n
3cabf838c7a1badebd2b2f9da4844558.m4a
00:00:00,000 I won my biggest first as an independent consultant. My biggest first
client was Southern California Edison. And I worked with them after I became the risk guy.
00:00:12,120 So I did a lot of time in the utility industries. And it’s kind of interesting 00:00:20,320 because this is what happens in project management. 00:00:32,280
00:00:39,000 Somebody finds it and goes, “Oh, we need that.” Kind of like, and this is 00:00:45,560 a surprise to you how? But they do.
00:00:53,000
00:01:01,260 And invariably it was like first big clients were utilities and everything 00:01:18,920 was utilities. Oh my gosh, I couldn’t get you know, 00:01:27,280
00:01:41,640 Florida power and light, Austin power and light, everybody power and 00:01:52,000 light. And I had a lot of utility customers.
00:02:03,120
And then I went to one particular industry and they said, “Oh, we’re looking at your background, you’re all utilities.”
And I said, “No, I’m all project management.” And they said, “Yeah, but we don’t know that you can help us.” (upbeat music)
– Hi and welcome to the Sunday Lunch Project Manager podcast for Sunday the 27th, almost 20, 23. This is your host, Nigel Creese.
And I’m still on my summer break from the podcast. And I have a reason. The wonderful Karl Pritchard, the risk guy, so enjoy.
(upbeat music) Just a quick shout out. Another way that I found that you could support
the show, the lessons, info in the show notes, is that it’s the British
podcast awards this year for the 14 cuts off on the 5th of September,
or what they call the People’s Trace. I have no delusions that I’m not winning, but being approaching for maybe getting all the less set
on all the extra spare spare spare spare spare, means the
discoverability for the podcast would be improved, which is always the battle we’re getting the show out to people.
00:02:14,160 So if you’re inclined to vote for me and actually you’d probably vote for
00:02:23,600 others as well, I personally voted for the social distance sports bar, 00:02:37,080
podcasts I really enjoy. If you go along to British Pods 2023, for all my website, so NigelCreaser.com/BritishPods2023,
and then that’ll be directed to the right page, search for me, the Sunday
Lunch Project Manager, pop up, click on that and then cast your votes
00:02:46,160 and you verify things like that. And then you can vote for other ones as
well, if you want. So if you do that, I’d be very grateful and tell you friends.
00:02:54,440 Cheers then. So I have a number of responses, affiliate links, in the 00:03:14,560 way that it’s set up,
00:03:25,640
00:03:38,200 that have kindly allowed me to share their services really. The first one 00:03:49,880 is my clean,
and Mike runs on my PM courses. And it is a great resource for getting those fundamentals of project management trained,
reasonably priced, and Mike presents it in an accessible and clear manner. You can check out some of his videos on his YouTube channel
and kind of give you a view of where they are. But the code for that, if you go to NigelCreaser.com/OnlinePMCourse is all one with a lot of case, that’ll be directed to it.
00:04:04,880 There’s very different levels that you can buy and can buy individual
courses, you can buy pathways, or I’d be like, and I get a kickback off those.
00:04:16,880 Mike kindly shares me that. So if you do jump on and use it, I hope you 00:04:24,080 find it really useful.
00:04:30,040
00:04:41,860 I think he has a lot of that going to you, and things like that as well. So 00:04:49,800 there’s a throw-in in the ticker risk on that. 00:04:56,200
00:05:04,640 So jump on that, and that again, it’s
00:05:12,240 NigelCreaser.com/OnlinePMCourse is a good job. (upbeat music) 00:05:19,200
I’d like to welcome Karl Pritchard onto the Sunday Lunch Project podcast today. Karl is the principal and founder
of Pritchard Management Associates. As a lecturer, he’s considered a leading authority on risk and communication management
and presents on a variety of management topics from project essentials to the complexities of network, diagramming and team motivation.
He’s worked as an instructor around the world, training some leading
international organizations, as well as private clients and the PMI.
He’s the US correspondent for the UK Project Management Junal, Project Manager today. And Karl’s recorded numerous presentations
for international conferences on DVD and developed online training for PMI as well. He serves as a boarder, on the boarder directors 00:05:26,600 for projectconnections.com and presents podcasts for them. And
recently recorded extensive audio training program, the portable PMP prep with Bruce Falk.
00:05:36,440 And he served as a semi-final judge on the PMI’s annual project of the 00:05:43,480 year competition and the Federal Highways Administration
as a judge for there by annual project competition. He regularly consults and coaches on project management, presentation skills, e-learning, course development
00:05:51,640 and with a variety of organization and he holds BA from the Ohio State 00:05:59,600 University. And is a project management professional 00:06:05,760
as certified by the PMI. He’s authored several texts, including risk management, concepts and guidance.
The Project Management Communications Toolkit, the Risk Management Memory Jogger, Project Management Lessons from the Field.
00:06:12,760 He is a dynamic and entertaining and fun keynote’s presenter, speaker and trainer. And some quotes from people who have met Karl all worked
00:06:23,000 with Karl. Karl is by far one of the best corporate educators I’ve 00:06:30,560 experienced as a project manager from Gripish Snyder. 00:06:40,000
A true project management hero and with a degree in comedy psychology, a project manager from TSYS. And with over–
That’s my favorite by the way, that’s excellent. With over 2,900 of his
students passing the PMP certification, if you’re interested, you could be next.
00:06:49,440 And having stalked Karl’s LinkedIn profile, I also found that in a 00:06:59,080 previous life he’s a news director, which is fascinating me. 00:07:07,440
00:07:16,760 So I think we’ll probably get on to that at some point, no doubt. So Karl, it’s a pleasure to have you on. Welcome to the show.
Wow, thanks. And yeah, I feel like I’m going to bury myself under the weight of my own introduction.
Yeah, it’s a great introduction and looking back over you. And to be
honest, there was more I could have put in, but I’ll be spending more time talking about your introduction
00:07:27,920 if I’m not careful than talking to you. So as you know, I’ve sent you a bunch of questions. I’m going to rattle through.
00:07:34,240 And we can have a chat about you, your life and project management,
and what makes you tick. So kicking off at the beginning, the birth of Karl Pritchard.
00:07:47,200 Where was that? That was Columbia– actually, born and sale of Ohio, 00:07:55,160 but I’m from Columbia, and Ohio.
00:08:04,600
00:08:10,160 And the reason you’ve never heard of Columbia, and Ohio, is it is a little 00:08:16,520 map dot? It is a little place nobody’s ever heard of. 00:08:23,160
00:08:27,960 And I was funny, because I– I always tell people people they go, where 00:08:33,360 are you from? Columbia, and Ohio.
00:08:41,160
00:08:48,120 Oh, Columbus. And it’s like, no. Columbia, and it’s a little map dot, where–
my father’s biggest disaster in his life was when he called me up, and I was living in Maine at the time.
But dad called up, and he said, it’s over. Towns gone to hell. And I said, dad, what’s wrong?
And he goes, no, no, it’s over now. And I said, what happened? Two things happened in the same month.
And I said, what? He said, one, they put in another traffic signal, two. They opened them McDonald’s.
And to him, that was the end of life, as we knew it, in Columbia, though. Yeah, I can get the time I’m from–
I’m not sure, size is different, but I’ve got some friends who’ve come
from Manchester, the city of Manchester in the UK, living around the area.
00:08:54,880 And we talk about the fact of where you’re meeting and say, by the
traffic lights, because when I grew up, there was only one set of traffic 00:09:02,360
00:09:04,600 lights in the whole town. And– There you go.
Or by the roundabout. And there was only ever one roundabout when I 00:09:12,240 was growing up. And if I say to someone who grew up in the area,
00:09:18,480 I’ll meet you by the roundabout. They’d know exactly where I’m in. Anyone who’s new to the area in the last 20 years 00:09:27,080
00:09:29,640 have absolutely been looking at me dumbstruck. Life. Of course, there are like 20 roundabouts, which one do you mean?
Yeah, exactly. Vob one. Yeah.
V. Yeah. We had a pelican crossing us, a button, crosswalk,
00:09:35,160 and it was kind of like the same sort of thing. When that arrived, it was fascinating. It’s over.
00:09:40,160
Yeah. So you were born in Salem, Ohio. And is that the famous Salem 00:09:48,160 from Stephen King?
00:09:50,120
Or is that the Dixia? No, no. No, no.
00:09:59,320 Salem– There is, as a matter of fact, interesting factoid about Salem, their, the most popular city name in the United States 00:10:06,120
00:10:10,320 is Springfield. The second most popular city name in the United States 00:10:13,840 is Salem. Oh, why?
00:10:16,680
Almost every state has a Salem. Oh, why? I did not know that. 00:10:22,200 Yeah. See, I’ve learned something this evening. All right. 00:10:26,240 Valuable data. Yeah. Hopefully I’ll get it on her.
Who wants to be a millionaire quiz or something on her? So where are 00:10:34,520 you living now? You still in the same area?
00:10:41,840 Or have you moved away? No. We moved big time.
As you mentioned earlier, I was in radio. So in radio, you just jump from 00:10:51,320 town to town. And I lived in Maine for a while.
00:11:01,600 And now I have permanently settled outside Washington, DC, in Frederick, Maryland. Mm-hmm.
00:11:10,640
00:11:15,320 So it’s kind of a nice place. It’s grown a lot. We moved here temporarily 35 years ago.
00:11:20,880
And now it’s just me and my wife. And we are basically denizens of this 00:11:29,600 place. And we’re the locals.
00:11:39,480 Whereas the newcomers are all new. We’ve actually qualified now as
locals after 35 years. In some places that can take a while, can’t it? 00:11:49,400
00:11:56,640 Yeah, I can take in generation. Yeah, yeah. Or two.
So you mentioned your wife there? Any family? Yeah, I have my lovely wife, Nancy.
A goddess to be worshipped. I have two sons, Adam and James. And you couldn’t pick two boys or more opposite.
My eldest son is a– he’s the curator at the Virginia Museum of Natural History. He’s a paleontologist.
And he runs a dig once a year out in Ghost Ranch, New Mexico. But that’s his gig. And my youngest son is an 18-wheeler truck driver.
Why? So one end of the spectrum to the other. Both fascinating jobs. Yeah. I’m assuming you imagine. That I stick his both paying jobs. 00:12:01,960 Yeah. That’s good. Yeah.
00:12:04,720
And it’s funny when you just sit about Frederick, Maryland. And all from
my point of view, over here across the pond, it’s all very romantic, standing places.
00:12:16,160 And driving an 18-wheeler truck across America, it’s kind of one of 00:12:24,360 those big iconic kind of things that you see on the TV. 00:12:30,840
00:12:36,840 Oh, it is. And the thing is, it’s funny. Because when he started driving 00:12:42,840 truck, one of the first–
00:12:49,080
00:12:56,760 and mom and I were both like, can we come see? [LAUGHTER] Yeah. 00:12:58,760 And it reminds me of smoking in the bandit straight away with 00:13:09,000 something like that. Exactly.
Except he’s the kid who’s never had an accident, never gotten a ticket. So that’s good.
So as you say, you were in Salem, you kind of– did you grow up in Columbia, Alabama? Indiana?
Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah.
And the same– actually, I didn’t even have a name until I went off to college. And the reason I say that is because I grew up–
my father was the only doctor in this one horse town. And so I grew
up– oh, you’re a docks boy. And so I spent my entire youth as docks boy.
00:13:20,360 I had no name. And did get a name until I went to Ohio State. So when 00:13:28,200 was that that you were around if it’s not a two-in-indelicate 00:13:36,160
00:13:46,480 question to say? No, I was born raised. I got out of Columbia, Indiana in 00:13:49,960 1975,
00:14:02,520
00:14:12,200 moved off to Columbus and went to OSU until 1979, and never looked 00:14:19,640 back. So– so when–
what did you study at? That’s University of our colleges. I was a journalist.
I was a journalist major. My whole vision was what I wanted to do before I died. I wanted to someday be a news director at a top 10
station in a top 10 market. And the weird thing for me was in hopping around job to job and everything else, I actually
accomplished that goal by the time I was 26 years old. Wow. Just kind of like well crap.
One we’re going to do now. I peaked too early. And we’re done here.
00:14:24,720 So– Were you just setting your goals too low then, we– I guess I was. 00:14:28,800 And you should have been looking at the top news director in the country. Well, and I found out, too, the interesting thing 00:14:34,880
that I discovered about radio was that it doesn’t pay anything. That was 00:14:44,560 the other– the other side of the dark side of radio
00:14:50,520 was that you make no money at it. So I was forever moonlighting and 00:14:55,480 trying to pick up extra cash.
00:14:58,760
And that’s how I landed in project management. All right. Yeah, I was– Yeah, tell me about that. How did you– that that– that endearing question for people of a certain age in project management and I’m one of those is that you get people now and I’ve had the conversation
00:15:06,720 and a couple other guys is that you get people arriving out of university 00:15:13,840 with a project management degree. I know.
00:15:17,880
00:15:23,120 Planning to be a project manager. How crazy is that? Yeah, whereas 00:15:29,240 when I–
00:15:33,840
00:15:41,160 when I was coming out of college in school, it was– I’d never heard of a 00:15:50,080 project manager. I didn’t know what they did.
00:16:02,400
I may have had a vague recollection that maybe they built bridges or houses or something like that, but very, very–
and so tumbled into project management. That’s, I think, a lot of people do. So–
Yeah. So how did you end up PM in then? I am– I am proof that it is the accidental profession
and because I had no designs on it, I got hired by one of the big telecoms and what I was doing to Moonlight while I was still
running the news department in DC was I was writing anything anybody would hire me to write. And I got hired by one big utility company
to write a bunch of video scripts on contract management. And I did it through a consulting firm. And they came back and they really liked them because, well,
00:16:13,660 golly, they gave me all this data, and I’m a decent writer. Thank you.
00:16:16,960 Doug. Well, then this one big telecom firm read about that work through the consulting firm I was working
00:16:27,720
with part time. And they said, oh. We need somebody to write a white paper for one of our executives.
00:16:37,200 And I said, yeah, I can write a white paper. Then I have the phone and said, what’s a white paper? So I went ahead and met with this executive.
00:16:46,240 And I sat down with him and I said, what do you want the paper to be 00:16:53,920 about? And he said, I’d like it to be about 40 pages. 00:17:00,280
00:17:09,200 And I said, no, I’m sorry. I phrased the question. What do you want it to be about about?
And he said, oh, I want it to be about– issues and concerns in project
management in our organization. And I said, great, do you have data?
And he said, no, I have no data. And I said, well, how am I supposed to
get data to write this? And he said, here’s a list of 35 of our project managers.
00:17:17,600 Interview as many of them as you can, put together the data, compile it, make me look really, really smart. And that’s what I want my white paper to be about.
00:17:27,960 So I was his ghost. I was a ghost writer. And I wrote this beautiful 40 00:17:35,040 page white paper, just
00:17:40,400
00:17:46,520 left him misty eyed and weepy. And I picked up a rather substantial paycheck for it, and that was that.
And I was sure I was just done. It was one more gig under my belt. Well, it was about six months later,
or six weeks later, rather, that they called back. And they said, hey, we need you to do another gig for that company. And I said, they need another white paper?
00:17:55,600 No, no, they want you to come in and do some consulting work. And I said, I’m sorry, consulting work on what? They said project management.
00:18:04,800 And I said, no, no, no, no, you don’t understand. I’m a writer. I’m a really 00:18:10,600 good writer.
I’m good at gathering data and spilling it back out. But I have no idea about anything on project management. And then he said, well, you don’t talk to the guy.
00:18:20,200 And so I’m talking to the guy. And he said, you know, you’re perfect for 00:18:25,280 this. And I’m like, I don’t know squat.
And he said, it doesn’t matter. We’ll put you through our training program. And I said, still.
00:18:28,880 I said, I’m the wrong guy to be giving you advice on how to run your project management. And he goes, no, you’re the perfect guy. And I said, no, no, no, I’m the wrong guy.
00:18:37,800 And he said, and then I caught myself and went, wait, wait, what is this pay? And you know, I’m a 20 something just basically make it barely make an ends meet. And he said, here’s what we’ll do.
00:18:56,160 And so I was working at WASHFM in DC from 4 a.m. to noon. So I was
on morning drive. And then I would get off the air and I would go down to this utilities, this telecoms,
00:19:09,560 federal center in DC and work there from one till seven. They put me 00:19:17,400 through all the training. They did everything else.
So I was burning the candle at both ends for almost two years. But over that time, I was actually learning to be a project manager. And
ultimately it came down to, I had to make a choice because I was just fried.
00:19:33,000 And I, here I am. Oh wow. So that’s how you go into P.M. 00:19:40,240
Yeah, that’s kind of the, the not so short version. And in some ways, there’s a few people who’ve gone to wipe being how much? Oh, exactly.
00:19:51,440 It’s always a pertinent question, isn’t it? So you mentioned that you did 00:19:58,960 the telecoms and obviously the news industry that you worked in. 00:20:09,280
00:20:19,320 Other industries of you, of you work in. And, yeah. And I, one of my, my biggest first as an independent consultant, my biggest first client
was Southern California Edison. And I worked with them after I became the risk guy. So I did a lot of time in the utility industries.
And it’s kind of interesting because this is what happens in project management. Everybody finds it and goes, oh, we need that. And it’s kind of like, and this is a surprise to you how?
00:20:34,280 But they do, and variably it was like first, first big clients were utilities 00:20:41,800 and everything was utilities. Oh my gosh.
00:20:49,120
I couldn’t get, if you know Florida power and later Austin power and
light, everybody power and light. And I had a lot of utility customers.
And then I went to one particular industry and they said, oh, we’re
looking at your background, you’re all utilities. And I said, no, I’m all project management.
00:20:58,520 And they said, yeah, but we don’t know that you can help us. And that
was a financial services firm bank. And then they decided to take a flyer on the utility guy.
00:21:12,480 And I became the financial guy. And I worked with this bank and that
bank and this, you know, this insurance company, which also, well, I know you’re a bank person.
00:21:22,280 And I will try out in the insurance industry. And that’s the way it’s all gone. And this is the thing that’s kind of intriguing is in project management, a company, somebody
00:21:32,480 in a company, and it won’t be the whole company. It’ll be some one poor
soul will figure out that project management has merit and devalue. And they’ll go back and say, we should be doing project management.
00:21:43,200 I really go, oh, that’s new. It’s like it’s not new. It’s a zillion years old, 00:21:50,920 please.
Yeah, I’ve heard it described and then a podcast. I listen to a guy manager tools.com fantastic podcast. And they have a general management tool techniques and they have worn on project management and
00:22:06,240 they kind of boiling it down to the point of when you’ve got projects 00:22:13,560 being run as a normal manager. And he said, who does what by when? 00:22:22,520
He’s fundamentally, that’s what it is. And then what’s going to stop who is doing what by when? And try and stop them things happening.
You get some more devil in the detail, but it’s as you say, so someone’s
going to build a bridge in the Roman times. Well, he’s going to do what by when?
00:22:31,320 That’s that’s it, isn’t it? And we didn’t always have the right title, you know, some of them it was just your majesty, you know, but there’s always been somebody in charge and somebody trying to make sure
00:22:45,000 things don’t go off the rails. Yeah. Wow.
00:22:50,160
So you say working in those industries. So what was that? Was that
sort of hard or a type thing software or was it what kind of sort of product specialist
00:22:59,920 or was it varied with you in those industries? Almost everybody who
has hired me has hired me to do some kind of analysis initially. And then that last for about a month.
00:23:13,880 And then they go, oh, you know what? You’re kind of a funny guy. Do you ever train this stuff?
00:23:21,680
And I wind up being that in a house trainer. Oh, wow. That’s my blog in 00:23:26,760 life.
00:23:30,960
00:23:36,400 And I love it. I do. I think training is so much fun. 00:23:40,400 Yeah. And you can make a lot of influence from that, honey. Yeah. You make a lot of difference in each culture. Yeah. Yeah. 00:23:48,280 That’s true. So you mentioned your telecoms company where you were strong armed into project management into that company.
So I’m assuming that that was where your first project that you remembered would have remembered would have been. What was that project?
00:23:55,360 Actually, it goes back to it was a writing project. It was to develop their 00:24:07,680 19 volume project management methodology. Right.
Actually, to craft that. So that was my first big, big thing that I was doing. And it’s funny because this is back in the dark ages when computers were not as advanced
00:24:21,960 as they are now. And this is also then what led to they wanted their curriculum to be e-learning. And nobody had done e-learning at that point.
00:24:35,000 E-learning was not cool at that point. So they wanted it all rendered as
e-learning. And we were the ones basically in the early 90s pioneering the notion of, okay, how do
00:24:48,360 you actually make it e-learning and still make it full contact? And that was my big job initially for them. And then ultimately we built the e-learning infrastructure for the George Washington University.
00:25:01,600 Oh wow. Yeah, which was kind of cool. And it actually sounds like I had 00:25:08,720 a pain gig in the job and everything.
Well, a lot of times it sounds like I just do whatever comes around the corner, you know, which I do. But well, sometimes that’s the best approach, isn’t it?
00:25:19,760 Yeah, that’s our official corporate motto is anything for a buck. Yeah, it’s
the thing is as you, I think our conversation on LinkedIn when getting you on to it, you say it sounds like fun.
00:25:31,800 Let’s do it. And it’s kind of a good attitude to have this stuff, isn’t it? Heaps me off the streets and out of trouble.
00:25:39,200 I’m wondering, I haven’t talked to you for a little bit, whether keeping 00:25:45,480 you out of trouble is actually true. I’m the good days.
I get the occasional piece of hate mail, but aside from that, it’s good.
Good, excellent. So moving on from that, what was the largest project that you’ve run to date, been involved
00:26:00,120 with? And what did you learn? That would be the GW project that would 00:26:05,240 be putting together there.
00:26:16,240
E-learning infrastructure. And I learned that, and actually it’s kind of funny, I learned it, and then I had to relearn it.
The whole notion is just assume you’re right. That’s the biggest lesson learned I came out of the whole thing with is people will tell you invariably that you’re wrong.
00:26:28,320 They’ll say, oh, no, no, no, that’s not the way it’s really done properly.
It’s like, oh, thank you for sharing. I appreciate that, but I’m going ahead the way I was thought I was going ahead.
00:26:39,880 Every time I made the mistake of giving serious time, effort, and energy into somebody else’s approach after we had already established an
approach and a goal and an objective and a charter and all the other stuff of project management, every time people would say, no,
00:26:57,360 no, no, we need to back away from that and try something different.
That’s where I got burned, every single, blessed time. And historically
when I have had a plan and stuck to the plan, didn’t always work out exactly
00:27:11,200 as intended, but we always got to the end of game. Did you find yourself with the ones when you’ve gone off piece that your gut was telling you to stay there, but you went against your gut?
00:27:21,960 Yes. Yeah. You know that feeling.
00:27:24,960
Yeah. Trusting you got sometimes is the right thing, isn’t it? No, and I 00:27:36,040 would actually say it almost always is the right thing.
So that leads on and I wonder whether it’s related to these. What would you call your biggest screw up and again, what did you learn there? Actually my biggest screw up was not in project management.
00:27:48,800 My biggest screw up was in radio. I’ve had every job known to
humankind. Pretty much picked the job and I can tell you, oh yeah, I did that for a bartender in there,
00:28:02,800 dishwasher, in there, cook, in there, but I was in radio up in Maine. And this is back in the early 80s when Ronald Reagan, president Reagan, fired all the air traffic controllers in the United States.
00:28:18,920 He fired them all because they went on strike. And he said, fine, don’t 00:28:27,000 bother coming back to work. He fired all of them.
There were suddenly 3,000 very high paying jobs that were up for grabs
in the US. 3,000 of the best government jobs you could ever land. And so I did a report on it.
00:28:40,440 I did a series on how do you become an air traffic controller? And I did
this on the air over a period of several months and it was like, say, say, been eight in becoming an air traffic controller.
00:28:53,840 But I did this and the weirdo thing that happened was at the very end of
this whole series, I got hired as an air traffic controller. And you see how well that worked out.
00:29:06,560 I got hired as an air traffic controller. And so you went through the whole process then? Oh, yeah.
00:29:13,680
00:29:16,680 Actually, actually did. Oh, right. Oh, yeah.
And the scream was I was sitting at the medical exam with a couple
other people and they said, oh, yeah, boy, amazing. We made it this far, hungry, passed the exam.
00:29:24,960 And I said, yeah, we passed the exam. And they said, how’d you do on the exam? The one guy goes, I got a 78.
00:29:30,560
00:29:34,280 Wow, you got a 78. That’s a tough exam. That’s a really good score. And I’m thinking, oh, crap. Because they came around to me and they 00:29:39,920 said, how’d you do? And I said, got a 93.
00:29:45,560
They go 93. Nobody gets a 93. How long did you study?
00:29:54,520 Did you study what? I just took it on a, you know, I took it on a lark. I didn’t even study anything.
It was a logic exam, so anyhow. But I flew through the exam, got hired
as an air traffic controller. And I went into my boss and this is my big lesson learned, biggest screw up of my entire life
00:30:07,880 that turned out happy. But I went into my boss at the radio station. I 00:30:15,800 said, can you match these salary numbers?
And he laughed at me and he said, who’s ever going to pay you that
much? I said. He’ll say I’m and I thumb my nose at him and I said, turn, I am so out of here and I blew
00:30:27,160 him off and I burned a bridge. And the day before I was supposed to fly out to the academy for training and I moved back to Ohio in with my
stepmother and my father for just a couple of weeks, got the note, a
00:30:45,000 telegram, do not report to the academy for training. You have been 00:30:55,360 medically disqualified. My eyes were too bad.
And so I had burned a bridge with my last boss. I had done everything wrong. And if you’re looking for the biggest screw up, that was it because I was unemployed for months.
00:31:05,160 It was a matter of struggling trying to find a job without any reference for
00:31:14,360 my previous employer. And it was just pretty darn stupid on my part.
Now the good news is I got hired at this little po-dog radio station in Western Maryland. I met the woman of my dreams. I married her and we moved off to Frederick.
00:31:25,960 So it has a happy ending but jeez. You know, it’s like if you’re ever
thinking your boss is a moron, he’s a chimpanzee. He should be taken out and shot.
00:31:39,040 He’ll warmly at him and keep your mouth shut. That would be my 00:31:51,960 biggest screw up. That’s really interesting.
Yeah. So kind of moving on from those sort of things, moving into your,
a little bit more of a positive spin of stuff and your project delivery side of it.
00:32:02,880 What would you say is your proudest delivery from a project point of
view? You see that George Washington University, well, that’s tied to it.
But ultimately the company I was working for at the time, we were doing so well in the
00:32:20,840 e-learning side of the house that for one, I became their vice president
of e-learning. And this isn’t like a bank where every third person is a
vice president. I became the VP of e-learning and the other beauty of it was they actually took the company.
00:32:36,880 I was the part of the company that I was running and spun it off and
made it its own company. Wow. Yeah, which I, to me, that was like, you have arrived.
00:32:48,840 You have actually been able to take something out of whole cloth, build
it, and then have them spin it off and turn it into its own company. So that was cool.
00:32:57,760 That’s pretty. Then they hired a guy from South Africa to run it. Well, 00:33:08,240 things changed, don’t they?
So rather than thinking about not so much the project, delivery themselves, what is your proudest moment that’s kind of work, work
moment, I suppose, in the focus, but not necessarily, but your proudest
project achievement that isn’t necessarily the delivery itself and the
00:33:26,680 project itself. Yeah, and actually this goes to people. It’s a function of
00:33:42,480 the true joys in my life stemmed from and it’s one of the reasons I 00:33:49,880
have been a trainer for over 20 years. It’s because I love the feedback. I really do.
And it’s not the, hey, you know, you’re kind of a funny guy. It’s not that
feedback, although I do like that. The feedback that I really genuinely enjoy is when some, I’ll run into somebody and look
00:34:01,320 up, I know you don’t remember me, but I want you to know you changed my life. And when somebody says that to me, I swear I could
break into tears just because it’s so enriching, it’s so fulfilling.
00:34:18,880 Yeah, helping other people is a great, yeah, great. It’s a rush. Yeah, 00:34:28,800 brilliant.
00:34:36,600
00:34:49,880 So obviously one of my questions is why did you start writing and
00:34:55,080 blogging while you were destined to write anyway, weren’t you? Yeah. 00:35:02,120
But blog kind of flows off the back of that. And you’re looking at the
different things that I’ve got kind of a bit of a contentious question here.
Okay. So certification. Yeah.
How many project management certifications do you have? Why have you got them and which one is best? I have, I have two.
I had three and I let one lapse. I have the PMP. I have the PMI RMP,
which is the risk management professional, which is what I, frankly, most
00:35:14,920 people know me as the risk guy. Yeah. You know, over in the UK, you’ve 00:35:21,920 got David Hilsen who’s the risk doctor.
00:35:27,640
Yeah. I’m the risk guy. So that kind of makes the distinction between the two of us.
But I, and I had the EVP, the earned value professional. That’s the one I
let lapse. But of the three, which do I think is the most valuable, the PMP?
00:35:40,280 Yeah. And the reason is just because it’s a ticket to be punched. It’s one
of those things that you go into a company and they’ll say, oh, are you a PMP?
00:35:50,880 It’s like, oh, yes, of course I am. Now, because of the company, I run
it’s, it’s, are you also a registered education provider, which is the other big question that answers always?
00:36:02,480 Yes. But which one do I think carries the most clout, the most weight 00:36:10,480 and actually gets people to go, okay, there tickets punched. 00:36:19,800
00:36:25,440 It’s the PMP. It’s not because I feel like it makes me better as a 00:36:37,600 manager, necessarily. But I do talk the talk.
00:36:44,480
00:36:57,640 And as long as I can talk that particular language, I’m in pretty good 00:37:05,840 shape. Yeah, cool. Yeah.
So, what was the last project podcast you listened to? Wow. And the answer can be, I’ve never listened to any.
Oh, no, no. I actually, yeah. But the last one I listened to was me.
That’s the really sad part. ITMPI.org, the IT Metrics and Productivity Institute. They do just a mountain of podcasts.
They have a library that is just staggeringly deep. And that was the last one I would listen to. Cool.
And the last project management related blog that you read. Last blog I
read. That was probably, oh, geez, and I’m going to screw up his first name.
00:37:18,360 This theme is Zucker and not Zuckerberg, but Zucker. Alan Zucker. 00:37:26,320 There you go.
But Alan’s was the last one that I read. And I frankly try to dive into
those on a pretty regular basis. And largely because I think it’s a matter of, I’ll read through them and go, knew that, knew
00:37:42,000 that, okay, fine. That’s good. But every now and then I’ll go, knew that, 00:37:47,000 knew that.
What a sweet take. And somebody will have found a new angle on something that I’m already doing or something that I already had a sense of, but the new angle is just that.
00:37:57,600 It’s a new angle. Yeah. And some of those things, it’s a new way of, I 00:38:05,320 find a new way that you could describe the
thing to someone else as well, which I find really useful on some of the blogs I’ve looked at. Yeah.
00:38:11,680 And by the way, I’ve got a, let me, let me give a pointer just so that
people can think I actually added some modicum of value here. That is,
if you’re, if somebody ever calls you with a really complicated question, this
00:38:24,960 is a cheap consulting trick. If somebody ever calls you, they got a really 00:38:32,640 complicated question. Here’s what I want you to do. 00:38:43,480
You go, wow, it is so funny that you ask me that. That is, you know,
what’s, what’s kind of interesting? I was just working up a blog on that.
And if you don’t mind wait until two days from now, I’ll have the blog
done and I would love for you to be the first person to give it a look and tell me whether or not I’m making any sense.
00:38:54,560 Now, this accomplishes a mountain of stuff because for one, it says to
the person who’s asking you this really annoying, complicated question, hey, I’m on the save way of length. We are simpatico.
00:39:07,280 It is perfect. So I’m so glad you asked that for two. I’m already a step
00:39:16,040 ahead of you in that I’m writing a blog about this, which you aren’t, 00:39:30,280
but that doesn’t matter. And then you’ve got two days to come up with a
very thoughtful, cogent, well considered response in 800 words or less.
And it’s a win, win, win. Everybody comes out further ahead and to
boot, it builds your relationship at the same time as you’re writing another blog.
00:39:38,560 Fantastic, fantastic tip. So yeah, I can see how that would work. I think 00:39:50,360 the key thing there is make sure you do write the damn blog.
Yeah, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, it won’t be pretty. Well, I’ve got two final questions.
00:40:00,440 The first one is what is the one single nugget top tip that you would give to a PM who’s been in this industry 10, 20, 30 years that you think people miss? What would, what would that one thing be?
00:40:18,200 Even though they’re successful as a PM, they can be, you can be very
successful, but they could be more successful. Yeah, let somebody else do it.
00:40:27,760 We are by our very nature. And if you look at McClellan and his perception on the three needs, the need for power, the need for achievement, and the need for affiliation.
00:40:37,680 Tech managers are the high need to achieve people. As such, we want
to do everything. We want to have our fingers in every flip and pie that’s out there.
00:40:49,240 And nothing could be worse for you. If you really want to improve your 00:40:59,400 career, allow other people to take the reins now and again.
And it’s so hard because you’re so much better at it than they are. But the reality is, if you don’t give them a chance to make some of the mistakes you’ve made and do some of the things you’ve done, then they’re never going to be as good as you
00:41:13,000 are. And you need them to be as good as you are so they can come back someday and say, wow, Nigel made me amazing. 00:41:20,240
00:41:24,440 You know, you want that behind you. Yeah. I know. 00:41:27,440
Yeah, I can see you saying that. That’s a really good tip. Brilliant.
Last question. You have a chance to go back to see your younger self
on that first day in project management in that genesis of the career that you’ve built up.
00:41:42,640 What would you tell? What would you say to yourself? At first I would 00:41:49,040 tell myself, hey, I want you to know something.
It all works out. No, that’s what because I was I was and it’s funny. I’ve
seen a lot of a lot of younger people, some of my son’s friends who are millennials
00:42:00,440 and and you wish could just tell them, you know what, relax and enjoy
the ride because and that’s what I really would. I’d go back and tell
myself, don’t be so flip and nervous, just relax and enjoy it because
00:42:15,200 when this is all when you’re 20 years, 30 years down the road, you’re
going to be rocking. Everything’s going to be going just fine. You’re
going to be really genuinely happy and satisfied with the person who looks back
00:42:28,000 at you in the mirror and that’s just a wonderful place to be. Yeah. That’s 00:42:35,120 great.
00:42:43,200
So thank you, Carl. That’s been a enlightening and entertaining chat. Oh, thank you.
If people want to find out more about Carl, maybe look at all the books. What’s the best way, social media connection, etc. website? So what ever to get hold of you?
00:42:51,120 I’m on LinkedIn. It’s Pritchard spelled the right way with a T in it. I don’t 00:42:59,440 know.
It’d be surprised how many people just leave the T. But it’s Carl at
CarlPitchard.com. And frankly, here’s the thing. If you can’t figure any of it out, if you just get CarlPitchard.com.
00:43:12,840 So if you send an email to Dumbo@carlpitchard.com, that still finds its
way to my mailbox. I get all the defaults mistake mail that comes into our servers. So it’s just Carl with a C in it’s CarlPitchard.com.
00:43:29,640 And if anybody does chase me down just an FYI, I will always get back
to you within 24 hours. And if you don’t hear back from me in 24 hours,
one of two things has happened. The most likely, I’m in your spam box.
00:43:48,120 You never got back to me, Carl, and I’ll say, “Check your spam box.” And sure enough, oh, I found it. Yeah, you emailed me three months ago and I told you 24 hours.
00:43:57,760 How hard is this? Yeah. 24 hours.
00:44:01,160 I will always get back to you within 24 hours. Brilliant. Well again, thank 00:44:06,440 you very much, Carl.
00:44:12,040
00:44:18,120 Anything else you want to say? I just want to say thank you. Nigel, this 00:44:31,040 is nothing but a good time.
Brilliant. And on that note, I’ll wrap this up. Thank you very much, Carl, and have a fantastic day.
Do you like what? Cheers mate. Another great sponsor of the show, he comes in form of M-annual.
M-annual is a, well, it’s a tool for documenting process, which, and best
practices, it’s, well, it’s a company formed by, like one of my interviews,
Alexis Kingbrough, essentially, and I kind of summarised why my view of fantasy
00:44:52,120 documentation, a lot of my experience, has been people will document
something, a process that put it in a, of his eardone, that gets lowly
down to a share of the inside, or something similar, and then a bunch of different products.
00:45:02,120 So then, once that diagram has been shared with senior management,
they’re happy, they have a process, but then the detailed procedures
underneath it might be with documents, just poorly kept, and not linked easily, and not updated.
00:45:17,080 And what M-annual does, it allows you to put in a, it’s a tool for doing
this kind of thing. You whack it in, the service in, they’re getting there,
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00:45:32,320 where people check off of them, done it. So it creates that guided
checklists, easy to create, easy to maintain, not in one place, and no one’s kind of rooting around to find the share point, and then when
00:45:46,120 you change to new share points, services, and well that’s not, it’s all
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00:46:06,560 easily reduce the amount of errors rework, etc, in our organization, so,
um, get to go. I know you will have got a lot from that interview from
Carl, and I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day, cheers, bye.
00:46:35,720 So this is my final wrap up every week you’re going to hear this, you’re
going to get bored of it, but you can always click next podcast if so. If
you have enjoyed it, if you’ve listened to this podcast at the end of this show and you
00:47:02,520 think that was great, I’d love to be able to help Nigel out, there are loads of ways you can do it. The first and obvious way is to share the podcast, send it out to people.
00:47:16,520 If you know colleagues or friends who’ve benefit from it, think they’d
enjoy it, just send them the link, grab one of the links, send it all send
them to www.NigelCruser.com/podcasts, and that’ll push them over to a link tree link and it’s got all of the different ways they
00:47:38,840 can consume the podcast. If you are feeling generous and have a big bag of cash, you could grab a copy of one of my books, obviously, they’re available in all the usual places and print and digital.
00:47:57,440 Again, jump on the website www.NigelCruser.com/shop and that will
give you a list of all the different ways that you can contribute and grab
copies of the book. I also got links to all my guests, books on there as well where I get a little bit of a kickback
00:48:14,960 from them. If you are of a sporting mind, I have a number through doing some of my judo and running antics.
00:48:26,400 I’ve managed to sue a few affiliate links and affiliates there as well, so in there, somewhere in the sponsors page, there’s links to those as
well. Clicking on to those and grabbing your, if you’re looking to get super fit, then that would
00:48:44,640 be fabulous as well. I get a little kickback from those. I have a Patreon account, it’s patreon.com/sundaylunchPM, so again, you can ping something in there
00:48:58,200 by me a coffee or whatever. And finally, obviously, the most important is
coming back, listening again because the more of you that come back, the more visibility I get because there’s more times that you
00:49:14,080 download it and all the SEO works and things like that. If you can help
00:49:25,120 me out, I would be much appreciated. If you can, don’t worry about it. 00:49:43,640
Thank you very much, tschisne, bye. [music] My latest, the latest affiliate that I’ve got on the show now is Riverside.
I use Riverside to do my interviews, Riverside effort. It kind of offers you a whole, if you like, my cross studio management producer too and goes beyond that, has a really good free layup.
00:49:58,920 And I’m using it for a while now, I find it really good when I’ve had
issues, even though I’m one of the high paid levels, the support has been quick, responsive and high quality and people keen to help me.
00:50:13,280 The organisation is really good, the product seems really intuitive and
quality is really good as well. The clever way doing it is when you’re recording through your browsers, so you’ve not got
00:50:24,840 loads of desktop resources being used compared to some other
products that I’ve used. And what they also do is they stream a lower quality version of it up onto as you’re doing the interview.
00:50:38,400 And then you’re doing the interview and potentially imparting quality of
conversation. And then at the end, the upload, the higher quality from your browser, meaning it’s just a really good way to do it.
00:50:54,600 If you are thinking of doing a podcast, and you’re supposed to do a
podcast, I would recommend using this tool, I found it really good. Best of the tools I’ve tried using today.
00:51:06,240 You can get that nodulecreaser.com/arriversight and that will redirect
you to my kit back page on their site and there I will get a look back from there. So take a look, thanks.
00:51:23,240 Well it’s goodbye from me, nodulecreaser and it’s goodbye from him, 00:51:27,840 the Sunday lunch PM. Goodbye.
[MUSIC]