If the Business Analyst and Project Manager are both superheroes, can they coexist? Kupe says “Yes”! Jonathan “Kupe” Kupersmith joins the team to answer questions from a BA’s perspective relating to decision making and the value a BA can deliver.

NICK WALKER:  Welcome to Manage This, the podcast by project managers for project managers.  Every other week we get together to talk about the things that matter to you as a professional project manager.  And it doesn’t really matter whether you’re a PM veteran or someone simply exploring what the field is all about.  We’re here to offer some ideas, some perspective, and draw on the experiences of others who have been down that road and have realized success. I’m your host, Nick Walker, and with me are two who are still on that road, Andy Crowe and Bill Yates. ANDY CROWE:  Thanks, Nick.  We’ve had so much interest in the topic of artificial intelligence within project management, and we’ve got somebody here who knows a lot about AI who’s going to be processing that with us. NICK WALKER:  Our guest here in the studio is Chris Benson.  He’s an artificial intelligence machine learning strategist, a solution architect, and a keynote speaker who specializes in deep learning.  That’s the computation technology that is driving the artificial intelligence revolution. Chris is the co-host of the Practical AI podcast, produced by Changelog Media, designed to make artificial intelligence practical, productive, and accessible to everyone.  He’s the founder and organizer of the Atlanta Deep Learning Meetup, one of the largest AI communities in the world, with nearly 2,000 members.  Chris, it’s great to have you here on our podcast. CHRIS BENSON:  Thank you very much.  Happy to be here. NICK WALKER:  Could we start off by just defining for our listeners what artificial intelligence is? CHRIS BENSON:  So artificial intelligence means a lot of different things to a lot of different people.  In my view it’s really a marketing word more than it is anything else because over the years the definition of artificial intelligence has changed and evolved.  So what you might have thought of in the 1980s is vastly different from what it is in 2018.  So before I define it, I want to point out I was in a group of artificial intelligence experts that Adobe was hosting about six weeks ago.  And in doing that, they asked us all that same question; and all 10 of us gave 10 different answers. ANDY CROWE:  Well, and the joke is, if you ask two economists for a definition, you get three answers. CHRIS BENSON:  Absolutely. ANDY CROWE:  Same idea, huh. CHRIS BENSON:  Yup.  So it was very much that.  So I wanted to note that.  Take what I say with a grain of salt. ANDY CROWE:  What do you think it is, yeah. CHRIS BENSON:  So what I think it is, is a narrow definition.  I would consider that in 2018 artificial intelligence is synonymous with deep learning, which is the application of deep neural networks. ANDY CROWE:  Interesting.  Well, learning is certainly a part of AI that I think that’s almost a universal component that goes across most definitions.  Most definitions talk about the ability to imitate intelligence and things like that, imitate human intellect.  But that ability to learn and grow as a neural network is an interesting part of it.  So how do machines learn? CHRIS BENSON:  So there’s different techniques.  And those all broadly fall under the definition of machine learning.  The thing that separates deep learning, which is how I’m defining AI, from the rest is that it can take an enormous number of inputs – we call them “features” in data science – and process them in a highly nonlinear manner and give inferences, which are essentially probabilistic predictions on what the answer might be. For instance, to make it real:  If you have machine vision, and you are putting a cat in front of the camera, and it will come back and identify that it thinks it’s a cat.  It might come back 97 percent.  But the difference is these technologies aren’t going to come back with 100 percent.  They’re probabilistic technologies.  But they can make these identifications using a model that is many orders of magnitude ...

NICK WALKER:  Welcome to Manage This, the podcast by project managers for project managers.  It’s our chance to meet with you and discuss what really matters in the world of project management, whether you’re new to the field or have been doing it for decades.  We want to encourage you and challenge you, to cheer you on and help you avoid some of the pitfalls that can come along the way.  We talk to the experts, people who have gone before us, so we can benefit from their experiences and their successes. I’m your host, Nick Walker, and with me are the guys who make it all happen here, Andy Crowe and Bill Yates. ANDY CROWE:  Nick, it’s great to be here today, and I’m really excited about this ‘cast. NICK WALKER:  Okay.  Spoiler alert, it’s very possible that we’re going to laugh some today.  Our guest is Sean Glaze, an author, speaker, and teambuilding facilitator who is all about inspiring groups to have fun laughing together so they can have more success working together.  He’s the author of three books:  “The Unexpected Leader,” “Rapid Teamwork,” and “The 10 Commandments of Winning Teammates.” Sean has been a successful basketball coach, an educator for more than 20 years, and in that time has gained some valuable insights into how to develop winning teams.  He’s the founder of Great Results Teambuilding, which he uses to share those lessons all over the country, through entertaining speaking engagements and teambuilding events.  Sean, thanks for joining us here on Manage This. SEAN GLAZE:  Appreciate it, Nick.  Looking forward to being here and sharing some great information with your audience. NICK WALKER:  Sean, I’m always fascinated how skills developed in one area can transfer over into others.  For example, when did you realize that the lessons you’ve learned from years of coaching basketball could translate well to business leaders? SEAN GLAZE:  That is a tremendous question.  And honestly, it was probably about eight years into my coaching career when I realized I wasn’t as good a coach as I thought.  I had spent most of that first decade as a coach, like many project leaders, like many team leaders regardless of industry, focused on strategy.  And for basketball, that’s X’s and O’s, and that’s skill development and strategy.  And you realize after you go through a couple of seasons where you know you’ve not gotten as much out of your talent as you should have that there’s something missing.  And what I had neglected for nearly a decade was culture. And everybody has probably heard culture eats strategy for breakfast, but as a young coach I had never heard that.  But I certainly lived it.  And so the eye-opening mirror moment for me was recognizing, at the end of a really tough losing season, I’m going to have to change if I want my team to change.  And leading teams as a project manager, as a coach, you realize that strategy is what you want to do.  Culture determines how well your people are going to do it.  And so the relationships and connections that I then began to focus on made us far more successful in the future.  And I realized that what I had done with my team could hopefully help other leaders with their teams, regardless of athletics or business or others. ANDY CROWE:  You know, as I listen to this, Sean, I’m thinking, strategy you could change over a long weekend.  But culture is a slow turning ship a lot of times to turn that around.  And especially if you’ve got a toxic culture or a problematic culture, to reframe that in a positive way takes a lot of time and tremendous energy. SEAN GLAZE:  Absolutely.  And that’s something I think first as a leader you need to know what it is you want.  Because if I don’t have clarity about what I want my culture to be and what actually constitutes culture, I can’t deliver that or influence that on my team.  So a lot of my growth as a leader was me educating myself.  And hopefully those are some things that I’ll be able to share toda...

How can you avoid sexual harassment claims? Attorney Sarah Lamar joins the team to offer valuable advice on this topic, the #MeToo movement, and how it impacts Project Managers. Listen in as Sarah walks us through scenarios and offers helpful insights.

This week, the podcast team sits down with Kim Brainard, founder of Agile Brain and known “People Whisperer”, to discuss Scrum framework and humanizing the way we work. Whether that be as a team or with other stakeholders—or as she calls them, people—humanizing the workplace can make a big difference in the success of a project.

MIKE GOSS:  I believe that everything in life in one way or another is a project.  So if that’s true, how do I increase my chances of it being successful, and who can I help with it? NICK WALKER:  Welcome to Manage This, the podcast by project managers for project managers.  Every two weeks we get together to talk about the ins and outs of project management and what matters to you as a professional in the field.  We’ll talk with some of the leaders in project management to find out what motivates them, what drives them to succeed, and to get some encouragement and inspiration from them. I’m your host, Nick Walker, and with me are the two main motivators around here, Andy Crowe and Bill Yates.  And Bill, today we have with us via Skype someone who has made it a life goal to inspire people. BILL YATES:  Yeah.  And Mike, I’m excited about having you on this ‘cast because you’ve been entertaining our operations team for weeks and weeks and weeks.  I can always tell when they’re on the phone with you, so I’m looking forward to this. NICK WALKER:  Well, let’s meet Mike.  He has held sales and leadership positions with four multinational companies, several small and mid-size businesses, and three of his own businesses.  He’s an accomplished sales trainer, a project management trainer, contract project manager, speaker, and author.  And one of Mike’s lifetime goals is to reach 10 million people with a message of hope and inspiration.  Today he’ll get a little closer to that goal right here in our studio.  Mike, via Skype from Portland, Oregon, it’s great to have you with us here on Manage This. MIKE GOSS:  Well, I’m honored to be here.  I'm glad I was invited because this – Velociteach, Andy Crowe, Bill Yates – this is the big-time.  I got invited to the big-time.  Hallelujah. NICK WALKER:  Well, you know, that goal of reaching 10 million people might seem unusual to a lot of people.  Why did you set that particular goal? MIKE GOSS:  A few years ago I had open heart surgery.  I had chest pains and didn’t tell my wife.  And when she finally found out, things happened, and suddenly I’m having a five-way heart bypass.  When I woke up, I checked around, and I said, “I’m still alive.”  I wiggled my toes.  They're still working.  I tried my fingers.  They're still working.  I couldn’t talk because they had these huge things down my throat.  But I thought, you know, I must be here for a reason.  God must still not be done with me. So I set a goal to see how many people I could enrich.  And if you’re going to make a goal, you might as well make a big one.  I didn’t set out to enrich 10 people.  I set out to enrich 10 million in one way or another.  And when I speak or when I create a course or when I’m teaching boot camps, it’s all about making the other person better off.  I want to be able to say I did something; I made my mark by helping others. NICK WALKER:  Well, let’s go way back.  Way back, I guess, even when the first little seeds of your career began to be planted.  You had the nickname of “Otis” in junior high school and in high school.  Tell us why. MIKE GOSS:  I lived in Pendleton, which had a total of four elevators – Pendleton, Oregon.  But I was always fascinated by the box moving up and down with people or materials in it, the counterweight behind it, all the mechanical and electronic things that had to happen to make it work.  I was fascinated with it, and I always talked about it.  My friends got very tired of listening to it.  I made scale model elevators and entered them in science fair projects.  It just went on and on.  And eventually I got to work for my dream company, Otis Elevator. NICK WALKER:  As a matter of fact, I understand one of your usernames is ElevatorFan.  Would that be true of you? MIKE GOSS:  Well, yes.  When I was setting up my account in Skype it said, “What handle do you want?”  And I, well, thinking Otis, somebody took Otis.  So I said ElevatorFan.

NICK WALKER:  Welcome to Manage This, the podcast by project managers for project managers.  Every couple of weeks we meet to discuss what matters to you in the wide and diverse field of project management.  It’s our chance to reflect on our purpose; to take stock in how we’re doing; and, when needed, challenge ourselves to step it up.  We talk with project managers about real-life situations.  We pick their brains to discover their ideas and motivations and find out what has worked for them. I’m your host, Nick Walker, and with me are the two main brains of the outfit, Andy Crowe and Bill Yates.  And today, Andy, we’re talking with the guy who literally wrote the book on measuring strategic gold. ANDY CROWE:  Nick, I have been looking forward to this all week, just to get into the topic of strategy, to look at it; and to also look at it from a project management standpoint. NICK WALKER:  Well, let’s get right to it.  Joining us via Skype is David Barrett, a professional speaker, a regular blogger, a podcast host, an education advisor, and author of five books.  His career includes the creation and directing of a conference business; a training company; a software development firm; a speakers bureau; and, most recently, a TED-style event series for project professionals across North America.  He specializes in helping people and organizations manage the uncertainty by creating healthy projects and strategies.  David Barrett, thanks so much for joining us today here on Manage This. DAVID BARRETT:  I’m thrilled to be here, gentlemen.  Great to join you. NICK WALKER:  You’ve recently coauthored a new book, coming out just in a few days, titled “Seven Elements of Strategy Execution.”  David, what prompted this book?  How did it come about? DAVID BARRETT:  Well, 25, almost 30 years later into this business, and things have changed a lot.  It’s no longer build it on time, on scope, on budget for all of us project managers.  The day is now here where we’re being asked to step it up, to be more involved in the organization, to add value, and to be more than just the tickbox project manager that many of us grew up to know.  So this whole piece of strategy is, in my mind, a natural evolution on many different fronts.  I think it’s now to everyone’s benefit, to everyone’s favor to start understanding why we’re doing the work we’re doing. And this portfolio of work that we’re managing and working on is huge.  It’s mission critical.  It’s driving the business.  And so the day has come that we’re being asked, and we should be asking, why are we doing this?  How does it fit into the strategic plan?  So this is the connection of the work of all of us, of this wonderful community of project managers worldwide, to the “why.”  In my opinion, just to that one word.  Why are we doing this?  How does this fit into the bigger picture?  And that’s a strategic plan. ANDY CROWE:  I’ve heard it said before, David, that a man with a “why” can defeat a man with a “what” any day. DAVID BARRETT:  Absolutely.  The “what” is important.  The “what” is important to know, to see that vision down at the end of the road.  But just to drive us down to some object is not going to work.  It never has.  It never will.  But to give us purpose to build, which gives us passion for what we are doing, it’s so important today.  You know, we’re no longer staying with these organizations for many days, for our lives.  We have options.  So on both fronts it’s important that we’re connected. BILL YATES:  That’s true.  David, I’ve seen this with PMI, as well.  They’ve really, as they look at the performance that leads to exceptional project managers, those who are able to recognize the why, to see that context and understand how strategy influences their day-to-day decisions, they bring more value to their organization.  I think even of the Talent Triangle when PMI rolled that out.  Strategy is really, you know, it’s named a little bit differently.

AAnNICK WALKER:  Welcome to Manage This, the podcast by project managers for project managers.  Every other week we meet in an effort to get to the heart of what matters to you as a professional project manager.  We do that by talking with some of the leaders in the field, sharing their successes and sometimes their failures.  And we dig deep to find out what motivates them to be at their best. I’m your host, Nick Walker, and with me are two guys who are always at their best, Andy Crowe and Bill Yates.  Andy, our guest in the studio today will be familiar to football fans, but he’s actually moved on to a different field. ANDY CROWE:  Yeah, and we’ve got a lot of energy in this small podcast studio today, though.  We’re kind of bursting at the seams.  It’s a good thing. NICK WALKER:  But you know it’s not every day that we can refer to a former NFL star as “Doctor.” TOMMY JACKSON:  Ah, that’s what I’m told, that’s what I’m told. NICK WALKER:  Yeah, but Dr. Tommy Jackson was a defensive tackle for the Atlanta Falcons and the Kansas City Chiefs.  He now serves as the Director of Advising for University College at Kennesaw State University.  Jackson holds five university degrees.  Count ‘em:  a Master of Business Administration, Master of Public Administration, Bachelor of Arts in Public Administration, a Master of Education, and a Doctorate in Philosophy and Adult Education with Higher Education Administration. TOMMY JACKSON:  A lot of “tions,” right. NICK WALKER:  Yeah, yeah. ANDY CROWE:  That’s a long business card, my friend. BILL YATES:  It’s typical for a football player. NICK WALKER:  Of course, yeah, exactly. TOMMY JACKSON:  That’s why you just put “T.J.” on the card.  It makes it so much easier. NICK WALKER:  Well, you know, as a student at Auburn University, Dr. Jackson received an All-SEC honor both in football and in academics.  As a television sports analyst, he’s been nominated for an Emmy Award.  And in between his work in education he was also the program director for the at-risk student program within the city school system in Opelika, Alabama, his hometown.  Dr. Tommy Jackson, it’s a pleasure to have you with us here on Manage This. TOMMY JACKSON:  I am so glad to be here. Thank you for having me. Truly, truly. NICK WALKER:  You had a stellar career in football, both at Auburn University and for two NFL teams.  And in that career you developed, should I say, a reputation for destroying your opponents on the field.  But also you have a passion for building people up. TOMMY JACKSON:  Yeah. NICK WALKER:  And helping them succeed in life.  How do you sort of reconcile those two extremes? TOMMY JACKSON:  You know, because it’s very funny, you have to basically have the same mentality for both, whether you know that or not; right?  And people are like, wait, what do you mean?  Hold on, I’m going to explain it. No, working with people is something that takes a lot of – it takes having a passion for it.  And that’s something I’ve always had, whether it was playing football, whether it was working with students, you have to have a great passion for it because in order for you to be successful at anything, you have to have a high degree of passion, and you have to have a high degree of education.  And that doesn’t necessarily mean degrees from that standpoint.  But it’s like having an understanding of what you’re doing.  That’s what really – that’s what buys your credibility.  People are able to say, “Ah, he’s done it.  He’ll do it.”  And these are just things I’ve done over life. So, yeah, I enjoy football that way.  I was always in the classroom.  I was always looking at video.  And I was always studying my opponent.  And it’s the same thing you do when you work at a university or you work in the private sector.  You’re going to study.  You’re going to study your opponents.  ou’re going to study everything you do. BILL YATES:  Can we call you Tommy? TOMMY JACKSON:  Yes.  I’m glad you said that.

Have you ever managed a project that involved the merger and acquisition of more than one entity? Dr. Leeds discusses strategies for leading stakeholders with a great deal of uncertainty as it related to their own professional futures.

What do heroics, task-switching, and gold-plating have in common? All are forms of waste. The podcast team sits down with certified Project Management Professional, Alan Zucker to discuss identifying and eliminating waste from our projects.