The podcast for project managers by project managers. Hear about Connected Conservation’s pilot plan in a private game reserve in South Africa. Doc Watson tells us about the project and the impact it has to track and apprehend poachers and save endangered animals. Table of Contents 01:00 … Meet Doc 01:38 … Rhino Poaching Problem 03:08 … Doc’s Passion for Conservation 04:06 … Dimension Data 06:06 … Tour de France Innovations 09:15 … Connected Conservation Beginnings 12:40 … A Proactive Solution 14:27 … Tracking Humans 17:54 … Connected Conservation Stakeholders 18:43 … Opposition to the Project 20:20 … Risk Assessment and Recruiting 22:40 … Keys to Project Success 25:11 … Why the Horns? 27:08 … Looking Back 30:06 … How can You Help? 31:50 … Find Out More about Connected Conservation. 33:09 … Closing DOC WATSON: I think there was almost a calling, if I could call it like that, where I could marry technology to conservation and have a look at saving species.  NICK WALKER:  Welcome to Manage This, the podcast by project managers for project managers.  Every two weeks we meet with you in mind, you who are living and working in the field of professional project management.  What we do is try to get inside the brains of those who are involved in all sorts of projects, big and small; see what has brought them success and how they foster success in others. I’m your host, Nick Walker, and here along with Bill Yates.  We’re going to be talking about, among other things, a project that brought together some of the greatest minds in technology to save a species. BILL YATES:  Yeah, this is so fascinating to me, Nick, because Doc is going to talk to us about wedding technology with a really serious issue, a very serious passion point for him.  And to hear him explain it, this is going to be great. Meet Doc NICK WALKER:  Well, let’s meet our guest.  He’s Doc Watson.  For 32 years he’s been part of Dimension Data, a South African tech company.  Between 1998 and 2002 he was on the company’s board of directors and was responsible for developing the group’s global networking services operations, and all operations in the U.K. and Europe.  In 2015 he launched a groundbreaking project called Connected Conservation, which uses technology to help eradicate the poaching of endangered species.  Doc Watson, welcome to Manage This. DOC WATSON:  Thank you very much indeed.  Thank you. Rhino Poaching Problem NICK WALKER:  Before we get into the specifics of this project that we want to talk about, can we just talk about how big the problem of poaching is?  I mean, the figures are staggering.  Almost 6,000 rhinos have been killed by poachers since 2008.  At one point they were being killed at a rate of one every eight hours, a rate that, if it persists, means the extinction of the species in six years.  Why does this tragedy tug so fiercely at your heartstrings? DOC WATSON:  Okay.  So I come from the computer world.  My passion is wildlife and conservation.  To give you your specifics, rhinos are still being killed one every eight hours, which is three per day.  And if it continues at the rate that it’s going, about 2025 we will have no rhinos left in this world, and certainly in South Africa.  And so I think from my point of view, being passionate about it, I think there was almost a calling, if I could call it like that, where I could marry technology to conservation and have a look at saving species.  And I’m sure you’ll be aware that there are 7,000 species around the world that are endangered currently.  This is just looking initially at Africa, where we want to save, not only rhino, but also the elephant, pangolin – which is a scaly anteater – as well as lion.  And those are all highly endangered animals currently in Africa. Doc’s Passion for Conservation BILL YATES:  Doc, this passion of yours goes way back; right?  I think I’ve heard you speak and say that you travel the world just to understand endang...

Hear about Oceaneering’s Project Management Center of Excellence and a deep-water pipeline repair operation, off the shores of West Africa, including the planning and repair process, the challenges, and the lessons learned along the way.  Table of Contents 01:08 … Oceaneering 01:47 … Meet Joe 03:04 … The Pipeline Project 03:57 … “ROV” 04:22 … Pipeline Failure 05:28 … Project Stakeholders 06:53 … Project Design Process 09:26 … Project Planning Process 10:55 … Project Timeline 11:29 … Project Obstacles 12:58 … Tools and Procedures 14:26 … Mockups 15:15 … Weather Factors 16:42 … Lessons Learned 18:00 … Meet Brian 18:40 … PMCoE 19:27 … PM Role vs CoE Role 20:28 … Identifying Stakeholders 22:31 … Communication Management Plan 24:34 … CoE Support Portal 26:07 … Which Companies should have a CoE? 28:01 … Lessons Learned establishing a CoE 31:02 … New Oceaneering Projects 34:06 … Oceaneering Contact info 35:09 … Andy’s Book Reviewed 36:14 … Closing BRIAN LOOS:  ...a balanced set of initiatives is important when you’re driving change.  Quite often the change involves cultural change, and that can be a journey rather than a sprint. NICK WALKER:  Welcome to Manage This, the podcast by project managers for project managers. So this is our time to talk about the things that matter most to you as a professional project manager.  Our guests are involved in all types of projects, big and small, but what they have in common is this, they’ve all experienced what you’ve experienced – challenges, roadblocks, and victories. We talk with the movers and shakers in the industry.  And alongside me is one with some pretty fancy moves himself, Bill Yates. BILL YATES:  I don’t know about that.  You don’t want to see me on the dance floor.  That’s an ugly thing.  Man, I’m so excited about this podcast today.  This hits on a topic, and we’ll get into it more, but this reminds me of one of my favorite authors, Clive Cussler, so he’s written a series of books that involve underwater exploration. NICK WALKER:  Yeah. BILL YATES:  And a superhero named Dirk Pitt, so we’re going to talk to a couple guys that remind me of Dirk Pitt. Oceaneering NICK WALKER:  Real-life superheroes, yeah.  All right.  And their names are Brian Loos and Joe Campbell.  Oceaneering International, Incorporated, which began in the 1960s as a small regional diving company in the Gulf of Mexico, then grew to become a global provider of engineered products and services. So Oceaneering International deals with all the services associated with the lifecycle of an offshore oilfield, from drilling to decommissioning.  They operate the world’s premier fleet of work-class ROVs, or remotely operated vehicles, and they are also a frontrunner in offshore oilfield maintenance services and subsea hardware. Meet Joe So let’s first meet Joe Campbell, he’s the senior project manager with Oceaneering’s Subsea Project Group.  He has 30 years of subsea construction and maintenance experience in diving and ROV projects.  Joe has worked with Oceaneering for six years, working on projects in Azerbaijan, Trinidad, Equatorial Guinea, and Mauritania.  Now, I know that Bill wants to talk with you more about the Project Management Center of Excellence. But before we get into that, let’s hear a little bit more about Oceaneering. I see that one of your company slogans on the website is “We solve the unsolvable.”  I love that. So you’ve recently been involved in a pretty complex and challenging project. A subsea deepwater pipeline repair operation off the shores of West Africa.  Was that for all intents and purposes the type of project that some people might think of as unsolvable? JOE CAMPBELL:  Well, that’s a good question. For us it’s not unsolvable because this is something we do every day. We have the pipeline clamps that we manufacture for Oceaneering. So we have the project management group that installs them, puts them in, we manage the vessels.

Have you been the victim of a cyber-attack? We’re talking with Dr. Don Hunt, an expert in cybercrime and cyber security, to get advice on how to implement effective cybersecurity measures. Listen in to hear how to identify “at-risk” systems and how to secure, and safely share, sensitive data.

Dr. Ruth Middleton-House describes how the shift from the emotional brain to the rational brain in making crisis decisions is absolutely critical. When disaster strikes on a project, learn how to size up the situation, evaluate your options, and take appropriate action.

The podcast for project managers by project managers. "Driller Mike", a tunnel boring machine drilling a 5 mile tunnel underneath Atlanta. Table of Contents 01:19 … The Project Story 02:38 … Meet Ade 06:28 … Project Objective 09:44 … CMAR 12:28 … Meet Bob 15:42 … Driller Mike 18:27 … Decision-Making Criteria 20:46 … The Unexpected Risks 23:12 … Encountering Opposition 24:21 … Lessons Learned 25:13 … Current Project Status 27:50 … CMAR Lessons Learned 31:23 … Collaboration Tip 31:46 … Project Success 34:58 … Closing BOB HUIE: So the city kind of told everybody at the beginning we don’t have a lot of time to do this, so we can’t be fighting with each other and not getting along and doing things like that. We needed to find a way to work together for a common goal, and that was a substantial lesson that everybody had to learn.  And then once we learned it and put it into effect, it had a tremendous positive impact on the success of the project to date. NICK WALKER:  Welcome to Manage This, the podcast by project managers for project managers.  This is our chance to meet and discuss the things that really matter to you as a professional project manager.  We take seriously the adage that wisdom is found in a multitude of advisors, and so we seek out experts in a variety of vocations who can give us insight based on their real-life experiences. I’m your host, Nick Walker, and with me is the one who guides these conversations, Bill Yates, and Bill, we talk about all sizes and scopes of projects on this podcast, and today we’re talking about another really big one. BILL YATES:  Yeah, this one’s deep, a very deep project, we’ll talk more about that, but I can’t wait. The Project Story NICK WALKER:  Well, let’s talk about this deep project just a little bit.  The City of Atlanta’s Department of Watershed Management provides water to 1.2 million users each day.  So the department is in the middle of establishing a 400-foot-deep reservoir that will hold 2.4 billion gallons of water, the reservoir will be in the former Bellwood Quarry northwest of downtown Atlanta.  The Quarry is to be filled through a five-mile-long tunnel that will connect it to the Chattahoochee River, the city’s primary water source.  To bore the tunnel, a tunnel boring machine, or TBM, was constructed and installed for the two-year-long tunnel project, a TBM. (Driller Mike) BILL YATES:  TBM.  NICK WALKER:  And there’s another acronym that we want to talk about. BILL YATES:  Yeah. NICK WALKER:  And you’ll probably hear this come up a lot.  That’s CMAR. BILL YATES:  Right. NICK WALKER:  C-M-A-R. BILL YATES:  So CMAR, that’s a – really it’s a procurement term, it’s a contract type, and it stands for Construction Manager at-Risk.  Once the agreement was reached between the City of Atlanta and that major provider – Bob will talk about that.  So you may hear the owner, City of Atlanta, refer to the project manager of the team as the CMAR.  So you met your CMAR that way. Meet Ade NICK WALKER:  Good.  Well, we’ve got a couple of guests in the studio here.  So let me first introduce Ade Abon, Senior Watershed Director for the City of Atlanta, Department of Watershed Management, he is the director for the Capital Projects Management Division. Ade has 34 years of experience, 19 of which have been for the City of Atlanta in the planning, design, construction management, and also program management for wastewater collection and water distribution systems, Ade, welcome to Manage This. ADE ABON:  Thank you very much. NICK WALKER:  I’d like to start off by just maybe finding out a little bit more about you.  What was your career path to the position that you’re now in? ADE ABON:  Yeah, so I’ve got a very long career path, and I will try and do my best to lay it all out.  Yeah, I – born, raised in Nigeria.  I worked for a couple of years on a road construction project. NICK WALKER:  In Nigeria.

Scheduling is a big deal in project management. We're getting into the nuts and bolts of project management tools with Jen Morrisey the Vice President of Product at LiquidPlanner, a cloud-based project management platform.

Project Management - Leadership Lessons Learned from a Fire Chief Table of Contents 01:09 … Meet Mark 03:32 … Whittier Fire Incident 07:48 … Incident Command Types 10:11 … Managing Incidents 11:40 … Incident/Project Scope 12:53 … Peer Communication 14:11 … Keeping Motivated 15:30 … Leadership Transition 18:10 … Building trust 20:01 … Delegation 22:48 … Public Communication 27:15 … Resources 28:36 … Lessons Learned 30:39 … Career Highlights 32:29 … Closing MARK VON TILLOW:  But for me, as the leader or as the project manager, you’ve got to know your people, and you’ve got to know all 56 of them in my case. NICK WALKER:  Welcome to Manage This, the podcast by project managers for project managers. So this is our bimonthly meeting to talk about what really matters to you as a professional project manager, it’s our goal to give you some words of advice and encouragement by hearing the experiences of other professionals and leaders in the field. I’m your host, Nick Walker, and with me is the one who holds down the fort here, Bill Yates.  So Bill, today’s podcast is a direct result of a request from a listener. By Request! BILL YATES:  Yeah, how about that?  We heard from Amy.  I think she’s in Washington State. NICK WALKER:  Yeah, she reached out to us and asked specifically that we have a guest on our program, someone involved in public safety, particularly when it comes to managing wildfires. BILL YATES:  Right, right.  And we were delighted.  Wendy did some research, and she contacted Mark, it came together with Mark, so we’re delighted to have Mark on as our guest and talk through this in detail. Meet Mark NICK WALKER:  Well, let’s meet him; all right?  U.S. Forest Service Retired Division Chief Mark von Tillow started his career in fighting wildfires in 1986 on the Tahoe National Forest, he’s been a team member working engines, hotshots, and helicopters, and also he was the incident commander for California Team 3 for many years. Mark has extensive fire experience as well as some all-hazard responses such as in Hurricane Rita in Texas, the space shuttle Discovery recovery mission, as well. He was the Commander in 2017’s Whittier Fire in Santa Barbara County, California, and also in the Thomas Fire later that year.  He also commanded the fighting of the Soberanes Fires along the Big Sur coast, one of the costliest wildfire operations in U.S. history. Mark has a passion for this work and wants to pay it forward, and Mark, we welcome you to Manage This. MARK VON TILLOW:  Good morning.  Thanks for having me. NICK WALKER:  Now, I’ve got to ask you, first off, we have just come off one of the most destructive wildfire seasons in California’s history.  Fresh in our minds, of course, is the fire that destroyed the town of Paradise in Northern California, the Camp Fire.  This is obviously a career that takes a special breed of human, what led you to this career choice? MARK VON TILLOW:  So this may seem like a different way to start this conversation, but really it had to do with my father passing away when I was 12. He had a heart attack in front of me, and this was pre-911 days, when you just pick up the phone and dial 911 now.  But I had to run around the block to get to my grandfather’s house to tell him what had happened. He came back, and it just seemed like a long delay for emergency personnel to get there.  That was really my first exposure to that, and I thought, you know, I’d like to be that person someday trying to help somebody, so that’s really where it started. Fast-forward along through high school, graduate, go to work for a company called Hewlett-Packard, but I was also volunteering at a fire station, and that really seemed to resonate with me more.  So I worked nights at Hewlett-Packard, and I worked days doing the fire station and then found out about this Wildland Firefighting thing and decided to apply, and almost forgot that I applied when they called and said,...

The Podcast for Project Managers by Project Managers. Table of Contents 01:06 … Meet Kendall 03:27 … PM4Change 04:31 … Finding the Gap 08:05 … PMDOS Event Procedure 11:39 … Organization Support 12:19 … Benefits to the PM 14:48 … Networking 17:33 … Meet Selena 18:16 … Local Launch PMDOS 21:34 … Student Mentoring 24:05 … PMI Atlanta Chapter PMDOS 24:54 … Lessons Learned 28:25 … Success Story 30:32 … PM Point of View Podcast 31:53 … Closing KENDALL LOTT:  We have skills.  The skills are needed.  The talents are useful, but talents don’t count, you can’t let them be fallow.  You have to use them. NICK WALKER:  Welcome to Manage This, the podcast by project managers for project managers.  Every two weeks we meet to discuss what really matters to you as a professional project manager.  It’s a time we set aside to offer some expertise and advice from some of our fellow professionals in the field.  We let them tell their stories in the hopes that you’ll be encouraged and challenged in your own sphere of influence. I’m your host, Nick Walker, and with me is our chief influencer, Bill Yates,  and Bill, I’m looking forward to hearing what our guests have to say about a subject that’s become increasingly on my radar, and that is volunteering.  Which, as you and I have talked about, addresses a common problem. BILL YATES:  Right.  The common problem, not-for-profits often have a compelling vision but those leaders need help planning and executing.  So I’m really interested to see what our guests have to say about that. Meet Kendall NICK WALKER:  So we have two guests to help us in the studio today who are going to talk about an organization that provides opportunities for project management professionals to participate in community volunteering. Our first guest is J. Kendall Lott.  Kendall is the CEO/President of M Powered Strategies, Inc. A change management consulting firm in Washington, DC. Supporting organizations in public service.  He’s the executive director of the Project Management Day of Service, the Chairman of the Board of the PM for Change nonprofit organization. And the host and producer of the PM Point of View podcast.  Kendall, thanks so much for joining us here on Manage This today. KENDALL LOTT:  Glad to be here. NICK WALKER: So tell us a little bit about yourself to get us started here. And why volunteering is such a passion for you. KENDALL LOTT:  Huh.  That is a super good question, I think what brought me here that’s related to that is I am a returned Peace Corps volunteer, back in the ‘80s. So I got started in public service through the graces of the federal government. I greatly appreciate the taxpayers that make that program possible, I think it’s good for the country, and it’s good for me.  It was a chance to get kind of involved, and I really enjoyed it. One of my other pieces later was when I wanted to become a project manager and realized there was a whole institute around it, with chapters, I needed to kind of get out and get to meet people. But I did it for a very personal reason, I think that’s where we get a lot of volunteers, you’ve got to have your own hook for something right, and I realized I needed to meet people. So I showed up at the Washington, DC Chapter, PMIWDC, my home chapter, and they had, frankly, they had a disaster at their registration desk.  So me being Kendall, I showed up and said, what, this is like the biggest chapter, and this is all these project managers, and they can’t run a registration desk?  And I raised my voice. So we know what happened then, they’re like, congratulations, you just volunteered to solve that, and I got to participate and learn to keep my mouth shut.  No, I learned to help out, and I really enjoyed engaging with other professionals.  So that was a bit of a twist on the volunteer environment right, and I volunteered for the chapter for about 15 years and ended up on the board and eventually became the vice chair,

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...