Project Management Happy Hour - podcast cover

Project Management Happy Hour

Kim Essendrup and Kate Andersonpmhappyhour.libsyn.com
PM Happy Hour is the place for frank and honest discussion about real world issues in project management. We do it in a way that’s not too dry, though it may get a bit salty from time to time. Each episode, your hosts Kim Essendrup and Kate Anderson cover a problem faced in project management today, and share practical advice, real-life examples and the occasional project horror story. Not only that, but every podcast is also an online class! Our host is a PMI Registered Education Provider, who has structured each podcast as an easy-to-listen-to lesson. To get credit, go to our web site at PMHappyHour.com, purchase your class, take the test (based on the content from our podcast) and you get your PDU certificate instantly!
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Episodes

074 - The Project Behind a Movie

Did you ever watch the credits at the end of a movie and think, “wow, that’s a lot of people?” You’re right. Hundreds or thousands of people engaged to deliver a massive, multi-million dollar project that is a feature film. How do they do that? Our guest today walks us through the project behind a feature film: how do they plan a movie? How do they get funding? Who is really the PM in charge of pulling this thing off? (hint: it’s not the director) This episode is a trial of a new format, “The Pr...

Jan 12, 20221 hr 18 min

073 - A 12 Pack of Alignment Hacks with Tim Creasey - Part 2

We are joined again by one of our favorite guests, Tim Creasey, Organizational Change Wizard. This time he shares 12 different methods for creating better alignment with your team and your stakeholders. In this first part of a 2 part episode, we share the first 6 of these hacks to help get two people on the same page. 7- Marathon Measures 8- Context and Contrast 9- Zoom 10- Top of Mind Not Top Priority 11- Progress Over Perfection 12- Time and Place If you missed part 1, you can find it here . A...

Dec 01, 202156 min

072 - A 12 Pack of Alignment Hacks with Tim Creasey - Part 1

We are joined again by one of our favorite guests, Tim Creasey, Organizational Change Wizard. This time he shares 12 different methods for creating better alignment with your team and your stakeholders. In this first part of a 2 part episode, we share the first 6 of these hacks to help get two people on the same page. Pivot around Purpose “To What End?” To _____ By_____ statement Name it to tame it Matching Matters Solution Laps About our amazing guest, Tim Creasey An author, researcher, change ...

Nov 23, 20211 hr 11 min

The Project Behind an Ironman Triathlon with Paul Huddle, Senior Regional Director for the Ironman Group

The Ironman Triathlon. Without exaggeration, it is truly one of the most epic endurance events that a mortal human can participate in: 140.6 miles covered in a single day by swimming, biking and running. As epic as it is to participate in an Ironman, it may be even more daunting to plan and manage one. 140+ miles of race course. 3 totally different disciplines (Swim, Bike, Run). As many as 2,000 - 3,000 participants. Literally tons of food and drink to get out across the course. Thousands of vol...

Sep 23, 20211 hr 11 min

070 - Change Management Mic Drops with Tim Creasey

Project Managers are agents of change. Whether your project changes organizations, technologies, infrastructure or processes, the success of your project likely depends on *people* actually using your deliverables. But how much of your project is really focused on those people and helping them understand and make those changes? Spoiler: Kate *totally* nerds out on this one :-) After we recorded this, Kate and Kim quoted Tim to just about everyone they met. Mic drops! In this podcast we are joine...

Aug 16, 20211 hr 11 min

069 - Project Management in an Alien Environment

You’re a PM and you have landed on a strange new world where you don’t know the industry, the organization the people or the subject matter. How do you get oriented enough to intelligently deliver a project? How do you succeed in this alien environment? In this episode, Kate and Kim talk about how to approach getting up to speed when you are faced with leading a project in a new department, new company, new domain or totally new industry where you don’t know the subject matter. In summary: Get a...

Jun 22, 202140 min

068 - Interviewing PM’s: Inside the Mind of a Hiring Manager with Matt Henderson

Whether you are hiring project managers or hope to get hired, do you know what hiring managers should be looking for? What’s going on in a hiring managers mind when they look at your resume and when they interview you? In this episode we are joined by Matt Henderson - a long time PMO manager who has hired hundreds of project managers. In fact, at one point he managed both Kate and Kim. How on earth did he manage two such unruly PMs?! We’ll maybe cover that in another episode. In this episode, Ma...

May 17, 202152 min

067 - What the heck is ITSM? And how is it like Improv?

If you are a PM working in or with a large enterprise, you may have heard of ITSM, or the ITIL framework. And you may well have been asked to create additional deliverables and go through some processes to support ITSM. But what is it? How does it work? Why is it good for organizations? And as a PM, what do I typically need to do to support it? And, what's the difference between ITSM and ITIL? To help us better understand ITIL and ITSM, we are joined today by one of the most respected experts in...

Apr 06, 20211 hr 5 min

066 - How to be a consultant: Dealing with customers without having a nervous breakdown

If your project customers are external to your organization, you have a lot more to worry about than the success of your project. You also have the carry the weight of building and maintaining a relationship with your organization's customer. And if you do it wrong... you are toast! In this episode, Kim shares some points from training that he gives to new Project Managers that are transitioning from "internal" facing projects to "external," customer facing projects. Follow along and learn how t...

Mar 09, 202138 min

064 - Getting into - or out of - Project Management, with Ben Aston of The Digital Project Manager podcast

Are you trying to get into the field of Project Management? Or, are you ready for the next step and to move out of the PM field? This week Kate and Kim have a very special guest, Ben Aston, the host of The Digital Project Manager podcast - one of our favorite PM podcasts. Kate, Kim and Ben talk about how to break into the field of Project Management, and talk about what may lay beyond project management. In either case, we share our experience and some examples to help you with your transition. ...

Dec 01, 20201 hr 26 min

063 - Candid Conversations with a Project Management Recruiter, with Norma Gutierrez

Are you looking for a PM job? If not now, one day you may be. So, why not talk to a pro who knows the market and help you find the right job? A Project Management Recruiter! Building a relationship with a recruiter can be a gateway to a great PM career, or to your next step in that career. In this episode we speak with Norma Gutierrez, an experienced Project Management recruiter who shares with ous what you can expect from a recruiter, how they can help you, and what they look for. OUR AMAZING G...

Oct 09, 202051 min

062 - Do I really need a PMO? (Part 2 of 2)

Do I need a Project Management Office (PMO)? Does anyone REALY need a PMO? Why, aren’t those all going away because of Agile? What value can a PMO give to an organization? And when does it not make sense to have a PMO? We go through all this and more on this 2 part podcast - check it out! JOIN THE HAPPY HOUR! Get access to all podcasts, PDU certificates, bonus content, exclusive member Q&A webinars and more from our membership! https://pmhappyhour.com/membership STUMP THE PM’S! We love to he...

Aug 18, 202040 min

061 - Do I really need a PMO? (Part 1 of 2)

Do I need a Project Management Office (PMO)? Does anyone REALY need a PMO? Why, aren’t those all going away because of Agile? What value can a PMO give to an organization? And when does it not make sense to have a PMO? We go through all this and more on this 2 part podcast - check it out! JOIN THE HAPPY HOUR! Get access to all podcasts, PDU certificates, bonus content, exclusive member Q&A webinars and more from our membership! https://pmhappyhour.com/membership STUMP THE PM’S! We love to he...

Jul 31, 202053 min

060 - Say-Do-Say: Fundamentals of Project Communication

We get asked a lot about what project management is about, what it’s like to get into the profession, and what are the most important things to do as you get into the field. There are so many things to think about, so many considerations that it can be hard to think of a simple answer to ‘what is project management like?’ But one answer we fall back on often is that Project Management is about: Saying what you are going to do Do what you said you did, Say what you did We of course didn’t come up...

Jun 22, 202026 min

059 - Crying Happens

Project Management can be tough - full of stress, emotion, passion and… more stress. You, your team and your stakeholders are trying to make big changes happen in the intense pressure cooker that is a project. And if you’ve been around long enough you will know that tears sometimes happen in the workplace. But how do we handle that - if we work with someone and they shed tears, or if it’s us? In this episode, we get real and honest about tears in the workplace - that it’s not a sign of weakness,...

May 12, 202045 min

058 - Shut-in but not Shut-down: Managing Projects and Teams from Home

Many of us are suddenly finding that we - and our teams - are working remotely from home. While this is normal for a lot of our workforce, it can represent a very big change for a lot of teams. How do we stay focused and stay productive - and help our team stay focused as well? And how do we do that in a way that keeps us all sane? In this webinar, Kate and Kim talk through this process from how to setup a productive workspace from home, what tools you can use to optimize collaboration to how to...

Mar 25, 20201 hr 17 min

057 - ADKAR: It’s not a trap! Change Management can save your mission

Projects are about change - but what are you doing to manage that change in your project? Fortunately, there’s an entire field of practice to make changes stick - Organizational Change Management Today our guest walks us through the Prosci ADKAR model for implementing change - one of the most well known and popular methodologies for managing change. OUR AMAZING GUEST AND PM HAPPY HOUR MEMBER Kornelia Homewood, Kori for short, is passionate about all things project management. She is a certified ...

Feb 25, 20201 hr 9 min

056 Don't buy the bias! Managing bias in project management

Whether we realize it or not, we all have bias in the way we think about things. Maybe you have a bias to be overly optimistic in your estimates, or under estimate the impact of risks. Planning fallacy, illusion of control, confirmation bias - the list goes on of different ways bias can mis-shape our perceptions and our decisions This week’s amazing guest, Jennifer Chandler, brings her depth of experience as a project manager and expertise in organizational leadership to help us understand bias ...

Jan 21, 202051 min

055 - A slice of Thankfulness from Kate and Kim

Hiya listeners, in this episode we share what we’ve been up to and why we’ve been a bit quiet, some amazing PDU stats and share some things that we’re thankful for. Cheers! And thanks to our amazing listeners JOIN THE HAPPY HOUR! Get access to all podcasts, PDU certificates, bonus content, exclusive member Q&A webinars and more from our membership! https://pmhappyhour.com/membership STUMP THE PM’S! We love to hear about your tough PM issues, so please hit us up at [email protected] or ...

Dec 08, 201932 min

054 - How to be a Project Manager: Kate and Kim get interviewed by a PM student about breaking into the field

For this episode the tables are turned - Kate and Kim get interviewed! Arizona State University student Krystal Ebadi contacted us and asked if she could interview us for her PM class about the realities of studying PM and getting a job. Of course we said yes! And Krystal let us share that interview with our listeners. Thanks Krystal! Join us as we talk about studying project management in a University, how to prepare to get a PM job, and how to break into the field. This episode covers some of ...

Sep 16, 20191 hr 11 min

053 - What if I told you that you were a PM all along?

This episode we talk with one of our amazing listeners, Josh Mildren, who shares his story about how he became a project manager - or rather, how he realized he was a project manager all along. Like a lot of our Happy Hour listeners, Josh was looking for new ways to address challenges his organization was struggling with, and found that a pragmatic approach using Project Management principles has a huge impact - so much so, that it propelled him to employee of the year! Congrats Josh! Join us as...

Aug 04, 201951 min

052 - Who owns this baby when I’m done? Planning for deliverables handover

This episode we talk about that make-or-break moment in project closing: handing over your project deliverables. If you plan your project right, this can be a moment of victory for your team, your stakeholders, and for yourself. But if you don’t plan for it, handover can become a never ending death march to nowhere. Kate and Kim talk about how to setup this key transition for success, and talk about some pitfalls you are going to want to avoid! JOIN THE HAPPY HOUR! Get access to all podcasts, PD...

Jul 07, 201929 min

051 - They told me I'm "Too Nice?!" Dealing with inactionable feedback

We love our listeners, and we love to answer your questions! In fact, this episode comes straight from a call for help we received from one of our listeners. She shared with us that her manager told her that she was “too nice” with her project team, and asked us for help in how to deal with this ambiguous feedback. Most of us have received ambiguous feedback like this. “You need to be tougher,” “you are too abrupt,” “You need to present better to executives,” or something else like that. But how...

Jun 24, 201939 min

050 - Project Financials 101: A quick and dirty overview of how money affects projects

Ever have a project that costs money? Well, this podcast is for you! In this episode, Kate and Kim give you the quick and dirty rundown of basic project financials - not just within your project, but how money gets to your project, and how your finance team may view those financials. In a study Kim’s company did at PMO symposium, they found that tracking project financials correlated with success by every measure of project success - scope, schedule budget (obviously), resource management, custo...

May 30, 201958 min

049 - How to Call BS without getting Sh#t upon

Communication is a critical part of a Project Manager’s job, and perhaps no aspect of comms is more important than ensuring that what is communicated is correct and truthful. But when someone is not being truthful - to themselves or others - how do you call that out? Or, as we say, how do you “call bullsh!t” on someone without it wrecking your relationship or the support you need from that stakeholder? This episode Kate and Kim get really, really real about calling out BS when you see it - why i...

May 20, 201939 min

048 - Brand Yourself with Sonia Mundra

Many Project Managers are on a trajectory that takes them from a more technical or tactical focus to a more leadership focus in their career, possibly transitioning from Project Management eventually to the Board Room. But how do you do that? How do you make the transition from being known for technical execution to strategic leadership? Well, one of the main things to consider is how you brand yourself. To help us learn about personal branding and growing from a tactical role to a strategic one...

May 01, 201953 min

047 - Project Management at Burning Man: Managing Volunteers, with Kayla Glenn

Burning Man is a famous event held in a temporary city the middle of the Nevada desert, dedicated to self expression and artistic freedom with 80,000 people. Can you imagine managing a project there?! One of our very own PM Happy Hour members does so every year! This episode we are joined by Kayla Glenn, a project management consultant and a project manager for a camp at Burning Man. Kayla will share her lessons learned from managing a team of volunteers - lessons which translate very well to an...

Mar 12, 201942 min

046 - Process, Data & Maturity: is it BS or does it really matter?

We all assume that following process, better data and improved maturity will fix all our PM issues. That make sense, but is it true? What does the data say? This was our question last fall going into PMO Symposium. Then we realized, we’d be surrounded by hundreds of amazing Project and PMO leaders who could help us understand this better! So, we engaged with 65+ Project and PMO leaders to collect data measuring different aspects of project success, what processes & tools they used (or didn’t...

Feb 18, 201942 min

045 - Entrepreneurial Project Management with Rolondo Talbott

Today we are joined by Rolondo Talbott who gave an amazing presentation at this year’s PMO Symposium. He is going to share with us an amazing story from his time in the military which inspired him to come up with the concept of Entrepreneurial Project Management. If you've heard about us contrasting "box checker" PM's with being the CEO of your project, Rolondo takes it to a whole new level. With this approach, we look past the obvious or even stated goals of our project and engage at a deeper l...

Feb 09, 201949 min

044 - Dear Project Diary: Project (b)logging to keep your head straight

In today’s world we are bombarded with more information than ever before - it’s on our mobile devices (social email, etc.), daily stand-ups, 24 hour news networks telling us about how the world is collapsing every day, so much going on. That’s a lot of information coming in - so how do you sort through it? With that much information coming in and going out, it can be hard to really feel like we are on top of our projects. Especially in two circumstances: We have a large number of projects we are...

Feb 03, 201942 min
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