Bridge the Gap Consulting

JUNE 26, 2023

I have what my wife calls an unhealthy obsession with the Race Across America, or better known as RAAM. Dubbed the “World’s Toughest Bicycle Race”, RAAM riders start on the west coast in Oceanside, CA and end on the east coast in Annapolis, MD. Along the way they bike over 3,000 miles (4,828 km), climb over 175,00 feet, and cross 12 states.

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Bridge the Gap Consulting

JUNE 12, 2023

Imagine you’re a private pilot. You got licensed about 5 years ago and in that time, logged a lot of uneventful hours in the air. Being cautious, flights occur only on clear or high-cloud days with little wind. You’re also only VFR (Visual Flight Rules) so can’t fly on just instrumentation. Now image today is a great day to fly. You hop in the rented Cessna 172 Skyhawk and prep for the 75 mile flight to where you and your spouse are going to have lunch, then fly back.

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MAY 16, 2023

Once your PMO is up and running, operationalizing and doing continuous improvement (CI) go hand-in-hand. When people ask what’s the difference between the two, I say operationalizing are static functions you’ll always perform and CI is iterative. They’re done at the same time. Sometimes CI may lead to changes to the PMO’s operations, but you’re only making more efficient something you’re already doing.

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MAY 4, 2023

I had a boss once say the trick to continuous improvement is to make it seem easy to the outside world, even though it’s a lot of work within an inner circle. Every improvement is strategic and intentional. She was amazing at CI. Now that the PMO is chugging along, it’s time for you, as the PMO leader, to look at continuous improvement. It’s not easy, and it is necessary.

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APRIL 30, 2023

The PMO Pilot Project. I LOVE pilot projects! It validates our intentions and strategies. We test out PMO best practices and gather lessons learned. The PMO matures more quickly. Totally worth it! When it’s time to establish and implement your PMO , conducting a pilot project should be part of the process. Here are some things to consider when running a PMO pilot project.

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APRIL 24, 2023

You’ve done the PMO Assessment. Then you created the PMO Business Case. You’ve been to meetings and finally got approval to establish your PMO. Now the fun really starts! Now, I’ve seen PMO Establishment and Implementation called out as two separate steps. For this article and from what I’ve done in the past, I combine them. The reason is, there will be overlap.

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APRIL 18, 2023

You’ve asked a lot of questions to a diverse group of stakeholders. You’ve done an assessment. Now it’s time to create a PMO Business Case and start moving the needle from idea to reality. If you notice, I call it a PMO Business Case, not a PMO Charter. I don’t like the word “charter” when talking about creating PMO’s.

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APRIL 11, 2023

As a consultant, I love doing assessments. Why? Because assessments help clients identify pain points and areas of opportunity. My favorite is the PMO assessment. Whether considering standing up a new PMO or revamping an existing, doing an assessment is a key initial step to setting one up. Though there are PMO maturity models, which are all good, I don’t like to talk about those right away.

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APRIL 6, 2023

Starting up or revamping a PMO is tricky and complex. They’re established to address a number of business opportunities and problems. If a PMO will help navigate these turbulent waters, it should not be on one or two people to determine its direction. Committed organizations will setup a PMO Steering Committee. I’ll start by saying a PMO Steering Committee is not a guarantee.

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APRIL 1, 2023

When you’re in the process of setting up or revamping a PMO you, as the PMO leader, will need support and direction. Enter the PMO Executive Sponsor! The sponsor will give your PMO street cred. Though a PMO Steering Committee is not guaranteed, make the PMO Executive Sponsor a must-have. Otherwise, you may not have any real authority. Who is the PMO Executive Sponsor?

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MARCH 26, 2023

Congratulations! You’re a PMO Leader! Welcome to a challenging, dynamic world where you get to delivery strategic value all while having a target on your back. Good times! Being a PMO leader has been one of the most challenging and rewarding aspects of my career. Thankfully, I’ve had some really good mentors along the way who showed me being a PMO leader and a project manager are two very different things.

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MARCH 21, 2023

PMO Failure. We hear about PMO’s failing all the time. Some fail to deliver expected results but somehow tend to linger on in a semi-effective state. Others suck so bad they just get shut down and disbanded. Stats on PMO failure rates are all over the map based on your definition of “failure.” But one thing is for sure, it happens enough where people in the project management profession talk quite a bit about it.

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MARCH 6, 2023

I grew up in a bit of a risk-adverse home. One parent was an engineer who had been with the same company since graduating school. The other was an administrative assistant who worked for the same school for many years. Both believed you find a job, stay with that job, try not to rock the boat, and retire. I thought this was the way it was done. That is, until I graduated college and started out on my own.

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FEBRUARY 18, 2023

“Please tell me what you’re thinking. I promise I won’t be upset!” She looked nervous. She was smart, forward thinking, and I could tell from her body language she didn’t agree with me. But, given the last project manager wasn’t open to feedback and often got upset when he received it, she didn’t want to repeat scoldings that were given in the past.

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FEBRUARY 11, 2023

I finally gave ChatGPT a try. My kids and I have been messing around, having it write songs, create jokes, and rewrite a paper my one kiddo already did. It’s been interesting and funny. I wondered what else it could write. I recently read about a company having financial issues because one of their key projects was behind schedule and over budget.

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JANUARY 27, 2023

“This piece of sh!t. I buy connected silos that don’t connect. How the f$%@ can I operate if I don’t know what’s going on? Why don’t they f$%@ing connect?” My friend is a farmer. He originally took over his family’s small 40 acre hobby farm in the early 2000’s. With a degree in business, he decided an office wasn’t for him and applied his business skills to growing the farm.

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JANUARY 12, 2023

Why do you want a PMO? That’s a hell of a question to ask when you’re the consultant asking a client why they want to start a Project Management Office (PMO). But, it’s one I felt necessary because thus far their reasoning wasn’t sound. Responses had been between “I read somewhere that…” and “Someone told me we should…” Those aren’t good reasons to start a PMO.

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DECEMBER 19, 2022

“That doesn’t surprise me.” You’ve heard it. I’m sure you’ve said it. But yet, when something happens on our projects, we’re surprised! How did this happen? Why didn’t see this coming? But I ask you, knowing the dynamic and fluid nature of projects, should we really be surprised? I think of a client project from a handful of years ago.

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DECEMBER 6, 2022

Tis the season to take a step back to look forward. As another year wraps up, it’s time to peer ahead at this dynamic career of project management and what may change in 2023 and beyond. Here are my predictions! Reimagining Stakeholder Engagement. Stakeholders are a big deal on any project. I learned that years ago to the tune of a $2M project failure due to not properly identifying key stakeholders.

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NOVEMBER 28, 2022

Andre George Previn was a German/American pianist, composer, and conductor whose career had three major genres; Hollywood films, jazz, and classical music. He achieved success in each, with jazz and classical being a major part of his life. Andre also scored over 40 Hollywood films. Yeah, pretty successful guy. My son, who is a musician and participates in musicals and other theatre productions, educated me on him.

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NOVEMBER 23, 2022

Tis the season to be Thankful! We all have things we’re thankful for and everyone’s list is different. Here is my annual list of what I’m thankful for in this dynamic career we call Project Management! Having a Thanksgiving Dinner Release Plan. Our family is hosting a lot of people on Thanksgiving! Lots of people means lots of food, and lots of food prep.

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Bridge the Gap Consulting

NOVEMBER 17, 2022

“O Dad (what my oldest son calls me), the car’s dead again. Can you help me jump start it?” Again! I thought to myself. I must have jump started that car five times in the last two weeks. If we don’t start the car at least every 24 hours, it won’t go. Since it wasn’t driven for a couple days, it rolled over twice and the starter clicked. “Yeah, grab the starter and I’ll pop the hood.

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NOVEMBER 2, 2022

“You can be a leader, or an excuse maker. You cannot be both. Good leaders talk about where to go. Great leaders help you get there and don’t make excuses along the way.” Did I hear that right? Did he just start talking about leadership during a church sermon? This guy’s a pastor, not a business coach! I must’ve heard him wrong.

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OCTOBER 16, 2022

“Can you make a decision on this?” This question can strike terror in the hearts of many! Does the decision need to be made today? Will it cause irreparable harm to the project and potentially the company? Will I be fired if I’m wrong? If I don’t decide, will it just work itself out? Decisions. In writing this article, I found different studies that say we make around 120 informed decisions a day and up to 35,000 total choices per day.

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SEPTEMBER 12, 2022

The Wooden Wolf. There it was, the finish line. After thousands of feet of climbing up and down countless hills, I rounded the corner and saw the blow-up arches with the word “FINISH” emblazoned across the top. Beyond the arch was the large wooden wolf that race organizers always have at the finish (you “Kiss the Wolf” when you finish).

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JUNE 27, 2022

Congratulations, you’re a Project Manager! You’re accountable for getting a project from initiation to completion. You’re responsible to get your team to do the work. But, your team has been assigned to this project and does NOT report to you! You have ZERO positional authority! YEAH!! Now don’t screw up. Influence without authority.

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JUNE 13, 2022

What the hell just happened? One minute, the project is moving along. The next, chaos. Some issue suddenly rears its ugly head and throws a wrench in progress. Whether this issue started as a known or unknown risk, a once happy team is suddenly stressed. Patience is frayed. Fingers are pointing. Blame is creeping in. The project issue is fading from view.

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JUNE 4, 2022

I was leading a team of 6. They were high energy and ready to get after it. With hammers and power tools within reach, everyone wanted to get to work. They talked non-stop. There were questions about everything within eyesight and earshot. When I could give instructions, one would listen, one would do the complete opposite, and the remaining 4 would follow the person doing the wrong thing.

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MAY 17, 2022

A good friend of our family is an EMT (Emergency Medical Tech). Somehow, we got on the topic of multitasking. As she put it, if she loses focus and starts multitasking on things not directly related to a patient, someone could die. That got me thinking, do I multitask? Hell yeah I do!! Every project manager I’ve ever known multitasks. And you know what?

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MAY 6, 2022

“Smokejumper.” When most people here the term, they think of brave men and women who hurtle themselves out of aircraft, loaded with gear, ready to battle a raging forest fire when they hit the ground. These smokejumpers have a very difficult and dangerous job. There is another, less dangerous, smokejumper; the project manager who takes over an in-flight project.

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APRIL 14, 2022

Ok, I’ll admit, HATE is a strong word. Extreme dislike (which is basically the definition of hate) sounds a little better. The first project manager I ever worked with I couldn’t stand and extremely disliked. He showed up once a week, told us we weren’t doing our jobs and should be fired, and left (see Project Manager Pop-up). He also threatened to go directly to the VP if we didn’t complete our work on time.

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APRIL 4, 2022

“C’mon, just level with me. Be honest!” Ever hear those words before and not quite know how to respond? If you’re in a senior leadership position, there are times being honest isn’t an option. For example, if there are layoffs, reorg, acquisition, and any other number of circumstances. Any mention, the rumor mill will take off and morale will go down.

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MARCH 28, 2022

Let me start by saying, if you don’t know who John Cleese is, look him up. Watch a couple of his Monty Python skits. Then c’mon back to this article! About six months ago I was talking about the movie “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” with a couple coworkers. Someone mentioned John Cleese’s book on creativity. Given I’m not what I would define a creative person, didn’t give it a second thought.

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MARCH 20, 2022

It was hot. The kids were hungry. The crowds were huge. My feet were tired from a full day of walking and standing. My patience was all but gone. Is this how I wanted to spend my vacation? We were standing in front of Hogwart’s Castle at the Universal Orlando Harry Potter experience. We had been there all day, visited all the Harry Potter shops, and ridden the Harry Potter rides.

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MARCH 6, 2022

Like so many parents, I spent the weekend sitting, watching, and cheering for my child’s team. Swimming consists of being in hot pool areas, watching races for sometimes hours, only to see your kiddo swim for a minute or less. It can be long and boring followed by short bursts of energy, but well worth it! This weekend I spent three full days watching swim meets, starting mid-afternoon Friday and going through Sunday.

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JANUARY 31, 2022

The excitement. The laughter. The ideas. The energy. It was amazing! Imagine you have a business idea, one for a very niche market where your friends are lining up to subscribe. It’s something you enjoy doing and want to share your passion with others. Sounds great, doesn’t it?! That’s what two friends were describing over dinner to me and others.

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JANUARY 18, 2022

A 30 minute coffee meeting turned into 90. Before we knew it, we both had other meetings to go to. Where had the time gone? What started as reviewing the scope of a program turned into a conversation about our personal lives, one that found many commonalities. Your kiddo swims? So does mine! My family enjoys camping in the summer also. You worked with [name] at [company]?

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