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,

Telling stories is a powerful means to teach, lead, and inspire. The best storytellers often employ their own life experiences. Sara Amiri MBA, PMP, shares her story working at Uber and Volkswagen and she explains how her passion to build unity, increase empathy, and raise awareness led to the Healthcare Heroes Project. Table of Contents 00:53 … Meet Sara 04:13 … The American Moroccan Competencies Network 06:11 … Global Project Manager, Uber 10:50 … Layoff and New Opportunities 13:03 … Volkswagen Agile Transformation 13:56 … Remote Working Practices 17:43 … Healthcare Heroes Project 21:15 … Healthcare Heroes Website 25:08 … Healthcare Hero Stories 26:35 … Healthcare Heroes Project Obstacles 28:22 … Get Involved and Tell Your Story 31:41 … Closing SARA AMIRI: ...And we want to be part of this positive change, hopefully, after COVID where we have these stories, and we want the healthcare workers to be part of the conversation and the solution moving forward.  We need better healthcare everywhere in the world, no exception. WENDY GROUNDS:  You’re listening to Episode 113 of Manage This, the podcast by project managers for project managers.  I’m Wendy Grounds, and with me is Bill Yates. BILL YATES:  Hi, Wendy. WENDY GROUNDS:  Hey, good morning, Bill.  I am very excited about our guest today.  Her name is Sara Amiri, and I discovered a website called Healthcare Heroes Project that she was part of, and so she’s going to tell us a little bit about that today. BILL YATES:  It is such an inspiring story, and she’s doing this while holding down a full-time job with a very big company with a lot of responsibility. WENDY GROUNDS:  Yes.  She’s really busy, so let’s just get right into it and hear her story.  Sara, welcome to Manage This.  Thank you for being our guest. Meet Sara SARA AMIRI:  Thank you, I’m so very pleased to be here, thank you very much for the invitation. WENDY GROUNDS:  Sure. So can you tell us about yourself and how you came to be a project manager. SARA AMIRI:  I actually came to be a project manager by pure luck, so I was originally a finance major, I thought my entire career would be investment, maybe corporate finance. That was really where I was headed, and I started working for a startup, and so they needed all sorts of project management. And so one of the managers at that time asked me if I wanted to become a project manager, and to be honest at that time I knew nothing about project management or what is a project manager. So I just kind of learned on the job, and it became really interesting because I realized really how much learning opportunities I had as a project manager.  So I started being really interested to the point where I went back to school, did my MBA in IT Management.  And then I took my PMP, and the rest was history.  So it was really pure luck and out of a need from the company that I was working for at that time, which was Blackstone Capital Management. WENDY GROUNDS:  There’s a project that you and I have both managed that became a project while we were doing it, and I would say that’s moving across the world. So I moved to the U.S. in 2000, and I moved with a one year old and a two year old and my husband, and that in itself was a project.  And I have many lessons learned.  So I want to hear your story, you’re from Morocco.  How did you end up here in the U.S.? SARA AMIRI:  So I moved from Casablanca, Morocco, really I wanted to get an education abroad, and you know at that time you want to just be away from your parents.  You kind of want to fly with your own wings.  So I had a couple of options, either a different city within Morocco, which I applied for. I applied to France, England, U.S.  And believe it or not, the U.S. answered pretty quickly.  It was a 48-hours turnaround of, hey, we’d love to talk to you.  Do you want to come visit the school, the university at that time?  And so maybe I went for the easier option, maybe.

Hear about the role of the project manager in successful innovation from John Carter, an inventor of the Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones who shares the original patent with Dr. Amar Bose. John shares the surprising discovery they made by talking to customers about critical features. Topics include the differences between a program manager and a project manager, career progression for a PM, how to assess PM talent, managing project risk, establishing boundary conditions, small “a” Agile, and the characteristics of a successful PM. Table of Contents 00:32 … Meet John 03:43 … The Bose Headphone Project 06:14 … Listening to the Customer 10:00 … Taking Risks in Innovation Projects 13:45 … Courage to Bring Bad News 15:30 … Effect of COVID-19 on Innovation and Work 19:46 … Program Management vs. Project Management 22:21 … Career Progression from PM to Program Management 26:19 … Characteristics of a Successful PM 28:11 … Why is it Difficult to Hire a Successful PM? 30:38 … Small “a” Agile 35:55 … Establishing Boundary Conditions 40:48 … John’s Success Tips 43:31 … Get in Touch with John 44:14 … Closing WENDY GROUNDS:  Welcome to Manage This, the podcast by project managers for project managers.   A word to our listeners.  If you have an interesting COVID-19 story, how your project has been impacted by the pandemic, we’d love to hear from you.  You can email me at manage_this@velociteach.com. I’m Wendy Grounds, and with me is project manager Bill Yates. BILL YATES:  Hi, Wendy. WENDY GROUNDS: We’re going to talk to someone today who is a true innovation veteran. Meet John BILL YATES:  Yeah, Wendy, I’m so excited to have John Carter join us.  He is very respected in the area of innovation and product development.  He is actually the co-inventor of the Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones . We’ll certainly jump into this Bose topic with him.  That’ll be a lot of fun to discuss. WENDY GROUNDS:  John is also the founder of TCGen, and he’s also been advisor to companies like Apple and Amazon with their  product development and innovation processes.  So I think he comes with a lot of experience and a lot of knowledge that he’ll be able to impart to us. BILL YATES:  Yes.  John has been a project manager.  He’s been a product manager, he’s been a manager of managers, he’s led his own company, and so I cannot wait for the advice he’s going to share with us. WENDY GROUNDS:  John, welcome to Manage This.  We’re so grateful to you for being with us today and being our guest. JOHN CARTER:  Well, thanks for having me. WENDY GROUNDS:  Well, we want to start off by asking you about your career path, and particularly to do with the Bose headphones.  I think most people are really going to be interested in hearing about that.  So tell me a little bit about yourself. JOHN CARTER:  Well, thanks for asking.  And it’s really part of my passion.  It was true since I was a kid.  I’ve always been kind of a boy scientist and had a chemistry set and microscope,  telescope, I mean, whatever I could get my hands on.  I really, really enjoyed technology.  As I grew up, though, I found the importance of sound.  I really thought that that was something I wanted to know about.  It’s invisible.  It conveys meaning and emotion.  And as I learned more, it has incredible range as far as what it can be used for.  Obviously speech versus music is something that’s happening today.  With mobile phones and speech recognition it’s just the Wild West.  So I’ve always been interested in sound.  In college I designed a music synthesizer from scratch before its time. BILL YATES:  Of course you did. JOHN CARTER:  Yeah, right.  It kind of worked.  And when I was looking at graduate school, I looked at places that had audio programs.  And one of them was Stanford; the other was MIT.  And I knew that Dr. Bose taught at MIT, and I decided to go there.  I didn’t have a scholarship at the time.  I just packed

In times of uncertainty, project managers can be the pacesetters that keep organizations on the right path and bring balance into their projects. June Mustari discusses real-life issues in project management. Hear practical tips and advice to find the right balance of discipline and flexibility for successful project delivery.     Table of Contents 01:05 … Meet June 02:36 … Telecom Career and TruNorth Consulting 05:47 … COVID-19 Impact and Bringing Balance 08:39 … Emotional Engagement 10:52 … Collaboration Tools 12:31 … Knowing the Technical Aspects of the Industry as a PM 14:20 … Past Project Story: Virtual Desktop Interface Migration 18:16 … Breakthrough Moments and Resistance on the Project 21:54 … Breaking the Rules 25:54 … Words of Advice and Encouragement 31:22 … Get in Touch with June 31:58 … Closing JUNE MUSTARI:  It’s all about trust.  And I think more than ever trust is our cornerstone in our business.  And when you can show up in a way that makes people feel secure, it’s our purpose.  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.  This is the show where we sometimes like to delve into the project stories of project managers who are in the trenches.  In today’s episode, we get to sit down with June Mustari.  Why don’t you tell us how you met June, Bill. BILL YATES:  Yeah, it was such a chance meeting.  June and I were sitting at the same round table at a breakout session, I think Steve Townsend was speaking, at PMI Global Conference 2019 in Philadelphia.  So I don’t know, there were just a handful of us sitting at a round table, and June had really good questions for Stephen.  And some of the things that June shared, I’m like, this is my kind of person.  So we talked during the session and just stayed connected after. JUNE MUSTARI:  Yeah. WENDY GROUNDS:  Well, June, thank you so much for being here today. JUNE MUSTARI:  Oh, it’s my pleasure.  I’m very happy to be here. Meet June WENDY GROUNDS:  I want to find out a little bit about your career background.  How did you get into project management? JUNE MUSTARI:  Yeah, when people ask me this, I like to say I didn’t get into project management; it got into me.  I really started my career just taking things on that took shape as projects – you know, the beginning, middle, and with an end goal, an outcome that was very clear.  I didn’t know what I was doing, but I was managing projects.  So then when I actually started to see that there were other people in my network who were formal project managers, I was like, oh, this is a thing, and I really like this thing. And so I decided to get a little educated in it, and I said I was going to take the PMP exam 10 years before I actually took it.  So people say, “I’m going to take the PMP exam.”  And I said that for so long.  But you don’t actually take it until you schedule it.  Like, that’s when it’s real.  So I did eventually get the PMP, and I appreciated the discipline of that.  I’m a rule follower, so like that was a dream for me.  And I passed on my 37th birthday.  So it was like, I got into my car, and I was like, yes.  That’s a little side note about me being a PM and getting started with that. So it just kind of took off from there.  Once I had that credential, I felt confidence.  I don’t think it’s about the credential.  I just think it’s about the confidence.  I took formal project management roles right after that, where it was like my title was Project Manager. TruNorth Consulting and Telecom BILL YATES:  And June, you’ve been in telecom for a long time; right?  Like I’ve done a lot of work with Verizon, and you were actually employed by Verizon for a long time, and you continue to kind of go down that industry path. JUNE MUSTARI:  Yeah, my M.O. is parachuting into situations, trying to solve problems, and then getting out; right?  So I had like four

Many project managers are currently having to pivot, shift, change plans, and start over due to the coronavirus pandemic. John Houser shares his story about wrapping up an adoption of a Scaled Agile Framework(SAFe)just as COVID-19 started to impact their operations at Spectrum Healthcare. Table of Contents 00:48 … Meet John 02:10 … Spectrum Healthcare Partners 03:05 … Scaled Agile Framework – SAFe 05:18 … Implementing SAFe at Spectrum 09:42 … COVID-19 Impact on SAFe Process 11:10 … Challenges the Team Faced 12:34 … Communication Tools 14:29 … Shifting Priorities – Pivot without Mercy 16:25 … Team’s Reaction to Pivoting 17:28 … How SAFe Helped to Manage Projects 18:57 … Conducting the System Demo 22:35 … Unexpected Projects due to COVID-19 24:54 … Keeping up Morale in Remote Working 26:08 … Twice Daily Stand-Up Team Meetings 27:58 … Biggest Surprise 28:28 … Leadership Tools on the Tool Belt 29:28 … Lessons Learned 32:42 … Closing JOHN HOUSER:  ...change is okay.  Don’t be worried about it.  You may not know all the answers, but with that support you’ll absolutely get there. WENDY GROUNDS:  Welcome to Manage This, the podcast by project managers for project managers.  I’m Wendy Grounds, and with me is Bill Yates. So particularly with COVID-19 still hovering around, many of you will have interesting stories about how your projects have been impacted, and we’d really like to hear from you.  If you have a noteworthy story, please email me at manage_this@velociteach.com and tell us about your COVID-19 project story. So that’s exactly what we’re bringing to you today; aren’t we, Bill. BILL YATES:  Yes, I can’t wait to hear from John Houser.  So many project managers are having to pivot, shift, crumble up plans, throw them away, and start over, and John is going to walk us through an example with his company.  I can’t wait to dig into the details. Meet John WENDY GROUNDS:  John Houser is the Director of Project Management at Spectrum Healthcare Partners, so he has over 25 years of project management experience.  John, welcome to Manage This, thank you so much for joining us today. JOHN HOUSER:  Glad to be here. WENDY GROUNDS:  We want to hear your story, how you came to be a project manager. JOHN HOUSER:  Sure, so I liked watching other people run projects, I think that’s where it happened, or where the light went off the first time, and how they were able to put things together, look at this as like a Rube Goldberg machine almost, where you’ve got these different people, these different tasks, these different objectives.  And somehow they’re able to weave it all together and create this beautiful-looking plan and then end up with a deliverable at the end, and so that’s what really intrigued me.  When I was younger I would do a lot of those machines, so how you put it all together is what really got me into it and got me exited. BILL YATES:  That’s pretty cool, so that it’s a little bit of engineering, and it’s a little bit of teamwork that just appealed to you.  I get that.  Same kind of thing, so I mean, that’s one of the beauties for this podcast for me has been seeing some of the just amazing things that project managers have done, you know, men and women have accomplished because they put together a team and went out and did it.  I never thought about that comparison to the machine, though, so that’s great. JOHN HOUSER:  Yeah, demented mind, misspent youth, I don’t know. Spectrum Healthcare Partners WENDY GROUNDS:  Can you tell us a little bit about Spectrum Healthcare Partners, the company that you work for? JOHN HOUSER:  Yeah, sure.  So Spectrum Healthcare Partners is primarily owned by physicians, physicians that got together from their practices and really wanted to get that economies of scale  that you get.  When you have your practice, you don’t need three of these type of people or four of those people.  More back office, and to really get that leverage or that buying po...

Susanne Madsen shares how mentoring and coaching are quite different, yet both emphasize a distinct approach to helping people realize their full potential, and how serving as a coach will make you a better project leader. Our work environment has changed significantly and abruptly; have you considered taking on a role as a coach or a mentor to encourage others to stay engaged and productive? Table of Contents 01:01 … Meet Susanne 01:44 … Coaching vs. Mentoring Definitions 03:05 … Are Project Managers Good Coaches? 04:08 … Who Should Mentor? 04:59 … Deciding on a Coach or a Mentor 06:25 … Good Coaching Skills 07:57 … Limitations of Internal Coaching 11:27 … Mistakes Made in the Role of a Coach 12:43 … Asking Good Questions 15:36 … Making Time to Reflect and Review 18:08 … Don’t Ask Why 19:49 … Enhancing Problem-Solving Skills 22:20 … Benefits of Becoming a Coach 24:54 … Can You Self-Coach? 26:15 … Choosing the Right Mentor 27:31 … Time Spent on the Relationship 28:52 … Who Sets Expectations? 29:33 … Benefits for the Mentor 31:03 … Organizational Coaching or Mentoring? 32:50 … Contact Susanne 33:47 … Closing SUSANNE MADSEN:  So when you study coaching, you become so much more conscious about your own beliefs, about how you come across.  And you just get better at building rapport and having conversations with others, empathizing with others, and not just talking about yourself all the time.  WENDY GROUNDS:  Welcome to Manage This, the podcast by project managers for project managers.  If you like what you hear, please leave us a review on our website or wherever you listen to our podcast.  We always love hearing from you.  I am Wendy Grounds, and with me in the studio is Bill Yates.  Welcome, Bill. BILL YATES:  Hi, Wendy.  I’m excited about our conversation today.  This is going to be on a topic that I think a lot of project managers will benefit from.  I think there’s a lot of confusion, too, about coaching versus mentoring.  So we hope to really clarify for people, what’s the difference?  Are they the same?  And what advice do we have for both those who want to be a coach or receive coaching; be a mentor or receive mentoring. Meet Susanne   WENDY GROUNDS:  Right, right, so I was thinking, let’s do a podcast on coaching/mentoring. And the more I looked into it, the more we realized those are two very different things, and so we hope that our guest today can elaborate and give us some clarity. So her name is Susanne Madsen, and she’s a project leadership coach, trainer, and consultant, and we’re very excited to have Susanne with us in the studio today. BILL YATES:  It’s going to be outstanding, and so I’m going to be the one with the boring accent.  We have two wonderful accents, and then there’s me. WENDY GROUNDS:  Yes.  Susanne was telling us she lives in the U.K., but she’s Danish.  So, yeah, pick up some of that accent.  It’s pretty cool. BILL YATES:  Yes. WENDY GROUNDS:  Susanne, welcome to Manage This.  Thank you so much for joining us today. SUSANNE MADSEN:  Thank you for having me.  It’s a real honor. Coaching vs. Mentoring Definitions WENDY GROUNDS:  Coaching versus mentoring.  Could you give us a definition of both of them and just how they relate to projects? SUSANNE MADSEN:  Yes, and it’s good that we start with that because so many people use those two terms interchangeably. And I think we should say that there’s a lot of overlap, that both help us to relate to another person and help that other person move forward.  But we do that in different ways, whether we are coaching or mentoring. So coaching, as a coach, we like to say that we don’t give advice, and that’s one of the big differences between the two. When we coach somebody, we like to help somebody move forward by encouraging that person to find the answers for themselves, and there’s a number of ways we do that. With mentoring – and so I’m looking here at the black-and-white ...

The podcast by project managers for project managers. Are you building a strengths-based project team? Projects are more successful when we play to the strengths of the team. Connie Plowman, co-authored a book Developing Strengths-Based Project Teams with Martha Buelt. In this episode, Connie defines the difference between a talent and a strength as she introduces the concept of a strengths-based project team. Table of Contents 00:35 … Meet Connie 02:15 … StrengthsFinder and Strengths-Based Project Teams 03:20 … Remote Coauthoring 04:15 … Difference between Talent and Strength 06:36 … A Strengths-Based Project Team 10:12 … Benefits to Becoming a Strengths-Based Project Team 11:48 … Being Aware of Weaknesses 13:25 … The Value of Strengths-Based Project Teams 16:45 … Talent Theme Mapping 20:01 … Responding to: “That’s Not My Strength” 22:48 … Getting Started as a Strengths-Based Project Team 24:42 … Maintaining the Strengths-Based Process in a Team 27:50 … Career Advice from Connie 29:32 … Thanks to Connie 30:45 … Closing CONNIE PLOWMAN: ...project teams, to be strength-based, intentionally apply and integrate their skills, experience, knowledge, their talents, their strengths, their project management tools and techniques, everything that you bring to the table you intentionally apply and integrate those for greater team success.  WENDY GROUNDS:  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.  This is our bimonthly meeting to talk about what matters to you as a professional project manager.  And we have a professional here today; don’t we, Bill. Meet Connie BILL YATES:  Yes, we do.  I’ve known Connie Plowman for quite a while now.  Connie and I got to know each other when I was serving on the REP Advisory Group at the global level, and she was in a global-level position with PMI.  And she is a delight.  So I’ve been looking forward to having a conversation with her on Manage This.  And then she goes and writes a great book.  So we’ll have fun talking through that book.  When I first met Connie, she was the chief operating officer for another consulting and project management training company.  And she just had a wealth of experience.  And I’m really looking forward to this conversation. WENDY GROUNDS:  Yeah, I’ve been looking forward to meeting her. BILL YATES:  She’s an award-winner as well, Wendy. WENDY GROUNDS:  Yes, I hear so. BILL YATES:  Yeah. WENDY GROUNDS:  Talk about that. BILL YATES:  Yeah.  So in 2016 Connie was awarded the PMI Eric Jenett Project Management Award of Excellence.  It’s named after one of PMI’s founders, and it’s one of the highest awards you can win with PMI.  I was delighted for her when she received that.  She’s been very involved.  She tends to retire and then find something else that she has to go do.  And right now I know she’s being a guest speaker and instructor with a local university.  She’s out in Portland, Oregon.  She’s serving as executive director for the CLIMB Center for Advancement at Portland Community College.  She just can’t step away. WENDY GROUNDS:  She’s having way too much fun to retire.  I like that. BILL YATES:  Yup. WENDY GROUNDS:  Connie, welcome to Manage This.  We’re so glad that you could join us today. CONNIE PLOWMAN:  Thank you.  I’m thrilled to be in your virtual podcast studio.  It looks like my dining room.  Hey, wait a minute, it is my dining room. WENDY GROUNDS:  We’re glad that we can see you virtually. CONNIE PLOWMAN:  Thank you.  It’s a pleasure to be here.  I’ve been wanting to do this for some time. StrengthsFinder and Strengths-Based Project Teams WENDY GROUNDS:  Connie, I want to start off by just asking you about this topic.  We’re talking about strength-based project teams.  How did you get interested in this? CONNIE PLOWMAN:  You know, that’s a really long question.  But

VELOCITEACH – Manage This – Episode 107 As businesses and project managers start to strategize about the post-crisis world, Mike Goss explains what makes business recovery a project. How can we respond to this crisis from a business standpoint, and how that can be a project? Table of Contents 01:58 … Meet Mike 03:08 … Everything in Life is a Project 03:49 … Responding to Crisis as a Project 05:00 … Redefine your Business: The Why and the Who 09:24 … Business Recovery as a Project 11:26 … Personal Experience with Business Recovery 13:33 … What Parts of a Business will Benefit? 16:05 … Building a WBS 18:45 … Facing Risks in Business Recovery 20:50 … Staying on Course 22:15 … A Project Plan for all Scenarios 23:49 … Overcoming Communication Challenges in Business Recovery 25:37 … A Plan for Businesses of all Sizes 26:06 … Strategizing in a Post Crisis World 27:23 … Advice for Resilience during Business Recovery 32:37 … Mike’s Course on Business Recovery 34:12 … Closing MIKE GOSS: If we had a scale of one to 10, yesterday you were at an eight.  Then COVID-19 show up.  Now you’re at a one.  Your objective is not to get back to eight.  Your object is to get back to 10, where you’ve never been before.  On your way, you’re going to build in the tools and the processes that make sure you never hit one again, no matter what happens.  That’s a project. 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.  I am Wendy Grounds, and with me in the studio is Bill Yates. So today we’re talking in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis, businesses are starting to think about the post-crisis situation.  For some organizations it’s really been near-term survival is what’s on the agenda. BILL YATES:  Right.  I agree, Wendy.  There are so many companies that are just fighting to stay in business right now.  I’m a part of a CEO roundtable, and just seeing the impact that this is having on people locally and globally is huge, I think.  I just saw some statistics today.  Now, just to let listeners know, this is May the 4th.  And so far 30 million people in the United States have filed for unemployment, just since the COVID-19 got really serious in March, up until today.  We’re here in the Atlanta, Georgia area.  So just for our state of Georgia, one in four workers have filed for unemployment. WENDY GROUNDS:  Unbelievable. BILL YATES:  So it’s huge.  And obviously our federal government is taking great steps to help fight through the economic impact of this as we all figure out what does the new normal look like.    So just thinking about what is business going to look like when we can get going again.  So I think it’s helpful for us to have this conversation, and we’re fortunate to have Mike Goss here to talk through some of this with us. Meet Mike WENDY GROUNDS:  He was telling us that his career has taken more twists and turns than most.  BILL YATES:  Yeah.  So he started out as a stereo equipment salesman. WENDY GROUNDS:  And a computer store owner. BILL YATES:  An elevator salesman. WENDY GROUNDS:  And then he became a software developer. BILL YATES:  Senior VP at a bank. WENDY GROUNDS:  And the author of “Breaking Through Walls,” a business novel about overcoming life’s obstacles. BILL YATES:  And then a college instructor. WENDY GROUNDS:  And then a radio personality. BILL YATES:  And of course he fit a military career in there, as well.  He’s a veteran in the U.S. Air Force, serving in Thailand during the Vietnam War. WENDY GROUNDS:  He has been on a podcast before with us, and he tells us more about that in his previous episode.  Since 2014, Mike has also taught PMP exam prep boot camps in Oregon, Washington, and South Carolina. BILL YATES:  Quite a diverse, I’d say, yeah, he is definitely shaking the tree.