The People, Process, & Progress Podcast - Hear Clips from the Top 10 Most Listened to Episodes of 2021 | PPP #99

Episode Date: December 19, 2021

Sharing the 10 most downloaded episodes of 2021 and my favorite with a special message at the end. Thank you all and we'll see you in 2022!

Hey, everybody, welcome to People Process Progress, episode 99, the top 10 episodes of 2021 by listeners. So that is the episodes that have been downloaded the 10 most times throughout 2021. And I will start with the 10th and go down to the first, the most popular. First, thank you all so much for visiting peopleprocessprogress.com and listening to the show, sharing it, giving it likes, reviews, etc. on Apple podcasts or other platforms. Also follow on Twitter and Instagram at Hokie squid h o k i e s q i d. And let's get into what was the 10th most popular episode of 2021. Coincidentally,

it was episode 64. kickoff 2021 by Winning the War Within. It was from the 3rd of January of this year, where I shared some of the extreme ownership principles that you can apply from Jocko Willink and Leif Babin's book. I just talked about those again on a recent episode. Really a big proponent of it. Can't suggest them enough. And so please go listen to episode 64 on how you can kick off perhaps the rest of this

year or your 2022. I believe you can start now. You don't need to wait. But that was the most popular. And coincidentally, because this is going to be the last episode for this year, I'm going to take a break from the holidays. We'll come back strong with episode 100 in 2022. So the 10th most popular from this year was how you could kick off the war within and

win by applying the extreme ownership principles from Jocko Willink and Leif Babin. The 10th most popular from this year was How You Could Kick Off the War Within and Win by applying the extreme ownership principles from Jocko Willink and Leif Babin. Number nine, Do the Thing. This came from my wife and I watching this really cool documentary about Ben Jenkins and Aaron Klaus, where it's called West No More. And they hiked across this huge span. And I forget, I detail it in the episode, so go listen to Foundations Friday 06, do the thing. It's from February 19th, 2021.

And they wore all 1860s gear. So all the camping equipment they used, all the clothing they used, that's all they did and decided, you know, I'm just going to set up this challenge. I'm going to just decide to do it. They planned for it, of course. They practice for it. But it speaks to kind of how some of us hesitate to put things out there, to start a podcast, to start going to the gym, to start jujitsu, to start whatever, a new job. And sometimes we just need to do the thing. So check out Foundations Friday 6, Do The Thing. It's from February 2021. The eighth most popular episode, I had to say that a couple of times to not tongue twist it, was episode 81 called Foundation One, Leader's Intent. And it is from August 1st of this year. So as you recall, or hopefully you do if you're a listener of the show,

or if this is your first episode, I'm a big believer in the concept of the foundational five. The first of those being Foundation one, establishing leaders intent or receiving leaders intent. The other ones, quick recap, foundation two, meaning set up those smart objectives. Three, get a functional organizational structure or something that works for you all, sticks and boxes, right, making an org chart. The fourth is request and coordinate resources effectively. And the fifth that ties these all together, I believe is communication, right? Horizontally and vertically, meaning up and down the chain of command, across the chain of command, across the org chart. So those are the foundational five that I try to do with all my projects, with any of our other efforts at work or at home,

and really have done a few episodes focusing on how we can use those different things, whether it's a kind of proper project management thing or applying those to do a jujitsu or some other special assignment that you have. But in this one, I really focused on the connection and the crossover from leaders intent, which is really called commander's intent, the military, how that translated to the National Wildfire Coordinating Group, that's kind of the grandfather of the incident command system and all hazard management that manage all those big wildfires and other stuff. And then how we can apply that and pretty directly to project management and how we should always have clear leaders intent, typically from our sponsors and business owners for

the project managers out there. But that was the eighth most popular. And again, that's from August 1st, 2021. Go check that out. Coming up in the seventh most popular spot is engaging leadership with Leanne Pond, which is critical because this interview led to a Foundations Friday I did that is the most popular episode of this year. So talking about the seventh most popular though, engaging leadership with Leanne Pond. This is from January 25th, 2021. Leanne was the chief

administrative officer when I was a planning captain at the Richmond Ambulance Authority. So we had a good time catching up. She's also the founder and CEO of Engaging Leadership, her own company. She's got 15 years in the C-suite and she's the author of the engagement ring, Practical Leadership Skills for Engaging Your Employees. And so we talked through elements of the book and I'm not going to give the spoiler alert because I'll talk through it when we talk about the most popular episode, but really good information and practical and particularly for fields.

We were in the emergency medical system field together, but this happens in other fields too where, say, someone is really good technically. They're really good at the field work. They're really good at the coding or whatever, but they may not get development as a leader, and that's an area that she can really help with. She can really coach folks through. Check out episode 66 with Leanne Pond. It's from January 25th, 2021. And check her out on Amazon. Check out The Engagement Ring.

Really good book and a great person to talk to. It was a really fun conversation. Number six is episode 68, the DMAIC, D-M-A-I-C to planning P. And so DMAIC stands for design, measure, analyze, improve, and control. And it's from Six Sigma, which is a manufacturing kind of thing, efficiency, process improvement. And so I nerded out on this one and mapped the process of DMAIC to the planning P. That's the literally big P that is a process that's got kind of blocks all throughout it that we used in the all-hazardous incident management world. Lots of good crossover.

I also, on the website, created a cross-map or a field reference. So if you go to peopleprocessprogress.com, go to the search, either magnifying glass or at the bottom, you can type in DMAIC. The article will come up. Click on that. You'll see the field reference on there. Again, that's episode 68, DMAIC to Planning P from February 25th of 2021. The fifth most popular is where I looked at, it's called Peterson's 12 Rules for Project Managers.

A book of the same name or very similar from Jordan Peterson, Dr. Jordan Peterson, 12 Rules for life. And so I talk about how we as project managers can apply these principles. And just like in the book, the one that is, I find the best that I like the most is stand up straight with shoulders back, right? So you're starting as a project manager and as a person more confident, you're standing up, your shoulders are back, it changes your mental state as well as how others perceive you, right? If you're walking into the meeting, your head's down on your phone, your shoulders are huddled up, you're not confident. And even if you're on Zoom, you know, be sitting up straight or standing up, you have a standing desk or something like that,

and look confident, you'll feel confident. There's other stuff in there about not doing things, to make people not like you. In his book, it's about children. Here, I talk about being a project manager. So check out People Process Progress, episode 69, Peterson's 12 Rules for Project Managers. That one is from March 7th of 2021. Fourth most popular is episode 76 from May of this year is the wit and wisdom of the little gym that could with Andrew Smith and Daniel Frank. Andrew and Daniel helped me get started into Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in 2018. And I trained at Revolution Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu until I moved to Southwest Virginia. And they were just great folks, great introductory course, really supportive.

And we get into in this episode how both Andrew and Daniel got their start in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, how they traveled around. And really what I think is key is how they bring new folks in and build them up and help them succeed and help stay with Jiu-Jitsu, not just from a sustainable business model because if you own somewhere, you want people to come back as customers. That's practical, right? But even more so how you take care of the people to make them want to come back and not burn them out or be too harsh on them or things like that. But it was really good conversation. Again, that's episode 76. It's from May of this year. Also check out their book of the same name, The Wit and Wisdom of the Little Jim That Could. They have an ebook on Amazon,

really great jujitsu information and just general, you know, cool stories about them. So check that out on Amazon and go listen to Episode 76, The Wit and Wisdom of the Little Jim That Could with Andrew Smith and Daniel Frank. All right, everybody, as we get into the top three, I'm going to ask again and appreciate if you can leave a review, share this podcast with others that may benefit if they're getting into project management or incident management, incident command, emergency management. We've had a whole heap load of stuff. in addition to moving a heap load of equipment like the

episode I talked about a month or so ago. Also, we've just covered a lot of topics on here with great people and so want to share their stories. So if you can do that, that'd be great. Go to peopleprocessprogress.com. Check out the episodes there and other resources and templates that I have on the website. And let's talk about the third most popular episode of 2021. It's a foundational Friday, number five, request resources early and often. And so this has to do kind of with the actual practical asking for stuff. But

more importantly, that when you ask for help, it's not a sign of weakness. To me, it's actually a sign of strength, you're confident enough to know, I need help. I can't do this by myself. And so you ask for more. I know I've been on big programs or projects where I felt like I can do this, I can do this. And at some point, you have to be able to say, you know what, Kevin, you can't do this by yourself. And so I don't know if your name is Kevin or not, but that's me talking to myself. But you have to ask for help, right? And it's not a sign of weakness. It gets you the resources before your risks on any venture, a project, initiative that you're assigned to become an issue.

And then you have to say, well, yeah, I should have asked for help, but now it's too late. We've lost money and time and scope and all that stuff. So request those resources early and often. Again, that's foundation four that we talk about. It's key to know how to do that, know how to ask for resources within your company,

outside of your company. Good to know, especially for project managers coming into a new spot or if you're in your company, help share that information with other folks. Number two is foundational Friday. Number four, coincidentally, these are sequential and reverse order. This one's called put up your mental frames. It is from February 5th of 2021. And this has to do in Brazilian jiu jitsu, and kind of in wrestling, but in Brazilian jiu jitsu,

in particular, there's this thing we do called framing. So let's say someone's trying to lay perpendicular to you on your chest, you put one arm under their under their neck, kind of in one of their hip, and you have some space and you can breathe from the pressure that the literal pressure that is on your body and and you frame and you can move out and it sets up a lot of good things and helps you not be in the middle of as many bad things and so a good principle to do when you leave your house or you start your day or you're getting up and getting after it right up in the morning hashtag hashtag UITM, is to put up your mental frames. Get yourself ready for the day. Get yourself ready for whatever work shift you have, for getting the kids ready for school,

for doing the chores you have to do. Kind of set up a defense. And I don't mean to be standoffish, but just be ready for the day. Prepare yourself. Take some breaths. Get your workout in for sure. Think of the Miracle Morning. That was an episode we did here too.

It's a great program. So you do 10 minutes. You need an hour though. You do 10 minutes of these six different things, whether it's silence, meditation, affirmations, just think of a routine that you can help prepare yourself. And one of the best ones that I've talked about on here and on the Up in the Morning podcast is fitness and exercise and jujitsu or some other activity, just be physically active, that's going to help you not be as upset throughout the day, if your coffee's not quite so

hot, or the office is out of creamer, or even if something catastrophic happens, like you have a supply chain failure that we've all run into probably a lot in these past few months, you'll have perspective because let's say that morning you already walked three miles or you did seven rounds of jiu-jitsu, you did something hard, you did something that was challenging, you'll have mental frames to deal with whatever happens in the workplace. Number one, and as I mentioned, is a contributor, was contributed to by my great interview with Leanne Pond in episode 66,

is Foundations Friday 3, coaching is not consulting. And that was probably my favorite and it's a soundbite that I shared on social media from Leanne. And that's a big distinction, right? When she coaches somebody, she's going to let them know, here are some things to consider. Here's good ways to make decisions or just kind of coach them and prompt and ask questions. But she's not giving them the solution and consulting on how to solve the problem.

And that's a big difference. And that's something that I think is key for our kids too, right? Can you tie my shoelaces? I can do one of them and then we're going to do the other one together. And the kids keep asking, well, no, I'm not going to just tie your shoes for you, but I'll walk you through doing it. It's the whole teach, give a man a fish, feed him for a day, teach a man to fish, feed him for a lifetime, right?

So if you're constantly consulting and that's a different business model too, right? So if you're constantly consulting with somebody, you are getting paid to solve problems for them or help them solve their problems directly. If you're coaching someone, you're prompting them and building them up to be able to solve their own problems and make their own decisions based on maybe a different perspective that they don't have. But again, you're not feeding them the answers. And so that was the most popular episode of 2021. And again, I appreciate everybody listening, sharing, reading from peopleprocessproducts.com. I also want to share my favorite episode.

And it involved me reading something that my 10-year-old wrote called Be Kind. And it was episode 90, Out of the Mouth of Babes. I added some commentary. But what I want to play for you is kind of an edited version where it's just his writing and i think it's a good time for us to remind each other to just be kind to people we see people that are scared people with different views religious wise political wise whatever we can disagree we can talk about how we disagree but at the end of the day we should do our best to be kind to others and And so I want to leave you all in this end or close to the end of 2021. And I'll see you all or hear you all you're here with me hear me in 2022.

With my son's write up and some reminders on how we can all be kind. So I'm gonna wish you all the best. Hope you stay safe. Wash those hands and Godspeed. And here is a reminder to be kind. How you can be kind. You should be kind because it can make others feel good and it can make you feel good too. You should also be kind because it's also just a good thing to do. It can help you make friends. It can help you get more school name likes and it can make people around you be kind. Being kind can make others want to be kind because when they see you are kind and get

good things out of it, they'll want to be kind too. And it can actually get you better grades because scientifically, being kind can make you happy, and being happy can make you work harder. Sometimes being kind can be hard or embarrassing because if you help someone that gets bullied a lot people might laugh at you and call you names. But who cares if they call your names and laugh at you? Just ignore them and focus on helping that person. And being called names and being laughed at doesn't hurt you does it? No, it doesn't. Now if they push you around

that's not acceptable at all. To solve that problem you have to firmly say leave me alone and don't do it again and you have to really say it not whisper it. Being kind can also help you to do things you probably didn't want to do before. Like it helps you get over your fears. You might not be able to get over them, but it might make you feel better about yourself. For example, if you're scared of talking to a big crowd, then try being kind to yourself by telling yourself you can do it. If you just can't get yourself to tell yourself that, then just take a deep breath and start

talking. Because it'll be over soon. And being kind isn't just saying hi or helping someone, it can mean you make someone laugh, not in an evil way, or fill them with joy, or playing with someone who's alone and has no one to play with.