Below is a list of all Inspired Project Teams podcasts. Each includes:
Quotations, war stories, examples, and a little philosophy that might inspire project managers or project team members.
Reflections to think about... as project manager or project leader.
Team Challenges – Questions and suggestions to challenge your teams to stretch and grow.
Project Manager Challenges – Specific actions for project managers or team leaders.
The Podcasts
All podcasts are presented here in standard MP3 audio form. They are also available in printed text (PDF) format as part of the Inspired Project Teams Coaching Guide. So you can preview any of the podcasts here, then download the Coaching Guide later to get the support text. Enjoy!
10 Specific Actions That Can Help You Become Happier -- When individual team members are happy, the entire team will likely be happy! But how can you become happier? In this podcast I share 10 specific actions that I’ve taken to create more happiness in my life.
Consciously Choose Your Attitude * -- A project team’s attitude can make or break the project. In this post learn how you can consciously choose your attitude instead of simply allowing it to overtake you as a collection of random feelings.
Tend Your Gardens of Thought -- "A man’s mind may be likened to a garden, which may be intelligently cultivated or allowed to run wild... whether cultivated or neglected, it must and will bring forth..."
Just Say No* -- While it might make sense for individuals to say “yes” to life as often as they can, there are critical moments when project teams have just gotta say “no!” Here's why & how...
Take the Risk * -- This podcast is all about getting outside your comfort zone...If you can imagine it… if you can see it clearly… if it gets you excited as a possibility, then it may be your destiny to make it a reality.
Practice Mindfulness -- Focus: the power of mindfulness — the practice of bringing your full awareness into the present moment - and how you can expand upon your inherent ability to practice mindfulness
Accept What Is -- You must first accept a difficult situation for what it is before you can handle it effectively. Accept it, see it clearly without denial and hand-wringing, and then you can take appropriate action.
Just Do It! * -- Get moving… get unstuck… & just do it! If you and your project team members are sometimes plagued with fits of analysis paralysis or procrastination, then this post/podcast is for you.
Trust Your Judgment *-- Many great teachers and philosophers say that to achieve anything great you must trust that voice which lies deep within you. This audio examines why this voice is trustworthy and how to trust it.
Act As If -- Inspired by Wayne Dyer’s quote: “Act as if everything you desire is already here… treat yourself as if you already are what you’d like to become.” Examples & advice for applying this to project teams.
Do What You Fear & Grow Stronger -- Focus: “Do the thing you fear and the death of fear is certain - Do the thing and you will have the power.” - Emerson – W/ practical tips & Challenges to help teams push through fear & grow stronger.
Become a Project Management Minimalist * -- This podcast focuses less on the inspirational side of project management and more on the “nuts and bolts” practices that can help your project team be more effective. After all, if a project team is ineffective, no amount of inspiration can help them find much joy in their work. So in this post, we look at how you can use “just enough” PM to get great results.
Encourage Right Brain Thinking -- This post/podcast examines how Daniel Pink's "6 Right Brain Aptitudes" of Design, Story, Symphony, Empathy, Play, & Meaning (from A Whole New Mind) can be used to enhance the performance of project teams.
Shift from Drama to Empowerment -- In his book The Power of TED, David Emerald compares two very different ways of being: The Dreaded Drama Triangle (or DDT) versus The Empowerment Dynamic (or TED). We apply these to project teams.
Spend More Time in Quadrant 2 -- Focus: How project managers can apply Stephen Covey's brilliant 4-quadrant time management grid to help their project teams spend more time in Quadrant 2 activities (not urgent, but important).
Learn to Be Optimistic, Learn to Succeed -- "Cognitive therapy works [by changing] explanatory style from pessimistic to optimistic [providing]... skills for talking to yourself when you fail." - M. Seligman - This post/podcast applies this to project teams.
Change Your Mind -- “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds..." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
Celebrate the Chaos Within * -- “One must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star.” - Friedrich Nietzsche. This post/podcast provides suggestions on how project managers & leaders can support creativity.
Let Go of Perfectionism * -- Are you driven to perfection? ... or simply driven crazy? This post/podcast provides suggestions for project managers and team leaders about how they can let go of perfectionism and improve their results.
Embrace the Work Itself * -- So where’s the joy in the work itself? What about the intrinsic value of our chosen profession? The beauty and fascination of the field itself?
Train Yourself to be Happier -- "... happiness is a skill that can be learned, just like skiing or playing a musical instrument..." Denver Post Online. Focus: How to apply the new Science of Happiness to project teams.
Listen, Understand, Collaborate * -- “Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood.” - Stephen Covey's Seven Habits of Highly Effective People - Audio examines why & how project teams should listen, understand, & collaborate.
Take Charge… Stop Playing the Victim -- "You create your own experience...[&] you cannot change what you do not acknowledge." - Dr. Phil McGraw - Post/podcast focuses on how project teams can accept responsibility for bad results & take charge.
Make Time for Recreation -- "...the word recreation means...‘re-creating’ your energy, your enthusiasm... You're no good all burnt out and crispy." Anonymous boss - Audio challenges project teams to "make time for recreation."
Get High on Kindness -- "Kindness extended, received, or observed beneficially impacts the physical health and feelings of everyone involved!” -- Wayne Dyer
Think Small -- Might it make sense to do less... to "think small?"
Today… Be Here, Now -- Are you living here, right now? Or are you agonizing over future & past?
Find a Project Mantra -- Encourages you to find, and express, a central vision for your project.
* NOTE: Podcasts marked with an * are referenced in “The People Stuff” section of The PM Minimalist book and is also presented there in text/transcript form.
Bonus Videos
Are You Giving Creativity Time & Space to Blossom? -- A visual parable about self-imposed constraints to creativity. The video’s designed to get you and your project teams thinking and talking about these questions: 1) What boundaries, limitations do you impose on yourself? 2) Should you try removing some of these in order to see what blossoms?
