Each year PMI Phoenix Judges support the Future City competition to Arizona Schools by providing guidance and feedback to the teams. During the competition, each team is given four requirements to complete in advance of the project deadline to be eligible for the best project plan award. These requirements include creating Project Goals, Project Schedules, conducting Project Status Check-ins, and completing a Project Reflection.

This year, our volunteer judges at PMI Phoenix have determined that the award for the Best Project Plan is given to Team Antalya from Esmond Station. Team Antalya excelled at completing the foundational elements of defining their goals for the project, showing excellent skills in forecasting their objectives, assigning team roles, acquiring resources, and providing fantastic project assumptions and risks.

Schedules are a core component of any project. Team Antalya excelled in creating its project schedule by capturing tasks and critical milestones. The team also met weekly to conduct project status meetings, where they reviewed completed work and addressed the upcoming tasks. Keeping a rigid task list of their remaining work and working as a team, Team Antalya was able to meet their Milestones and complete their project on time. One essential item that set Team Antalya apart was its ability to adapt to changes in its project. After discovering their model dimensions were out of scale, the team had to redesign some aspects of their project plan to keep them on schedule and meet their milestones. Changes to the plan were discussed as a team and documented in the project plan. The team did a fantastic job coming together to complete their original goals.

For the second year in a row, the project was virtual which enables the judges to focus on the detailed materials while still being interactive and engaging. The Chapter Future Cities program offers a service that other chapters do not, feedback to the participants so they can develop their project management skills. The observations provided assist in better project outcomes.

Riley Sedam has worked for the government and spent ten years in the Navy. His mentors provided the insight to take a risk and that you have more to lose by not going for it. Riley currently works for Valley Wise Healthcare and his many projects have helped him identify that he could make a positive impact on the less fortunate, his community and to the patients.  Riley’s peers would describe me as “fun to work with, always willing to jump in and help since there is no I in team, organized and willing to mentor and share knowledge.”

 I spoke with Riley and asked him what inspired him he gives credit to his ten years in the Navy. “I was able to see the direct impact I could make for others. “He thrives on providing service to others, mentoring whenever he can. “Life keeps going on and when I think about my purpose, it motivates me. “Riley’s hobby is to continually foster the mindset of becoming a better person by reading self help books to improve mental resilience and self-confidence. “He wants to become his best self and a strong attitude enables you to weather any storm.”

Riley loves to travel and see new places. His time in Japan, Bali Indonesia and Hawaii fed this passion. Riley Sedam now wants to explore Europe. His spare time is spent outdoors, and he loves spending time at the lake with his family.

His word of wisdom is to share your knowledge with others. Use the resources PMI offers and volunteer. “We are all here to help each other and utilize our community. So be ready and willing to help each other. Take the time to volunteer, it enriches your life and those you help.” Riley shared that he has learned a lot from the community, and they won’t let you fail.

WHAT IS THE PROGRAM?

This limited-time promotion provides chapters with Military Initiatives to offer Military/Veterans and their families the opportunity to save 25% on select PMI

e-Learning courses and PMI certification products.

WHO IS ELIGIBLE?

Veterans, Military, and their Families.

HOW DOES THE PROGRAM WORK?

Step 1: You promote the program to your network, members & prospective members, utilizing the digital flyer, email & social media messages with images provided to enable military, veterans, and their families interested to email a designated chapter leader (perhaps the chapter military liaison) for details. If

non-members reach out, we encourage you to offer a military guest passcode to allow for 1 free year of chapter membership.

Step 2: The military personnel, veterans, and/or members of their family purchases product at the PMI site and use the code to receive the additional 25%.

WHAT ARE THE PROGRAM BENEFITS TO THE CHAPTER?

• Opportunity to provide military, veterans and their families with additional savings in recognition of their
• Opportunity for the chapter to retain members and even acquire new
• Utilizing the chapter’s unique discount code will enable us to be able to provide you with data that will demonstrate your chapter’s military impact and influence.

Chapter Members Save 25% on the Following Certifications and Certification Renewal Fees

Project Management Professional (PMP)®

Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM)® PMI Professional in Business Analysis (PMI-PBA)®

PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP)®

Portfolio Management Professional (PfMP)® Program Management Professional (PgMP)® PMI Risk Management Professional (PMI-RMP)®

eLearning COURSES

The Complete Agile Project Manager

Effectively implementing agile practices requires grasping method- ologies, and fine tuning your team strategy. This 9-course series covers the full spectrum of essential aspects to successfully put agile practices into action. PDUs: 17.5

Introduction to Project Management

This online, self-paced series provides entry-level information on each Knowledge Area of the PMBOK® Guide–Sixth Edition and will enable you to effectively put project management principles to work at your own organizations. Each module features a pre- and post-assessment, allowing you to measure your progress. PDUs: 23

Project Management Basics - An Official PMI Online Course

Project Management Basics is the official PMI online course to build your project management skills and prepare for the Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM)® certification exam. Developed and created by PMI and validated by CAPM® and Project Management Professional (PMP)® certification holders, it is based on the PMBOK® Guide – Sixth Edition. PDUs: 23

Certification Maintenance Toolkit

This self-paced Certification Maintenance Toolkit supports the professional development of PMP® and PgMP® certification holders so they are prepared to meet the demands of today’s complex business environment. The toolkit includes 49 video-based modules, hundreds of

books, book summaries, videos, and other syndicated content. When you take this course, you’ll also be reinforcing key PM concepts, learning new best practices and becoming a more rounded Project Management Professional (and more attractive to future employers). PDUs: 30

Digital Intelligence Series

Why do project professionals need digital intelligence? Digitalization is shaking every industry and disrupting traditional business management approaches everywhere. This self-paced series focuses on ‘Digital Intelligence’ and the skills you need to remain competitive in an increasingly digital environment. The objective is for you to develop a strong understanding of relevant digital era concepts, digital tools/systems, and the features, platforms, and tools associated with social technology. Set yourself apart by becoming a more proficient Digital Practitioner. PDUs: 26.5

Project Management for Beginners

Project Management for Beginners is an introductory course which provides the foundational knowledge necessary to join a project team and can serve as the first step on your path to a project management career. Comprised of a selection of modules from our best-selling course Project Management Basics, this program will allow you to learn the language of project management and build confidence working in project environments. If you wish to continue your learning, the course contains a special offer to purchase the full Project Management Basics curriculum at a discounted rate.  PDUs: 4

 Offer valid until 31 December for US chapters with military initiatives. Cannot be combined with any other offer. For details on terms and conditions, visit PMI.org/terms.

Your Phoenix PMI Chapter is taking action to help stamp out hunger and to give the gift of food to our local community by sponsoring a Virtual Fund Drive for the benefit of the St. Mary’s Food Bank.  We are encouraging our members to help us in the effort during this holiday time of need by contributing any amount that you feel comfortable giving at  https://fundraise.stmarysfoodbank.org/give/t390061/#!/donation/checkout.

Inflation has exacerbated the already dire situation with hunger in the State of Arizona where there are now 1 in 4 children living in poverty.  Our PMI chapter has recognized the need to help address this situation by leveraging our partnership with St. Mary’s Food Bank to provide funds for this effort.  Your contribution will be instrumental in maximizing St. Mary’s resources by providing enough food for 7 meals with every $1 donated.  This means that your efforts will be multiplied by 7 and help stamp out hunger by feeding Arizona families. 

Your charitable giving in 2021 may provide an extra tax deduction on your federal tax return or a credit on your State of Arizona income tax return. Arizona allows you to take a dollar-for-dollar Arizona Charitable Credit on your state tax return when you donate up to $400 for single filers or $800 for married couples filing jointly to a qualified organization. The tax credit was previously known as the Working Poor Tax Credit.

Thank you for helping to alleviate hunger in Arizona!

Hello PMI Phoenix!

My name is Matthew Gallagher, and I am a PhD Candidate at Arizona State University. I am also a professional program evaluator, which means my job is to collect and use quantitative and qualitative data to aid program leaders and their teams in developing knowledge about, making data-informed decision on, and managing their programs.

Matthew Gallagher (right) collaborating with program leaders on program evaluation activities in Dili, Timor Leste.

Program leadership’s decision to include an evaluator during the planning and design phase of their programs is the critical first step necessary for evaluators to provide the benefits associated with the discipline of evaluation. Within the evaluation field, federal legislation, including the recently passed Evidence Act of 2019, promotes the inclusion of evaluators in the planning and design phase of federal programs. Additionally, evaluation academics and practitioners advocate for this level of inclusion within all types of programs.

However, despite legislation and advocacy efforts, the evaluation literature depicts a situation where evaluators are not consistently included in the planning and design phase of programs due to numerous barriers, including: 1) program funding announcements which request the inclusion of evaluation activities in proposed programs, but do not require evidence of any collaboration with a program evaluator; 2) training programs that offer little or no training on the benefits of hiring an evaluator during the program planning and design phase. Overall, the literature portrays programs as plagued by rushed and/or symbolic evaluations that are of limited use for program management, thereby frustrating program leaders and demoralizing evaluation practitioners.

To date, academic studies have examined approaches on how to incorporate an evaluator into a program’s planning and design phase (Fitzpatrick, 1988) and multiple researchers have advocated on behalf of the inclusion of the evaluator throughout all the phases of the project cycle (see: Patton, 1978; Stufflebeam, 2001; Preskill & Torres 2001; Mark, 2012; Scheirer, 2012). However, no studies have examined the extent to which evaluator inclusion occurs, or explored the reasons why a program leader decides whether to include an evaluator in a program’s planning and design phase. My PhD research aims to study this topic from the perspectives of both program evaluators and program leaders (who include program directors and program managers).

From the program evaluation side, I am currently collaborating with the American Evaluation Association to procure perspectives on this topic from 1,000 of their members, who were selected at random. To capture the perspectives of program leaders on this topic, I am collaborating with local chapters of the Project Management Institute. I have developed a questionnaire to collect your perspectives, and I hope I can count on your participation.

The new knowledge generated from this study has the potential to affect how program leaders and program evaluators are trained. When we have a mutual understanding of the extent to which evaluators are not included in the program planning and design phase, as well as what influences program leaders’ decisions to include or exclude evaluators during this phase, then we can develop a roadmap for how training content should be augmented to meet the federal mandate, fulfill advocacy efforts, and be proactive on exploring the topic more broadly.

If you are interested in providing your viewpoint on the topic of evaluator inclusion in the program planning and design phase, please click on the survey link below. The survey will take approximately 10 minutes to complete, and will be open until November 15th. Information about the study, your voluntary participation, and data privacy are on the first page of the link before you enter the survey. Thank you in advance for your thoughtful and honest responses!

Take the Survey Here:

https://asu.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_1S8gMVSCOJOSBKe

Cedrick has been a PMI member for the past nine months; after obtaining his PMP, he decided it was time to give back and, in March of this year, started volunteering with the Phoenix Chapter.   

I had the pleasure of conversing with Cedrick Woodard and quickly learned that he is challenging to read from a first impression and guards his words carefully but embraces lifelong learning. Associates regard him as always reliable and a natural leader. If you establish a rapport with him, you quickly realize he is deeply passionate about providing socioeconomically disadvantaged communities and folks opportunities to obtain sustainable wealth and education (in perpetuity). 

Cedrick’s words of wisdom, “ you need to learn, learn to be humble, how to network to get the resources to make a solution happen. Network to be better and share your strengths and talents with others. If you are not ready to learn, you are not ready to live. Share the story, and the process will make you better.” 

He established and volunteered for over seven years with Paideia Kids Program, designed to strengthen the community stewardship ethic and deepen learning through volunteerism and civic involvement. Cedrick’s focus was on the program that serves youths from K-12 and adults 18 and older. Services were offered to all ethnicities, with the understanding that certain minority groups are predisposed to certain health conditions due to lack of physical activity, poor dietary habits, and lack of health education. The program targets community members of all ethnicities and age groups underperforming in those categories and others. The program emphasized lifelong health disease conditions caused by poor eating, an adverse impact on families and society, and a lack of access to affordable, healthful foods. In strengthening our communities, we help address and reiterate advocacy, community impact, community need, community partnerships, diversity, sustainability, student achievement, youth voice, and reflection. 

Cedrick Woodard’s advice to others who are thinking about volunteering with the chapter is, “embrace the opportunity to sacrifice and use the opportunity to network. Use your resources and strengths to make a difference in human life.” Do not be selfish; treat people how you want to be treated. Cedrick has a healthy respect for fearless people and for doing what they say they will do. 

If your paths cross, take a moment to get to know Cedrick. You might leave the conversation with a changed outlook on what you can give to the world if you only share yourself in solving a problem for your community. 

The VP of Programs, Christopher Gentry, the VP of Membership, John Choate and the VP of External Relations, Deniese Reinhardt were the interactive panelists addressing student questions.

The session offered glimpses into PMI membership both internationally and locally in our community. Resources for educational certification, professional development units and youth education programs through PMIEF. Links to seminars, and  the chapter webinar library.

PMI Global membership consists of more than 700k members internationally. The Phoenix Chapter serves the state of Arizona outside of Tucson which is served by the Tucson Chapter so members can make a difference in their community.

If you would like to listen to the audio presentation recording, members can send an email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Tackling societal issues on a large scale also requires a radical reimagining of customer and stakeholder relationships, including exactly who it is that organizations are trying to reach. Only then can businesses ensure they’re solving the right problems for the right people with the right projects.

Consider Coca-Cola HBC’s Mission 2025 Team, which conducts an annual materiality survey of roughly 1,000 internal and external stakeholders to identify social and environmental topics that impact the company’s value drivers. “This is not just a one-off exercise,” Dickstein said. “It is the starting point for engagement activities that occur throughout the year.”

The survey results helped Coca-Cola HBC define its 2025 sustainability commitments, which, in turn, align to the UN SDGs. With that, the company is ready to take action on a wide range of issues, ranging from reducing water use by 20 percent in water-risk areas to increasing its management ranks to 50 percent female.

“We are engaging with our stakeholders to determine climate action in the new normal and what the whole global pandemic means for us as a business,” he said of the company’s 2020 stakeholder forum. “Listening to and learning from them is a fantastic best-practice platform and necessary to move the agenda forward.”

A customer-centric mindset, meanwhile, can yield more innovative ways of thinking that continue to deliver value to customers even in times of crisis. Take urban development: in London—as in other cities—there’s a “big conversation” about “equality in public infrastructure, and how access to healthcare, parks, and neighborhood centers disproportionately benefits some communities more than others,” Arup’s de Cani said. As leaders around the world contemplate a post-pandemic future, such discussions may spark more equitable project investments. And de Cani said more of Arup’s clients want to play an active role in developing those solutions. They want to understand the impact of projects in much broader terms and expect guidance on how to improve them to benefit more people through access to cities, data, and economic opportunities. “At a meta level, these measures now affect whether a project is approved or not,” he said.

It’s also important, as the UN SDG Fund stresses, for businesses not only to implement reactive measures but also to enable the right conditions for social inclusion to flourish. This includes engaging in a true dialogue with customers.

“We’ve seen in several projects that the cultural connection, the language, whatever it might be, is a real value,” said Gabrielle Bullock, principal and director of global diversity at architecture and design firm Perkins and Will, Los Angeles, California, United States. “Our clients’ values are not only focused on fee, schedule, and budget. It really is about the human connection, the cultural connection, and shared values.”²¹

In one instance, Bullock said Perkins and Will almost lost an opportunity because its commitment to the LGBTQ+ community wasn’t clearly demonstrated. “We hadn’t really promoted it like we should,” she said. Once the firm showed its team’s understanding and commitment to the community, it won the project.

Sources

21. Pulse of the Profession^®In-Depth Report: A Case for Diversity, PMI, June 2020.

Marissa Akins works as a project manager for ASU and has led the peer network. What has kept her inspired is her many influencers and she feels strongly that "variety is the spice of life and you can draw your inspiration from a multiple of sources. Keep trying it and do something differently so you dont get stuck. Avoid the delimina of not exploring everything, analysis paralis, so just pick something and try it knowing it might not work out. You will have something you can use and keep adjusting until you get closer to the ideal in your vision."

What prompted her to volunteer? Marissa attended study group three times. Once in-person, once at the start of the pandemic before the life of teaching children at home with virtual learning and then a final time since she postponed her test which she passed in September 2020. Marissa enjoyed this the facilitation role because connecting with people who are interested in the same path I decided on is exciting. There is SO much to share and prepare for and there’s likely someone in the same situation that you are in that may really benefit from connecting with you. Marissa Akins words of advice, "just do it! You’ll never regret helping to support someone achieve their goals."

In getting to know Marissa, you will find that she is passionate about fitness and hiking, both allow her to free her mind of concerns, enjoy nature and to grab some me time. She is also passionate about spending time with her family and enjoys their social time. arissa's personal motto is say what you mean, mean what you say, and do what you said you are going to do.

Marissa is currently reading, Courageous Cultures. It’s a great read, but be ready to make waves in your organization if you take this one on; otherwise, you may just end up discouraged. She looks up to people who do the hard things for inspiration and as her heros. Why? We’re all at different places in this journey so find yours and build a network.

Her colleges would share that Marissa is committed to their well-being. She always has the project objectives in mind, but if you take care of your team, they’ll take care of the project. Marissa's business advice, "just try it! A lot of times we spend so much time deliberating over something or delay by discussion and we can really take that time and energy and put it towards a small-scale prototype of what we’d like to accomplish and learn from that experience."

Robert retired from the State of Arizona, DES where his projects centered around empowering employees with disabilities. He applies his skill to his Phoenix Chapter volunteer work. His philosophy, "do what you can to contribute to others' lives in[1]stead of just increasing your own and corporate wealth. Do your best at the work you do and keep your attitudes aligned to support priorities at work. No one on their death bed wishes they spent more time at work. Keep the real priorities in focus." Bob leads by Christian example and has adopted the motto, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you".

So who is Robert Gates? He is a passionate FAA approved Powerplant and Airframe mechanic, who was influenced by Billy Mitchell who was a United States Army general who is regarded as the father of the United States Air Force. Mitchell served in France during World War I and, by the conflict's end, commanded all American air combat units in that country. Bob Gates currently maintains a 1943 B-25 bomber, which is a WWII veteran of 15 missions, for the Commemorative Air Force Airbase Arizona in Mesa, AZ. When on volunteer duty, he also flys on the aircraft as the flight crew chief. Bob is also a RVer who follows the temperature of below 85 and above 45, to locations around the country.

When asked what has been rewarding about your volunteer service, Bob stated. "Helping others prepare for the exam, paying back for those who invested in me to help me pass my PMP. Bob attended three study group sessions before testing for the PMP." His words of wisdom to new members or others considering volunteer work for the Chapter? Volunteering is one of the most fulfilling things you can do with your life. From a more self-serving standpoint, it takes the focus off of your own challenges in life and is the best way I know to reduce life's worries and cares. From a more social responsibility stand[1]point, you are making a significant difference in another’s life. Adding a PMP and/or maintaining a PMP through PDUs significantly contributes to that person’s financial security and increases their skillset and job fullfillment."

Bob Gates approach was new to the facilitators as well. He encourages the team of facilitators to utilize their own style and source materials to provide students of the CAPM/PMP a wide range of materials so they can help determine what style of learning will work best for the student, rather than the standard bootcamp model of reviewing the 35 hours of continuous education so the student can subbit met the application to sit for the exam. Bob states, "that he is the cheerleader and works with each facilitator to become successful at delivery." Gone is the bootcamp approach, each student is empowered to develop their study plan and to form an alternate study buddy group which meets on other days of the week.

If you get the chance to meet Bob at a study group session, get him to talk about airplanes, you will quickly engage in a spirited conversation.

His journey started when he attended a chapter evening meeting in 2016 and asked a volunteer, how can I could get involved? His goal was the thought of increasing his network. The volunteer guided him through the volunteer application process and he became a volunteer. Abhijit has been serving the Volunteer Management team since day 1.

How does the volunteer application process work? Once a volunteer submits an application, their credentials are validated and they are assessed for the best fit and connected with the teams of their choice and in some cases they are helped in choosing a team based on the applicant's interest and skills. The placement team interviews them and conveys the tasks that are most in need at the time. If the role is of interest to the applicant they are onboarded. Once onboarded they receive access to the Chapter tools needed to complete their duties and an email address which they use to conduct correspondence for Chapter business.

Abhijit Ganguly is most passionate about learning and adapting to stay relevant until the last day. His inspiration is doing the right thing and helping others in need. He is an honest and amiable person, one whom I have had the pleasure of being acquainted with for many years at American Express and the Chapter. Abhijit loves international travel and hopes to sky dive one day. His proudest moment, his son has his pick of military academies and settled on the Naval Academy. A proud Dad moment and its no surprise that he was a role model in paying humanity forward, even when no one is watching. You will see him in the community as he often supports veteran events and childhood cancer.

What has been rewarding about your volunteer service? Abhijit Ganguly shared, "I have an oppor-tunity to help volunteers onboard and set a connection with the Phoenix Chapter. I have made some great friends, increased my professional network, opportunity to learn from other PMPs, earned PDUs to manage my three PMI credentials and access to PMI Global Leadership forum. I feel I have developed and sharpened skills like leadership, collaboration and team-building." What would you say to new members or others considering volunteer work for the Chapter? Abhijit conveyed, "knowledge shared is knowledge gained, volunteering for the chapter is a great way to share and learn from fellow Project Managers. You not only get the required PDUs but have access to great resources like morning breakfast sessions, evening sessions, opportunity to build professional networking. There are various groups in the chapter to volunteer for catering to individual preferences."

The benefits of using an external risk consultant should include the following:

· They bring guaranteed expertise

· They can draw on proven solutions from other engagements

· Cross-fertilisation is possible, with the consultant bringing ideas from other industries

· They can offer creativity, innovation, and fresh thinking

· There’s no “start-up” time, the consultant is ready to work on day one, without training

· Consultants offer access to leading-edge thinking and practice

· Consultants should be familiar with all current tools and techniques

· They are able to perform specialist techniques, such as risk simulation

· Using a consultant allows hands-on training for own staff by shadowing or observing

· You can turn on and turn off the consultancy resource when required

· Using consultants allows cost-effective use of limited resources or funding

· You only need to use consultants for specific tasks with clear scope

· There are no overhead costs for your organisation

There are however a number of risks to consider when using an external risk consultant, including:

· The consultant may not understand your business or the specific risk challenge

· They may lack specific knowledge of your project or organisation or industry sector

· They may offer a “one-size-fits-all” solution, not tailored to your need

· Prerequisite information may not be in place to support the engagement

· You may need to share confidential information to get them started

· You need to manage knowledge transfer to own staff in order to avoid becoming dependent

· The initial engagement may reveal a need for further assistance from the consultant

· They may be more expensive than you expect, especially if follow-on work is needed

· They may not leave a solution that can be operated by your staff or organisation

· The consultant may use tools or techniques that you don’t have available after they leave

· Your underlying processes may be deficient, prejudicing results

· Consultants may poach your own staff or tempt them away

· Your proprietary information may be at risk

· The reality may not match the offer (many consultants over-promise and under-deliver)

· Senior risk consultant staff may sell the work but then junior staff may be used to deliver it

· The consultant may not be available when you need or want them

In addition to performing a benefit-risk analysis, the following criteria might be useful when selecting a risk consultant:

· Proven track record of successful delivery in similar situations

· Recognised and relevant risk qualifications

· Extensive client base in similar sector or industry or project types

· Good reputation

· Personal recommendation

· Demonstrable expertise

· Availability when required

· Affordable within budget

If you can find external risk consultants who meet all the selection criteria, and who offer all the benefits with none of the risks, you should engage them immediately!! 

To provide feedback on this Briefing Note, or for more details on how to develop effective risk management, contact the Risk Doctor (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.), or visit the Risk Doctor website (www.risk-doctor.com).

One of her heros, her mom, Linda Urech introduced her to project management and advised her to get the PMP. Like many of us she needed a wake up call to heed the advice. Her employer, Accenture was reorganizing and provided training to obtain the PMP precertification training requirement through the recorded sessions by Barb Waters, on Skillsoft. They were gracious enough to provide three months to find another role internally or to exit. Her external job search quickly revealed that employers were looking for certifications on her resume. So Sarabeth quickly went to work in devising a plan to find her next role. She started asking others what they knew about the PMP, job seeking and how to pass the exam.

Changing her mindset was instrumental in her success. Sarabeth created a study plan and attacked it, taking advantage of her downtime to complete the PMP training. Be a chameleon and absorb the knowledge around you. Sarabeth Urech attended the New Member Orientation, and liked the warm reception on the call. "Members asked how they could help with the test and she got a couple of people to talk to, they provided her with resources to practice tests and everyone started to link up." Sarabeth said she received a warm welcome and collaborative support congratulating her on persoanl PMP journey. Support came from PMI LinkedIn connections around the world.

Sarabeth considers herself to be a generalist and a jack of all trades. Her hidden talent is mind reading when conversing with others. The skill comes from being an active listener and to being fully present, even on video calls. As you aborb and take the knowledge, give it back. She tries to mentor others to build her network and considers herself to be an extrovert. The PMP allows me to focus, manage stakeholders, problem solve and to connect people and technology. Sarabeth feels that good project managers have emotional intelligence and are an expert at asking good questions. She is now mentoring her work peers to help bring back the generalist, as well as how to build a network and is aiding others to build these skills.

Her advice for the exam? Sarabeth focused on the terms, taking copius notes and working equation examples. She then wrote it all out creating flashcards, watching YouTube on the concepts. "Use all the resources and look into all the resources that people tell you about. I respected their experience, I trusted other people's experience and learned from it and the chapter." On the new exam know the PMBOK processes and order. If taking the exam from your home office, move your personal cell phone out of the room to prevent distraction.

All of her hard work paid off. Sarabeth found an internal position with the help of a mentor, a new role within Accenture. They took note of her mindset change and her determination to pass the PMP. She is now working on a vendor project and is using it as a pilot for the PMBOK process. The learning journey continues and she shares the knowledge she obtains.

Sarabeth has a new ten year life plan with goals and beleieves, "when there are challenging circumstances look for the opportunities."

Change-makers rely on key capabilities to succeed:

• New ways of working, including agile, waterfall, and hybrid methodologies, and digital project management approaches such as problem-solving tools, AI-driven tools, and microlearning apps
• Power skills, such as collaborative leadership, innovative mindset, empathy for the voice of the customer, empathy for the voice of the employee, and the ability to build trusting relationships
• Business acumen, encompassing a well-rounded set of capabilities that enables people to understand not only their own roles, but how their work relates to business strategy and to other parts of the business

First, however, change-makers must have the means to acquire these capabilities. Continuous learning is the only way to thrive in today’s disruption-driven environment. Some of that can come through virtual education, which, especially since the pandemic began, is seemingly everywhere. But organizations that raise the bar by using AI to facilitate continuous, agile, and innovative learning—collaborative human-machine learning—are the ones that excel at driving change. Or, as a 2020 MIT Sloan Management Review report put it: “They don’t just use AI; they learn with AI.”22

It doesn’t matter what sector an organization is in, where it’s located, or even what is driving its strategic mission. It must be ready to adapt to whatever megatrend comes its way. And this is where the ecosystem of employees, partners, customers, and stakeholders committed to change truly proves its value.

“Rome wasn’t built in a day, nor was climate action or the diversity and inclusion agenda,” Coca-Cola HBC’s Dickstein said. “If you want change that is in itself sustainable, you need to do that together with the communities.”

Sources

22. “Expanding AI’s Impact with Organizational Learning,” MIT Sloan Management Review, October 19, 2020.

Dawn Feltner has been a chapter member for almost 10 years and like many of us wonders where the time went. She joined PMI to obtain her PMP which she received shortly after joining in October of 2011. Like many of us, she was performing the work of a project manager long before before she learned of the title. Dawn stumbled on it while studying for the PMP. Once she started studying for her certification, suddenly there was a name, some tools and rigor to what she had been doing and it all clicked! Dawn was fortunate enough that her previous employer, Voya Investment Management, was willing to pay for a PMP boot camp and she had 6 months to study and pass the test. "I loved the classes and study groups, but put that test off until the last possible moment and passed (whew)!"

She is passionate about learning and emphasizes that it doesn't have to be solely academic. Dawn shared, "just listen to people around you (whether you agree with them or not), listen to yourself." The certification has opened professional doors and windows of learnings. "I've learned so much from others in this space and it's great when we can connect and share best practices as well as war stories!"
.
Dawn Feltner's personal motto, "If you don't swing you don't hit, so be brave, even if you miss, you learn. Say yes to opportunities that serve you! Live! I try to do a little something different each day since we don't know our expiration date." From a career perspective, Dawn shared, "don't be afraid to ask for help. It gets easier with practice."

When I asked how her what makes her unique it was that a communications major could somehow fit into a financial and technology field and make it this far, it was beyond her imagination. Dawn started her career as a radio morning show co-host for a country music station and at the time was not a country music lover.

Dawn's path to project management? "My project management journey started when I was a kid! I always liked organizing fun events... like getting a group of us to the water park or skiing for the day and it carried with me into my professional life." Dawn started doing corporate event planning, then assisting with IT transformations and a complete continuous improvement business initiative. Dawn Feltner now has a new title, she is a Change Manager for GoDaddy, which is becoming more entwined with traditional Project Management.

Dawn's proudest moment, winning the highest award at my previous company for helping to develop a training course on "Developing a Culture of Feedback" Her inspiration was seeing light bulb moments when people you work with understand and are excited for what's going on...whether its a project, during training or coaching. She is so thankful to have had a supportive workplace and leaders who walked the walk when it came to work life balance and that showed me how to integrate the two.

Dawn Feltner's, heros were her parents. They illustrated a strong work ethic, compassion, tenacity and humor. "You need to get it done while having some fun, her career attitude." The causes she cares about, AZ Helping Hands which provides basic needs for foster children in Arizona. She is on their Junior Board to help with scheduled events from a project process management perspective. It brings her joy to watch kids becoming who they are meant to be.

If she needs to balance her work and daily life she seeks nature. Dawn is a mountain, lake and wilderness seeker to find a bit of tranquility to slow down the chaos of life. Dawn's can do manner, impressed me and brought me a ray of sunshine.

He is being honored for his work on his most recent project of the past two years, Future Cities. Future Cities is a reoccurring social good project that the chapter supports, year over year, supporting local high school students. They mentor project management skills, interview and judge students across Arizona.

His colleagues often tell John that he is organized, creative, and a team player. Helping him through his daily work is his sense of humor. John Chico recently went back to his career roots of accounting and applied the project management principles to his work. His attention to detail is serving him well as an SRP Auditor. John's philosophy is that in challenging times, success comes to those that demonstrate focus and flexibility.

John Chico enjoys music and travel and hopes to make it to Northern Italy. John is a centered family man whose passion revolves around his wife, children, and grandchildren. His proudest moments were their births that continued his family legacy.
From a career perspective, John Chico's proudest moment of his professional career was when he worked for an airline that had fatalities on 9/11. John was asked to be part of a project to help victims' families. "Getting those families through events that were so sudden and tragic made me feel like I had made a difference when it was most needed."

I was struck with my realization that John Chico pauses in his life journey to smell the roses. His motto is to be kind, appreciate the environment around you, and say thank you. Yes, like all project managers, he works hard, but this was also instilled by his grandfathers, who were immigrants. They taught him to work hard and to be kind to others. The message of kindness and the practice of gratitude resonated with him. For those of you who might not be familiar with the concept of the practice of gratitude, it is noticing the small things when you are fully present. If you string the small things together, it promotes well being, positivity and over time, creates a feeling of well-being, which helps alleviate our stress in our daily life of being a project manager.

Giving back to youth and others resonate with John Chico. His passion was apparent, and the chapter is proud to award him the February 2021 volunteer of the month award.

Agile is getting a lot of great press lately as we see companies like Amazon thriving by leveraging the concepts. But we also see push back from other business leaders on why Agile won’t work for them, or companies that have tried going Agile but are not seeing the expected improvements. Instead of realizing Agile as an all or nothing idea, we should analyze each of the Agile principles, taking a pragmatic approach to leveraging Agile within our own organizations.

This focused segmentation on each Agile principle is key since no individual practice will provide a competitive advantage. If something is easy to replicate, everyone will do it. Also, what organizations do is not simple – each one is completing a complex combination of different tasks to create customer value.

That leads me to this – The secret sauce of Agile is: It’s a framework built on strong principles you adjust to fit your organization. The goal is to make the right adjustments while not losing the underlying strengths that Agile brings.

To do that successfully, you need to understand each of the principles in depth. The four key Agile principles we have identified are:

BREAKING PROJECTS INTO SMALLER BITES

CONNECTING WITH CUSTOMERS

LEVERAGING THE POWER OF TEAMS

BUILDING IN CONTINUAL LEARNING

Join me over the next few posts, as we delve into each one of the principles throughout this Agile blog series. Today, we start with: Breaking Projects into Small Bites.

Smaller Bites

The first principle is breaking projects and initiatives into smaller bites, following the old adage that the way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time. As we think about how to break up projects, we need to also answer:

If you think about construction, where traditional project management comes from, these questions are fairly easy to answer. If you are looking at building a new bridge, for example, to see if there is value, it’s easy to see what those who would use the bridge are doing today, and if they are willing to pay for a replacement. This answers the first two questions, so then the real focus is on how we do it. Since this isn’t the first bridge that’s been built, we can get a reasonable idea and estimates from previous projects to help us answer the last question. If we found ourselves without previous information, we would need to experiment. That’s much harder on these types of projects since there may not be an easy way to break the project up into smaller bites. We could start with a rope bridge, but chances are it’s not going to add any value till we have a four-lane highway ready to use, thus failing the first question.

Construction projects are not the only ones that may provide this complication. IT infrastructure or software upgrade projects are often similar and are quite a bit different from software projects – which is where Agile came from. Software projects are far more unique and have their own conditions to be considered. You see similar issues in marketing, educational design, business process changes, or any project where we don’t have a good, previous solution to copy.

The problem with these types of projects is:

Even with this complexity, there is some good news. Unlike construction projects, these projects are easier to break up into experiments where we can test our assumptions and reduce the risk to the organization. The key is to focus on breaking the project up into the right pieces, that will help answer these questions as quickly as possible.

How to Break Projects Into Small Pieces

Let’s talk about how to break that elephant up with a real-life example. A company I worked with had a hypothesis that they were paying generous benefits but employees weren’t seeing that value since they didn’t know what those benefits cost. For the three questions, the hypothesis was:

How will this project deliver value to the customer?

If employees knew the cost of their benefits, they would be more satisfied

How will it deliver value to the organization?

Satisfied employees would provide more value to the organization (in this case reduced turnover)

How do we do it, including how long will it take, or how much will it cost?

We have access to the benefit information and can present it in the right format to make it easy for employees to understand.

Looking at how to break this project up, we would want to:

Present employees an example of a current benefit to see if this increases satisfaction. If possible, we probably want to start with the biggest benefit.

We don’t have time to wait for turnover, but we still need to measure satisfaction, perhaps with a questionnaire, targeting a group of employees that have the most turnover.

We need to test if we can get access to the data and test different ways to show the information to make sure it is easy to understand

As you lay out what you want to learn, it gets easier to understand how to break the project into the right pieces.

Value of Breaking Projects into Smaller Pieces

So whether you’re agile or not, let’s talk about the benefits of this approach:

As an organization – testing the value of ideas early lets you focus on the good ones. It also helps to uncover big technical risks quickly so you get a picture of the real effort projects will take. Finally, delivering the projects quickly, and in small increments lets you deliver value faster, speeding return on investment.

As a customer – teams are already testing on real customers today; all of them when they release. Smaller testing means you get to see what approach a team is considering early, provide meaningful input on finding the best approach, and only a small group of customers is impacted.

As a team – testing early means you waste less time on bad ideas. It’s demoralizing to put your heart into a project and then not find out till the end it didn’t deliver the value you expected.

By taking this approach, Agile is pushing an empirical tactic, pressing you to think like a scientist, understand what ideas are really theories, and find ways to test the theories early.

As you look at getting this same value with your own projects, think about the three questions around organizational value, customer value, and the approach. If you have good evidence to support your ideas, it may be more similar to the construction

project example, and focusing on how to efficiently put the project in place could be the best approach. But, if there are a lot of assumptions like we described above, it’s worth the time to set up a quick experiment and validate them.

On our next post, I’ll be reviewing the second principle, Connecting with Customers.

The Power of Teams

As kids, I think everyone of us wanted to be superheroes. Teams give us that ability – they turn ordinary people into top performers. In his book Scrum Twice the Work in Half the Time – Sutherland explains the difference between your best and worst individual performers is 10 times. That means the best performers get 10 times more done than the worst. That sounds impressive, until you hear the difference between the worst and best teams is 2,000 times (2,000 times better starts to sound and feel a lot like a superhero).

Part of the difference might be in existing team structure. Most of the time, we think about teams as individuals working on similar items with a manager directing traffic. That’s not a team. And, it won’t provide the advantage of leveraging the intelligence of the group. In his book Turn the Ship Around, Marquette talks about how, traditionally in a submarine, you have one captain thinking for the 140 crew. Marquette discusses how he got each individual to think for themselves. By doing that, he outperformed every other submarine in the US fleet. It was easy for him to see that no other captain, however smart they may be, is going to be as smart as 140 people.

For those who have worked in a solid team, it’s a great experience.  However, teams need the right elements to be successful. An example I like to share is a research project called Aristotle looking at successful teams that Google conducted. They started with an assumption that great teams would be made of great individuals, but couldn’t find any correlation. What they did find were five key elements that did correlate with team performance:

Psychological Safety

Can we take risks without feeling insecure or embarrassed?

Dependability

Can we count on each other to do high quality work and meet commitments?

Structure and Clarity

Are the goals, roles, and plans on the team clear?

Work Meaning

Does our work provide us with an individual sense of purpose?

Work Impact

Do we believe the work we’re doing matters?

If you’re looking for structure, Scrum, the most popular Agile framework, provides teams a simple approach on how to plan, touch base regularly, review work against plans, and implement regular retrospectives to identify and make needed adjustments.

Benefits of Teams

There are so many benefits to high functioning teams, but one of the most valuable is innovation. New ideas often come from leveraging existing ideas in a new way. When you present a problem to a group, each person comes with a different perspective, a lifetime of different experiences, and the more diverse your team is, the more diverse those experiences will be. Great ideas come from one person seeing the problem in a different way, and then others in the group building on those ideas till at the end you have a completely new solution.  This means:

As an organization – innovation is the lifeblood of any good company. It is the ultimate source of competitive advantage. It is why companies like Google and Amazon are so hard to compete with.

As a customer – it gives you the best product at the best price. Customers are so tired of hearing the word “or.” Would you like quality or would you like a price you can afford?  Innovation gives you the ability to give customers “and.” Toyota did this in the 50’s, providing the quality of a Mercedes for the cost of a Ford, gaining a decade of competitive advantage.

As a team – we talked about a key part of successful teams is meaning and impact. There is a joy of going home (or logging off our computer in our home office) at the end of the day knowing that, as a team, you did the impossible and the world is better because of it. Innovation makes the impossible possible, and it’s fun getting to do it.

You don’t have to be Agile to improve what your teams are doing today.  Look at the Google Aristotle aspects of a team and think about how you make groups more like teams.  Wherever you are today, leveraging the genius of the entire organization will help you be far more effective, with a side effect of much happier employees.

In the last part of our Agile Series, we’ll take a look at Continual Learning.

Connecting with Customers

I had this epiphany when I came to Agile. As a solution architect I had been spending a lot of time getting sign-offs from customers to make sure we had the right solution before we started the project.

The problem is solutions are like art. Often customers don’t know what they want till they see it. Further, they may not even know what the underlying problem is. What they do know, is what is they don’t like what they have today.

While customers are not experts at understanding how to take a problem apart and find an answer, your solution team is, but, your solution team may not know what is most important to the customer. Worse, they often think they know and move forward to test that theory by delivering a finished product – that’s an expensive experiment!

The epiphany I had was: Take the customers who understand where their pain points are and know a good solution when they see it; put them together with teams who are experts at root cause analysis and developing innovative ideas and you create the perfect environment for innovative solutions that meet customer needs.

How to Connect with Customers

Whether you are developing software solutions, creating marketing campaigns, developing education curriculums, or changing a business process, chances are you are trying to think of the right solution for your customers. However, if you have ever delivered a finished project and the customer says “Oh, now I know what I want,” – this is the strong an indication that there’s an opportunity to improve.

Here are some steps to make this actionable:

Continual Learning

It’s cliché that the world is moving quickly. A key element of this change is companies, many whom are your competitors, continually looking for better ways to serve customers. Just ask Sears, Kmart, or Toys R Us and they’ll tell you – If you’re not finding a better way, someone will.

The problem is our current structures are not built for learning – they are built for control. Hierarchies are built to increase efficiency and stability in the organization, not leverage great ideas. We need to change this. We need to build companies of entrepreneurs, where experimentation and innovation are an integral part of what we do. We want good ideas to get the same attention, no matter where they originate.

How to do we foster continual learning into our organizations

Before you even start, one of the first things to consider is understanding what is the clear goal of what you want when you are finished. Do you want more efficiency, do you want more customer value, do you want more sales, do you want more revenue, more profits? As we discussed in Part 3 – Teams are amazing idea engines – set them loose on a problem and they will come up with incredible results, but you have to start with pointing them towards the right problem. As a leadership team – it’s your responsibility to understand where you want innovation in your organization and what is going to make a difference, so your teams can focus on how to get you there.

The next thing you need is the right environment. Looking back again at Part 3 the Power of Teams, we mentioned psychological safety is important. But, that isn’t just safety within the team. Ironically, for the team to succeed they also need to be able to fail. With innovation, people need to feel safe in the organization as a whole, knowing that ideas may not work every time, but when they do, it will be worth it.

You also need an idea meritocracy. Often when you start a new team, members come in wanting to know what their tasks are and when they are due. They know they are usually asked to leave their brain at the door and just do the tasks as asked. What a waste of good people! Teams need to know that great ideas can come from anywhere or anyone. It shouldn’t matter if you are in accounting, you might have a great idea for operations. Operations might have a great idea for sales. You may see great ideas come from facilities, customer service, or accounting. We need to be able to judge ideas on merit, not rank or role.

This next part is a little more controversial since it has to do with money. To entice entrepreneurs, you need to be able to share rewards for great ideas. To find the best way to serve customers, you need to measure the value the team is delivering to them. Taking that one step further – as teams deliver great value, there should be some direct rewards, sharing the value of those ideas that made it possible.

It’s rewarding to see the value customers are getting but if organizations don’t share a portion of the benefits, team members may end up feeling cynical that they’re doing a great job, but the owners are the only ones seeing rewards. Nucor Steal pays employees 75% of market wages, but with bonuses they can make 125%.  At Google, employees can make as much as 300% more than someone in the same role, based on the value of their contributions.  Haier, a Chinese appliance company, has broken departments into small mini companies where employees are encouraged to think of new revenue streams and there can be significant rewards when those ideas payoff.

Beyond the right environment, the last element is room to process and digest thoughts. Agile is the only methodology I’ve seen that does continual improvement effectively. The reason is that there is time built into every iteration to take a step back, discuss where to improve, and build those tasks into the next iteration.  We all know that improvement is important, but we’re not scheduling time to do it.

In one of the departments I managed, I thought I was doing a great job delegating and communicating with my team till we had our first retro. I was surprised to learn that wasn’t the case. Over the course of a year, we were able to eliminate, automate, and delegate my administrative overhead from 20 hours a week to 4. It left me a lot more time to focus on strategic value and the team was much happier with the growth they were seeing. You have opportunities, but you won’t know where those opportunities to grow are, or what is possible, until you take time to ask.

Benefits of Continual Learning

People talk about an Agile transformation like it is a destination that you get to.  However, Agile is a journey. It’s about building an organization that is continually changing and adapting to better fit the world around it. Continual learning is really one of the key principles to Agile because it builds a truly flexible organization.  That means:

As an organization – you don’t have to worry about driving results. A key job today for leadership is to drive the organization to be more effective. Agile puts in a structure where everyone is focused on being more effective. That means leadership has more time to focus on strategic direction.

As a customer – the company is always growing and adjusting to better fit your needs. Every iteration, they are asking how they can serve you better.

As a team – you get growth. Too many times we think people aren’t satisfied because of money or benefits. But a key reason employees leave a job is because they don’t have an opportunity to grow. Continual learning gives you the opportunity to not just do more, but to be more, increasing the value you add. If you’re with a good company, it also means you get to take the results of some of those ideas home as a well-deserved thank you.

The idea of continual improvement isn’t new. Toyota started quality circles after WWII leading to its popularity in the 1950’s. But, 70 years later, it seems we’re still not doing it well. Most teams meet regularly to discuss status. It’s not hard to add some reflection time to those meetings. You can google fun retrospectives to get some ideas of how to get people thinking more creatively. Whether you borrow the approach from Lean or Agile, building continual improvement will help your company grow.

As we have gone through the four key Agile principles, you’re probably thinking they aren’t new. You’re right, they’re not. Agile is really just a collection of good business practices, and rather than a detailed practice, it’s a combination of good principles that companies should leverage to improve what they do.

As you look at Agile, rather than thinking that’s not for me, or that would never work here, do what Agile did —  Take a bunch of great ideas and make them your own.

How did his journey start? His first “official” Project Manager job began when he joined DHL in November, 2004, but his project management journey actually began many years before. In fact, as a child, " I exhibited the innate traits of successful project managers when in the school recess yard my friends wanted to play football, but I brought a pencil and paper out of the classroom to create plays. Most of the kids didn’t want to plan and simply wanted to play (Sound familiar?). I didn’t realize it at the time, but it was the beginning of honing my skills as a servant leader."

After graduating high school, Keith went to a trade school to study electronics technology, because he had a fascination with figuring out how things work and a knack for troubleshooting problems. He worked his way up through Motorola as a Network Analyst and then joined American Power Conversion (APC) to become a Data Center Operations Manager. Throughout this part of his career, Keith was leading teams by creating plans to implement new networks, build out new data centers and manage daily operations on a 24x7x365 schedule. In essence, "I was performing daily operational tasks while creating and managing informal projects before I even knew of the “Project Manager” profession."

After obtaining his Executive Masters of Business Administration (EMBA) degree, Keith decided to move his family from Rhode Island to Arizona to start a new phase of his career outside of the data center. His peers at Motorola helped him relocate. In 2004, Keith learned about the Project Management Institute’s Project Management Professional (PMP) credentials and realized his IT background and the PMP would allow him to change careers while still being connected to technology, which he loves.

Over the past 17 years, Keith Harrington has intentionally selected and joined various companies to gain experience in transportation and logistics, digital education, financial services, healthcare, hospitality and have for the past 5 years been with a terrific network marketing company, Plexus Worldwide. Throughout the course of this journey, he have honed skills as a Project Manager, Program Manager, Portfolio Manager, ScrumMaster and Executive having successfully developed and currently leads an outstanding team of professionals in an Enterprise Project Management Office (EPMO).

I asked Keith Harrington, what he is pastionate about, and he replied, "mentoring my team members to ensure they have the skills and experience to have a successful career in project, program and portfolio management. I had a very good mentor at Motorola that set me on a successful career path and I want to do the same for everyone I can help." After some reflection he felt his colleagues would describe him as analytical, disciplined, honest, and confident which some could describe as arrogance. His introspective traits struck me as a person who respects other's time which has helped his track record of getting projects done.

He believes in the social good, in November, 2020, he became a proud member of the Cancer Support Community of Arizona’s Board of Directors, which is near and dear to his heart since members of his family are cancer survivors. He has also been a blood donor for the past 37 years and a contributor to the Rhode Island Food Bank and St. Mary’s Food Bank for more than 30 years.

Keith Harrington is a gifted storyteller. When I asked him what was on his bucket list besides adding books to an ecletic library he broke it into two parts. "On a social and spiritual level, I want to make sure my family and people that know me consider me a genuine friend that gave back more than I received. On a physical level, I want to build my dream house to spend my retirement years creating, fabricating and giving back to my community."

If you get a chance to speak with Keith Harrington at a breakfast meeting, you will find him engaging. You might even leave with a bit of wisdom.

Paul Bartal, PMP started volunteering in 2007. His personal motto is most appropriate, “the point of the journey is not to arrive by Neil Peart” He has led the Northwest Breakfast meeting for 13 years. But then came COVID-19 and Paul stepped up as the AVP of the Breakfast Program. Typically, the breakfast meeting was in person, but we could not gather so Paul led the way in taking this meeting virtual. It was tough, how do you network, advertise that you are a job seeker or job supplier and engage with the speaker while not talking over everyone? The best part of leading the breakfast meeting to Paul is to form friendships with the regular attendees. His joy is to hear that an attendee found a job as a result of their networking at one of the breakfast meetings.  

Paul’s words of wisdom to a new volunteer or peer, “just go for it. Just please take it seriously. It makes things tough for the team if you do not honor your commitments. He feels the same way about his work peers, “treat your coworkers exactly how you would like them to treat you. Respect their time and deliver whatever you commit to.”

A little bit about Paul, did you know that he has played the drums for 40 years and is a member of a rock band, Radio X?  

He tries to live life to the fullest, travel and appreciate others. His guilty pleasure is to off road in his jeep of the Arizona trails. I have known him for years after meeting at the Northwest Breakfast Meeting and did not know these tidbits. I just thought of him as a nice person, always positive and that he cares about others. You might see Paul Bartal in the community, he is an avid, Toastmaster, and feels this had led to his personal leadership and public speaking growth. He also supports the American Cancer Society and the Alzheimer’s Association. He gives back and is a stellar example, of a Volunteer of the Month.

Certified Nonprofit Accounting Professional (CNAP), PMP, CSM

Mary Ryan started volunteering in 2013 as a financial liason on the finance team while studing for her PMP.  Mary then served as an Associate Vice President and was appointed and later elected to the VP of Finance Role. Her journey continued and served as a VP of Professional Development and later as the Vice President of Virtual Locations which ended at the close of 2020. Mary is currently serving this year as an episodic volunteer. The director at large role is a non voting board position that can act as a mentor, guide and leader of special projects. This role is often used by past board leaders who want to continue giving back but allows the flexibility of scaling back volunteer hours or increasing hours to complete a project.

When I asked her what made her a successful volunteer, it was her skills obtained from running a business which provided the breadth of knowledge to make the projects successful. Mary stated that she is “most proud of her work done as VP of Finance to which helped to stabilize the chapter by using good business acumen and running the chapter as a business.”  

I received so many personal benefits by being involved in the chapter and there are so many positive things that come out of your giving back. Mary expressed, “you get back exponentially when you give your time. We have come so far in the last ten years for the next generation of the chapter. You are able to connect with people on a different level. It’s different types of engagement, professional, friend, teammate, leader and peer.”  Volunteers set goals together, support each other and by achieving goals together, you demonstrate caring for others and watching your peers grow in confidence. As a volunteer you practice servant leadership.

When I asked Mary what she is looking forward to it was the face to face in the future and continued engagement. It is fun to make the connections and friends over the years. It comes from giving back and caring for each other.

Successful project management requires collaborative leadership skills, clear communication, and courage to embrace constant change. I grew these skills in volunteering and helped the chapter evolve to support the next generation leader.

The world and the chapter are changing for the better. Life is a project, make the most of it.

Everyone’s path to project management is a different journey, each path is unique and correct for them. Whether you stumble into project management, specifically plan your career, or just morph into a professional as a lifelong leaner.

I would like to introduce you to Earl Matthews, a new chapter member and CAPM certificate holder and talk about his CAPM journey.   

Joining the AZ Department of Revenue, two-plus years ago made him introspective about his career goals. His skills journey began in the trades then moved into retail loss prevention without formal training or education. What he discovered is that you can apply learning and skills are transportable across industries. So, Earl Mathews explored his new industry, shadowed other project managers, earned his 6 Sigma Black Belt while working in the program office. Earl states that “it quickly became my passion and where he sees himself in his five-year growth plan with the state.” His passion was built by working with teams and people in the lean management system.

Earl Matthews project management path, started with an eLearning module on the PMI.org website to explore Project Management Basics. Earl completed his CAPM educational requirements pre COVID-19. He discovered Ken Roundtree, by attending a session at work, but needed a new path to certify when PMI Global canceled in-person exams last March.

A few months passed, delaying his CAPM certification, but COVID-19 may have poked a hole in his balloon, making him glide but he quickly found a new way for his balloon to soar and regain air. Earl Mathews joined the chapter and the fall 2020 PMP/CAPM study group. He passed within one week of the November study group completion.

His project study plan came together after 12 weeks of intense study, committing 4 to 5 nights a week to both weekly sessions and a study buddy and memorizing the ITTOs (processes, inputs, tools and techniques and outputs). Earl Matthews best advice is to not limit yourself to one type of learning source, so you can be well rounded. All learning sources help fill in the gaps so it will make sense.

What you might not realize is the CAPM certification exam is technical where the PMP certification exam is situational. Earl Matthews said, “the study group was the glue that brought it all together, how it was presented and the presenter. The attendees and dialog participation, with the multiple views of other PMPs situational experience brought it together.”

I could hear Ken Roundtree in my head during the exam, where no textbook would stick. I was the pig and committed to gaining the CAPM certification with only a high school diploma at the start of my journey. So, in the words of Earl Mathews, “your life and goals are just another project” so why not get started and find your critical path to success.