5 Minutes Podcast with Ricardo Vargas

In this second episode of the series about the new PMBOK®️ Guide, Ricardo talks about the first part of the guide, which is the ANSI standard. Ricardo explains that these principles are the DNA of the person who wants to manage projects and participate in a project team, regardless of your approach to managing and delivering your project. The 12 principles embrace attitudes that support your work in the project management field, such as ethics, responsibility, respect, collaborative environment, stakeholder engagement, value delivery, tailoring, VUCA, internal and external factors to the project, and others. Ricardo is also preparing his new video that will be available on his YouTube channel (https://youtube.com/rvvargas). Subscribe and activate the notifications to have first-hand access to the videos.

This week comes with a special episode. With the release of the PMBOK®️ Guide 7th Edition by PMI, Ricardo decided to talk for the first time about the new guide in a series of 3 episodes. This first episode is about the rationale behind the changes and the overall structure of the new guide. Next week, Ricardo will cover the 12 principles of Project Management and, in the following week, the 8 performance domains of the new PMBOK. Ricardo is also preparing your new video that will be available on his YouTube channel (https://youtube.com/rvvargas). Subscribe to the channel and activate the notifications to have firsthand access to the guide.

In this week's episode, Ricardo talks about the relevance of being a role model and an example to foster leadership and improve results. Without being an example of behavior, character, ethics, and determination is impossible for you to lead a team effectively. Listen to the Podcast to know more.

In this week's episode, Ricardo discusses the misconception related to the "As Soon as Possible" and "As Late as Possible" approaches. Many professionals believe that we should focus on ASAP and avoid procrastination at all costs. But this is not necessarily true. Listen to the Podcast to know more.

In this week's episode, Ricardo shares three tips that can help align disagreements and accelerate action when a project is in crisis. Listen to the podcast to learn more.

In this week's episode, Ricardo discusses the proper level of control we need to have on a project, preventing the rise of chaos or the construction of an empire out of papers and reports. Hear more on the podcast.

In this week's episode, Ricardo talks about three aspects, features or characteristics of agile that we all should learn and apply. Listen to the podcast to know them.

In this week's episode, Ricardo makes an analogy on how you can use the same approach to close a project in your own professional life when it is time for you to move on. Sometimes we know that, for any reason you may choose, it is time for you to end a cycle to give the opportunity to start a new one. But this process is not as happy and joyful as the beginning of a project or job. Ricardo shares the 4 things you need to be mindful of to avoid destroying what you built when it is the time of your departure. Listen to the podcast to know more.

In this week's episode, Ricardo talks about something nobody talks too much about. The pain of the end. When the project releases its main products or services, it is pure joy. However, there is a less joyful moment happening at the same time: the feelings surrounding the end of the work, the loss and fears about the future. Listen to the podcast to know how communications and a human approach can reduce the trauma of demobilization and disassembly.

In this week's episode, Ricardo makes an analogy between the book "The Burnout Society" by the Korean philosopher Byung-Chul Han and our current work. The book talks about how the pressure we put on ourselves to break the limits has produced a sick society. Ricardo's analogy centers on our choice process. Companies want to do everything without investing in anything. During their portfolio selection, the executives aim to make everything, but there are no resources. People want to do more with less until a point is reached of making the infinite out of nothing. In the end, he addresses three topics: the importance of focus, our inability to do everything, and our choice process.

In this week's episode, Ricardo makes a personal reflection on why he chose to work with project management. He explains how the desire to create new things and the happiness and fulfillment when you get things done were a fuel to select his profession. The happiness for the achievement. Listen to the episode to hear his perspectives about the profession.

In this week's episode, Ricardo explains the fundamental differences between 3 roles in the project environment: the product owner and Scrum Master, widely used when applying Scrum and the Project Manager. All of them have critical roles in supporting their projects to deliver the results. However, each of them comes with a different set of accountabilities and responsibilities. Listen to the podcast to know more.

In this week's episode, Ricardo reflects on how our experiences, the media, and the different voices of society affect our perception of risks. We often increase, decrease or disregard the relevance of different threats and opportunities due to imperfect and biased information we receive every day. Ricardo also shares three simple tips you should always keep in mind to analyze future risk scenarios in the best possible way.

In this week's episode, Ricardo explains the 5 Whys technique to help you identify the root cause of an event, a specific risk, or even support your decision-making process. The technique, although simple, has nuances that allow you to be more effective and expand its range of uses beyond what was proposed by its creator, the founder of Toyota in the 1930s. Ricardo shows how to use 5 Whys in measuring intangibles, problem-solving, risk response development, and also in combined applications such as the use of 5 Whys with AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process).

In this week's episode, Ricardo talks about accountability and the discomfort we face most of the time when making decisions. Having the chance to make decisions are one of the most significant freedom examples we have. However, it comes with a lot of pain because we do not know precisely a decision is correct or not. If we take only the professional lens, we have to make decisions constantly, bringing stress, but we have no other option. It is our duty. And do not think that delay decision is a good option. When you delay decisions, you are deciding anyway: you just chose to do nothing. This was your decision.

Ricardo tries to see the incident from different perspectives. From the standpoint of Evergreen Marine (ship operator) to the other shipping companies. From the perspective of the Egyptian government to the perspective of countries that rely heavily on global trade. Finally, he discusses your view as someone managing a project that relies on equipment or supplies coming from the other side of the world.

In this week's episode, Ricardo shares a concept he saw in a Design Thinking course he did recently: The Ebb and Flow of Ideation. Dev Patnaik introduces this straightforward and effective concept in the Product Development Best Practices Report. It is centered on the concept that better ideas are interspersed with absurd ones during ideation, and a wild idea is the fuel to generate new brilliant ones.

In this week's episode, Ricardo introduces the Kano Model, one of the easiest and more effective ways to prioritize product and service's features based on their potential to satisfy clients. Listen to the episode to learn more about the five patterns or categories created by Noriaki Kano to classify the features and identify those you should focus on developing.

In this week's episode, Ricardo discusses one of the critical principles of the PRINCE2 method: the management by exception. Managing by exception is a key pillar to save time and the overload of communications by setting boundaries of action and escalating issues. This principle is useful in every type of project and every method. Listen to the episode to learn more about avoiding unnecessary reporting and communication, empowering your teams to manage their work boundaries and keeping your focus on exceptions.

In this week's episode, Ricardo gives tips for optimizing virtual meetings. As everyone knows, this type of arrangement has become a "nightmare" for many. Endless hours in front of a small screen have become a torment for productivity and performance. There are 5 simple tips that are much more related to discipline and behavior than to any type of technology.

This week's topic goes back to negotiation and who should make the first offer. Many researchers claim that the Anchoring bias provides an edge to those who make the first offer since the human tendency supports that counter-offers tend to be proposed around the initial starting point. But there is a way around this if you don't make the first offer... Listen to the episode to find out more.

This week, Ricardo reflects on companies' benefits and challenges with the visible increase in interest in outsourcing activities, especially concerning outsourced activities due to incapacity and lack of knowledge about work. He ponders the damage that the lack of knowledge, mastery of technology and know-how, can generate in the project's sustainability and its benefits.

This week Ricardo returns to discuss the Dunning-Kruger effect and how it is usually more visible in projects and initiatives with more abstract deliveries and products. It is important to remember that the Dunning-Kruger effect occurs when the professional demonstrates confidence and a sense of competence incompatible with his job's real ability. This time, he goes back to discussing one of the most critical aspects of cognitive bias and how it is less evident in projects with clear scope and deliveries and much more apparent when the product, service and purpose of the project are less tangible.

The WEF just published the Global Risk Report 2021. In its 16th edition, the report addresses the significant global risks like war, natural disasters, infectious diseases, and several other events and hazards that could jeopardize companies and governments' operations. In this episode, Ricardo highlights the report's main finds and goes back to 2020 to see how the landscape changed with the COVID-19 pandemia.

Nowadays, all those leading projects and initiatives only talk about outcomes. In this week episode, Ricardo reflects on the concept that outcomes are everything while outputs are irrelevant. For him, outputs and outcomes are equally important because outputs are the only way to produce outcomes. The problem is the disconnection between the outputs we product and the outcome we want to reach. We need to understand that many times a lot of movement, does not mean a lot of progress towards your strategic intent.

With the new PMP® Exam just released by PMI, Ricardo has received several messages asking about the new exam and the relationship with the PMBOK® Guide 6th Edition and the new PMBOK® Guide 7th Edition that is close to being released. He approaches the main differences in the exam and that until the new PMBOK® Guide is released, the part of the exam that MAY cover the guide will be based on the 6th edition as mentioned by PMI at https://www.pmi.org/pmbok-guide-standards/about/current-projects

In the fourth and last episode, Ricardo talks about the importance of reputation and the use of social media. He also discusses our attitude towards failure, empathy, humility and gratitude and how these aspects become fundamental as you progress professionally in life.

This week's episode celebrates the 13th anniversary of the 5 Minutes Podcast and the arrival of a significant milestone: 500 episodes. In this special podcast, Ricardo reviews 2020 and shares his perspectives for 2021. He also shares an interview about podcasts' history and some curious facts, as he has never heard even an episode of his own podcasts. The interview is on your YouTube channel - Link here. An animation about the podcast's numbers was aired today and can be seen here.

In the third episode of the series, Ricardo shares his method to identify which projects and initiatives he must undertake to achieve his goals. It shows how a Post-It and a flip chart can make a big difference in how you view, compare and select ideas.

This week Ricardo publishes the audio of the second episode of the What Matters Series (https://youtube.com/rvvargas) In this episode, he discusses the importance of having professional options and how you can increase these options by improving knowledge, networking and mobility. He also talks about how some discomfort and challenges can bring you the resilience and "antifragility" to succeed.

This week Ricardo publishes a special podcast with the audio of the first episode of the What Matters Series (https://youtube.com/rvvargas) In this episode, he shares how passion defines success for you; no matter what career you choose.

This week, Ricardo will address a question he has been receiving in the past weeks: Should I sit my PMP Exam now, or should I wait until 2021? In this episode, Ricardo tries to answer this question and provide some last-minute tips for those who do not want to “procrastinate” and get the job done this year.

This week, Ricardo talks about a type of relationship that is becoming increasingly popular: coupled dependencies. This kind of relationship increases the delivery speed. However, if not appropriately managed, this coupled dependency can increase the risks and the chances of rework. This is due to the set of assumptions teams needed to create these coupled dependencies.

This week, Ricardo talks about the evaluation of risks using the Bowtie method. The method has its roots in the oil and gas industry, but it is used today in several areas to visualize the event, the threats that could trigger the risk and its consequences. After evaluating the threats and consequences, the team should work together to identify barriers that they can implement to avoid or mitigate the threat or impact. It has this name because it has a visual shape of a bowtie. PS: The image related to this podcast is an actual bowtie on human performance hazard at the Civil Aviation Authority in the UK. Click here to see the original file.

This week, Ricardo talks about metrics and discusses why we should review metrics often to make sure they are still valuable. One of the main threats of old metrics is that people get used to the engine behind it, and they know exactly how to work so that they stay on permanent “green” without truly seeing the whole picture.

This week, Ricardo presents the last episode about the engineering culture created by Spotify to manage and deliver projects. The Spotify model aims to shape a culture of self-organized, autonomous teams, where independence and alignment combined with a strong focus on people and motivation aim to bring agility at scale with fast decoupled releases and an incredible sense of mutual trust. For more info about the Spotify engineering culture check at https://engineering.atspotify.com/2014/03/27/spotify-engineering-culture-part-1/

This week, Ricardo presents part 2 of 3 about the engineering culture created by Spotify to manage and deliver projects. The Spotify model aims to shape a culture of self-organized, autonomous teams, where independence and alignment combined with a strong focus on people and motivation aim to bring agility at scale with fast decoupled releases and an incredible sense of mutual trust. For more info about the Spotify engineering culture check at https://engineering.atspotify.com/2014/03/27/spotify-engineering-culture-part-1/

This week, Ricardo kicks off a series of 3 episodes about the engineering culture created by Spotify to manage and deliver projects. The Spotify model aims to shape a culture of self-organized, autonomous teams, where independence and alignment combined with a strong focus on people and motivation aim to bring agility at scale with fast decoupled releases and an incredible sense of mutual trust. Part 1 of 3. For more info about the Spotify engineering culture check at https://engineering.atspotify.com/2014/03/27/spotify-engineering-culture-part-1/

In this episode, Ricardo addresses the problem of creating complex management systems to manage complex projects. This kind of mistake is very common. As things become more complex, you add more layers of controls, reporting, etc. That is where bureaucracy is born. This is when your project or initiative goes to the Intensive Care Unit… It becomes crucial to understand that simple and effective management is the best way to respond to complex challenges.

In this episode, Ricardo shows how to use the 7R process to plan and drive change. The 7R’s process was primarily focused on IT initiatives, mainly using ITIL Change Management Process. However, every single change initiative can benefit from it, regardless of area or sector. The 7R’s are (Raiser, Reason, Return, Risk, Responsible, Resources, and Relationships).

In this episode, Ricardo reflects on five aspects that could explain why some intellectually gifted professionals have such a hard time working in teams. He discusses aspects related to confidence, education, ego, EQ, and IQ, among others, and their impact on a “smart” person’s desire and effectiveness to work together.

In this episode, Ricardo discusses the connection between our desire for adaptability, creativity, experimentation and innovation with common human feelings like fear and safety. Providing a psychologically safe environment is becoming a critical success factor in surviving and thriving in the current scenario.

In this episode, Ricardo comments on a recent LinkedIn post comparing “Project Management Thinking” with “Scrum Master Thinking”. The post clearly presents one side as a controller, authoritarian, centralizer, etc. and the other as a team player and an enabler. On a rare reply to posts, Ricardo mentioned that this is not the right comparison. This is a comparison between competent and incompetent professionals. There was an implicit desire to connect the method with a competence profile. Competence and leadership go above and beyond the tool or technique you use. Take a look at several capital projects failing despite utilizing the state of art project management plan. Note that 70% of all Digital transformation fail… Pretty much all of them using Agile methods. If the method were the solution, the COVID-19 crisis would not be a leadership crisis like we see today.

In this episode, Ricardo explains the fundamental difference between the scope you define for the project, the procurement documents you may use to source products and services, and the requirements you identify to set the boundaries of the work you need to do. It is essential to highlight that Ricardo does not restrict these documents to waterfall project management. They are useful for any approach you may use, and they can be presented in extremely different ways with different names.

In this episode, Ricardo reflects on our innovation and creative process. Recently he reviewed some concepts related to the “Blue Ocean Strategy” created by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne from INSEAD, and one aspect raised his interest: nondestructive creation/innovation. This podcast is his reflection on whether it is possible to innovate and create/deliver projects by expanding the market through new products and services and not necessarily by killing old products. The MIT Sloan article Ricardo references can be read at https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/nondisruptive-creation-rethinking-innovation-and-growth/

In this episode, Ricardo discusses the organizational and individual behaviour that shapes the concept of agility: rapid decision making, flat structure, decision close to the execution, adaptation to change. He also discusses the Agile methods or approaches that intends to help organizations embed the concept of agility inside their organizations. However, the problem goes above and beyond a technique. If you do not incorporate the Agile mindset and behaviour in the whole organization, you will only have a speedy process in a very incompetent organization. This is why people are now talking about Business Agility.

In this episode, Ricardo demonstrates his concerns about the blind use of templates everywhere. Despite being a reliable source of inspiration and ideas, the templates can make you think that your management work is just filling forms while, in reality, you should be thinking, deciding and acting.

In this episode, Ricardo reflects on our desire for control and how the lack of control can create all sorts of psychological threats which could culminate in poor results for the project, for the organization and for you. Ricardo also talks about mechanisms of acceptance, reaction, adaptation and learning that you should put in place to be effective and deliver positive results in an environment where you do not have control.

In this episode, Ricardo introduces the Post Mortem Analysis, one of the less used and most relevant collective learning activities that project and program teams can do at the end of their project, program or initiative.

In this episode, Ricardo tries to define what making progress really is. Many times even brilliant people get trapped thinking that movement = action = progress. Movement for the sake of proving you are doing something is pointless, consumes energy and resources and will not take you and your organization anywhere.