48. New Releases: Conversations with the Authors

In the beginning, there was the PMBOK®. Then came the deluge! If you are looking for information on the latest trends, philosophies, and cutting edge methodologies in Project Management, there is no shortage of books and articles to explore. The questions is, where to begin? In this episode, host Kendall Lott interviews three authors of recently published books: Ted Kallman, co-author of Flow: Getting Everyone Moving in the Right Direction…and Loving It; Michael O’Brochta, author of How To Get Executives To Act for Project Success; and Susan Schwartz, author of Creating a Greater Whole: A Project Manager’s Guide to Becoming a Leader.

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An educational podcast with PM Guests discussing key technical project management techniques in new ways.

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PDU Category: Online or Digital Media Provider Number: 4634 PDU Claim Code: 4634TQA5Xm Activity Number: PMPOV0048 PDUs for this episode: 1 About the Speakers Ted Kallman

As an Enterprise Agile Coach, Ted Kallman helps organizations in the common-sense adoption of lean-agile Flow to increase project and organization effectiveness and value.  Ted is co-author of the national #1 Best Selling and Best Rated book “The Nehemiah Effect: Ancient Wisdom from the World’s First Agile Projects” and “Flow: Getting Everyone Moving in the Same Direction … and Loving It” due out April of 2018.  He also co-authored a book with Jeff Tobe “Coloring Outside the Lines” that is focused on Project Managers.  This book was given as a gift by PMI to all participants at PMIs Leadership Institute Meeting 2015 .

Ted is a PMI-ACP, PMP, CSM, CSPO, CSP.  He is the founder of Agile West MI and currently serves WMPMI as President. As a well-known Keynote speaker he has presented to over 350,000 people over the past 30 years.

Ted has worked as a CEO, COO, CMO, and PMO in Europe and the US.  His projects have included; Mfg, Telecom, Software Dev, Marketing, CRM, and PMO creation with companies like Whirlpool, ZF/TRWGM, OnStar, Steelcase and Ericsson.

Michael O'Brochta

Mr. O'Brochta, who has managed hundreds of projects during the past thirty years, is an experienced line manager, author, lecturer, trainer and consultant. He holds a master's degree in project management, a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering, and is certified as an ACP and a PMP. As Zozer Inc. President, he is helping organizations raise their level of project management performance. As senior project manager at the Central Intelligence Agency, he led the development of highly complex top secret projects, programs, and systems; and he led the development of the project management and systems engineering training and certification program to mature practices agency-wide. His other recent work includes leading the development of standards and courses for the new U.S. Federal Acquisition Certification for Program and Project Managers. Mr. O’Brochta supported FAC-P/PM programs by providing subject matter expertise for instructional design and delivery to the Federal Acquisition Institute and Department of Veterans Affairs. He served at the PMI corporate level as Chair the Ethics Member Advisory Group where he led the development of the ethical decision-making framework and the new PMI ethics website; he is a graduate of the Leadership Institute Mater Class. Mr. O’Brochta has written and presented papers each of the past 17 years at PMI Global Congress events as well as at hundreds of international, and regional conferences. Topics that he is currently passionate about include great project managers and how to kill bad projects. His recent book, titled “How To Get Executives To Act For Project Success,” is available on Amazon. He has been featured in issues of PMI Today, PM Network, CIO Magazine, Information Week, and Government Executive Magazine. Since his recent climb of another of the world’s seven summits, he has been exploring the relationship between project management and mountain climbing.

Susan Schwartz

Susan Schwartz released her first book, Creating a Greater Whole: A Project Manager‘s Guide to Becoming a Leader this past January.  Throughout her career she led a variety of technical and non-technical teams successfully through organizational change and brought projects to completion – on time and under budget.  She credits the cross-functional, global team successes to a combination of process review, crucial conversations, and knowledge sharing strategies.

She has facilitated public courses and seminars for George Mason University Learning Solutions, the Project Management Institute, The Association of Talent Development, The American Society of Quality, and the Society for Human Resources.  

Ms. Schwartz received an M.S. in organizational development and knowledge management from George Mason University School of Public Policy and a B.A. in Economics from Goucher College.