Project Management 101: Develop a More Successful Team With ROCKET

Project Management 101: Develop a More Successful Team with ROCKET

0:02

Hi, everyone, and welcome to today’s webinar. Project Management 101: Develop a More Successful Team Up With Rocket, hosted by HRDQU and presented by Lou Russell. My name is Sarah, and I will moderate today’s webinar. The webinar will last around one hour. If you have any questions, please type them into the question area on your GoToWebinar control panel, and we’ll answer as many as we can during today’s session.

0:30

On this next slide here, I’d like to talk about the foundation of today’s webinar, which is based on Rocket, the Project Management Game, available at HRDQstore. Rocket is a competitive team simulation emphasizing simple, fast, and flexible techniques for ensuring project’s success. You can learn more at www.hrdqstore.com.

0:53

And I’m excited to introduce today’s presenter and author of Rocket, Lou Russell. Lou is Director of e-learning Services at Moser Consulting.

1:04

As an executive consultant, speaker, and author, she channels her passion to create growth in companies by growing their people. Lou inspires greatness in leadership projects, and teams. She is the author of popular books on leadership teams, and project management.

1:20

Lou blends her stories with practical ideas, so you can solve complex problems encouraged by Lou’s, upbeat and practical style you’ll leave with new tools, and renewed hope.

1:30

You’ll be laughing, participating, and challenged. Most importantly to Lou, you will learn. Thanks for joining us today, Lou.

1:38

Thank you.

1:39

So much fun!

1:41

We’ve been just yapping and yapping. And it looks like we need to jump back to the PowerPoint slide there.

1:50

OK, sorry, are we here? Yeah, yes, thank you.

1:54

OK, Alright, well thank you everyone, I really appreciate you coming. It’s not every day that someone gets invited to a webinar that’s gonna build a rocket. That’s pretty cool. I don’t know. When did I’m not sure. Really when we started with this that this little project, but we do. I was saying I was telling her that we have Sarah, a lot of still popsicle sticks in here of multiple colors. So, if you need anything, let me know.

2:22

So, what I would like to do is, go over basic project management, and then, what I want to do is to show you some things you can do with this rock game that are pretty fun, and so, that, that’s sort of my agenda, and you can, let me know. If that’s not your agenda, I’d be happy to, to hear that, as well. So, here I have defined the roles of the project. These are our objectives. This is one of my project management books, too.

2:49

And I want to tell you about my I have, I don’t know, I think I have for five project management books. This is the youngest one and, and I have tons of them, and I don’t use them, so.

3:03

I want to give you a hint a hint is that if you go to Amazon, they’ll sell these for like $3 or $5 or whatever. So just keep that up. Keep thinking about that. So, here are our objectives.

3:16

We’re going to define the roles of the project manager, the project sponsor, and other key project staff. So we need to know who’s who.

3:25

If you’re doing a project and you haven’t figured that out, it gets really bad, and it tends to never end.

3:33

I also want to show you how to build a stakeholder communication plan and a governance plan. It’s basically just the way you build the fence is to get everything where it’s supposed to be. Will document business and project objectives. You may think those are the same thing. They are not.

3:49

We’re going to document risks and constraints, the scope of the project, and then I’m going to build up Project Charter for you to see just working back from the dates. And a lot of times, we go forward when we’re working on projects, usually better to work back, and then choose the appropriate tasks and activities that you need for your project. And then we always, learning and development, people should always go back and do a post project review for whatever they’re doing, right. And if they do that, if we all do that, we’re, we have much better competence. So let’s get going on that.

4:25

So, together, we’re going to talk about, what is project management? And, this is kind of a weird image, I think, but it’s actually 2, 2 roads, right, and they’re going totally different ways. And so, that’s what usually happens when people build projects, different ways The signs go giveaways, and nobody’s talking to anyone. And no, it’s communicating. So communication is so important to project management. It’s just so important. So I make, I make up a little like mantras.

4:56

So this mantra is dare to properly manage resources.

5:01

Dare to properly manage resources, you can see it in that green box, and, what that stands for is if I take the poor, before, D, P M R, out of that, I can call it Define, Plan, Manage, and Review, OK, and I’ll show you that in a minute. And those are, that’s what this project management is about simple project management, four phases. Not real crazy, you know planning all the time to communicate and being with people.

5:31

So, as you can see up on the dots there, we have defined the project just like I just told you, and projects are going to create all kinds of change, so never think that OK, that once done, know that the projects do. I mean, by definition, a project is supposed to end. But still, there are so much change all the time, and I think you all know that. So, we define, we plan. We manage and review in those green letters. And then, of course, we learn how to play your very own rocket game.

6:05

Here’s a rocket. This isn’t the one we’re going to use up. So after chatting this webinar, you will apply ways to help your teams work on projects more effectively.

6:16

And I think, as you see, the build, how the build goes, is going to be towards the end of the, the presentation today. But you’re gonna see that there’s ways you can get your teams to really look at, how do I, how do we work better together? Because that’s what happens when you’re trying to build things with other people.

6:35

They’re all, you’re also going to learn a little bit more about project management, and I’ll be sharing some very simple project management steps forward with you, and that’s another thing that really helps you if you build a rocket. And then we’re gonna convince the learners to look for quality, not just speed. We’re in a place right now. We’re trying to get everything done all at the same time, right? And we have to behave a little bit more due diligence. We have to know maybe think a little bit more about how much we really need to be going around screaming and yelling.

7:09

So, we understand, as I said before, there are four phases: define, plan, manage, and review.

7:15

And the most important thing, I think, is to keep the projects simple.

7:21

Don’t add on, add on it on. You can always add on, once you have a prototype and then do it that way. But try really hard to do barebones, keep it simple. That’s the best way to get a project built. And for it to stay the way it is, right? Stay what you were hoping it would be.

7:42

OK, so I want you to think a couple, and I’m gonna ask you, I think you can put maybe a little answer, and I’m not, I think we were talking about that. I want you to describe the problems you have experienced on one of your projects. So, first of, all, think about a project that you’ve been on, preferably one that you think is kind of irritating, OK?

8:03

All, right, and so think about that project.

8:09

And if you can type it in the chat or whatever you’re using there, what are some things you might say is, what are the emotions that you come to mind of a project like this, right? Problems experienced on a project. What emotion happens to you?

8:27

So you can type your response into the questions box.

8:35

We have frustration.

8:37

That’s the favorite one. That is definitely the favorite one. Are we finished yet, Barbara said? I like that. Brands he said annoyed.

8:49

Hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm one egg is annoyed in this picture.

8:52

I think Good aggravate it You can’t win overwhelmed.

9:01

Stakeholders are not aligning with the requirements which is frustrating Irritated, said jean.

9:11

That’s a real good list So for everybody else as you’ve been listening to this rank the intensity of how bad is it one being?

9:20

not bad at all 10 being really bad, so when you think about your projects 1 to 10, What would that number be for you right now?

9:31

Oh we have some sevens and fives.

9:34

We have a few tens in there as well.

9:38

More seven’s, definitely, it looks like we’re getting anywhere from 5 to 10, but definitely leaning more towards between that’s 7 through 10, OK, so clearly, we’re not getting ones and twos. All right. Oh, it’s not that bad, yes, it is, OK? And now, let’s think about a project that you had that, that had a positive emotion.

10:00

Put, just give us some information about how did that happen.

10:04

What happens when there’s a positive project, a project emotion?

10:14

And again, you can type your response in that questions area.

10:22

Jean said, relief and surprise, nice. That’s a great one.

10:26

Yes, that is sin.

10:29

Deliverables are on time. Barbara said, Looking forward to the next one, Shawn’s and happy customers.

10:35

Helen said, uplifted, Branchy said, satisfied and accomplished.

10:42

Beautiful. And that’s where we wanna go. Right, this is where we wanna go right here, we want to have that kinda outlook. What was the emotion for that? With as you talked about that 1 to 10, what was the number for that? 10 being good.

10:56

The intensity of that emotion group, we have eight, we have nines, we have tens.

11:04

Nice. There you go. That’s what I was hoping for.

11:08

Fabulous.

11:13

So, when we stop and think about projects, as we’re starting, as we’re beginning them, I think it’s important to do something like this, like, look at your project, how do you feel emotionally about it? What’s kind of happening around you? 1 to 10, how good is it? And the same thing with the experience, A project that had success, you know, it’s also important to go back when we’ve done something that went well, so that we remember how to do it.

11:38

Again, right, not just stop, and that’s the end of that, so thank you for playing that game with me. I appreciate it.

11:45

So let’s get just the terminology of project management. Let’s get that, kind of Will, will walk across that.

11:53

And I like to, you can see this little clip art that I stole from somebody, and I like that, I like the the way they put this. There’s an idea.

12:04

We do something, we’re doing this something, and we’re done.

12:09

And those, essentially, the four steps of project management, right? Defined plan, manage, and reduce, there’s an idea.

12:16

Do something. Do it right. Finish it, right? And then done. Perfect. So, we call it, on the left side, you can see the words defined. Plan manager, if you define in, the project means you’re identifying, the very first thing, that light bulb. The very first thing is, you’re identifying the high level, the, what’s the big picture? If you start with the little picture, you’re never gonna get a project done. So, this, this project scope, we’re talking about right now.

12:43

We want to have way of having a sketch of the whole thing and then sort of coloring and backend with the crayons, right. That’s what the deal is. So define the project, plan, the project then, which was laying out the work, manage the project, which is finishing it up, and then review. And I’m always going to be, and I don’t always do it. But I’m always harping on when some of these things are over, don’t runaway screaming.

13:09

Dual post project review.

13:11

Learn from yourself How you can do better the next time and I don’t think we take a lot of time for that usually, and it doesn’t take very long.

13:18

If you can do it with other people, it’s even better, I think, OK, so what is the difference between a project and a process? So a project, and these words are funny because they all sound the same. Sort of like their cousins. So we need to be able to keep them kind of straight up.

13:37

So a project, it’s a project. It has a beginning and an end.

13:43

If it keeps going forever, it’s not a project more to come.

13:47

The other thing usually that happens with the project, usually, other people are involved. Now, it may be that you’re doing most of the work, because you’re there, the project manager, let’s say. But you’re still going to ask people questions. People are really coming in and out. And the way we do projects now, especially we were just talking about how people are remote. People are working in all kinds of weird places all the time. So we know that there has to be a way that’s beginning and an end, but I also need to be able to communicate with other people a lot, because things are changing, and we know about that right now in our lives.

14:21

It still makes finding the end difficult, that is always hard.

14:27

Have I really got everything I wanted? How do I stop? Stopping a project? Is really, it’s just like, you know, making an art form or something. You have to keep adding one other thing to it, right, Something like that.

14:39

So, definition of a project, beginning and an end, other people are involved, usually, and it might be hard to stop.

14:45

OK, then look at this, Happy Girl with Payroll.

14:49

If you have a process, the process is not the same process doesn’t end. Now, this is gonna get kind of muddy on your brain.

14:58

The reason I say a process doesn’t end is a process goes for a long time, then we say forever, forever. Of course, it’s not true, right? So, for example, payroll, do we want payroll to end? Now, we want that payroll cycle to continue, continue to continue, right?

15:18

So, the difference is, project has a beginning, and an end process does not. And if you mix those up, it’s going to be really hard to finish your projects.

15:29

OK, let me get over here, so let’s do a little cleaning the head trash here. What I’d like you to do is I’d like you to jot down yourself, you don’t tell anybody five things, and it doesn’t have to be five. It can be less. On your to-do list, you know that you’re supposed to be working on right now not being on a webinar.

15:49

Like five things that you have on your to-do list just write down five things you gotta get done today, or tomorrow, or hopefully, or whenever, OK? So just jot them down.

16:05

OK.

16:08

Talk about the game later, Hold on.

16:11

I’m bouncing around, so don’t worry.

16:16

OK, can you give us some ideas about what you, some of the things that were on your to-do list, and I want you to think about them where they processes or projects.

16:28

So, see what you’re getting, Sarah.

16:31

What are some things that they’re supposed to be working on?

16:34

We have reviewed your agenda, creating a detailed list. A task list for a project.

16:43

Rohn said a mix of both.

16:47

Yeah, oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to cut you off loop, sorry, I did it.

16:55

Sean said Video editing project.

16:58

Nice.

17:00

Veronica said projects.

17:04

Rohn said process and projects, very good setup, goal.

17:12

Nice.

17:14

John has said mainly prices.

17:18

We also have employee reviews, scheduling interviews, reports.

17:24

So, employee reviews could be a process, right?

17:27

Because like, for example, we’re doing our PD piece this this week, so right that that’s gonna go again next year, So really, that’s a process. So, it’s kind of tricky to kind of remember that process and project are doing two different things.

17:42

Project is begun and done.

17:45

Process is sustaining Some activity. Usually, right, and until you don’t want to do it anymore.

17:53

So well done. Good job.

17:56

So let’s talk about, a little bit about the project management game.

18:00

This is the kit you would get as you were gonna come and play this game. And we’re gonna that’s teasing you right now, I’m going to show you more about that later. So, here’s some other roles that we didn’t talk about. There’s a role called a project sponsor.

18:16

And a project sponsor plant organizes and controls.

18:22

The project.

18:24

I didn’t say, works on the project, does make, this is, so, and again, this is, you know, maybe you are doing that, it’s fine.

18:32

You could do it any way you want, but basically, the project sponsor is above the sponsor, and they are responsible for money like that. They get the money they need to do whatever the project is. They tend to be an upper-level management person, but a project sponsor isn’t in the weeds in general. You all know people that are executives that have been in the weeds with you, that it does happen, of course.

18:58

But, by definition, the project sponsor plant organizes and control.

19:04

OK, so that’s different than, whoops, sorry, the project manager.

19:10

The project manager, I’d like to call the project manager at the steward of the project, taking care of the project.

19:19

And that person plant organizes and manages the project that’s different than the sponsor. Who’s overhead, right? This is there, actually. It’s time to do this part of the project, as part of the project, right, plans organizes and manages the projects, so that’s the project manager.

19:38

So project sponsor, think of it as hire, right? More senior.

19:43

Maybe, I suppose it doesn’t have to be that way. Then, the Project Manager is a steward, meaning taking care of building the project.

19:53

Then, we also, of course, have usually have project team members, and they create no project activities or project deliverables. So these are additional roles that might happen. I can’t tell you how many there’ll be, it would depend on the size of the project and what you were trying to do. So, you can kind of see, let me go back, kinda see the three steps. Right? We have the sponsor project sponsor and organize this and controls. Project manager plan, organize and manage is there in the weeds with everybody that’s working.

20:22

And then project team members.

20:25

So, that’s the simplicity of the rules of project management. Now, I want to share with you this really weird picture that I’ve had for a very long time. Bad news, early, as good news is something I say quite frequently. Tell me about it before, It’s too late. That’s basically the idea. So, what do you see on this picture? that seems a little weird to you.

20:49

That seems odd, the whole thing’s kind of weird. Actually.

20:58

We’ll wait for some, some thoughts on this.

21:05

And you can, again, share your response in the questions box, or perhaps some responses coming in, we’re driving on the wrong side, whichever side that is, Yeah, perfect.

21:18

Tracy said, there is a pole in the middle of the road. That’s kinda done, yeah, exactly.

21:26

We have a saying there is a Y in the road, something, yeah.

21:32

Helen said the sign that’s in the road.

21:35

Yes. We have Veronica that said there’s a log in the middle of the road.

21:40

Maybe it’s hard to see what that is. It could just be, I don’t know what that could be. A lot of comments coming through about the poll.

21:48

Hope as well And There’s it looks like they did it on purpose because you could kind of see where the edge was, right? They put like the bigger. I don’t know what they were doing.

21:58

What about this? What about all the way to the right corner? What do you see in there?

22:07

Bottom right corner.

22:15

The card with, though, in all the stupidity, Think about projects, right? This is how projects go. If you focus on things like, oh, we’re gonna try to add some more asphalt right here. We’re gonna put the sign up. This is actually a guy, if you get really close to it, puts a mulch over here, and at the whole point they’re not seeing it all. Wait.

22:37

There’s a car on the road, right? It’s not off the road. It’s on the road. So that’s what happens in project management project management. When people get busy, they stop, they, they focus on like one thing or two things, two things. And they don’t, they don’t continue to look at the big picture. And I’ve always loved this picture, just because it’s looking like who would have ever done this? So thank you for sharing that with me.

23:04

Now, here’s the thing I’m going to show you another picture that you probably heard of from Japan, and it’s sort of the other side. This is about how amazing you can make a project.

23:15

So this is downtown Japan, and you can see that there’s, you know, they’ve basically let people drive through this tower onto the highway.

23:27

And you think about how much time that took or how creative they had to be or how dangerous, they had to make sure it was. Because I think in Japan it’s called the Gateway, I believe, is what it’s called, and.

23:41

So, it’s just one of those things where you’re like, wow, this was a lot of work, and it took a lot of a lot of thought. And what do you think would be the most important reason that this was able to happen?

23:54

Put that in the chat window.

24:09

We have Miriam who said clear thinking and communication.

24:14

Nice.

24:15

Helen said collaboration.

24:19

Nick said innovation.

24:22

Rohn said upfront planning and communication throughout. That’s really a good one, too. Yeah. Good one.

24:29

Jean said Creativity. Omar said planning.

24:34

Veronica said, someone had a lot of money invested in the project and it was going to happen.

24:40

Yeah, that’s good.

24:43

Barbara said the project sponsor stayed out of the way.

24:48

Shaun said necessity. And a couple more here. We have innovation and courage.

24:54

Excellent.

24:55

That’s great, so I want you to, this is called the gate Tower Building in Japan. And remember, you know, there’s obviously a lot of buildings here. There also are some earthquakes, of course. So, you know, just, kinda think about it. How amazing.

25:11

It’s still there, it’s good, So far so good, right? Now. don’t put any Jinks is on us, but I think if people get together, and they collaborate, and they talk together, and they try to keep it simple as much as they can, you know, you have a chance at it. So, if you have the intention and the time, and the communication, you can do it.

25:35

If you don’t have the discipline, don’t try to work on projects, because it’s just going to make a big mess. So what is difficult for you? I’d like to hear from you. What’s the hardest thing for you on your projects?

25:48

What’s the thing that’s most difficult?

26:00

See, we have here Donald said alignments. Millimeter, hmm.

26:06

Rohn said soliciting quote good requirements.

26:12

Miriam said beginning the project.

26:15

Veronica said communication.

26:19

Moses said working on the same targets. Omar said co-operation.

26:26

Jean said patience when I am not the driver.

26:30

Oh nice.

26:32

We also have timeline the time that that’s involves and getting all the details necessary for success.

26:39

Those are great. Those are great. I hope you have wrote down some of those because we feel like we’re doing that all ourselves, right? It’s only me that has this problem, right? But no.

26:50

The bigger the project, the bigger risk there is and the more work there is, and it’s, and, basically, communication, is that you have to try, know, it sounds crazy, but you have to try. Don’t jump into it. Try to make it a giant. If you don’t have to. Try to keep it as sleek as you possibly can. And that’s the best way to, to work with a group of people that are doing something fabulous like this. It’s really pretty common Read. Write these days for multiple people to work together.

27:21

We are proud now. So here, let me talk about that. sometimes, people get mixed up about paperwork, too.

27:26

So project management is not filling out forms. Filling out forms isn’t the end of the story. It’s a way, perhaps, to get a project built, but it is not a thing that is the end of the story. It’s not an excuse to ignore the organization’s perspective. So, somebody might come up to you and say, Oh, your project, ya know, we, we don’t think that’s a good one or something. If you’re always, you know, if you know, right ahead, that is going to be late, Poor quality, or over budget project delivery. You gotta nail that down, right, that, the minute you have any guess that this is going to happen, don’t wait. Don’t, wait. And then, you know, it’s not a substitute. project management is not a substitute for brain.

28:07

It’s just a way of looking at things so that we can actually get work done with multiple people and different roles working together. It’s very, very common now, but it can also get really heavy and confusing and really hard, sort of, I would say, to untie.

28:24

And as you untie from each other, which is bad, right? You don’t have the discipline anymore. So, so kind of think about that as you’re working with projects and knows. Notice when things might be unraveling a bit. I also think that projects are flash mobs. That’s another thing that I like to talk about as anybody been a flash mob. I just have would like to know that. Used to be a big thing, but I haven’t heard about it in a long time.

28:52

Does anyone bidden one, let us know.

29:00

We have some people saying they have not been in one, OK. So, now, go.

29:06

I get a flash mob going somewhere, but what’s interesting when you Actually, I can remember it’s been a while now, but I was I was in New York a couple of times where, you know, they’d have these random flash mobs going on, similar to this and flesh Flash mob has very small, but very specific rules, and everybody knows what their domain is, where they’re supposed to move and where they’re not supposed to move. They know that. The other really cool thing about a flashlight. We also, the real flash mob, whatever that is, is when people show up, they just show up out of the, like, they don’t all stand around and go come on. It’s almost time for us to do our flash mob. They seek kind of, like come out of the corn and away, right? and they all come out on their own and it merges right into a thing. And they have music, or whatever They’re doing a dancer. Or whatever. And then the other thing they do, is they, they get, they disappear.

30:00

So one of the things that’s very important about a flash mob is you enter quickly, you do your thing, you disappear. It was never there. And if you’ve ever been in one, or ever seen one, and I, maybe they aren’t even being no, one does it anymore, perhaps, but When I did see a couple of them in New York, It was interesting. How choreographed it was? It was just unbelievable. They were just regular people, but the rules were very short, no. Here’s the rule. Go in.

30:28

Dance, go out.

30:30

Nothing extra. So we wanted to do that with project management to we want to make sure to make everything as easy as we can, as simple as it can. No, it not over complicate. You can always write, build more on it later once you’ve deployed. So I think that’s super important, as well.

30:50

So here’s, here’s the plan. The steps to great projects. That I wanted to go over with you, just to show you as a definition, you can see up at the top, there’s a white arrow, the p.m.b.o.k.. The p.m.b.o.k., is the project management body of knowledge. It’s all the rules and all the things that the Project Management Institute takes care of to make projects more effective. You can see, I have my dare to properly manage resources up there as well.

31:18

You can also see the arrow that says p.m.b.o.k.

31:20

has initiate, plan, monitor, and close, initiate, plan, monitor, and close. So, when I did my project management process, I just basically changed the words a little bit because I wanted it to be very basic. Right, I wanted to keep it very, very basic.

31:40

So my arrows you can see are defined, plan, manage, and Review.

31:45

We define the project; we figure out all the things we need to do to get ready. We plan the project, we lay it out, what order it needs to be, the people, et cetera. We manage the project which is basically the build. And then, again, as I’ve been harping on, we review the project.

32:02

So, we have, you can see we have, I’m going to go over just the seven steps of this very first one, So you see that as an example.

32:10

We also have a template that you’re gonna see that you’re gonna get.

32:15

I think Shana has sent it out, so we’ll figure out how to get it to you. And this is basically just a checklist of how those very same things we had on the last page.

32:27

These seven are in this template, and so before you get going, and I’m going to, these are very hard to read, so I’m going to just show you a little bit of it. I’ll read it to you allowed.

32:39

So the first thing we have up on the left-hand corner is, we have the business objectives with business objectives. It’s either increase revenue or avoid cost, that’s all you got.

32:49

There’s no other choice.

32:51

Your project is either going to make money, or pay money, increase your revenue, or avoid cost, right? And so, this little thing would say.

33:01

And that’s, it’s absolutely very hard to do it, because you want to have both, right? And so, I might increase revenue by doing this. And that’s, that’s what number one is. Number two is a scope diagram; I’m going to show you in a minute.

33:15

Number three are the project objectives. That was the number three on that list.

33:19

Number four is quick and dirty risk, kind of balancing where my risks are and where they are not.

33:26

What are our constraints? Is number six, because Flybe was over there.

33:31

What are holding me back constraints, and people get mixed up about risk and constraints.

33:35

Risk is something that might happen, but it hasn’t yet.

33:41

Constraint is happened.

33:42

So, risk, you can do something about it, constraint, you’re stuck, and people still try to mess it all up, and they get even worse. So it’s terrible. We have communication strategy, and number seven.

33:54

We have, again, another way of looking at risk factor, number five, then at the end, governance strategy, and change request, et cetera. So you shouldn’t, you will get a copy of that. You can see Shawna Mosher at Mosher IT dot com, up on the top there. If you haven’t gotten it, let us know and we will send you this, this document, because it’s super fun for a brand-new project, high level to sketch out where you are, right? That says called the Project Charter template.

34:23

Participants can also access the hand, that handout on their control panel today, that’s under the Handouts drop-down.

34:31

Excellent, even better, even better. So whatever project you’re working on, right, you have to worry about it, too. Is it increase revenue or avoid cost?

34:41

So, if you’re doing a project for the United Way Day of carrying, let’s say, and I’m sure all of you know about the United Way, et cetera, and there’s a project, do you think it would avoid cost of retaining employees by creating an opportunity for teamwork and service?

34:57

The United Way Day of Caring project will avoid cost of retaining employees by creating an opportunity for teamwork and service. Why didn’t I do increase revenue? Does anyone think it should have been increase revenue?

35:11

Notice how I picked Boyd class, there’s only two.

35:20

So, you can’t argue with it because it’s true. Right. What would be something? What would be a project that would increase revenue?

35:33

Give us some ideas about that.

35:38

What would the project be if it were not this project, some other project? What’s a project that would increase revenue?

35:53

We can take the response into the questions area While we’re waiting for some responses to come in, lieu we actually had a comment come through that Jocelyn had managed up a Project Manager Flash Mob Once. Oh, awesome. That’s excellent. And we have some responses coming in.

36:11

We have new product introduction, network upgrades, retaining employees, would avoid cost, A service for a customer would generate revenue, excellent Designers who protect smart technology.

36:27

Beautiful.

36:28

That’s beautiful.

36:30

Yep, So there’s no, and you know it’s interesting.

36:32

It’s Always you want to have three because there’s always another one that’s sort of seems like well, but it’s really the same thing as these two So always when you get started in the very beginning of your project, just ask yourself this question the project will that you’re going to do increase revenue, or boy cost by this sentence, It makes sense, OK, So let’s start here. So that’s very first thing. You will do start here for the project Charter. I like to draw I like to sketch out a Project Charter. And this one is a project scope diagram. Also. I also call it orbiting the Giant Hairball because it looks like it has a giant Hairball in the middle.

37:09

So, if you think about it, and this isn’t like physically true, but sort of like project True, the project manager is sort of in the project, as far as everybody around the project sponsor, I mean, the project manager, they’re the leader sort of person to make sure that the work’s going world, right. So, there, you can see that project management is right in the middle of the project, right in the center there, and it looks like the giant hairball.

37:36

Then we have other people that are coming in and out, right, for different reasons? Generally, not all the time there. The project sponsor may be, remember, this is the high, high-level person. The project sponsor could be there a lot, but probably still has a, with that kind of reputation. Has a lot of other projects going on as well, or other kinds of things they have to do.

38:00

So I usually put, if I am drawing this, I usually put the project sponsor on the top. Because when the project sponsor looks at this document, they certainly do like to have the project sponsor on the top. That’s the reason I put it there. We also might have some experts over to the side, the SMEs on the left-hand side, right? Come in and go and we have functional leaders that are coming and going. Sometimes we need them, sometimes we don’t. We have customers that are coming and going, and we have financial or finance that’s also getting involved.

38:29

So, this is just a real simple, real simple diagram with boxes, and, you know, a hairball, basically. And all I do with this is just to try to, as I start a new project, get my head around.

38:44

how hard is this going to be overall. Because you always start with, oh, it’s going to be fun.

38:49

But the more of these boxes you have, it’s not going to be fun.

38:53

Right? So you really have to figure out, with this really easy sketch. It’s one of my favorite things. So let me show you one that’s drawn. That’s really a very nice one. It’s a little bit similar, but you can see, this is a United Way, day of caring again. It’s called the Volunteer Day Project.

39:12

And we have a sponsor: pay and some money, getting status back.

39:17

We have a corporate communication here as a plan for how this is gonna work, and they need budget and, and need in there. We have employees, volunteer day projects, some can work, summer and training, summer scheduling, etcetera.

39:32

And we have catering.

39:33

Right? And so it’s out. Notice again, it’s all coming out.

39:37

And back from the middle, right?

39:40

There’s nobody sneaking around the side, it’s always in and out from the project. So we had food and budget. Now there’s one on here that’s wrong, so charities missing one.

39:51

The charity is right up there that says, volunteers. What do I need to do to fix that?

39:57

What’s wrong with that?

40:04

And, again, you can type your response into the question area.

40:15

Johnson, Finance?

40:17

Good? What’s wrong with finance?

40:20

It’s not there. Maybe. That’s it.

40:25

Nanas said, you should change the direction of the arrow.

40:29

Which one?

40:39

Volunteers, OK, excellent. So you can see this as a story, right? So let’s say we were at the Volunteer Day Project and that was a great answer by the way. And some volunteers have been sent off to the charities to work on things. And you can see I’m, I’m kind of pushing that through with my little arrow. You can see it!

41:01

But then what happens? Like we sent volunteers to the charity, and nothing else happened, we have to have something that comes back, right? All the other ones have something that comes back.

41:12

So, if you look at catering on the bottom, we sent food out and they gave money back or the boot, see how it’s always out and in out and it, and you can have multiple arrows. But there always has to be one in and one out.

41:26

So, for the charity’s one to be fixed it needs another arrow going from charities to volunteer day project. Everything goes back to the middle, and this really helps us see the complexity of the work that we’re about to do, and the project that we’re doing. And it’s sort of eyes wide open again. Wow, we did all these people this. This is much bigger than what I thought. It was super fun. We usually do this with post its, actually, And, like I said, you can. there’s one other thing that you cannot do.

41:57

And I didn’t really show you one of these, but you’re, you are against, you can’t have arrowheads on both sides, because how can you go someplace if you’re going both directions at the same time?

42:10

So you always have an arrow at the end of every one of these lines that you’re drawing to keep it working correctly.

42:19

You can sometime, so this fix now, OK. This is a fixed one. So you can see volunteers went to the charities and their needs.

42:27

Actually, you do it that first, the charities asked for volunteer day, right? They had needs, and the volunteers went to charities.

42:35

So that’s how that’s all now, basically kosher. Everything’s right. Everything comes in and out, there’s nothing hanging anywhere all by itself, you cannot, and you can look over on the right-hand side, where it says, corporate communication, You can see that red line, red arrow with the X in the middle, you aren’t allowed to do that.

42:57

You can’t go to heads, sneaking around the outside.

43:00

So the reason that’s there is don’t do that, It’s always going from the middle, two, A, is some a person some entity, OK? But over here, some of the times I do this, and you may not go all the way to the left under charities. You can see those dotted lines.

43:16

The dotted lines, I use those to show, they’re not really part of the actual push and pull of the project, but those two groups are spending a lot of time together. So that’s why it’s a dotted line.

43:30

It’s just like, I don’t want it outside, but I do want to keep in mind that these people are working together very, very well, and we want to make sure we’re keeping an eye on.

43:40

So, this is a scope diagram, I would love, if you have a chance to try one, A project that you’re doing, and draw it this way, and you said, send it to me, and my, my, my e-mails on the deck as well. I’d love to see it, because it is so much fun, I love doing these. You can tell, I’m sure. So, let’s get going. I wanna go to a little bit more about risk and constraints.

44:05

We’ve talked about this a little bit, but I’m putting some more words into it.

44:09

If there’s a risk that someone didn’t show up to come to work or something like that, anything that would negatively impact the business that might happen. Sponsor changes is a big risk, right, or your boss changes is a big risk.

44:25

What can you do when that happens?

44:28

Well, you have to, either, if you can get ahead of it, with risk, you can prevent it, perhaps, perhaps. And if you cannot get ahead of it, you just probably have to react to it, and figure out how you’re gonna make that work.

44:42

Now, on the other side, and we just talked about this on the other side with constraint, the constraint is, it’s going to happen. It, it has happened, even. Think of it as it has happened, a change a challenge. That will happen.

44:55

Like fixed budget, fixed date. We changed our resources. What do you do? You accept it. You work within the limits of what you have. So, a lot of people, when they look at a constraint and that’s not going their way, they start acting like little jerks. like, well, no, we’re changing it. We don’t change a constraint. A constraint is stuck.

45:13

That’s what it is. It just stays the way it is. So using those two words, think about if you hear people use the word risk and constraint, how they mess that up. They call it totally different things. Risk. You can do something about its constraint. You have to just go with the flow and take it on the chin, basically.

45:33

So, finally, I want to let you know, we’re heading toward the end, It’s always a draft.

45:40

So, whenever you’re doing a project charter template, or a project charter itself, whatever, whenever you’re using it, it’s always a draft. Never think, oh, it’s done, and I’m never gonna look at it again. That’s crazy. There’s always something else you could be doing. Keep it simple, we have to bounce that as well. As the project progresses and new data emerges, then we must change the plan.

46:04

In projects, and you’ve probably never heard anyone say this before. But in projects, things will change.

46:11

It’s not magical, we can’t lock it down.

46:13

Things will change, so the mindset, watch for change, is a good, is a good mindset. It’s better than someone saying, I’m not going to let anything change.

46:24

That’s more going to be more destroying.

46:28

And these are some of the quotes about that. Changes to the plan aren’t never failures, just emerging realities, and that happens to us all the time.

46:37

And then those who created the plan did not fail, they created what they could with what they knew, right then, I love that quote. I think that’s really good. So, as you go through this deck again, and you see the slides, and we’re happy to get those to you if you would like to look at them.

46:55

The project charter, once you get used to, it, takes less than 45 minutes, really.

47:01

It’s a sketch building the whole project. We just did define, right? We did the onset. So, define, plan, manage, and review. There’s a lot of work that’s going to go on there. But the project charter likely is going to be 45 minutes or ness, or less, because it’s the sketch. And so, don’t get too hung up, and you can change it anytime you want, which is awesome.

47:24

So here’s a couple of other things now to end. I want to talk about the rocket game. And I want to share with you some ways that we’ve used the rocket game over, I don’t know, 4 or 5 years, I would say at this point. We used it a lot with our team building. You can see, as the team building there, over here.

47:43

We would actually break into teams of three, and then race to build the perfect rocket.

47:49

Now, the cool thing about this activity is that what people really do is when they are doing this this bit, because we said race, right? So now we’re very competitive. We said race. What people almost always do; is they build the rocket without looking carefully at the blueprint.

48:12

So the facilitator comes back, which is what makes it so fun, and says, Fix it.

48:16

That’s not right and doesn’t tell them where it is or anything. So at that point, everyone in the room is like messed up. It’s great. It’s totally great.

48:26

And then you can, you know, a team building, you can say, all right, three people get together. Now, we haven’t had, you know, it’s kind of interesting when you think about it, because we haven’t had a lot of time where we get to stand together with people, right? That’s not a thing. But it’s coming along and we’re getting there.

48:40

So, that’s the team building, and you’re still using the same, the same kid. Really? I’m not putting anything different in there than I would. Really nice for new hires if you have new hires that are, you hired at like three people, or four people, or maybe you’ve only hired one person, but you get five people or six people to play the rocket game with them. And then they get to know each other better. And I think that’s good for, for hiring, as well. Same thing with project managers. Project managers have all this stuff in their head about all these important things they have to do, and how difficult it is, and how hard it is, and the p.m.b.o.k. and all this stuff.

49:16

And so, what I, what I would like on this one, I actually did this in a, in a bootcamp that I taught a couple of years ago, and I would say, I have each person raised to build a rocket as quickly and accurately as possible. And it’s just like, the team building what they have. They had terrible, if they didn’t look at the roles at all, everything. They had to redo it about five times, and they were so frustrated, so, there’s still trying to beat each other, but they’re just getting worse and worse, so, you know, there’s a lot of debriefing. You can do it, that stuff. So, over on the right side, tips for implementation.

49:52

Always pass out the supplies, including the laminate a picture of the rocket. If you don’t have the laminated picture, you’re in big trouble. It won’t work.

49:59

So you get the supplies. You get the popsicle sticks and multiple colors. You get screws and nuts that are very small, which makes some people crazy. That makes them met, sometimes, which is fun, and, of course, we, the blueprint is there. You can kind of see it and then have a leader knows if your debriefing have a leader, who knows the usual mistakes that are made, and the usual mistakes are ignoring the rules.

50:22

Basically, they just pull everything together and never pay any attention.

50:27

You can also start doing fun things. Like, you could say, we’re only going to do, like this group has yellow. This group has green.

50:34

You know, you can do stuff like that too, and have different groups based on the color of the sticks.

50:40

The biggest thing that happens to us in our Boot Camps is people build too fast and they don’t take the time to really look at the criteria in a very, very, deep, deeper way. And it always cracks me up when they do that, especially when it in back in the day when we were doing this in a, you know, altogether in a big room with a bunch of people. I think one time we did it with, gosh, I think we had nine. I think we had nine groups or something like that. You’re just walking around, go. Nope, you missed it. Nope, you missed it, it was great.

51:13

So, and don’t forget, you’re gonna get that fillable project charter, also that’s coming your way You’ve got that ready to roll, and, uh, So I’d like you to leave thinking about projects by their very nature. Projects’ change, that’s the whole point.

51:32

You know, we get all kind of crazy, and we get locked down on, this is our solution, this is what we’re going to do, that’s what projects do. It really needs to be a little bit flexible because they are going to change much, much more than you think they are. And if we just think about what we’ve gone through in the last 3 or 4 years. So have we, wait right, everything has changed, we were Sarah, and I were just talking about that, how different things are.

51:57

So, here’s some warnings. Never do this.

52:01

Seek first to blame. That’s really stupid.

52:05

Saying things like to yourself, I’m busy, so I must be making progress.

52:11

Sure, we can do that without seeing anything about what it is you’re building.

52:17

Oh yeah, I can do that in just a minute. How many times have you said that in it and it’s eight you alive?

52:23

There.

52:24

Oh, yeah, all projects are the same. Our same, none of them are the same. They’re all different. because they’re being managed by people who are all different.

52:32

So, we have to be really, really deeply looking at what we’re doing, or the stuff just slides away, but what’s a good way of doing it?

52:43

Seek first to collaborate. Try to get with other people. Talk to people, be with people, even if it’s on Zoom, wherever, right. Don’t blame. Forget about blame. That takes everyone’s energy, JOA collaborate and busy on the things that are making a return.

52:59

And most of us work in businesses that are making a return. So, we want to make sure that we’re not working on the fun stuff or whatever. you know, it’s not about what we’re doing. Our job is to make this return.

53:13

We’ve also done this with some kindergarten kids and some high school kids back in the day. Of course, we that’s different than snap or a price. Then I’d like to say, a lot of times, people will say, oh, yeah, I can fix that. It’ll just take a minute. It’s better to say that we’ll just take some planning. Let’s look at it before we start again. And then all work. And people are not the same. They’re all unique. We are all unique. We all look at things differently. So we have to really work hard to communicate.

53:43

So here’s the game, very fun, have fun with this. And now, you know you can get six feet away, so you could each have your own little kit. It’d be great.

53:54

Fabulous, Fun to do.

53:58

So, thank you very much. I appreciate you spending your time with me today. I have, as I was, like, some project management books, if you’re interested, I would go to Amazon first, because it’s kind of funny to see these books, but if you want to have it, if you want to any of these books here, you’re trying to find, we have them here as well. So, let me know. We get a learning flash. We have a newsletter every month for tips and tools. Not just on project management, on a lot of things. So if you’re interested in signing up for that, we would be happy to do that as well. You can see my name down there, lou dot russell … dot com, and if you have any questions about anything about our other workshops, webinars, or e-learning.

54:41

And we also have some virtual alumni communities that have been playing with the rocket for a long time as well, which is very fun.

54:48

So at this point, I’m done. Does anyone have any questions you would like to share?

54:55

Great. So thanks so much, where we do have a few minutes for questions here. If you have them, drop them in the questions box, and we’ll get through as many as we can today. And we did have a question come through from Sean, and Sean said, if things change as a project progress, and it hasn’t been documented in the charge Charter, would that be considered outside of the project scope?

55:21

Say that one more time.

55:23

I thought you were going a different way. If things change as the project progresses, and it hasn’t been documented in the charter, would that be considered outside of the project scope?

55:37

Well, I don’t think it should be outside the project’s scope, but it might have been, if it should all like that. What we went through today, it should all those steps should be going together.

55:47

You can’t just take out one of those steps and say, oh, yeah, no, we’re not going to do that. Yeah, you are. You’re doing all that stuff.

55:54

So it’s important for them. That’s what’s so nice about the simple project management that you have. You know, in define, you have the seven things that you have, or the 10 things that you have to do. And that’s also true for defined plan, manage and review, which, which is a little bit deeper work, and less change, though, I think.

56:12

So, yeah. I’d say you gotta keep your whole team together, keep your, keep your projects together, Be really careful to, to bound them out. They should be.

56:24

Great. And then we had a this is a this isn’t a question, but this is a comment from Chloe that said, I am looking to get into project management from HR, and this has been a great 101 course. Oh, thank you. That’s very nice.

56:40

Then, we have another question here from Alex and Alex says, how many project sponsors should you have on a project? You’re just trying to kill me, OK?

56:54

Technically, a project sponsor is at the top, that’s the pinnacle.

57:02

And so there’s one, Then there’s project managers and all these other people, right, that we were talking about, if we were in my opinion, and, you know, of course, there’s times that they’re, this happens and it doesn’t happen.

57:14

But if I have a project sponsor and then you have a project sponsor for your project, there are two different projects.

57:24

Right. so splitting them up is, is not like we’re making something bigger. It’s just, there are two totally different things.

57:31

So I guess I would I would stick with that hierarchy: project sponsors, money guy, money, woman.

57:38

And then going down that hierarchy, and if I, if we need other work, we put up another project.

57:45

And we have time for one more question today, and that comes from Shannon. And Shannon said, how do you transition a project built to a process used?

57:56

Oh, that’s really good.

57:59

Yeah. That’s tricky, because you really still gonna, I think those are going to be parallel all to also.

58:04

So, you’re going to have the parallel side, which is the build, which is very easy, and you know when it ends? But then, you’ll have this other side.

58:11

It’s, I assume you’re working inside a process with a project, right, and this process is just spinning.

58:18

Like, you know, build in, whatever it is. They’re building, all the time. Waterfall, all the time round, and round, and round.

58:24

So, I think you would, I still feel like it would probably be easier to deal with, if you could differentiate between those two, the build, and the and the Go Forever, the process.

58:38

OK, great, and that here, does bring us to the top of the hour and the end of our Webinar today. Thank you so much for your time today, Lou.

58:46

I’m very happy to be here, Thank you.

58:50

Yeah, it was a really fun, great session, and if you would like to learn more on topics like today, HRDQU memberships offer over 200 Human Resource webinars to trainers, consultants, and coaches. Keeping you in the know with industry trends, as well as workforce virtual seminars for instructor led classes on key training topics for your employees. Whether you are a professional learner or a learning professional, we’ve got your training needs covered. You can learn more at www.hrdqu.com/ memberships.

59:21

And thank you all for participating in today’s webinar, happy training.

59:28

Thank you. Thanks for coming.

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