me, especially the concept of incorporating more renewable energy into microgrids and combining those concepts together. So I got really excited about that in school and decided I wanted to dig into that further.  So I stayed right at Michigan Tech for graduate school, completed my Ph.D.

Hear about human and robotic space exploration with Belgian nuclear physicist Philippe Schoonejans. He is the European Space Agency’s (ESA) team leader for the Sample Transfer Arm, one of the European contributions to the NASA-ESA Mars Sample Return program. This mission will use robotic systems to return samples from the surface of Mars to Earth. ESA is composed of 28 member countries, and Philippe has cooperated extensively with NASA, Japan, Canada and Russia in his projects. He shares his complex projects and the many constraints facing international cooperation. Table of Contents 03:03 … Meet Philippe 05:03 … NASA and ESA 05:50 … Philippe’s Role at ESA 08:06 … Favorite Projects 09:36 … The European Robotic Arm 11:40 … Prototype Testing 14:30 … Current Projects 16:03 … Getting to Mars 19:43 … COVID-19 Impact 22:30 … Keeping Teams Motivated 26:28 … Collaboration with Other Agencies 28:52 … Vendor and Stakeholder Communication 34:54 … International Cooperation 38:34 … Communicating Complex Projects 40:26 … Words of Advice and Lessons Learned 44:06 … Closing PHILIPPE SCHOONEJANS:  ...we cherish the international cooperation.  We think it’s needed, and we know that we cannot do everything on our own, not even in Europe with our 28 countries, we cannot do everything.  So we do want to work together with everybody else, and with that also learn from what the others are doing. WENDY GROUNDS:  Welcome to Manage This, the podcast by project managers for project managers.  I’m Wendy Grounds, and with me in the studio today is Bill Yates. BILL YATES:  Wendy, we’re going to go to space today.  Let’s do it. WENDY GROUNDS:  I know.  I am so excited about today’s guest.  We get to sit down with a project manager in human and robotic exploration at the European Space Agency.  And this is Philippe Schoonejans.  Philippe is in the Amsterdam area of the Netherlands.  And we’re very excited to have him with us today.  We’re particularly going to talk about the politically complex international environment that he works in with many stakeholders and many countries.  The European Space Agency I think he said has 28 member states. BILL YATES:  Yup. WENDY GROUNDS:  And they also work with other countries around the world, including NASA.  He’ll tell us a little bit more about that.  But some of the projects that Philippe has worked on, he’s been the project manager for the European Robotic Arm for the International Space Station, as well as working on a sample transfer arm.  He’s the project manager and team lead for that.  It’s for a Mars Sample Return Mission. BILL YATES:  Isn’t that fascinating?  And for our listeners, you’re going to hear a lot of abbreviations or acronyms, so ISS, ESA, International Space Station, European Space Agency, different things like that.  NASA.  But Mars, I mean, we have been trying to get to that red planet.  Since 1960 we’ve been attempting to put satellites orbiting around that planet.  And there’s been some success.  But the one thing that we’ve never done is bring anything back.  We’ve had pictures.  We’ve had digital data.  But we don’t have any actual rocks or samples.  And so this mission’s going on now. We do have, I think since 2003, the ESA has successfully put Rovers on Mars, and so they’re slowly moving across that little red planet and collecting data.  But one of the fascinating things is Philippe and his team, they’re working at bringing the rocks and the other things that they can collect back to Earth.  We haven’t done that yet. WENDY GROUNDS:  It’s easy to get overwhelmed just by the vast scope of this project and the incredible things they’re doing.  But we’re going to find that Philippe has some really good information and really practical advice for project managers, particularly those who are working in an international community.  So let’s get right on and talk to Philippe. BILL YATES:  Yeah. WENDY GROUNDS:  Philippe, welcome to Manage This.

In his new book, How Design Makes the World, Scott Berkun explores how good and bad design impact our daily lives. In this episode we examine the big questions Scott asks in the book: What are you trying to improve? Who are you trying to improve it for? How do you ensure you are successful? And how do you avoid unintended harm? Table of Contents 01:09 … Meet Scott 04:23 … Scott’s New Book: How Design Makes the World 07:04 … Q1: What Are You Trying to Improve? 11:12 … Ideas Generation Rule: Yes, And 13:57 … Ideas Generation Rule: No Half-Assing 16:43 … Ideas Generation Rule: No Blocking Questions 18:42 … Ideas Generation Rule: Make the Other Guy Look Good 20:28 … Q2: Who Are You Trying to Improve It For? 25:21 … Q3: How Do You Ensure You Are Successful? 30:15 … How Do We Overcome Bias? 34:17 … Q4: How Do You Avoid Unintended Harm? 41:20 … Advice to Project Managers 43:07 … Get in Contact With Scott 44:00 … Closing SCOTT BERKUN:  So something as simple as idea generation, if you’re not in a roomful of people you trust, none of these methods or techniques are going to help you because no one’s going to feel safe enough to offer what they really think.  And often the problem is that these brainstorming meetings are done with 20 people, 15 people.  There’s no way, even in a healthy organization, the likelihood there’s that much trust among that many people, that someone’s going to feel confident raising their hand against something they know is probably really weird.  And that’s why often brainstorming and idea generation happens the best in smaller groups. BILL YATES:  Yeah, mm-hmm. SCOTT BERKUN:  Four people, five people. BILL YATES:  That’s a great point. SCOTT BERKUN:  Because even if they don’t know each other, in 10 minutes they can get a sense of each other and develop some trust.  And that’s often a problem with project management is that it’s done at this large scale, and the stakeholders and committee members, and we’re going to brainstorm.  But there’s 50 people in the room.  It’s like, no.  That’s a dog-and-pony show.  That’s not where the real brainstorm is going to happen. 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 is Bill Yates. So in today’s episode we get to sit down with a special guest, Scott Berkun. Meet Scott BILL YATES:  Scott Berkun is an author, and he has had a big influence on me.  He wrote a book called “Making Things Happen” that I got a hold of early in my project management career, and just loved it.  Just ate it up.  Since then he wrote a book that I really enjoyed also called “Confessions of a Public Speaker,” which I recommend to all our instructors when we bring them onboard. It’s so good, so funny, great advice, and the book that we’re going to focus on today he just wrote this year, in 2020, and it’s called “How Design Makes the World.” WENDY GROUNDS:  I actually had a look at one of his other books that’s called “The Year Without Pants.”  The topic, it intrigued me, the title should I say, and then I saw it was written about working remotely.  So if anybody has questions about that, I’d recommend that book. BILL YATES:  Okay, good. WENDY GROUNDS:  Scott, welcome to Manage This, thank you so much for being our guest. SCOTT BERKUN:  It is a pleasure to be here. WENDY GROUNDS:  Before we get into the nitty-gritty of your books and what Bill wants to talk about, I have a question. So you transitioned from project manager into becoming an author and a speaker.  Why and how?  How has it worked out, and why? SCOTT BERKUN:  Well, the how has worked out well, so I quit my job as a tech project manager guy in 2003, and it’s now 2020, and I’ve been doing this for 17 years.  I’ve written eight books.  And this is the only way I make a living.  So I’ve been very fortunate and lucky, it’s worked out great.  I mean, I’ve been successful enough,