Creative decision making is key to what we do in all our projects. According to FourSight, there are 4 distinct voices in the decision making process. Do you have these voices in the room when you make decisions? Do you know when you need all 4 voices - or only a couple specific ones? 

We are joined today by Teresa Lawrence who gave one of the most fun and engaging talks at this past year’s PMI Global Summit in Las Vegas. She talks us through the FourSight approach to creative problem solving, the 4 voices in decision making, and also reveals the results of Kim and Kate’s FourSight assessment on the air! 

Best of all, you can do this too! Check out our page at https://pmhappyhour.com/foursight and sign up to get your own FourSight assessment and join Kim, Kate, Teresa and your fellow Happy Hour fans as we get our results and learn how we can better approach creative problem solving ourselves and with our teams. 

About our amazing guest, Teresa Lawrence, PhD, PMP, CSM Teresa Lawrence is an influencer and SME on the integration of creativity and Creative Problem Solving (CPS) into Project Management. Since 2017, she has facilitated, trained and consulted to over 85K people since 2017. Investing years of experience in you.  She was a 2019 Small Business Administration Home-based Business of the Year. A cognitive diversity trainer, she joins us today from Florida.

Find out more about the Teresa’s work and FourSight

• You can read more about Teresa's work and even engage her to help facilitate your team here: http://internationaldeliverables.com/ 
• You can read about the FourSight assessment here: https://www.foursightonline.com/ 

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“I know the world is ending, but do you have wifi here?”

Sounds funny, but it’s deadly serious. Natural disasters impact critical infrastructure that we depend on every day: shelter, fresh water, food distribution, and power. These are the ones we think about. 

But what about communication? 

How do relief agencies, police, fire, and government coordinate a disaster response when there is no power, no cell signal, no wifi? How do community members communicate with each other, find out where to get aid, or reach out to loved ones who are worrying about them if there is no functioning communication infrastructure - or even a place to charge your phone? 

Enter the ITDRC! The Information Technology Disaster Resource Center is a non-profit organization that sends teams and equipment to disaster areas to provide communication and technology services. The PM’s involved are truly project management heroes, and we get to hear from one of them today, Charis Mayhorn.  

About our amazing guest, Charis Mayhorn

Charis Mayhorn is a Network Architect.  In her day job, she designs IP networks, advises leadership and boards on infrastructure best practices, and guides cross-team collaboration.  In her free time, she volunteers with ITDRC.

Find out more about the ITDRC here:

• Volunteer and read more about the ITDRC on their website, https://itdrc.org/ 

• Check out this video of a 2 day ride along during Hurricane Ian response: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgbzRiqHnvE  

• Read about the ITDRC’s other activities at https://medium.com/@ITDRC 

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Decisions make or break your project - starting with the decision of whether or not to even do your project. Beyond that, we have planned decisions / phase gates and ad-hoc decisions that happen throughout the entire life of our project. And if you’ve been around long enough, you know that one bad decision can sink your whole project - or at least have it taking on water, fast. 

So, how should we approach decision making in a logical way which helps ensure that:

1. The right decisions get made

2. Decisions get made by the right people

3. Decisions are not revisited any more than they absolutely have to

To help answer these questions, this episode we are joined by Project Management mentor, consultant and YouTube PM star Kandis Porter! If you don’t know Kandis, you must check out her extensive youtube channel covering a lot of great Project Management topics. 

In today’s episode, Kandis will help us understand: 

• Why should we care so much about project decisions? 

• How should you approach decision making? 

• Kandis shares her “D.I.D.I.” framework for decision making

• How do you ensure your decisions stick? 

• What are some “worst practices” for decision making that we should avoid

And along the way, we may throw in some horror stories about bad decision making that we can hopefully learn from

About our amazing guest, Kandis Porter

Kandis Porter is the Founder and Managing Director of Effective Flow Connections (EFC), a management consulting company that helps transform organizations through project management, process improvement, change management, facilitation of key meetings, and training. Kandis also works one-on-one with clients, focusing on Leadership development and growth. EFC enables organizations to do what they do, even better! 

Kandis Porter has more than 18 years of experience managing people and large projects in both the government and private sectors. She has supported clients in various industries, to include the Department of Defense, Federal Aviation Administration, utilities, medical device, health care, non-profit, and learning & development. 

Kandis has a Master of Science Degree in Project Management (MSPM) from The George Washington University and Master of Business Administration (MBA) in Human Resources. In addition, she is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP), PMP Exam Prep Course Instructor through Project Management Institute, Prosci Change Manager, and Six Sigma Green Belt. She is also certified as a Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) Practitioner, Thomas-Kilmann Instrument (TKI) Practitioner, and is a Wiley DiSC Workshop facilitator. 

Before joining the consulting industry, Kandis proudly spent more than seven years on Active Duty in the United States Air Force and is passionate about giving back to veterans and their families. 

Check out some of Kandis’ amazing content here:

YouTube: Kandis Porter - YouTube

Website: Kandis Porter - effectiveflowconnections.com

Kandis also has a book being released in early 2023 called ‘Good Decisions Equal Success’; coauthored with good friend and CEO, Damon Lembi

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We love to hear about your tough PM issues, so please hit us up at [email protected] or on Linkedin 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.

Yeah! One of our favorite guests, Tim Creasey, returns! This time we are talking about what happens if you realize, too late in the game, that you really didn’t consider Change Management enough in your planning cycle. 

It’s such a universal experience of a project manager to not have change management, and so many of us end up in these situations where we struggle to see the real benefits of a change we’ve implemented.  We figured: why not start where most of us end up: in trouble!

Join Kate and Kim as we talk with Tim about how to recover.

About our amazing guest, Tim Creasey

An author, researcher, change expert and human, Tim focuses on the people-side of change with process, wit and vigor. Tim’s work forms the foundation of the world’s largest body of knowledge on change management. His role as Chief Innovation Officer at Prosci gives him unparalleled insight into change management challenges, trends and futures. Having spoken to hundreds of thousands of people around the globe, Tim is authentic, knowledgeable and unassumingly funny. He enables audiences with valuable data and actionable information.

And here are some links to some of Tim’s other amazing content:

8 Alignment Hacks That Enhance Change Management Today

While formal approaches to Change Management are a must for people-dependent projects and complex transformations, sometimes simple adjustments can help teams and colleagues remove roadblocks and enable rapid change during uncertain times.

Why Change Management

People are the common denominator for achieving project success and business outcomes and the research is clear: Initiatives with excellent change management are six times more likely to succeed.

Taking Charge of Change Training Program

Prosci’s Taking Charge of Change 1-day program will help you get started on delivering change success through people.

Tim’s LinkedIn Profile

Connect with Tim on LinkedIn and keep the change management conversation going!

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As a project manager, the time you get with an executive sponsor is critical: you don’t get much of it and you cannot blow it! For many of our listeners, you may be new to executive meetings. But, how do you get the most out of these meetings and give a good impression so you can get the confidence of your executive sponsors? It’s something we ALL struggle with and can all get better with. 

On today’s show, Kate and Kim talk through how to win with these meetings. Jokingly the 30/60/90 minute plan (30 minute meeting after 60 hours of preparation and 90 pounds of stress eating), we talk you through: 

• Knowing your audience
• How to present to execs 
• How to tell your story

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We love to hear about your tough PM issues, so please hit us up at [email protected] or on Linkedin 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.

Tech startups drive the technology around us, and a good bit of the economy. They use creativity, ingenuity and entrepreneurial spirit to solve problems and build the world of tomorrow. But how do they do that? Is it really like the “Shark Tank” or “Dragon’s Den” tv shows?

Today we are joined by a real-life tech founder who has successfully built his company and introduced a new tool to the market - a PM tool, no less! Pete Bernardo, founder of Punchlist tells us about the project behind founding a startup and bringing his product to market. And, no, it’s not quite like the TV show :-) 

AND you can get your first month free & 10% off the price of Punchlist by signing up here and using the coupon code: PMHAPPYHOUR

OUR AMAZING GUEST: Pete Bernardo, Founder of Punchlist

Pete Bernardo is the Founder & CEO of Punchlist, the #1 client feedback layer over your creative work. Pete is also a TechStars Atlanta Mentor, a father of two, and an occasional pizza maker. 

Former EVP of Product & Growth at Three Five Two, Pete has 20 years of design & development experience across clients like CNN, Porsche, American Express, and Microsoft. 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/petebernardo/  

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We love to hear about your tough PM issues, so please hit us up at [email protected] or on Linkedin 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.

When the first Covid vaccinations were released, massive vaccination sites were launched, seemingly overnight, to vaccinate millions of people. If you volunteered or were vaccinated at one of these sites, you may have witnessed how huge, sophisticated and well run these sites were. But how did they do that? How (and who) planned, organized, stood up and ran these massive sites vaccinating thousands of people a day - at a time when you couldn’t even hardly hold an in-person meeting? 

Kim volunteered at one of these early sites at a football stadium parking lot with dozens of lanes of people getting vaccinated, thousands and thousands a day. Since then, we’ve been trying to find someone to come on the show and talk about how these were organized so well, so quickly. And he had no luck doing so - until now! 

Our guest, Aaron Bellinger, was project manager for one of these emergency Covid vaccination sites and walks us through how the whole process went down, from conception to execution, operation and tear-down. It’s an impressive, once-in-a-lifetime project that affected the lives of thousands. 

OUR AMAZING GUEST: Aaron Bellinger, PMP

Aaron Bellinger was born and raised in Phoenix, AZ where he lives with his beautiful wife Tanya and their sweet dog Ollie. Aaron has an extensive background in project management where most of his experience was gained “on the job”. His first job was roofing houses with his dad where he learned you can survive 110 degree days outdoors. Aaron also helped business users with technical computer hardware support which gave him great insight into the “customer”.

Most recently Aaron has been a project manager in a healthcare environment where he is helping improve end user experiences and serving his community for impact.

It didn’t take Aaron long to realize that by asking “do you want it good, fast or cheap, pick two”, he could turn anyone’s plan into action ensuring he executed for impact and mitigated risk with a purpose. 

Aaron is a certified Project Management Professional who believes that a defined scope will set you up for success. 

When Aaron isn’t Project Managing something at work, he is taking his truck off road, SCUBA diving, or competing in the United States Practical Shooting Association matches at the gun range in a fierce, blasting competition. 

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We love to hear about your tough PM issues, so please hit us up at [email protected] or on Linkedin 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 is based on feedback we’ve had from our member 1:1 coaching sessions, one of the benefits we provide our PM Happy Hour members.

Many PM’s find themselves in a position where they are the first project manager in their organization. Whether you are a newbie or an experienced pro, this will be a challenge. The organization probably has a low (or no) level of project management maturity, no organizational concept of what project management is or how to make projects succeed, and probably as many different expectations of what a PM should and shouldn’t do as there are people in the organization. Where do you even start?!

Before you whip out your PMBOK or Agile Practice guide and start reading it to your team, let’s step back a moment and talk about how to approach this situation pragmatically. And let’s do it with one of our favorite PMO mentors Joe Pusz, “PMO Joe!” 

In this episode, we talk with PMO Joe about how to approach you new role as the pioneer project manager in your organization and how to set yourself, your team and your organization up for success - in the short and long term.

OUR AMAZING GUEST: JOE PUSZ, “PMO JOE”

Joe Pusz, PMO Joe is an internationally recognized leader in the Project Management and PMO community. He is a frequent Keynote Speaker, Author, Project Management Innovator and was recently named one of the Top 8 PMO Influencers in the World by the PMO Global Alliance. He is the Founder and President of THE PMO SQUAD, a Phoenix based PMO and Project Management Consulting firm serving clients across the United States.

He is host of the Project Management Office Hours Radio Show and Podcast providing Project Management Leaders a voice within our community. Now in the 5th season the show has over 40 million plays and downloads featuring guests from around the world. Joe is also Co-Founder of VPMMA, the Veteran Project Manager Mentor Alliance which is a 501c3 Non-Profit Organization assisting Veterans seeking to transition into civilian Project Management careers.

Joe is the Founder of The PMO Leader global community.  The site is the only global ecommerce community for PMO Leaders and teams to share content, gain knowledge and exchange experiences. He is a Judge for the Global PMO Awards, a member of the PMI Executive Roundtable on PMOs, and is a long-time member of the Project Management Institute. He has been a PMI Volunteer, Sponsor and Mentor.

Social Media

https://www.linkedin.com/in/joepusz/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-pmo-squad/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/project-management-office-hours/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/vpmma/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-pmo-leader/

https://twitter.com/THEPMOSQUAD

https://www.instagram.com/thepmosquad/

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OK, originally this was going to be an April Fool’s goof podcast, but it turned out to be a lot of fun and maybe a bit educational. But, nope, it’s not your usual PMHH episode, and DEFINITELY not your typical PM podcast. So, if you are looking for something serious and academic, this episode is not the one for you.

Kate will be your dungeon master in this fun (and, yeah, weird) episode! Kate walks Kim through building his PM character, then takes him through a tabletop RPG (role playing game) of managing a project. Is it as dorky as it sounds? YES!!

“Roll your negotiation check.” 

Will Kim be able to complete his quest? Or will the Dragons, Facilities Managers and other monsters stop his party in their tracks? 

I don’t know about you, but I think Kate needs to start hosting public versions of these! Talk about a fun way to PDU! Give us a shout if you think so too! 

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We love to hear about your tough PM issues, so please hit us up at [email protected] or on Facebook at facebook.com/pmhapyhour 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.

PMs are accountable for project success. As such, we are keenly aware when things are failing! And because most PM’s are process and goal oriented, we can think of a lot of ways to improve an organization.

But how do you propose a change in a way that gets support - instead of damnation? If you don’t do it right, pitching a change can sound a lot like giving a bunch of other people more work to do, or telling everyone else that they’ve been doing it ‘wrong’ for the last 10 years, and you as a fresh-faced PM is here to tell them how to do it right. 

In this episode, we’re going to try to help you learn from our hard lessons learned and effectively pitch changes to help your organization succeed the way you know it can. 

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STUMP THE PM’S!

We love to hear about your tough PM issues, so please hit us up at [email protected] or on Facebook at facebook.com/pmhapyhour 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.