Episode 177 – Work Better Together – Managing Thinking Preferences

05/11/23 • 33 min

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Manage This - The Project Management Podcast

When it comes to problem solving or innovation, the goal is to generate ideas, make those ideas better, and then implement them. But what if we are skipping some important stages of the creative problem-solving process? Dr. Teresa Lawrence, an expert on the integration of Creative Problem Solving into project management, joins us to illustrate the importance of understanding our cognitive diversity, knowing our preference to the stages of the creative problem-solving process, and recognizing how our preferences influence project team interactions.

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Episode 176 – Strength and Warmth – Balancing Your Leadership Style

The podcast by project manager for project managers. A great leader strikes a balance between warmth and strength. If it’s time for you to conduct an honest assessment of your leadership style to connect better with your teams and understand your stakeholders more effectively, take a listen to hear how to connect, then lead. Table of Contents 02:47 ... Meet Matt04:44 ... Social Power and Personal Power06:38 ... Knowing your Likeability09:17 ... Strength and Warmth12:12 ... Strength and Warmth Matrix15:04 ... Changing Your Impact17:51 ... Make a Stronger Team Connection.20:02 ... How Not to Compromise Warmth21:54 ... Snap Judgements and First Impressions24:23 ... Kevin and Kyle25:20 ... Connect with Your Audience27:25 ... Preparation is Vital29:44 ... Be Your Authentic Self33:03 ... Connecting Remotely36:26 ... Keeping Energy Levels Stable37:33 ... Communicating to Highly Skilled Professionals39:18 ... Using Analogies40:05 ... Speaking Truth to Positions of Power42:13 ... Contact Matt43:57 ... Closing MATT KOHUT: Some people tend to go with their strength first, and they backfill on the warmth. Some people lead with warmth first, and they backfill on the strength. And it’s sort of like being left-handed or right-handed. Everybody’s just got a dominant hand. And as long as you can pick up objects with both of them and not drop them, it’s okay. WENDY GROUNDS: You’re listening to Manage This, the podcast by project managers for project managers. My name is Wendy Grounds, and with me in the studio is Bill Yates and Danny Brewer. We love having you join us twice a month to be motivated and inspired by project stories, leadership lessons, and advice from industry experts from all around the world. Our aim is to bring you some support as you navigate your projects. You can also claim free PDUs, Professional Development Units from PMI by listening to our show. At the end of the show we will give you advice on how to do that. Today we’re talking to Matt Kohut. Matt is a co-founder of KNP Communications, and he has 20 years of professional experience writing and preparing speakers for both general and expert audience. In addition, he has served as a communications consultant to organizations including NASA, the Department of Energy, the Environmental Protection Agency, and Harvard University. Matt is currently a fellow at the Center for Advancement of Public Action at Bennington College, and he’s previously worked at Harvard University as research specialist to the dean of Kennedy School. Now, this is an interesting conversation, and we are very excited to bring it to you because it follows on so well to our conversation we had with Vanessa Druskat on emotional intelligence. BILL YATES: Yes, this is an area that I think because of my own experience, I feel like this is an area that a project manager, certainly me, should and can grow in throughout their career. It’s amazing talking with Matt. He knows so much about social science. That’s the background experience he has. But the advice that he gives is so practical. Not only did he write speeches, he coached those who were delivering the speeches as to how to make a good first impression, how to connect with their audience, how to not overpower them with too much information. These are things that project managers struggle with. These are things that we have to be aware of. So the advice that Matt gives in our conversation is really going to help us be better at our jobs, connect better with our teams, understand our customers better, and amp up our performance. WENDY GROUNDS: Hi, Matt. Welcome to Manage This. Thank you for being our guest today. MATT KOHUT: Thanks for having me. Meet Matt WENDY GROUNDS: We are excited to talk to you about communication and leadership and all of those good things; but I am really intrigued by your other career, the side of you that is a professional bassist. Can you tell us a little bit about that and your passion for music? ...

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Episode 178 – My Project is a Three-Ring Circus!

The podcast by project managers for project managers. Sometimes a project can feel like a three-ringed circus! You are managing the schedule, the budget, and the requirements, and at the same time, you’ve got to consider the stakeholders, team members, and the organization. We are taking a look at the early 20th century traveling circus to see how they kept the circus performing as a “well-oiled machine.” Table of Contents 02:36 ... Meet Jennifer03:42 ... The Golden Age of the Traveling Circus05:04 ... The Impact of the Railroad06:16 ... The Project Manager of the Circus08:27 ... The Daily Schedule12:13 ... Logistical Magic14:07 ... Maximize Impact and Profit Margin15:07 ... Leveraging the Business Model16:43 ... Strategic Planning18:45 ... Planning Routes21:56 ... Thinking Holistically24:36 ... Kevin and Kyle25:42 ... Procurement and Inventory Control28:22 ... Managing Resources29:31 ... Network of Support31:02 ... Communicating Lessons Learned34:00 ... Planning for Risk Episodes37:07 ... Company Culture39:49 ... The Satisfaction of a Common Purpose41:02 ... Clarity of Roles Builds Trust43:38 ... Find Out More45:24 ... Closing JENNIFER LEMMER POSEY: ...if you are in this project with me, if you are trying to make this outcome the best that it can be, just like I am, then we’re together, and everything else doesn’t matter. This is about what we’re trying to accomplish. I love that attitude. I think it’s one that we all could learn from. Put aside your personal differences and get this thing done. WENDY GROUNDS: Welcome to Manage This, the podcast by project managers for project managers. I’m Wendy Grounds, and in the studio with me is Bill Yates and Danny Brewer. We’re excited to talk to you today about the circus. Our guest is Jennifer Lemmer Posey. She is the Tibbals Curator of Circus at the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota, Florida. And she’s been working with circus collections and the international circus community for 20 years. Jennifer’s also served as editor for Bandwagon, the Journal of the Circus Historical Society, and was an advisory scholar for the Smithsonian Folklife Festival celebrating the circus arts in 2017. You may be wondering why are we talking about a circus when we are a project management podcast. If we listen carefully to the story of the circus, we tie in so many lessons for project management, from building community, to planning and coordination, for being resourceful. BILL YATES: Some of you may be thinking, “My project is a lot like a circus.” WENDY GROUNDS: That’s what we were thinking. BILL YATES: You know, Wendy, the traveling circus back in the early 1900s resembled a small city. It’s like a traveling city. It entirely packs up and moves to another city every day or every few days. The performance and movement of the circus must have required great discipline and carefully executed planning. But it was so impressive that the U.S. Army sent a number of officers to study Barnum & Bailey Circus for a week. The report the officers sent back praised the complex logistical operation of this massive project. Here’s a quote: “It is a kingdom on wheels, a city that folds itself up like an umbrella. Quietly and swiftly every night it does the work of Aladdin’s lamp, picking up in its magician’s arms theater, hotel, schoolroom, barracks, home, whisking them all miles away and setting them down before sunrise in a new place.” It is magical what they did with the circus. And there are so many tiebacks, so many points that we can connect with the projects that we run. WENDY GROUNDS: Hi, Jennifer, welcome to Manage This. Thank you so much for being our guest. JENNIFER LEMMER POSEY: Hi, I’m delighted to be here. Meet Jennifer WENDY GROUNDS: So we want to dig in and find out more about the circus. But you have a very interesting job. What was your career path? How did you become the Curator of the Circus at the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art?