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PMO Strategies280: How Project Managers are Driving IMPACT for NonprofitsWelcome to the PMO Strategies Podcast + Blog, where PMO leaders become IMPACT Drivers!
PMI Talent Triangle: Ways of Working
What if you could use your project management skills to make a real difference in the world? 🌍
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In this week’s episode of the PMO Strategies Podcast, I’m joined by the amazing team behind Project Management for Change (PM4C), including Beth May, Kendall Lott, and Mike Hannan. We discuss the Project Management Day of Service (PMDoS) and how it has empowered volunteers to bring impactful change to nonprofits around the world.
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đź’ˇ Key takeaway: Learn how project managers are using their skills...2024-11-0347 min
PM Point of ViewProgram Value ManagementChallenged by the hosts, Kendall Lott and Mike Hannan, returning guest Steven Devaux takes his value break down structure (the "Golden Triangle") to a new level, looking at quantifying value of project within programs. That’s the obvious, the less obvious is looking at the need for this view point in critical areas such as public health, emergency response and national security. He emphasizes the need to prioritize or sequence projects within a program to optimize the schedule for maximum impact, where the focus is on delivering outcomes rather than just producing products.  What might we achieve if...2023-10-2458 minPM Point of ViewListener Questions Revealed!Elevating the Conversation about Project Management, with a twist. In this episode cohosts Mike Hannan and Kendall Lott take on some Listener Feedback. A running theme in the show is the actual and delineation of project manager, product manager, and program manager--so we jump on that! Of course, our main theme of its all about value, adding value and understanding projects as investments is once again threaded through the answers. But new things lurk--how do you agile on a fixed-price contract? What's the danger and opportunity in cross-functional teams and accountability when managing scrum teams in a matrix world? H...2023-04-1858 min
PM Point of ViewValue Integration in Project Management Recognizing the importance of identifying "what is the work in front of us" co-hosts Kendall Lott and Mike Hannan discuss improved ways cracking scope to improve project delivery and project value with guests Steven Devaux and Sergiy Potapov. Get past the traditional WBS to Product Flow Diagramming…which gives you progressive elaboration of the sequencing of work as you define it. Then step up to Value Breakdown Structures to identify total costs of work, including the drag (opportunity) costs of not executing some work. The goal of planning is to create understanding but also decision-making…what is worth spending more or l...2022-11-1955 minPM Point of ViewDesign ThinkingDesign mindset, before you even get to design thinking, let's figure out the problem and check assumptions. Guest Charles Lambdin describes the need and method of creating a frame of thought that has us testing hypotheses of what we need, and making faster smarter bets on the direction we should follow. A key takeaway: the first thing you design shouldn't be over designed and should be wrong…our goal is learning what is needed. The evidence is it saves overall design cycle time. Ultimately, we are after a bi-directional value exchange with our customers…that's how we get use from the p...2022-03-231h 02PM Point of ViewChange Management and TOC"I will do what I can, with what I have, where I'm at." This is a different take on change management; we break down what people say about change but linking it to the underlying framework from the Theory of Constraints. We should recognize that our organizations are fragile systems, and may be running on consequences and not on relationships. The organization has a sort of physics, and what we see in a lot of change environments is directive, not engagement, and we overcomplicate it--and even when we get it, we don’t see it sustained. TOC suggests that we sta...2022-02-221h 00
PM Point of ViewScoping and Recording with April Mills"I will do what I can, with what I have, where I'm at." This is a different take on change management; we break down what people say about change but linking it to the underlying framework from the Theory of Constraints. We should recognize that our organizations are fragile systems, and may be running on consequences and not on relationships. The organization has a sort of physics, and what we see in a lot of change environments is directive, not engagement, and we overcomplicate it--and even when we get it, we don’t see it sustained. TOC suggests that we sta...2022-02-221h 00PM Point of ViewCognitive Behavior"Do all the humans on your team have brains?" Not a comment on ability but on cognition and hardwired biases; if they have brains, they make mistakes in regular patterns. PMs follow the same logical paths of cognition and shortcuts that all humans do, some of which lead us to wrong conclusions and unhelpful behaviors. As planners and forecasters, our decisions have consequences for others, from executives wanting "the right answer" to colleagues whose performance reviews rely on work, schedules and quality metrics we define. And, the bad news is, we get it wrong. Through the filters of how we pe...2022-01-291h 05PM Point of ViewExpectations and CapacityKendall Lott and Mike Hannan with guest Hilbert Robinson explore exciting topics around product versus project management, setting expectations and how to address the variance between those and reality, the rounding of such expectations, and even the value of trade-offs when faced with new initiatives. Enjoy these topics and more for this segment of PMPOV.2021-06-261h 05
PM Point of ViewPMBOK 6: Scope & ScheduleFor this probing look at the newly released PMBOK 6, we convened a panel of experts for a rousing roundtable discussion. Host Kendall Lott talks with Stephen Devaux, Michael Hannan, and Randall Iliff about what’s good, what’s interesting, and what’s missing in the latest iteration of the PMBOK Guide. Among the topics covered are: projects as investments; time as a resource; flow; and more. Listen, learn, and get a free PDU! An educational podcast with PM Guests discussing key technical project management techniques in new ways. PDU Information Earn educat...2017-11-211h 03