Advertise on podcast: The Project Management Podcast

Play audio-only episode | Play on YouTube | Play on Spotify Episode Summary Artificial intelligence projects need more than a promising tool and an ambitious rollout plan. In episode 561, Cornelius Fichtner speaks with Erin Hill, Provost at Austin Christian University and a strategic consultant with experience implementing AI across higher education, legal, and financial organizations. Erin argues that AI leadership begins by asking whether an organization should use AI for a particular business outcome, not simply whether the technology can perform a task. She connects AI initiatives to organizational strategy, mission, governance, data privacy, security, and available resources. For project managers who inherit an AI initiative from senior leadership, she explains why a clear project charter, stakeholder conversations, and decisions about tool selection and employee training matter before implementation begins. The discussion also examines how needs assessments help teams find repetitive tasks and high-friction processes where AI may add value. She warns against introducing AI into disconnected or outdated systems without first addressing their underlying problems. Her examples show why organizations need trustworthy information, clear accountability, and people who understand how the tools fit into their daily work.

Premium This is a preview of our premium episode. Full access is available only to premium subscribers. Click here and learn about the Premium Podcast to access this interview... Play video preview episode | Play audio-only preview episode | Play on YouTube | Play on Spotify Episode Summary Flexible leadership sounds straightforward until a project leader has to decide what to do differently when the situation changes. Kevin Eikenberry, author of Flexible Leadership: Navigate Uncertainty and Lead with Confidence, returns for a second conversation focused squarely on practical application. Kevin explains why project leaders often fall back on autopilot, how habits and even leadership identity can make flexibility difficult, and why the phrase "it depends" should serve as a trigger to stop and consider the context before acting. He also challenges the assumption that consistency and flexibility compete with each other. Effective leaders can remain consistent in their values, purpose, and project boundaries while adapting how they lead. That becomes particularly important when projects operate in uncertain or complex environments where leaders cannot know every variable, established practices may not produce the expected results, and new information can require a different response.

Play audio-only episode | Play on YouTube | Play on Spotify Episode Summary David Luria, author of Flatten the AI J Curve: Your Unfair Advantage in the Race to Enterprise Adoption, brings a practical conversation about what happens when an AI pilot moves into real operational use. Luria, a vice president and business manager at T. Rowe Price and a Six Sigma Black Belt, explains the AI J curve: productivity can fall before it improves, especially as teams learn new workflows, run old and new processes in parallel, and adjust to changing responsibilities. He argues that project managers should set expectations before implementation begins, keep early scope narrow, and use short stepping-stone projects to learn quickly. He also explains why culture matters. AI often removes tasks that people associate with their expertise, so adoption requires more than access to a chatbot. Leaders and project managers need to create room for experimentation, communicate what will change, and help people understand how their roles can shift toward higher-value work. Luria calls for business ownership close to the work, supported by leadership, IT, and risk teams, rather than treating AI transformation as a technology handoff.

Play video episode | Play on YouTube | Play on Spotify Episode Summary There is a decent chance your employer has already paid for your next 14.5 PDUs. You just have not claimed them. My course Artificial Intelligence for Project Managers has been added to the Udemy Business collection. If your company subscribes to Udemy Business, that course is already sitting in your account: 14.5 hours of video, 14.5 PDUs toward your PMI credential renewal, and a certificate of completion when you finish. No purchase, no expense report, no approval needed.

I have a special offer for Premium PM Podcast subscribers. My course, Artificial Intelligence for Project Managers, is now available on Udemy, and I’m giving 100 Premium subscribers free access. The course is designed specifically for project managers who want a practical introduction to the skills that make up AI literacy. This is more than "how to use ChatGPT for PM" - it's quite foundational. Complete the course and you can also earn 14.75 PDUs. How to get free access Go to: https://pm-podcast.com/ai4pm That link takes you directly to the course on Udemy and automatically applies the coupon. You should see the course price reduced to FREE. Then simply add the course to your cart and complete the checkout process. Important: This free offer ends October 6, 2026, and Udemy currently limits free coupons to 100 enrollments, so the offer may disappear before then if all 100 spots are claimed. Starting in November, Udemy will allow up to 1,000 enrollments on free coupons, which means I’ll be able to offer more opportunities like this in the future. Enjoy the course, and once you’ve completed it, please leave a review on Udemy. Reviews make a big difference in helping the course reach more project managers. Until Next Time, Cornelius Fichtner, PMP

Premium This is a preview of our premium episode. Full access is available only to premium subscribers. Click here and learn about the Premium Podcast to access this interview... Play video preview episode | Play audio-only preview episode | Play on YouTube | Play on Spotify Episode Summary Sara Gallagher returns to examine a frustrating reality for project managers: organizations can employ smart, experienced, well-intentioned people and still produce the same bad outcomes again and again. Sara, president of The Persimmon Group and creator of the Big Dumb Questions newsletter, brings more than 15 years of consulting experience to a discussion that starts with artificial intelligence and quickly expands into how organizations make decisions, manage transitions, respond to change, and structure project leadership. She explains how she separates work into simple, complicated, and complex categories when deciding what to give AI, and why simple and selected complicated work offer the most practical opportunities today. From there, Sara and Cornelius examine decision latency and the danger of judging a decision only by its eventual outcome. Sara argues that leaders should focus on whether they made a defensible decision based on the information and criteria available at the time. They also examine project handoffs, where weak preparation can allow value to leak away and risk to increase just as the project reaches a critical transition point.

Play audio-only episode | Play on YouTube | Play on Spotify Episode Summary Artificial intelligence can now appear in PMP exam scenarios, but that does not mean candidates need to study AI technology. In Episode 557, Cornelius Fichtner starts with the PMP Exam Content Outline and separates what PMI actually says from what many candidates may assume. AI appears in the introduction as one of the trends PMI evaluates when researching changes in professional practice expectations, but it does not appear as a task or enabler in the People, Process, or Business Environment domains. That distinction matters because the PMP exam measures project management competencies, not technical mastery of the tools a project manager may use. AI can show up as a project risk, a deliverable, or a tool that a team wants to adopt, while the underlying exam question still asks whether you can manage risk, evaluate a tool, address a stakeholder concern, handle change, or make an accountable project decision. Cornelius also shows the kinds of questions candidates should not expect, including technical questions about generative versus predictive AI, prompt-writing techniques, and AI model selection.

Play audio-only episode | Play on YouTube | Play on Spotify Episode Summary Sara Gallagher, President of The Persimmon Group and author of the LinkedIn newsletter Big Dumb Questions, joins Cornelius Fichtner to answer the uncomfortable questions most PMO leaders avoid. The conversation follows four threads: PMO identity, design, accountability, and the future. It opens with the biggest question of all: are PMOs dying? Sara takes an optimistic view, with caveats. She explains that traditional PMOs are built on standardization, which raises weaker projects to a certain ceiling but also flattens excellent, tailored work down to the law of averages. She then paints a concrete picture of what comes next: project managers with robust knowledge bases and AI agents that draft synthesized status reports, simulate steering committee members such as a CFO, and hand results to a PMO agent that standardizes everything for portfolio roll-up. The result combines hyper-customized stakeholder communication with standardization only where it is truly needed, and it frees the PMO to coach project managers in sophisticated stakeholder management and risk practices.

Play audio-only episode Your browser does not support the audio element. Download the episode. A brief personal update from your host. My wife recently had a serious fall that required hip surgery and rehabilitation, so my time is fully devoted to her recovery right now. One recorded interview is on its way to your feed shortly, but the schedule will stay quiet for the next few weeks while I reschedule cancelled interviews and we get through this together.

Play audio-only episode | Play on YouTube | Play on Spotify Episode Summary The seven performance domains from the PMBOK Guide 8th edition form the backbone of how project work actually happens, and they are woven into nearly every situational question on the PMP exam. The catch is that the exam never labels them. Cornelius Fichtner, PMP, takes you through all seven domains: Governance, Scope, Schedule, Finance, Stakeholders, Resources, and Risk. For each domain, he presents a sample question from The PM Exam Simulator, works through the answer choices, and then hands you a structured takeaway built around three skills: how to recognize the domain in a scenario, how to evaluate your answer options, and how to eliminate the traps. Along the way you work through fourteen exam-style questions, including drag and drop matching, choose-multiple formats, and classic four-option scenarios covering everything from negative float and crashing to contingency reserves and psychological safety.

Play audio-only episode | Play on YouTube | Play on Spotify Episode Summary Preparing for the PMP exam means developing the ability to make sound decisions under pressure, not simply recalling definitions from a textbook. In this lesson, drawn directly from the PM PrepCast PMP exam prep course and PrepCast PMP Exam Simulator, Cornelius Fichtner walks through all six project management principles from the PMBOK Guide 8th Edition and shows exactly how to recognize and apply them when facing the kind of ambiguous, scenario-based questions that appear on the actual exam. Each principle gets its own sample question from the PrepCast PMP Exam Simulator, a step-by-step walkthrough of why the wrong answers are wrong, and a second practice question so listeners can immediately test what they have learned. The episode covers all six principles in sequence: Adopt a Holistic View, Focus on Value, Embed Quality into Processes and Deliverables, Be an Accountable Leader, Integrate Sustainability Within All Project Areas, and Build an Empowered Culture. Each principle is taught not as a concept to memorize but as a mindset to recognize and apply, because the exam consistently rewards situational judgment over terminology.

Premium This is a preview of our premium episode. Full access is available only to premium subscribers. Click here and learn about the Premium Podcast to access this interview... Play audio-only preview episode | Play on YouTube | Play on Spotify Episode Summary We welcome back Dawn Mahan and Jerry Manas for a project risk management conversation that connects movie moments with practical project leadership. Dawn and Jerry, co-editors of Projectland Goes to the Movies: 22 Blockbuster Strategies for Project Success, focus on the chapters they personally wrote and use them to examine how project managers identify early warning signs, assess uncertainty, choose risk responses, and handle the human side of risk. Jerry uses Star Wars to explain fast risk assessment, OODA loops, situational awareness, risk response planning, and the difference between risk as threat and risk as opportunity. Dawn uses The Italian Job to discuss trust, hidden resistance, team pressure, stakeholder behavior, sabotage, and what happens when a new person joins an already established team. Together, they make a practical point for project managers: risk management cannot live only in a register. It has to show up in conversations, sponsor alignment, team formation, stakeholder engagement, and regular project decisions.

We welcome back Dawn Mahan and Jerry Manas for a project risk management conversation that connects movie moments with practical project leadership. Dawn and Jerry, co-editors of Projectland Goes to the Movies: 22 Blockbuster Strategies for Project Success, focus on the chapters they personally wrote and use them to examine how project managers identify early warning signs, assess uncertainty, choose risk responses, and handle the human side of risk. Jerry uses Star Wars to explain fast risk assessment, OODA loops, situational awareness, risk response planning, and the difference between risk as threat and risk as opportunity. Dawn uses The Italian Job to discuss trust, hidden resistance, team pressure, stakeholder behavior, sabotage, and what happens when a new person joins an already established team. Together, they make a practical point for project managers: risk management cannot live only in a register. It has to show up in conversations, sponsor alignment, team formation, stakeholder engagement, and regular project decisions. The discussion starts with signals before trouble, including the moments when a team senses that something feels wrong but cannot yet prove it. Jerry recommends assessing and investigating risks based on urgency, while Dawn points to behaviors such as people not showing up, going silent, or acting out of alignment with the project. From there, the conversation moves into the gap between planning and reality. A good plan helps, but it does not remove uncertainty. Project managers still need fallback thinking, clear values, and enough situational awareness to know when to proceed and when to pause. The episode also brings risk into the people side of project work, where difficult stakeholders, stressed stakeholders, and actual saboteurs require different responses. Dawn explains how project managers can build trust when a new team member joins and how effective sponsorship can help someone earn credibility. Jerry closes with a practical recommendation: focus risk response planning on high-probability, high-impact items and include risk assessment in status or stage gate meetings. In other words, the risk register should not become documentation theater. Nobody needs another spreadsheet pretending everything is fine. In This Episode, You Will Learn Early warning signs - How project managers can respond when a team senses trouble before there is proof. Risk as opportunity - How a threat can also create unexpected value when the team sees both sides of the situation. Risk response mistakes - Why transfer and passive acceptance still require monitoring, ownership, and follow-through. People-related risks - How to distinguish difficult stakeholders, stressed stakeholders, and actual saboteurs. Risk reviews that lead to decisions - How to make risk assessment part of status meetings or stage gate discussions. Resources Mentioned Projectland Goes to the Movies - The featured book discussed throughout the episode, examining project management lessons found in popular films. Quotes from This Episode "The bottom line is Han knew his skills. He knew the enemy's weaknesses. It was a risk, but it was also an opportunity." - Jerry Manas "If something feels off, it absolutely could be even within members of your own team." - Dawn Mahan "The biggest project risk is not the plan, but it is instead the people pretending that the plan is fine." - Cornelius Fichtner Connect with Dawn Mahan and Jerry Manas LinkedIn (Dawn Mahan): https://www.linkedin.com/in/dawnmahan/ LinkedIn (Jerry Manas): https://www.linkedin.com/in/jmanas/ Time-Stamped Show Notes [00:00] - Why risk gets personal for project managers. [01:36] - Spotting early warning signs before trouble starts. [07:27] - When the project plan meets reality. [11:30] - Choosing the right risk response. [13:58] - Aligning stakeholders around project risk. [15:23] - Difficult stakeholders, stre

Play audio-only episode | Play on YouTube | Play on Spotify Episode Summary The PMP Exam Content Outline, often called the ECO, drives everything about the PMP exam, yet many students still focus almost entirely on the PMBOK Guide. In this episode, Cornelius Fichtner explains why the PMP exam is not a test of the PMBOK Guide and why the ECO serves as the real syllabus behind the certification exam. He walks through how PMI develops exam questions, how volunteers create and review questions based on the ECO, and how reference materials such as the PMBOK Guide support the process without directly defining the exam itself. Along the way, Cornelius breaks down the structure of the ECO into domains, tasks, and enablers, helping PMP candidates understand what PMI expects modern project managers to know in predictive, adaptive, and hybrid environments. He also explains why concepts such as value delivery, sustainability, compliance, and artificial intelligence now appear in the latest version of the exam. The discussion includes a practical walkthrough of the People, Process, and Business Environment domains, how exam percentages are distributed, and why PMI periodically updates the exam based on real-world project management practices.

Play audio-only episode | Play on YouTube | Play on Spotify Episode Summary Project managers often joke that their projects feel like a movie. In this conversation, that idea becomes the central theme as Cornelius Fichtner welcomes Dawn Mahan and Jerry Manas to discuss their book Projectland Goes to the Movies. Together, they examine how famous films reflect real project management challenges involving leadership, teamwork, risk, stakeholder management, planning, and adaptation under pressure. From Apollo 13 and The Martian to Jurassic Park, Twelve Angry Men, and Ocean’s Eleven, the discussion highlights how storytelling creates memorable examples of project leadership in action. The guests explain why movies resonate so strongly with project managers, how fictional situations often mirror real workplace dynamics, and why stories stick with people more effectively than abstract theory. The conversation also connects several examples back to practical project management concepts such as servant leadership, agile adaptation, collaborative problem-solving, stakeholder influence, and the importance of remaining calm during uncertainty.