Having Empathy for your Project - with Patrice Colancecco Embry

This summer Patrice Colancecco Embry posted an article on The Digital Project Manager suggesting that project managers needed to show empathy not just towards team members and stakeholders, but towards the project itself.

In this interview Patrice and I dig in a little deeper on the idea of showing empathy for your project, why and how you'd go about doing that. They also get into the how important it is for the PM to show empathy for him/herself and when it is okay to totally hate the project.



If you'd like to check out Patrice's original article, you can find it here: http://www.thedigitalprojectmanager.com/managing-project-empathy/

If you'd like to get in touch with Patrice, you can reach her via:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/patrice108
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/patriceembry 
Her website http://www.patrice-embry.com

GET OFF MY LAWN! Getting better at working with Millennials!

Since entering the workforce, Millennials have gotten a bad rap. There is a long list of complaints levied against them… mostly by the crowd that falls into GenX and older. In this interview, Dave Prior and John Tanner from LeadingAgile are joined by Jenny Madursky, a Millennial who is a Project Manager at Huge. Dave is GenX and harbors a secret fear the internet will break and go away forever. John is in between the two (and would like you to get off his lawn) but self-identifies as being more on the Millennial side. During this podcast they explore the way Millennials approach working and collaboration. They dig into some of the stereotypes that crop up when people complain about Millennials and GenX, as well as how a Millennial’s view differs from the older crowd’s. In the final portion of the interview, the discussion turns towards what GenXers can do to be better prepared for working with Millennials in order to better support them.  

Show Notes

0:08 Interview Begins

00:42 Introductions

01:44 Jenny’s areas of focus in college are a secret weapon -  Mechanical Engineering & Theater Studies

03:18 Defining what we mean by Millennial

03:36 A Millennial explains Millennials (experience over stuff)

04:50 What is challenging about working with GenX

07:40 The changing relationship between employee and company

09:33 Get Mentors!

11:54 Building lasting relationships and networks though shared work experiences

12:34 Broad knowledge vs Deep knowledge

14:25 What can employers do to make the work place more enticing to Millennials?

17:17 Consumers of employers… who offers the best experience?

19:37 Do you need different skill sets to interact with different age groups?

21:42 How can older generations be better prepared to work with Millennials?

24:05 Sometimes the gift of feedback can be a tough thing to receive

26:27 Helping the other person be open to feedback (Shout out to Sally Elatta!)

30:10 Jenny asks John and Dave for their perception of working with Millennials

31:20 Curiosity perceived as arrogance “I’m still expecting the internet to just shut off one day..”

32:29 Positive dissonance in the workspace

34:04 Knowing when to contribute and when to listen

35:27 Why Jenny chose to make the switch from Program Manager to Project Manager

37:17 Applying Agile practices in a Digital Agency

40:27 Agile for the Millennial crowd… do we need a new Manifesto?

44:02 Closing

Reaching Jenny

LinkedIn http://bit.ly/2dL0PeP

Reaching John

Twitter http://twitter.com/tannerjs

LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com/in/tannerjs

LeadingAgile http://www.leadingagile.com/guides/john-tanner/

Other Links from the Podcast

Huge http://www.hugeinc.com

Sally Elatta http://www.linkedin.com/in/elatta

Jukka Lindstrom - The Transformation Will Be Digitized

One of the great benefits I have had through volunteering for the Scrum Alliance has been the opportunity to work with a long list of inspiring and brilliant people. At the top of that list is Jukka Lindstrom. Jukka is someone who’s approach to exploring and solving problems is so different from my own that I felt like every time we collaborated on something, I got better at what I was doing just by working with him.  A few years ago Jukka left his job as an Agile Coach and Trainer and started working full time with traditional organizations. At the start of 2016 he joined Cargotec to head up their Digital Transformation effort. If you think Agile Transition is hard, consider that it is only a small part of the transformation of digitizing a global organization with 11,000 people who are used to working in an analog world. 

In the first part of the interview Jukka and I talk about the work he’s been doing since leaving Reaktor and what it’s like trying to transform a company of 11,000 people to not just Agile, but a digitized way of working as well. Leaving the Agile Consulting world to go back into a traditional environment is a brave choice, but for Jukka, it presented an opportunity to test out what he had learned and see if he could help.  While it has provided him with great learning experiences, it has also come with some tough moments. In the second part of the interview we focus on how what that career transition has been like and how he has avoided getting trapped in the doldrums when he is faced with working in a more traditional environment. 

Show Notes

00:09 Interview Begins

00:57 Jukka’s role at Cargotec and what the company does

02:37 The difference between Agile Transformation and Digital Transformation

07:36 The complexity of transformation at Cargotec

08:44 Why is this level of transformation so much harder than basic Agile transformation

10:10 The mindset shift

11:54 Placing a bet on technology when you don’t know exactly what you’ll be able to do with the result yet

13:00 transforming11,000 people … “that’s like 1,200-1,500 teams of people”

15:00 Where do you learn faster? Working in software or more traditional (manufacturing) companies

17:15 Becoming an Agile Bodhisattva

17:52 When you walk back into the waterfall, doesn’t it kinda suck? And how do you stay inspired?

19:45 Realizing that the reason you feel stuck is because you aren’t being true to yourself

22:37 How to avoid playing the victim and taking ownership of your own learning and joy

24:30 “I’m not having fun… why am I doing this?”

25:27 If you can’t find fun in what you’re doing, you’re doing the wrong thing

25:55 Things Jukka does outside of work that helps him stay engaged and learning while he is at work

27:00 MIT’s ULab

Some links from the interview 

Cargotec Website: http://www.cargotec.com

Singapore Cargo Port Timelapse Video https://youtu.be/HrZg96L8yaY

MIT’s ULab Course https://www.edx.org/course/u-lab-leading-emerging-future-mitx-15-671-1x

Leading from the Emerging Future by Otto Scharmer  http://amzn.to/2dJJ1TL

Reaktor https://reaktor.com

If you’d like to contact Jukka

Jukka on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/jukkalindstrom

Jukka on Twitter https://twitter.com/jukka_lindstrom