The Project Management Podcast

Play audio-only episode
|
Play on YouTube
|
Play on Spotify





Episode Summary

Artificial intelligence projects need more than a promising tool and an ambitious rollout plan. In episode 561, Cornelius Fichtner speaks with Erin Hill, Provost at Austin Christian University and a strategic consultant with experience implementing AI across higher education, legal, and financial organizations. Erin argues that AI leadership begins by asking whether an organization should use AI for a particular business outcome, not simply whether the technology can perform a task. She connects AI initiatives to organizational strategy, mission, governance, data privacy, security, and available resources. For project managers who inherit an AI initiative from senior leadership, she explains why a clear project charter, stakeholder conversations, and decisions about tool selection and employee training matter before implementation begins. The discussion also examines how needs assessments help teams find repetitive tasks and high-friction processes where AI may add value. She warns against introducing AI into disconnected or outdated systems without first addressing their underlying problems. Her examples show why organizations need trustworthy information, clear accountability, and people who understand how the tools fit into their daily work.

Premium

This is a preview of our premium episode. Full access is available only to premium subscribers.

Click here and learn about the Premium Podcast to access this interview...


Play video preview episode
|
Play audio-only preview episode
|
Play on YouTube
|
Play on Spotify





Episode Summary

Flexible leadership sounds straightforward until a project leader has to decide what to do differently when the situation changes. Kevin Eikenberry, author of Flexible Leadership: Navigate Uncertainty and Lead with Confidence, returns for a second conversation focused squarely on practical application. Kevin explains why project leaders often fall back on autopilot, how habits and even leadership identity can make flexibility difficult, and why the phrase "it depends" should serve as a trigger to stop and consider the context before acting. He also challenges the assumption that consistency and flexibility compete with each other. Effective leaders can remain consistent in their values, purpose, and project boundaries while adapting how they lead. That becomes particularly important when projects operate in uncertain or complex environments where leaders cannot know every variable, established practices may not produce the expected results, and new information can require a different response.

Play audio-only episode
|
Play on YouTube
|
Play on Spotify





Episode Summary

David Luria, author of Flatten the AI J Curve: Your Unfair Advantage in the Race to Enterprise Adoption, brings a practical conversation about what happens when an AI pilot moves into real operational use. Luria, a vice president and business manager at T. Rowe Price and a Six Sigma Black Belt, explains the AI J curve: productivity can fall before it improves, especially as teams learn new workflows, run old and new processes in parallel, and adjust to changing responsibilities. He argues that project managers should set expectations before implementation begins, keep early scope narrow, and use short stepping-stone projects to learn quickly. He also explains why culture matters. AI often removes tasks that people associate with their expertise, so adoption requires more than access to a chatbot. Leaders and project managers need to create room for experimentation, communicate what will change, and help people understand how their roles can shift toward higher-value work. Luria calls for business ownership close to the work, supported by leadership, IT, and risk teams, rather than treating AI transformation as a technology handoff.

Play video episode
|
Play on YouTube
|
Play on Spotify



Episode Summary

There is a decent chance your employer has already paid for your next 14.5 PDUs. You just have not claimed them.

My course Artificial Intelligence for Project Managers has been added to the Udemy Business collection. If your company subscribes to Udemy Business, that course is already sitting in your account: 14.5 hours of video, 14.5 PDUs toward your PMI credential renewal, and a certificate of completion when you finish. No purchase, no expense report, no approval needed.

Premium

This is a preview of our premium episode. Full access is available only to premium subscribers.

Click here and learn about the Premium Podcast to access this interview...


Play video preview episode
|
Play audio-only preview episode
|
Play on YouTube
|
Play on Spotify





Episode Summary

Sara Gallagher returns to examine a frustrating reality for project managers: organizations can employ smart, experienced, well-intentioned people and still produce the same bad outcomes again and again. Sara, president of The Persimmon Group and creator of the Big Dumb Questions newsletter, brings more than 15 years of consulting experience to a discussion that starts with artificial intelligence and quickly expands into how organizations make decisions, manage transitions, respond to change, and structure project leadership. She explains how she separates work into simple, complicated, and complex categories when deciding what to give AI, and why simple and selected complicated work offer the most practical opportunities today. From there, Sara and Cornelius examine decision latency and the danger of judging a decision only by its eventual outcome. Sara argues that leaders should focus on whether they made a defensible decision based on the information and criteria available at the time. They also examine project handoffs, where weak preparation can allow value to leak away and risk to increase just as the project reaches a critical transition point.