Advertise on podcast: Project Management Happy Hour

What if the reason your project management job search is stalling has nothing to do with your skills? On average, about 300 people apply to a single opening, and the odds of being the one who gets the offer are slim. In that market, strong project leadership isn't enough. Landing a six-figure project management role takes the same things that make projects succeed: clear decision making, a targeted strategy, and the ability to read how an organization really works. In this episode of Project Management Happy Hour, Kate and Kim talk with Mukhtar Kadiri, PMP, a project management career coach and recruiter with more than 15 years on both sides of the hiring table. Mukhtar helps project managers land roles in the $100,000 to $300,000 range and shares his insights with a LinkedIn community of more than 70,000 project professionals. His hard-won business lesson sets the tone. Early in his consulting career, he was called into an office and given a verbal beating by a stakeholder who sat nowhere near the top of the org chart. She turned out to be one of the most powerful people on the project. Once he won her over, she became his biggest champion, a mentor, and a lifelong friend, and he has looked past the official org chart ever since. As Kim puts it: "There's the one on paper and there's the one that really gets things done." From there, the conversation turns to bias in hiring and then to the heart of the episode: the first two steps of Mukhtar's job search framework, clarity and positioning. Grab a drink and join us. Quotes from the Episode "The purpose of the resume is to sell you to the gatekeeper so that you can get through the door, right?" — Mukhtar Kadiri "And it's not that you as a project manager aren't good enough. It's that job hunting is a different skill than doing the job and getting another certificate that proves you know how to do the job is not going to help you get a job." — Kate Anderson "And not just what is the problem they're trying to solve, but how are you the best person to try to solve this?" — Kim Essendrup "So don't wait for the perfect match because sometimes people don't exactly know what they want or they're not good at documenting it." — Kim Essendrup "Because I know the fear is that I don't want to miss out on opportunities, but when you actually do target and when you focus, you actually get more opportunity because your branding, so to speak, is more potent." — Mukhtar Kadiri Practical Takeaways The shadow org chart. Influence often sits with people who have no formal authority, so map the real power structure, not only the official hierarchy. The five-step job search framework. The steps are clarity, positioning, the hidden job market, interviewing, and negotiation. The 75% match rule. Job descriptions are wish lists, so target roles where you meet roughly 75% or more of the criteria. Below that is a poor use of time; near 100% can read as overqualified. Pain-point mapping. Distill a role into its top 3–5 pain points, map one skill to each, and back each skill with quantified evidence. The four-person outreach strategy. Email the recruiter, the hiring manager, a peer, and a leader. Follow up twice, since most responses arrive after the second follow-up. Closing Reflection The episode closes with Mukhtar's toast to finding what you want in your career, whether that's a new job, the next level, or peace and sanity in your current role. It's a reminder that a job search is a project in its own right, and it deserves the same strategy you'd bring to any other. 🔗 Links & Resources Mentioned Mukhtar Kadiri on Substack: https://substack.com/@mukhtarkay Mukhtar Kadiri on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/m-kadiri/ Email-finding tools mentioned: Lusha Hunter Apollo.io LinkedIn Sales Navigator PM Happy Hour Membership: pmhappyhour.com/membership PM Happy Hour Facebook Page

Why "over-communicating" isn't about saying more — it's about knowing exactly what your stakeholders need to hear, and when. What happens when a project manager goes silent? According to this episode of Project Management Happy Hour, nothing good. Left in an information vacuum, stakeholders don't assume the best — they assume the worst. That single insight sits at the center of a conversation about project leadership, stakeholder communication, and the quiet skill that separates good project managers from great ones: knowing exactly what to say, to whom, and when. If you've ever been accused of "running dark" on a project, or been told to simply "communicate more" without any idea what that actually means, this episode is for you. Kate and Kim open up about their own early missteps as project managers — Kim recalling a boss who relentlessly demanded he "over communicate" without explaining what that looked like in practice, and Kate admitting that while she never struggled to talk to her own team, she took years to learn how to communicate effectively up and out to executives and sponsors. Their honest, back-and-forth storytelling style — equal parts practical and funny — turns what could be a dry topic into a genuinely useful conversation about project delivery and leadership communication. Grab a drink and join us. Quotes from the Episode "The human brain is not nice. It takes lots of therapy and or meditation to tell yourself nice stories... if you're in an information vacuum, because our brain wants to protect us from bad things happening." — Kate Anderson "Data is meaningless without context and contrast." — Tim Creasy (as quoted by Kim) "It's not that it's meaningless. It's that it's vulnerable to misinterpretation without context and contrast." — Kate  Practical Takeaways The information vacuum effect — In the absence of updates, stakeholders default to negative assumptions rather than neutral or positive ones. Communication baseline calibration — New project managers often start with a communication baseline that is far lower than stakeholders actually need. Bottom-line-up-front (BLUF) messaging — Lead with the specific action or decision needed, then follow with supporting context. Self-service reporting channels — Creating an always-available update source (chat channel, dashboard, bulletin) reduces stakeholder anxiety and unplanned interruptions. Narrative ownership in project leadership — Framing project updates as a story you control, rather than a list of data points, shapes how stakeholders perceive project health. Closing Reflection The episode's real throughline is ownership: the best project managers don't just report facts, they own the narrative of their work. As Kate puts it, data without context and contrast is vulnerable to misinterpretation — and if you don't tell the story of your project, someone else's imagination will tell it for you. 🔗 Links & Resources Mentioned PM Happy Hour Membership: pmhappyhour.com/membership PM Happy Hour Facebook Page Get the Audience Persona Worksheet at: pmhappyhour.com/resources PMHH Episode 091: The Perfect Status Report PMHH Epsiode 131: Listen to Don't Be the PM Everybody Hates with Rachel Losser Got your communication conundrum? 📧 Email us at [email protected] — you might just hear it (and the answer) on a future episode.

Projects rarely fail from a lack of templates — they fail because of people. Author Dawn Mahan reveals the animal avatars that help you spot the cheerleader, the finicky fan, and the saboteur before one of them bites you in the ankle. Why do projects really fail? Not, as guest Dawn Mahan argues, from a shortage of templates or Gantt charts — but from the people around them. In this episode, Kim and Kate dig into the human side of project delivery: the stakeholders who love your project, the ones who quietly want it dead, and the "style under stress" that surfaces when the pressure cooker of Projectland heats up. If you've ever been blindsided by a saboteur or tripped up by an over-eager cheerleader, this conversation on stakeholder management, risk, and project leadership is for you. Kim and Kate welcome Dawn Mahan, author of the bestselling Meet the Players in Project Land and co-editor of Project Land Goes to the Movies: 22 Blockbuster Strategies for Project Success. Dawn's premise is refreshingly human: projects rarely fail because the paperwork is wrong — they fail because the people involved aren't set up for success. Using animal avatars to make stakeholder behavior easier, and safer, to talk about, she gives project managers and leaders a practical vocabulary for the messy, political, feelings-driven reality of getting work done inside real organizations. Grab a drink and join us.   Quotes from the Episode "If you're skipping through the meadow of project land toward your goal, one might just jump up and bite you in the ankle when you least expect it…" — Dawn Mahan "You've got a style under stress." — Kate Anderson "Instead of being a cheerleader, she accidentally became a saboteur." — Dawn Mahan "I believe PMs are in the pain prevention business." — Dawn Mahan "Any of us can sabotage our own lives, relationships, projects, even." — Dawn Mahan Practical Takeaways The three stakeholder archetypes — the cheerleader (happy dog), the finicky fan (flamingo), and the saboteur (snake), and how each one engages with or endangers a project. "Style under stress" — how both stakeholder and team behavior shifts under pressure, and why leaders should plan for those reactions in advance. Stakeholder analysis as a scheduled activity — running it privately with the sponsor, casting a wide net, documenting decisions, and coding the stakeholder register discreetly. The "Feel" question — asking "How do you feel about this?" instead of "What do you think?" to surface fear and identify project risk early. Managing cheerleaders with soundbites — the Stakeholder Gabby lesson on why enthusiastic champions can accidentally become saboteurs, and how to channel their energy constructively. Closing Reflection Perhaps the most human insight of the episode is Dawn's reminder that any of us can sabotage our own projects. Sabotage isn't always evil; more often it's fear, miscommunication, or a stakeholder who simply doesn't understand how Projectland works. The leadership question worth sitting with: who on your project is operating from fear right now — and what could you do to change that? 🔗 Links & Resources Mentioned PM Happy Hour Membership: pmhappyhour.com/membership PM Happy Hour Facebook Page

Your worst project management habit might also be your superpower — the trick is knowing which one you're wielding, and when. What actually separates a great project manager from the one everyone dreads seeing on their calendar? It's rarely a certification or a prettier Gantt chart — it's behavior. This episode of Project Management Happy Hour digs into project leadership, accountability, team dynamics, and the everyday habits that quietly undermine project delivery. The uncomfortable truth running through the whole conversation: our worst project management habits are usually just our genuine strengths turned all the way up, with no dial to turn them back down. Kate and Kim are joined by Rachel Losser, founder and managing partner of Losser Consulting Solutions, a delivery-focused firm known for its get-stuff-done philosophy. Together they walk through five "bad PM personas" — the versions of ourselves that colleagues quietly avoid — and, crucially, the more skilled counterpart each one can grow into. Rachel sets the tone early with a bit of grace: we're talking about these "with love and reverence," because everybody starts somewhere and most of us have been every one of them at some point. The practical throughline is nuance. Every strength becomes a liability when it's your only mode. Great PMs read the moment: when to slow down and build consensus, and when to say "we're going this way." They tell hard truths early, manage handoffs rather than just dates, and treat relationships and communication as the real currency of the job. As Kate puts it, the only way out of a struggling project is through it — not around the color of the status. Which persona are you under stress? That self-awareness, the hosts suggest, is where better project leadership actually begins. Grab a drink and join us. Quotes from the Episode "The PM has to be the brutal truth-sayer. Because if the PM doesn't say it, who's going to say it?" — Kim Essendrup "The only way out is through." — Kate Anderson "We had to live it to be able to write it." — Rachel Losser "You have no idea what people are motivated by until you implement something like that." — Rachel Losser Practical Takeaways Every PM strength has a shadow. Each of the five personas is a positive skill (documenting, reporting, follow-through, decisiveness, convening) overused into a liability. Report status honestly, then own the path back to green. Transparent "highlighter green" reporting builds credibility; greenwashing destroys it. Accountability beats date-moving. A Task Master probes why a deadline slipped and what will change, instead of silently updating the due date. Directive leadership works only in moderation. The Hammer is effective in a crisis precisely because they aren't operating at full intensity all the time. Every meeting needs a goal and buy-in. Confirming the objective at the top of a call is how you avoid becoming the Meeting Vampire. Closing Reflection Rachel's toast says it best: this is often a thankless job of late nights and "adult babysitting." But the difference between a PM everyone avoids and one everyone wants on their project usually isn't talent — it's the self-awareness to know which persona you default to under stress, and the discipline to reach for its better half instead. Which of the five is your worst habit — and what would its superpower version look like? 🔗 Links & Resources Mentioned PM Happy Hour Membership: pmhappyhour.com/membership PM Happy Hour Facebook Page Losser Consulting Solutions — Rachel Losser's firm Big Project Energy with Rachel Losser Rachel Losser on LinkedIn Losser Consulting Solutions on LinkedIn Rachel Losser on Instagram: @losserconsultingsolutions Rachel Losser on TikTok: @losserconsultingsolutions

A $6.9 million estimate. A $1.25 billion catastrophe. How fake deadlines, a rigged bid, and a steering committee allergic to bad news turned a routine payroll migration into one of the biggest project disasters in Australian history. What happens when project leadership treats risk management as optional, decision making gets diffused across committees, and a hard deadline turns out to be completely negotiable? You get one of the most instructive project failure case studies in project management history — and in this episode, Kim and Kate pour it out one painful lesson at a time. The subject is Queensland Health, the public healthcare provider for the Australian state of Queensland, employing roughly 85,000 people across about 300 sites. In 2005, their legacy payroll vendor gave them three years' notice: support ends June 30, 2008. Sounds like plenty of runway — until the organization waited two of those three years to act. By the time a consultant named Terry Burns (remember that name) ran the procurement and IBM signed a contract in December 2007, the original $6.9 million estimate had ballooned to a $98 million contract with just six months to deliver a system covering more than 24,000 unique payroll combinations. Why does this matter for project managers and leaders? Because almost nothing that went wrong here is exotic. Late project intake. Governance where a transition team, a steering committee, and an IT department all had partial authority but no single decision-making structure. Two weeks — total — for requirements gathering on a nine-figure program. A "lift and shift" strategy that preserved every broken process and demanded 2,500 custom software configurations to replicate them. As Kim and Kate walk through it, the episode becomes a masterclass in how ordinary project management failures compound into organizational catastrophe. The discussion highlights are equal parts horrifying and hilarious. There's the program's actual internal slogan, taken straight from the project materials: "Plan A or Die" — no continuity plan, no risk mitigation, no fallback. There's the June 2008 deadline that came and went with a simple change request and some extended support from the legacy vendor, prompting Kate's sharp observation that the date was fake and not fake at once: end-of-life risk is real even when the cliff turns out to be movable. There's the UAT phase in June 2009 that surfaced 2,422 severe defects — after which the steering committee simply reclassified high-severity defects as lower severity so the dashboards would show enough green to proceed. Watermelon project, indeed. And when frontline payroll staff kept failing the system in testing, leadership's answer was to remove the requirement for business sign-off entirely. The go-live in March 2010 delivered the reckoning: 35,000 payroll anomalies, roughly $400 million in accidental overpayments, zero-dollar paychecks for healthcare workers, and government debt collectors hounding nurses for money they never asked to receive. Queensland ultimately hired a thousand staff to manually prop up the new system — a 40 percent increase in labor over the old one — with a projected five-year cost to taxpayers of $1.25 billion. The commission of inquiry that followed, led by the Right Honourable Richard Noel Chesterman, revealed the final twist: Terry Burns, a former IBMer, had leaked a competitor's bid specs to IBM and browbeaten the selection panel into rescoring until IBM won. And when the state sued? A release buried in the fine print of a change order had signed away its right to litigate. Grab a drink and join us. Quotes from the Episode "Everyone's in charge, so no one's in charge." — Kate "If you've got a deadline, question the deadline." — Kim "I've heard the term watermelon project where they're green on the outside and red on the inside." — Kim "And you are paying that company that you're hiring to learn." — Kate "But ultimately, if your project options are plan A or die. Maybe sometimes the best option is die." — Kim Practical Takeaways Governance and decision rights — When multiple bodies share authority without a single decision-making structure, accountability evaporates ("everyone's in charge, so no one's in charge"). Deadline validation — Interrogate whether a project deadline is a true constraint or a negotiable date, and what options (like extended vendor support) exist beyond it. The watermelon project pattern — Recognizing status distortion, including reclassifying defect severity and removing sign-off requirements to force green dashboards. Parallel run as cutover risk mitigation — Why replacing a legacy business-critical system requires side-by-side operation and validation before go-live. Procurement integrity and vendor selection — The risks of conflicts of interest in vendor selection, of choosing a vendor with no prior experience delivering the solution, and of unreviewed contract fine print. Closing Reflection Nobody ever really "accepts" a risk on paper. When risks are realized, someone always pays—taxpayers, frontline workers, or the organization itself. Sometimes the bravest act of project leadership is admitting that Plan A deserves to die. 🔗 Links & Resources Mentioned PM Happy Hour Membership: pmhappyhour.com/membership PM Happy Hour Facebook Page

Why do perfectly logical, well-researched project plans still fail to win people over? It's one of the most frustrating forms of project failure—not a broken schedule or a blown budget, but a smart solution that nobody trusts. Kim and Kate dig into that exact problem, exploring decision-making, risk management, and team performance through the lens of one hard-earned leadership lesson: being right is not enough. If you've ever done everything "to the T" and still hit resistance, this conversation is for you. In this episode, Kim and Kate welcome Noel Nicole Ransom—VP of Implementation, PMP, Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt, educator, speaker, and founder of Sigma Certify—for a wide-ranging conversation about project leadership and career advancement. Noel has led complex enterprise implementations, organizational change efforts, and strategic transformation initiatives, and now coaches professionals on bridging the gap between certification and real influence. The topic matters because so many capable project managers get stuck being seen as schedule-checkers rather than leaders, and that perception ceiling caps both their impact and their careers. This episode explores the throughline that credibility, not correctness, is what actually moves projects forward. Noel explains that organizations run on trust rather than logic, which means a technically perfect plan can still stall if people don't feel included in how it was built. From there, the conversation moves into what Noel calls the shift from "note takers" to "progress makers" — PMs who stop documenting problems and start solving them. She offers a simple framework for unresolved roadblocks: everyone needs an owner, an action, and a date, or it can't actually be managed. The discussion also covers how to work with resistant stakeholders by treating pushback as concern rather than defiance and how leadership conversations require starting with understanding before persuasion, since executives are rarely trying to win an argument—they're trying to get to clarity. Grab a drink and join us. Quotes from the Episode "Being right is not enough." — Noel "Organizations move mostly at a speed of trust and not necessarily logic."  — Noel "You are not a glorified executive assistant."  — Noel "Teams don't need more status updates. They need fewer barriers."  — Noel "Leadership conversations really should begin with understanding before persuasion."  — Noel Practical Takeaways Treat every unresolved roadblock as incomplete until it has an owner, an action, and a date—vague status updates don't count as progress. When a stakeholder resists, get curious about the underlying concern instead of pushing harder on your rationale; questions like, "What concerns do you have?" or, "What are you seeing that we're not?" tend to open doors that arguments close. When bringing ideas to leadership, come with a rough draft or "prototype" rather than an open-ended question—it invites collaboration instead of putting the entire burden of thinking on the other person. Resist the instinct to arrive with every answer buttoned up; asking thoughtful questions early, framed the right way, builds far more trust than appearing to have it all figured out. Closing Reflection The project managers who build lasting influence aren't the ones with the most airtight plans—they're the ones who build trust one honest conversation at a time. Curiosity over certainty, progress over perfection, and quiet obstacle-removal over box-checking. 🔗 Links & Resources Mentioned PM Happy Hour Membership: pmhappyhour.com/membership PM Happy Hour Facebook Page Noel Nicole Ransom's website: noelnicole.com Noel on LinkedIn Sigma Certify Book: Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss and Tahl Raz

Ever worked on a project that felt like a complete disaster... only for leadership to call it a huge success? In Part 2 of our Mr. Beast series, Kim and Kate dig into the reported chaos behind Beast Games—from weather disasters and safety concerns to unhappy contestants, lawsuits, and production challenges. But here's the twist: despite all the problems, does the sponsor spin it as a win? If they did - would they be 'right?' This episode explores project sponsors, stakeholder management, risk management, and one uncomfortable truth many project managers eventually learn: success is often defined by the people funding the project—not the people doing the work. Kim and Kate unpack what happens when ambitious goals collide with reality, why sponsors often see projects differently than project managers, and why writing your own project post-mortem may be one of the most important leadership skills you can develop. Grab a drink and join us. Quotes from the Episode "Imagine that guy pouring down rain. He's in ankle deep water holding a 240 volt line over his head thinking, well, at least I'm getting paid for this." — Kate "Watch out for fixes that move the problem instead of solving it." — Kim Practical Takeaways When project scope or scale increases dramatically, bring in people who have experience operating at that level. Challenge proposed solutions by asking whether they solve the root cause or simply move the problem elsewhere. Escalate business-level risks back to leadership when leadership made the decision to accept those risks. Build post-mortems that document both successes and failures—not just one side of the story. Tailor project communication to sponsor priorities while still surfacing risks clearly and consistently. Closing Reflection A project can be operationally messy and still be considered a success by its sponsors. The question isn't just whether a project succeeded—but whose definition of success ultimately mattered. 🔗 Links & Resources Mentioned PM Happy Hour Membership: pmhappyhour.com/membership PM Happy Hour Facebook Page Folding Ideas — Why Was I Invited to Beast Studios? Rolling Stone article by Stephen Essarch: A Fyre Fest Feeling Inside the Chaos of Mr. Beast's New Reality Show KSNV article by Minx and Lau: Las Vegas Staff Say Mr. Beast Should Be Blacklisted, Cite OSHA, Medics Set for Failure

Ever worked with a stakeholder who changes direction faster than your project plan can keep up? Then this episode may feel a little too familiar. Kim and Kate dive into the rise of Mr. Beast and the making of Beast Games through a project management lens—not to critique content creation, but to examine what happens when vision outpaces execution. From sponsor behavior and scaling challenges to agile gone sideways, they unpack the risks of massive ambition without the systems to support it. If you've ever managed shifting priorities, difficult stakeholders, or a project that seemed to grow by the hour, this conversation will hit home. Grab a drink and join us for a fascinating look at project sponsors, leadership, and what real-world project management can learn from internet-scale production. 🎙️ Spicy Quotes from the Episode "Those poor people. Those poor people. I feel so bad." — Kate "This has to be a textbook case of the absolute worst project sponsor I have ever seen." — Kim Key Concepts & Takeaways The Sponsor Shapes the Project Kate frames Mr. Beast not as a creator but as a project sponsor. Great sponsors create alignment; difficult ones can unintentionally create chaos, rework, and burnout. Scale Changes Everything What works at small scale may not work as it scales up - in this case, scaling from Youtube videos to a massive $100m production involving thousands of participants and multiple organizations. Scaling requires stronger processes, decision making, and management support - not just bigger budgets. Empathy Matters in Project Management Kate repeatedly returns to the human side of projects: behind every schedule slip or scope change are real people doing the work. Practical Takeaways Evaluate sponsor behavior early, not just project requirements. Reassess processes when projects scale dramatically. Governance doesn't slow decisions - it can help speed them and ensure your project can effectively absorb changing priorities. Consider the human impact of ambitious timelines and scope changes. Distinguish between innovation and avoidable chaos. 🔗 Links & Resources Mentioned Folding Ideas video: "Why Was I Invited to Beast Studios?" (https://youtu.be/0dwagg5wYY4?si=wNMmjhncv06AqUul) Project Management Happy Hour Website  PM Happy Hour Membership

You know the moment. Your project plan is solid. The scope is defined. The team is ready. Then an executive walks by and casually asks: "Can we just make this AI?" Suddenly you're no longer managing a project. You're managing expectations, buzzwords, corporate excitement, and whatever article someone just read on the flight home from a conference. In this episode, Kim and Kate tackle the question nearly every project manager is hearing right now: What's your AI strategy? They discuss why this isn't the first technology hype cycle we've lived through, how to respond when leaders want AI without knowing what they actually want AI to do, and why saying "yes" doesn't mean committing to anything. Along the way, they unpack executive AI buzzwords, governance concerns, AI productivity myths, vibe coding, project management tools, and where AI genuinely helps versus where it's mostly creating noise. Most importantly, they share practical ways to stay credible, keep your projects grounded, and avoid getting swept up in the latest technology frenzy. So grab a drink, pull up your RAID log, and let's talk about surviving the AI gold rush without losing your mind. 🎙️ Spicy Quotes from the Episode "My eyes actually fell all the way out of my head and are rolling down the street. I actually can't see anything anymore." — Kate "Your project cannot be more mature than the organization." — Kim "AI is not like magic pixie dust you sprinkle on your project and suddenly magical things happen, right?" — Kim "AI is not better than you at project management. And it probably never will be." — Kate Key Concepts & Takeaways AI Hype Cycles Are Not New The technology changes, but the executive behavior doesn't. Before AI there was cloud. Before that there was blockchain. Every generation gets its must-have technology that promises massive transformation. Project managers shouldn't panic when AI becomes the topic of every conversation. The important skill isn't becoming an AI expert overnight. It's understanding enough to have an informed conversation. Other key concepts covered:  Learn the Language Without Drinking the Kool-Aid Don't Let Projects Outrun Governance Ask "How?" Before You Ask "Why Not?" AI Is Only As Good As Your Data AI Helps More With Starting Than Finishing Closing Reflection The next time someone asks, "What's our AI strategy?" maybe the better question is: "What problem are we actually trying to solve?" Because the organizations that benefit most from AI probably won't be the ones chasing every new buzzword—they'll be the ones that stay focused on outcomes while everyone else is getting distracted by the hype. 🔗 Links & Resources Mentioned Project Management Happy Hour Website  PM Happy Hour Membership

AI is changing work fast enough to give every project manager emotional whiplash. New tools, new workflows, new expectations… and somehow you're still expected to hit deadlines, manage stakeholders, and explain for the fifth time why the project scope changed after leadership changed the entire business strategy. In this episode, Kim and Kate sit down with Kelly Heuer from Project Management Institute to talk about the skills that actually survive industry shifts, changing technology, and whatever shiny new buzzword LinkedIn is obsessed with this week. They unpack why "soft skills" are actually the hardest skills in project management, how business acumen separates strategic PMs from task trackers, and why learning to navigate ambiguity matters more now than memorizing formulas from the PMP exam. The conversation also dives into the uncomfortable reality that project success is rarely about perfectly following the original plan. Sometimes the real job is realizing the plan should change in the first place. Along the way, they cover durable vs. perishable skills, why varied career experience is secretly a superpower, how PMs can become more effective strategic partners, and why "say the thing" might be the most important career advice you'll hear all year. Grab a drink, question your project charter, and let's get into it. Guest Bio As Vice President of Learning at the Project Management Institute (PMI), Dr. Kelly Heuer brings over two decades of experience in higher education to lead PMI's Learning division. She oversees a global portfolio including professional standards, publications, live and enterprise training, and digital learning products that equip project professionals worldwide to drive project success. Kelly holds multiple degrees in philosophy, including an AB from Harvard and an MA and PhD from Georgetown University. She began her career at Georgetown, helping launch the university's first Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) in bioethics and co-founding its ethics and social innovation lab. She most recently served as Vice President of Learning Experience at edX, driving learning strategies and digital innovation across the company's portfolio. As the first in her family to pursue higher education, Kelly is passionate about mentoring first-generation students, coaching formerly incarcerated individuals, and supporting colleagues exploring alternative career paths. She lives in Brooklyn with her partner, Arjun, and their two children, chess enthusiast Kiran and aspiring explorer Ryan. 🎙️ Quotes from the Episode "If you're thinking the thing, if you're wondering the thing, if you're confused about the thing, say the thing." — Kelly "Human skills are more important than artificial intelligence skills." — Kate "Soft skills are the hardest part of project management." — Kate "Comfort with ambiguity. It's acknowledging change as a constant, not as something you're going to design around or manage your way away from." — Kelly 📌 Key Concepts & Takeaways Durable Skills vs. Perishable Skills Technical skills expire faster than most PMs want to admit. Tools change. Platforms die. Entire workflows disappear. But communication, business acumen, stakeholder management, adaptability, and decision-making under uncertainty keep paying dividends across every phase of a career. "Say the Thing" One of the biggest career mistakes is staying quiet because you don't want to sound inexperienced, difficult, or slow the room down. Asking the uncomfortable question early often prevents much bigger problems later. Business Acumen Is the Real Career Multiplier Technical project management skills are still important—but they're table stakes now. The PMs who move into larger, more strategic work understand value, organizational priorities, market shifts, and executive decision-making. Varied Experience Builds Better PMs Working across industries, teams, and business problems creates stronger long-term judgment. Diverse experience teaches pattern recognition, adaptability, and strategic thinking in ways repetitive specialization sometimes doesn't. Learning Happens in the Field Courses, books, and certifications matter—but they're only part of the equation. Real growth happens when people practice skills, make mistakes, reflect, adapt, and try again in live environments. Discussion Highlights One of the strongest threads throughout the conversation was the idea that project managers are being forced to rethink what makes them valuable. Kelly talked about how rapidly technical skills are expiring, referencing research showing that the "half-life" of professional skills has dropped dramatically over time. The implication wasn't that technical knowledge no longer matters—it absolutely does—but that technical expertise alone is no longer enough to sustain a long career. Kate pushed hard on the idea that so-called "soft skills" have always been the hardest part of the job. Not the formulas. Not the software. The real challenge is learning how to navigate people, power dynamics, ambiguity, and shifting business priorities without becoming either invisible or terrifying. The conversation also got surprisingly honest about career growth. Kate talked about how asking "dumb questions" early in a career feels different than asking them after twenty years of experience. Early on, vulnerability makes you non-threatening. Later, the exact same question can suddenly feel like a high-level strategic critique because people assume expertise from seniority alone. Kim brought up another tension a lot of PMs quietly experience: organizations wanting project managers who have done the exact same project fifteen times already. That led into a larger conversation about how difficult it can be for experienced PMs with varied backgrounds to communicate the value of transferable skills during hiring processes. And naturally, because this is PM Happy Hour, the conversation eventually circled back to the reality that no amount of theory replaces getting kicked by the metaphorical horse yourself. Sometimes literally. Practical Takeaways Stop treating stakeholder communication as a "soft" secondary skill. It's one of the highest leverage parts of the job. When joining a new project or industry, focus first on understanding how the business creates value—not just how the process works. Ask questions earlier, especially when something feels unclear or inconsistent. Waiting usually makes problems more expensive. Revisit project success criteria regularly during long initiatives. The business environment may have shifted even if the project plan hasn't. If your background is varied, learn how to frame it as strategic adaptability rather than lack of specialization. Build learning habits that fit into real work. Continuous learning matters more now because many technical skills become outdated quickly. Don't confuse sticking to the original plan with leadership. Sometimes leadership means recognizing the plan itself needs to evolve. Closing Reflection Project management used to reward the people who could control complexity. Now it increasingly rewards the people who can navigate uncertainty without freezing, adapt without losing direction, and keep delivering value even while the ground underneath the project keeps moving. That's a very different skill set. And honestly? Probably a much more human one. 🔗 Links & Resources Mentioned Project Management Institute (PMI) PMI Learning Resources The Five Dysfunctions of a Team Death by Meeting PM Happy Hour Membership PM Happy Hour Website Kelly Heuer on LinkedIn

If your to-do list is 47 items long, your Slack won't shut up, and you ended the day thinking, "Cool… but what did I actually accomplish?"—welcome. You're among friends. In this episode, Kim and Kate take on the very real, very unsexy side of project management: figuring out how to manage your own work when everything (and everyone) is demanding your attention. This isn't about finding the perfect tool or building a prettier dashboard. It's about surviving—and actually functioning—in an interrupt-driven world where emails breed overnight, notifications multiply, and every task somehow feels urgent. They get into what actually works: setting a North Star for your week (yes, only a few priorities), getting tasks out of your brain before they haunt you at 10 PM, and why some tasks are secretly just traps that create even more work (looking at you, boomerang tasks). Also: a gentle reality check—you're not supposed to do everything. Grab a drink, ignore your inbox for a bit, and let's figure out how to organize the chaos without losing your mind.   🎙️ Spicy Quotes from the Episode On chaos: "If you have no North Star point, the rest of your week is going to feel like chaos." — Kate On overwhelm: "The human brain can't really process all of that. We can process having three priorities." — Kate On modern work life: "Notifications trying to notify you about notifications." — Kim On control: "Manage your tasks—don't let your tasks manage you." — Kim On reality: "There has to be things you can stop doing." — Kate 📌 Key Concepts & Takeaways The North Star Rule (a.k.a. calm down, it's not 47 priorities): Pick 2–3 things that actually matter this week. Everything else? It either supports those—or it waits. Get It Out of Your Head (your brain is not a storage system): If you're trying to remember everything, you've already lost. Write it down somewhere reliable so your brain can stop yelling at you. Boomerang Tasks (aka "this will take 5 minutes" lies): Some tasks look small but come with hidden side quests. Know the difference before you commit. Interrupt-Driven Work Is the Default—Act Accordingly: You're not bad at focusing. Your environment is designed to destroy it. Filter, batch, and control when you engage. Physical Lists Still Work (and no, it's not just nostalgia): Sometimes the best productivity hack is using something that doesn't ping, buzz, or open 12 tabs. Reflection Beats Hustling Harder: End your day or week by asking: what actually mattered? Not what felt urgent—what mattered. Not Doing Things Is a Skill: You don't need a better system. You probably need fewer things on your list.   🔗 Links & Resources Mentioned PM Happy Hour Website: https://www.pmhappyhour.com Scripts & Resources: https://www.pmhappyhour.com/scripts Books Mentioned: Essentialism by Greg McKeown Getting Things Done by David Allen Conquer the Chaos by Clate Mask Tools Referenced: Notion, Evernote, OneNote, Smartsheet, Jira, Monday

If your weekly calendar looks like the loser in a state fair quilt competition - just solid blocks of mismatched colors with no room to breathe - this episode is for you. Today, we're joined by facilitation expert Evan Unger to talk about a topic that Kate and Kim geek out over: meetings. Specifically, why most of them are terrible, how they drain organizational productivity, and exactly what you can do to fix yours. We also tackle one of the most delicate situations in project management: how to handle the HIPPO (Highest Paid Person's Opinion) when they barge into your meeting and try to completely take over the flight controls. Grab a drink, settle in, and let's get into it. 🎙️ Spicy Quotes from the Episode On owning your time: "If you don't own your calendar, you don't own your life." – Kim On the true cost of bad meetings: "If you're spending 50% of your time in meetings [that are less than 50% effective], you're literally going to spend a year's worth of your life and hours in meetings in under a decade. How organizations tolerate this, I have no idea." – Evan On visibility: "Every meeting is a leadership moment." – Evan On career survival: "We don't want to make hippos wrong because there's career limiting interventions. I mean, let's be honest, they have power and authority over us." – Evan On meeting math: "Nine things on an agenda in a 40-minute meeting is 4.44 minutes per agenda item. That's just not possible. It is better to end early than to run over." – Kate 📌 Key Concepts & Takeaways The Meeting Metaphor (Flying the Plane): Every meeting needs three phases. Takeoff (getting aligned), the Flight (the process/agenda), and Landing (saving 5-10 minutes at the end to secure next steps and accountability). Do not run out of fuel and crash. Leave time to land the plane. The POPRA Model for Meeting Prep: Don't accept or run meetings without knowing these five things: Purpose: Why are we here? Objectives: What are the specific deliverables or decisions needed? Process: What is the agenda? Roles: Who is the ultimate decision-maker? Who is the SME? Agreements: How will we interact and handle disagreements? The AREA Model for Taming the HIPPO: When a senior leader tries to bulldoze the process: Acknowledge: Validate their right to a point of view without necessarily agreeing. Reframe: Tie the conversation back to the project's purpose or objectives. Engage: Ask neutral questions to open the floor ("Would you be willing to listen to other perspectives on this?") Align: Bring the group's feedback back to the leader to help them make a better, more informed decision. The Power of Simultaneous Chat: To break the dominance of the loudest voices (and the HIPPO), ask a question and have everyone type their answer in the chat without hitting enter. On the count of three, everyone submits at once. This holds space for introverts, junior staff, and non-native English speakers to contribute without getting run over. Process is Your Shield: If a leader has a strong opinion, use process structure to ensure all sides are heard. Force the group to list "Pros" before "Cons," or use a timer to keep long-winded talkers (even the boss) in check. 🔗 Links & Resources Mentioned Connect with Evan Unger: Find Evan on LinkedIn (look for the blue/black check shirt and the impish grin, not the doctor!). Note: Evan is generously offering $2,000 off a seat in his training program for PM Happy Hour listeners! Books Mentioned: The Five Dysfunctions of a Team and Death by Meeting by Patrick Lencioni. Join the Conversation: Want to geek out about project management with us? Check out the PM Happy Hour membership site at https://www.pmhappyhour.com/membership. Say Hello: Hit us up on Facebook at PM Happy Hour or find our contact info on the website under "About Your Hosts."

Boss fights and boardrooms. Kate puts Kim through meeting hell in this tabletop roleplay episode. Kate: "Help me torture Kim." That was the prompt. What followed was a meeting dungeon built from listener-submitted horror stories, tabletop chaos, and the exact kinds of project meetings that make smart people question their career choices. In this April Fool's episode of Project Management Happy Hour, Kate becomes game master and throws Kim into a gauntlet of cursed kickoffs, bloated status meetings, executive dodging, and stakeholder nonsense. It's funny because it's absurd. It lands because it's true. "My dice are green like all of my status reports." The setup is playful. The meeting pain is not. Kim tries to survive a kickoff with distracted leaders, a giant update meeting nobody needed, a build-versus-buy conversation where nobody wants to own the decision, and a phase gate where "close enough" suddenly becomes everyone else's problem. As the dungeon gets worse, you hear what experienced project managers actually do under pressure: reset the room, cut through noise, force clarity, and keep momentum when everyone else is drifting. "This is how Kim would operate in a meeting." That's what makes this episode so fun - and insightful. The dice are a toy. The project management is real. If you've ever had a sponsor with a hard stop in ten minutes, a technical lead who gets defensive the second testing reveals a problem, or a leadership team that turns every decision into one more meeting, this episode will feel painfully familiar. "We survived that near miss. It's okay. Next time we'll be okay." A lot of bad meeting habits stick around because teams get used to surviving them. This episode turns that reality into entertainment—and into a sharp reminder that surviving dysfunction is not the same as managing well. And because it's PM Happy Hour, the whole thing is loaded with lines that hit for PMs immediately. "We can't food bribe our way out of every meeting disaster." "I need you to do a speed run of a project." "It is 2 hours long." That last one might be the most terrifying quote in the whole episode. What you'll hear in this episode a kickoff already heading off the rails a giant status meeting from hell executive indecision in full view a technical lead bringing equal parts talent and chaos a release decision that gets messy fast Key project management takeaways Get to purpose fast. Push for the real decision. Keep updates short and relevant. Make the cost of delay visible. Manage the room, not just the agenda. Don't let technical defensiveness hijack the issue. Find the compromise that keeps momentum. If your work depends on steering messy rooms, stubborn stakeholders, and overloaded calendars toward an actual outcome, this episode will feel like both comedy and continuing education. Love our content? Then join the PM Happy Hour membership at pmhappyhour.com/membership

Escalation: it's a word that can make even experienced project managers tense. But what if you approached it as a tool rather than a threat? In this Top Shelf Replay of Project Management Happy Hour, we revisit the classic episode "Embracing De-escalation," exploring how savvy project managers use escalation to enhance visibility, make informed decisions, and navigate risk—without losing their cool. Hosts Kim and Kate dive into the nuances of escalation, showing how the best project leaders balance assertiveness with thoughtful communication. Far from being a reactive panic button, escalation can be a strategic lever to guide projects, protect team morale, and keep stakeholders in the loop.  In this episode, we cover real-world examples of when to escalate, how to frame your message, and why keeping your sponsor engaged is critical for project success. From handling medium-urgency issues to preventing scope creep, Kim and Kate provide a roadmap for using escalation effectively—turning potential project risks into opportunities for alignment and growth. Expect memorable metaphors, including broccoli for "healthy escalation habits" and creative exercises from the improv world to illustrate collaboration and communication.  By the end of this episode, you'll understand how to elevate project visibility, manage competing priorities, and leverage escalation strategically, all while maintaining calm and confidence. Key Quotes from This Episode: "Escalation is just another tool in your project management box, and it's one of the best." "Sometimes you almost kinda need to grab the sponsor and tell them to step up—they are the sponsor, and it's their project." "Think of escalation as eating your vegetables: a healthy activity that keeps your project going strong." "Escalating helps your sponsor make decisions whether they want to or not." Key Concepts The strategic use of escalation to improve visibility and decision making. Balancing sponsor engagement with day-to-day project leadership. Recognizing when a problem exceeds your decision-making authority. Communication techniques for reducing tension during escalations. Viewing project status and benefits realization beyond standard red/amber/green metrics. Love our content? Then join the PM Happy Hour membership at pmhappyhour.com/membership

Why do smart teams still deliver failed projects? Most project failures don't begin with a catastrophic mistake. Instead, they begin with small deviations—minor compromises that seem harmless in the moment. A warning sign gets ignored. A shortcut becomes acceptable. A risk is acknowledged but tolerated because "nothing bad happened last time." Over time, those deviations quietly become the new normal. In this episode of Project Management Happy Hour, Kim Essendrup and Kate Anderson sit down with Dr. Bill Brantley to explore one of the most dangerous patterns in project leadership: normalization of deviance. The concept comes from sociologist Diane Vaughan's analysis of the Challenger space shuttle disaster. Engineers had long observed problems with the shuttle's O-ring seals. But earlier launches survived those anomalies. Each successful launch reinforced the belief that the risk was acceptable. Gradually, what began as an abnormal warning became accepted behavior. As Dr. Brantley explains: "We survived that near miss. It's okay. Next time we'll be okay." Project teams fall into this pattern all the time. A design review is skipped because the team is behind schedule. A test failure gets dismissed because it hasn't caused a real problem yet. A risk gets documented—but never truly addressed. Nothing breaks immediately. So the project keeps moving. The conversation explores how this slow drift toward failure mirrors patterns seen in aviation, engineering disasters, and even mountaineering expeditions. Experienced professionals—people who know better—gradually normalize increasingly risky decisions until the system finally breaks. But the episode goes further than just diagnosing the problem. Dr. Brantley and the hosts dive into the decision dynamics inside projects. A typical project team makes dozens—or even hundreds—of decisions every week. Some have immediate consequences, while others take months or years to reveal their impact. One story from the Apollo program illustrates this perfectly: a weld defect made years earlier ultimately contributed to the crisis of Apollo 13. This delay between decision and consequence creates a dangerous blind spot. Dr. Brantley jokingly calls it the "White Castle effect." "White Castle burgers are great going down… and then at three in the morning you realize you made a bad decision." The same thing happens in project management. Decisions that seem harmless in the moment can produce painful consequences much later. One of the most powerful insights from the discussion is that organizations often fail to reflect on their decisions. Teams act, move forward, and stay busy—but rarely pause to ask whether their decisions are actually improving outcomes. That reflection step is critical. "Reflection really helps you break that normalization of deviance." Without it, teams never notice when small compromises start compounding into systemic risk. The episode also explores practical techniques for improving project decision-making. One of Dr. Brantley's favorites is red teaming—a method borrowed from military strategy and cybersecurity. In a red-team exercise, someone deliberately challenges the plan and tries to break it. Their job is to expose weaknesses before reality does. It's a powerful way to counter groupthink and create psychological safety for dissent. Another theme throughout the conversation is something many project managers intuitively know but rarely articulate: Every action—or inaction—on a project is ultimately a decision. "Everything is a decision. Nobody is going to come after you around anything other than decisions." Whether it's changing scope, delaying work, ignoring a risk, or choosing not to act at all, project leaders are constantly making decisions that shape the outcome of the project. The real question isn't whether decisions are happening. It's whether those decisions are intentional, visible, and thoughtfully examined. Because in many projects, failure doesn't arrive suddenly. It arrives slowly—one accepted deviation at a time. Love our content? Then join the PM Happy Hour membership at pmhappyhour.com/membership