Project Management Happy Hour

There is enough to deal with in project management without gender issues making it even tougher. So, today we openly talk about challenges women can face in the workplace. Rather than hit you with a bunch of statistics (which are also important), Kate will share some real-life examples of challenges she's faced, and we talk openly about ways to address them. Guys, you should listen - you might be surprised what kind of challenges women have to deal with sometimes.

MEMBERSHIP COMING SOON!

Get access to all podcasts, PDU certificates, bonus content, exclusive member Q&A webinars and more from our new membership! Construction is still in progress, but you can sign up to be notified when it's live at https://pmhappyhour.com/membership

JOIN US FOR HAPPY HOUR!

Come by and say "hey!" at our Facebook page https://facebook.com/pmhappyhour

STUMP THE PM'S!

We love to hear about your tough PM issues, so please hit us up at [email protected] and we'll see if we can help you. If we use your question, we'll send you a PM Happy Hour coaster you can enjoy at your next happy hour.

This episode, we talk about an old stand-by in the PM world, the RAID Log. RAID Logs (Risks, Actions, Issues and Decisions) are an essential tool that every PM needs in their toolbox. Heck, you can effectively run an entire project from one!

If you have never heard of them before, you need to check in – whether you have a small project or a major program, RAID logs can save your bacon. And if you've used them in the past, tune in for some tips to be super effective with them.

FREE RAID LOG!

Why not download a copy of our free RAID log? Go get it at https://pmhappyhour.com/raidlog

MEMBERSHIP COMING SOON!

Get access to all podcasts, PDU certificates, bonus content, exclusive member Q&A webinars and more from our new membership! Construction is still in progress, but you can sign up to be notified when it's live at https://pmhappyhour.com/membership

JOIN US FOR HAPPY HOUR!

Come by and say "hey!" at our Facebook page https://facebook.com/pmhappyhour

STUMP THE PM'S!

We love to hear about your tough PM issues, so please hit us up at [email protected] and we'll see if we can help you. If we use your question, we'll send you a PM Happy Hour coaster you can enjoy at your next happy hour.

Microsoft Project Professional client is a staple in the industry, and is probably where most of learned what a GANTT chart is. But what about the online version for teams, Project Server? It seems to be the default PPM solution organizations think about when considering PPM, but Is it really all that? Anecdotally, a lot of organizations fail with the product. But is it the product's fault? And why is that failure so ironic? And what other options are there out in the market?

GREAT USER MAIL QUESTION

User mail this week is from Mark K, who asks how to manage and get alignment on "big" personalities – Kim and Kate share their tips on how to

MEMBERSHIP COMING SOON!

Get access to all podcasts, PDU certificates, bonus content, exclusive member Q&A webinars and more from our new membership! Construction is still in progress, but you can sign up to be notified when it's live at https://pmhappyhour.com/membership

JOIN US FOR HAPPY HOUR!

Come by and say "hey!" at our Facebook page https://facebook.com/pmhappyhour

STUMP THE PM'S!

We love to hear about your tough PM issues, so please hit us up at [email protected] and we'll see if we can help you. If we use your question, we'll send you a PM Happy Hour coaster you can enjoy at your next happy hour.

We all run into those little "Yellow Lights" on projects – those moments when you think, "wait a minute… that's not right." All too often, we "floor it" and try to get through the light before it gets red - only to end up in a head-on collision!

Today, we take a lesson from Mahan Khalsa's great book, "Let's Get Real or Let's Not Play" for how to handle these critical moments when we realize that something is definitely not right.

PM HAPPY HOUR MEMBERSHIP COMING!`

We are going to be moving to a membership model! Of course you will always get your PM Happy Hour podcasts, but what if you want more? PDU's? PDU's reported for you to PMI? Bonus content? Webinars? Personal Q&A sessions? Yes! We are working on developing a new Membership for PM Happy Hour listeners. More to come on this in the next month – if you are interested and want to know more when we have it ready, please sign up for our waiting list here:

https://pmhappyhour.com/membership

JOIN US FOR HAPPY HOUR!

Come by and say "hey!" at our Facebook page https://facebook.com/pmhappyhour

STUMP THE PM'S!

We love to hear about your tough PM issues, so please hit us up at [email protected] and we'll see if we can help you. If we use your question, we'll send you a PM Happy Hour coaster you can enjoy at your next happy hour.

Today we have our first Appetizer episode. What's an appetizer?

These are short format episodes – 15 minutes – in between our main shows where we hit on short, informative topics. These topics are too small to fill up a full show, or we want to see if there is enough interest from you, our PM Happy Hour listeners , to turn them into full episodes. So, if you hear an Appetizer and think, "they should make a whole meal out of that!" please let us know and we'll be happy to do that.

PM HAPPY HOUR MEMBERSHIP COMING!`

We are going to be moving to a membership model! Of course you will always get your PM Happy Hour podcasts, but what if you want more? PDU's? PDU's reported for you to PMI? Bonus content? Webinars? Personal Q&A sessions? Yes! We are working on developing a new Membership for PM Happy Hour listeners. More to come on this in the next month – if you are interested and want to know more when we have it ready, please sign up for our waiting list here:

https://pmhappyhour.com/membership

PM HAPPY HOUR MEETUP 19 OCTOBER IN LONDON!

If you are in London, come hang out at our open meetup – details are on our Facebook page https://facebook.com/pmhappyhour

JOIN US FOR HAPPY HOUR!

Come by and say "hey!" at our Facebook page https://facebook.com/pmhappyhour

STUMP THE PM'S!

We love to hear about your tough PM issues, so please hit us up at [email protected] and we'll see if we can help you. If we use your question, we'll send you a PM Happy Hour coaster you can enjoy at your next happy hour.

You depend on them and, let's be honest, sometimes you abuse them. This week we talk to Ollie Hunter, the enterprise architect for a leading e-commerce firm in Europe. Ollie will share life from an architect's perspective, and help us understand how we, as project leaders, can develop better relationships with our architects, and enable them so they can have the most impact on your project. We got so into this episode that it's our longest one yet, at just about an hour of great stuff!

And, yes, there is actual yelling in this episode J

OUR AMAZING GUEST

Ollie Hunter is an Enterprise Architect with a passion for helping businesses realize the potential of their strategies by using technology as a force for change. Ollie has worked closely with project managers for over 15 years in a range of different organizations, from local and national government, education, healthcare, through construction and retail, he is currently focused on businesses undergoing major change, primarily through mergers and acquisitions. At the moment, he lives in London, UK.

CONTACT OLLIE

Should you want to contact Ollie directly, his contact information is below.

• Twitter: @olliehunter
• Email: [email protected]
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/olliehunter/

DON'T FORGET YOUR TRAINING CREDITS!

You can get professional development units (PDU) for the time you spent with us today. Come to our website at https://PMHappyHour.com , look for Episode 009 and follow the link to register, pay a couple bucks and take your quiz. Pass our easy quiz, and BOOM, you instantly get a certificate for your 1 full PDU's. Subscribe and you can get PDU's all the time!

JOIN US FOR HAPPY HOUR!

Come by and say "hey!" at our Facebook page https://facebook.com/pmhappyhour

STUMP THE PM'S!

We love to hear about your tough PM issues, so please hit us up at [email protected] and we'll see if we can help you. If we use your question, we'll send you a PM Happy Hour coaster you can enjoy at your next happy hour.

This week we plunge into Project Communications – the most common cause of project failure. We are joined by Jennifer Rock and Michael Voss, authors of the book "B.S., Incorporated." Over happy hour, they share 5 insightful "tough love" tips on project communication, the way that only a BFF would. Thanks Jennifer and Michael!

OUR AMAZING GUESTS

Jennifer Rock and Michael Voss have a shared, lifelong passion for storytelling. They are professional communicators and have had the good fortune to work for and with companies that span multiple industries. They have spearheaded global communication strategy and worked with Project Managers for more than 20 years. In 2013, they formed their own communication agency ROCKdotVOSS and finished their debut novel – "B.S., Incorporated." Both live in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

CONTACT JENNIFER AND MICHAEL

As you will hear on the podcast, Jennifer and Michael are great communicators. Feel free to communicate with them J

• Check out their great book here: rockandvossbooks.com
• Facebook: facebook.com/rockandvossbooks
• Twitter: @jenniferrock; @mvoss23
• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: instagram.com/rockandvossbooks
• LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/rockjennifer; www.linkedin.com/in/michael-voss
• Check out their communications practice here: rockdotvoss.com

DON'T FORGET YOUR TRAINING CREDITS!

You can get professional development units (PDU) for the time you spent with us today. Come to our website at https://PMHappyHour.com , look for Episode 008 and follow the link to register, pay a couple bucks and take your quiz. Pass our easy quiz, and BOOM, you instantly get a certificate for your 0.75 PDU's. Subscribe and you can get PDU's all the time!

JOIN US FOR HAPPY HOUR!

Come by and say "hey!" at our Facebook page https://facebook.com/pmhappyhour

STUMP THE PM'S!

We love to hear about your tough PM issues, so please hit us up at [email protected] and we'll see if we can help you. If we use your question, we'll send you a PM Happy Hour coaster you can enjoy at your next happy hour.

This week we talk about a tough subject – how to handle an outside senior stakeholder who wants to exert influence on your project. This can be very tough when that influence is contrary to decisions already agreed in the project by senior stakeholders, or if that influence is uninformed.

In this episode, Kate outlines a formula that she uses to effectively manage such requests. Following that 5 step formula results in the following response statement:

Knowing that we wanted to achieve [project success definition]

within [success criteria],

we looked at [new random request from the stakeholder].

This would give us [positive thing about random request].

However, with [the impacts of the request],

it makes us [exceed constraint or missed objective].

For example:

Knowing that we wanted to obliterate the rebellion

By next Friday,

We looked at Lord Vader's request to implement a swimming pool on the Death Star.

This would give us a great way to chill out once we rule the galaxy.

However, since this would have to replace the Tie fighter bay and delay completion of the main reactor,

It makes it impossible to destroy the rebellion by next Friday, and risks the rebel scum destroying the Death Star, since we would have no Tie fighter defense

Listen in to find out how you can effectively use this formula, whether or not you have a Death Star

LISTENER MAIL

In listener mail, we answer the question: If I want to break into the Project Management field, should I try to get a PM degree? Or try to get experience?

DON'T FORGET TO GET YOUR PDU's!

Want professional development units for the time you spent with us today? Come to our website at https://PMHappyHour.com , look for Episode 007 and follow the link to register, pay a couple bucks and take your quiz. Pass our easy quiz, and you instantly get a cert for your 0.75 PDU's! Subscribe and you can get PDU's all the time!

JOIN US FOR HAPPY HOUR!

Come by and say "hey!" at our Facebook page https://facebook.com/pmhappyhour

STUMP THE PM'S!

We love to hear about your tough PM issues, so please hit us up at [email protected] and we'll see if we can help you. If we use your question, we'll send you a PM Happy Hour coaster you can enjoy at your next happy hour.

*Death Star, Tie fighters and Darth Vader are all copyright of Star Wars, Disney and people who could sue us into oblivion.

Join us for our new podcast, the Project Management Happy Hour! In our first 5 pilot episodes (plus this bonus!) , we are going to look at the first 5 questions you need to ask whenever starting a new project.

If you haven't listened to episodes 1-5, you might want to check those out first J

Question 1 helped us define success for the project, Question 2 helped us understand scope and opportunity. Question 3 helped us understand budget and value, and question 4 helped us understand the schedule and what drives it. In question 5, we looked at how to understand where it can all go wrong, and how to avoid that.

Now, in this bonus episode, we are going to talk about ways you can use these questions. We will also have some cool templates on our site you can use to better kickoff your project and communicate with your teams.

DON'T FORGET TO GET YOUR PDU's!

Want professional development units for the time you spent with us today? Come to our website at https://PMHappyHour.com , look for Episode 006 and follow the link to register, pay a couple bucks and take your quiz. Pass our easy quiz, and you instantly get a cert for your 0.5 PDU's! Subscribe and you can get PDU's all the time!

JOIN US FOR HAPPY HOUR!

Come by and say "hey!" at our Facebook page https://facebook.com/pmhappyhour

STUMP THE PM'S!

We love to hear about your tough PM issues, so please hit us up at [email protected] and we'll see if we can help you. If we use your question, we'll send you a PM Happy Hour coaster you can enjoy at your next happy hour.

Join us for our new podcast, the Project Management Happy Hour! In our first 5 pilot episodes, we are going to look at the first 5 questions you need to ask whenever starting a new project, whether you are:

• Kicking off a fresh new project
• Taking over an in-flight project
• Scoping out a new project opportunity
• Performing an assessment of a project that may be in trouble
• Communicating an overview of a project to team members or stakeholders

If you haven't listened to episodes 1-4, you might want to check those out first J

Question 1 helped us define success for the project, Question 2 helped us understand scope and opportunity. Question 3 helped us understand budget and value, and question 4 helped us understand the schedule and what drives it. For question 5, we look at where this can all go wrong J

DON'T FORGET TO GET YOUR PDU's!

Want professional development units for the time you spent with us today? Come to our website at https://PMHappyHour.com , look for Episode 004, and follow the link to register, pay a couple bucks and take your quiz. Pass our easy quiz, and you instantly get a cert for your 0.5 PDU's! Subscribe and you can get PDU's all the time!

JOIN US FOR HAPPY HOUR!

Come by and say "hey!" at our Facebook page https://facebook.com/pmhappyhour

STUMP THE PM'S!

We love to hear about your tough PM issues, so please hit us up at [email protected] and we'll see if we can help you. If we use your question, we'll send you a PM Happy Hour coaster you can enjoy at your next happy hour.