The People, Process, & Progress Podcast - Saying "Goodbye" to the Between the Slides Podcast - Say Hello to the People, Process, Progress Podcast | BTS #46

Episode Date: December 31, 2019

Sharing my farewell to my first podcast and the transition to and concept of the 'People, Process, Progress' podcast.

Please silence your cell phones, hold all sidebar conversations to a minimum, and we'll get started with Between the Slides in 3, 2, 1. December 31st, 2019, this will be the final episode of the Between the Slides podcast. I'm your host, Kevin Pinnell, and first, thank you to everybody who has listened, who clicked play on this episode. And while it sounds final that this is a last episode of this podcast, I also want to share that I will be moving to the People, Process, and Progress podcast, which I find is a way to evolve as a podcaster, to expand the show, which started really as a way for me to continue teaching and

sharing all hazards, management principles and practices as well as some project management. And I feel like focusing on people, more interviews, more historical figures, just more things that I find interesting that I know others may as well. And processes of all types, you know, whether it's a technical thing or how somebody changed their life through quitting smoking, whatever it is like that. And then progress. Progress is the goal. Progress to help us all get better in whatever capacity we need to or want to. And just a way to share that. And it's a way, and as a podcaster, an opportunity to not be kind of so narrow on the topic. And honestly, when you say, you know, when I've talked to folks and it's like, oh, you have a podcast.

What is it? I say, oh, it's between the slides. And they're like, what? You know, so it's not a super intuitive, oh, it's, you know, the conversations you have between slides at a conference or in a meeting or something like that. But when you say people, process, and progress, pretty straightforward as long as it's not a tongue twister there. So on this last episode, I wanted to reflect on the top 20 most downloaded episodes of Between the Slides.

And as of today, we have 5,805 downloads according to the Great Blueberry statistics from the host that hosts the show. And so the most downloaded episode with 242 downloads is the project management tips to succeed on the PMP exam. So that's where I shared how I was successful on my first try, not by reading every word in the project management body of knowledge book, but rather going through the second part of that book, which is a much better read, tons of practice questions with the PMP exam simulator, the Pocket Prep PMP app, and with, of course, the courses that I took and suggest. So if you haven't listened to that and you're looking to become a project management professional, I suggest you do that. Pretty popular.

Anything I think that has to do with helping folks achieve something, particularly the PMP credential, what was the most. The second most, which is kind of surprising, was a leadership focus where I called it Decentralizing Ebola and Project Charters. And I actually had these thoughts and put them together. And maybe that's some of the attractiveness on spontaneous podcasts and less scripted shows in general. I know I find that with some shows as well as I recorded this in a car on the way to my friend's bachelor party weekend when we were going camping and just really some, some thoughts on Jocko Willink's decentralized command and really how, you know,

that concept isn't unique to, and he said that before isn't unique to his concepts or combat or anything like that, but it's letting your people do what they need to do to achieve their goals. And on Ebola and how just the rush from folks, you know, it'd come back, come up in the news again. And when it, you know, hit years ago and everybody was worried, we were screening people all over the country, how people waited to the last minute to get supplies.

And there were no supplies because, you know, you wait and everybody wants the same stuff. And then I talked on project charters and their importance, not just for the administrative box to check, but more so when you put together a charter, you're pulling people together to craft those objectives and really build that foundational form, which I've talked about in the show of those objectives, the organization chart that's one team with vendors and staff and anybody else together working and coordinating resources together and communicating really well. And so a charter is a way early in a project for us to do that. And so that was kind of a discussion there.

So 213 downloads of that episode. That's pretty neat. The next two episodes were some of the earliest. So my third episode was the NIMS, or sorry, second episode, sorry, the NIMS 700. So that really getting into what is this whole incident command system concept and what is the National Incident Management System. 187 downloads there. So that incident management interest and then the direction that I took the show after that in the next episode, the next downloaded as well with 174 was the incident command system 100.

So that's when you really get into what is incident command? What is the planning section? What are groups and things like that? And so a start from that. The fifth most downloaded episode was with my friend Mike Snodder. And it was the focus on law enforcement's resistance to ICS or the Incident Command System with 172 downloads. And that's where I got a great insight from, you know, someone who'd been in law enforcement a couple decades, was a Marine, a leader, on why law enforcement, and I think it's better now,

but traditionally did not embrace the Incident Command System right away. They stuck with the operations plans or, you know, their own way of doing things. And that's, you know, from decades and really, you know, the long history of law enforcement's way of doing things, but how that also can create silos and not having them be truly integrated with their partners in firing EMS and dispatch and things like that. So that was a really good discussion. This is episode seven. So great discussion. Law enforcement resistant to ICS was the fifth most downloaded and the next was the incident command system 200 which i called ics jujitsu being a jujitsu

player myself still a white belt going on 14 15 months um and getting back into it got to oh there's my phone awesome so my thought with that ics know, jujitsu for ICS 200 is you kind of learn how to use incident command system a lot more in 200. So as a white belt, as a new person, when you start to get some of the base concepts of keeping your elbows in and in your neck kind of tight. So, you know, basically you don't want to get, you know, armbarred or camorra or choked. So you're protecting those pieces and you're starting to learn some of the foundations and base and not maybe getting flipped quite as much. And so when you get into that

Incident Command System 200, you've taken that next step where you should have the basic, basic core concepts. Now we're going to say, okay, here's how you can use some of those things. Number seven,

seventh month downloaded is the Leadership Lessons from Gettysburg and Beyond, 157 downloads. So that's the one I talked about. I did a staff ride at Gettysburg National Battlefield Park. Hopefully that's the official name, but Gettysburg. And really there's so many leadership lessons, and I was fortunate to do that staff ride where we highlight different leaders at different stages of the battle. So early on, talking about Buford and how he was dynamic to get his folks to get off the horse and become foot soldiers because there was a whole bunch of infantry coming in.

And then Chamberlain defending to the last and having that pace plan and that primary alternate contingency and emergency plan. So we really went into those, and that's episode 10. And so I really enjoyed that episode a lot, and I've done a few talks of that episode at conferences and to actually my alma mater at VCU's Homeland Security Program that I graduated from, and it's really cool. It can be adapted to really anything. They're just great examples of leadership under duress that could apply to business and other places. Number eight, most downloaded, 144, are tips to

succeed in the type three all-hazard incident management training course. That's the O-305 class. So that's the incident management team bootcamp, if you will, on a couple days of slides and discussions and hopefully some between-the-slides discussions, if you will, going on. A lot of that actually, not war stories and reading slides to you. Wink, wink, instructors don't read slides to folks. And then the second half of the week is getting teams to work together from something as simple as, hey, if you're logistics on your team for this class, you're going to order lunch for everyone, including your instructor. So getting folks into that habit, because when you go on real

deployments, logistics does that, right? The food unit, or if you don't have a food unit, just logistics doing that for people. Number nine, 143, the 12 immutable laws of project management. This I got from a Streetwise project management book by Dobson. And then I saw it, you know, looked it up online a bit to see different variations of it. And so it's really kind of some truths of what's really gonna happen. A good standout one to me of,

you can explain something and think you've explained it so simply and so clearly, and then you haven't because someone just won't get it. And that's similar things like that with project management. This was another one. This was to my other friend's bachelor party while I was on the road. So, you know, kind of open discussions, monologues, if you will, from the road seems to be pretty popular.

And really just, I think, a flow of ideas. And those immutable laws are pretty neat. They're pretty straightforward. So check that episode out if you have not. The 10th most downloaded at 139 garage gyms, deployment readiness and therapy. So that really talks about part of my personal transformation and, you know, deciding just that one day, finally get up early, exercise, do it again tomorrow, do it again, and then keep doing that. Now it's been a lifestyle for about two and a half, three years, maybe. And suggesting that not just for your personal gains, which will be the most benefit, you'll feel better, you'll look better, you'll be stronger, your mind will be a little more sharp. If you have the other components,

you know, where you eat better and sleep better, and I wax and wane with that. And the deployment readiness, meaning as an incident management team member, you're going to go maybe sleep on a crappy inflatable mattress that loses air half the night in a tent, even though you're there helping support this huge event. And you may not be in a great hotel. So if you're not in shape, if you don't have the fitness, if you don't have the endurance, it's going to affect how you perform. And what you're there to do is to plan high-level public safety support for an event or an incident.

And you can't be lacking on that. You can't, you know, it's not going in there and sitting in a cube after you've had a long happy hour with your pals that you can drudge through. It's you're out there making life or death decisions or at least making planning decisions and helping people that have asked for your help. So you need to be in shape mentally and physically in a garage gym. It's to me one of the best, if not the best way to do that because it also removes excuses on fitness.

You don't have to have a whole garage gym. You can have a floor and start with doing push ups and air squats and crunches, yoga, stretching, whatever. But check that out garage gyms for deployment readiness and therapy. The 11th most downloaded for the between the slides podcast at 137 was ADCAR for projects and incident management teams and ADCAR is that acronym that comes from the PROSCI, P-R-O-S-C-I, change management system. So that really focuses on, so the ADKAR is the awareness of the need for change, not

just how we're going to do it, but like, why is this? What's the why of this change? And why do we need to do this? The desire to support change. So as a change management practitioner or project manager, whichever, you know, whatever hat you want to call it. But if you're using this ad card and following this model, are you getting folks that have the desire? And if not, are you recruiting your leadership to help you spread that desire to make this change? The K knowledge, are you letting folks know how we're going to do this

change? That's when we get into how. So first with that awareness, let them know the importance of it, the why, the need for it. And then when we get down to the K, that's the knowledge of how we're going to change, you know, going into, you know, whatever methodology we need to make change there. A, the ability, did we educate folks on the how? Are there already folks that have the knowledge, it's just a workflow change? So really, you know, if it's already, there are already nurses that know the medical stuff, it's just, hey, we're going to do things in a different step with a different device, right? So have we trained them on that kind of stuff? And then the R is reinforcement. So

this can come early in the process to, hey, we've made the change. Remember, everybody, here's the new process to down the road when you're really trying to work on compliance and adoption. And then you have to get into the kind of reinforcement, the management, the positive reinforcement, and unfortunately, sometimes the negative for just folks that are really just dissenting and not being part of the solution, but more so resisting. That's when you need that reinforcement. So ADCAR for project management and incident management teams.

So you can apply that methodology really to anything, but that's how I focused on that episode. 12 at 136 downloads, the foundational four of being a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu white belt. So that was, again, sharing what are objectives that I set either all the time or each time I go to class. What's the organization typically of you know, of a gym between the instructors, the higher belts, the lower belts, the white belts like me,

the hierarchy there, how does that go? What resources do you need to worry about between, you know, washing your gi and your belt and your mouthpiece and your flip flops or sandals or something to take with you to communicating, right? So talking to your teammates and your coaches and learning from them and going going through that and really is a great opportunity jujitsu you know i'm definitely on the bandwagon of talking about jujitsu and there's a few key podcasters like uh joe rogan and jocko willink and some other folks as well and you know they are certainly no small influence on why i get into it and i'm sticking with it it. After over a year or so, for everybody else that's been sticking with it, that's still got that white belt fever like me, whether you're younger or older, I'm 45,

and we're already the small percentage of folks that are doing it, so let's stick with it. Number 13, expanding your bubble. With ICS 300, 136 downloads like the one before it. So 300 you get into, it's kind of like the O three or five class, but it's less time and less hands on. But you have basically the core elements of it, you'll get a little deeper into how you can use groups and teams and in the op section, and you'll break out and develop objectives and things like that. So I called it expanding your bubble that was not long after Lieutenant Brad Clark was killed when a semi-truck hit his fire engine and killed him. He saved the lives of some of his crew members who he pushed out of the way and warned them,

and they were able to either jump out of the way or move. Some were still severely injured, had legs amputated. So he did a speech, and I watched it at a fire training seminar and he talked about expanding your bubble. Right. So getting out of your comfort zone. And I was fortunate to have him in a in fact, one of the last 0-305 classes that I taught. And he was a planning section chief. And Brad was definitely an operations guy. I wanted to be out there, you know, on the end of the hose line with his folks on the street.

But he wore the planning section chief hat and did it really well. And he the great thing about it is he learned, hey, I don't want to be a planning section chief. But he didn't he didn't complain about it the whole time. He put the work in. He worked hard and just realized this. This isn't the position for me. But it was cool to have him in the class and and super unfortunate that he was killed in the line of duty like that but did so in an unbelievably honorable way trying to save his guys which he did but unfortunately lost his life so godspeed brad clark and to his family and friends and move over

and slow down if you're out there driving pay attention to those flashing lights don't get sucked into the lights like a bug like some people do. Just move over, stay away from them, give them space, and help keep them alive. Number 14, 130 downloads, my buddy Rob Rowley. He's a firefighter. We talked about his evolution from growing up in Spotsylvania County, Virginia, to becoming a situation unit leader and much more than that. But it was good to have a conversation

with Rob and we owe some follow-up episodes. We'll be on the new podcast on that new people process and progress podcast. So we'll talk about either all those elements or some of them and catch up on some of that with him. The number 15 and 128, the combined active threat response program, where I talked about when I was in the city of Richmond working for EMS agency there, we put together training with our partners in fire and police to help educate all first responders on at least a base level and awareness level of here's, you know, what an active shooter is, here's some stats, here's, here's what dispatch does, here's what police does, here's what fire does. Here's what EMS does. And then here's what we can do together

as an incident management team, whether it's on the fly. And again, this is practical application. This isn't putting up wall charts within an active shooter or active threat that happens in a short amount of time in minutes. But here's what we should be doing at the very least. And so a really good training program, not just because I'm biased, because I was part of it, but it was a great opportunity to get different patches, different collar devices in the same room, talking together or working together toward just a critically important, you know, thing of, of unfortunately, you know, benefiting from lessons learned from others that didn't maybe put the time ahead of time that responded unfortunately to active shooters

or other critical incidents. So Combined Active Threat Response Program we did. I talk about how we could put together the project management aspect of it as well. It is a project. It's a lot to pull that many people, especially when you end up training over 1,000 folks. Pretty awesome.

16 most downloaded, 125 history of the incident command system. So talked about the development of it from the military through the 70s out in California, the evolution from wildland to all hazard incident management and some other elements there. So I thought that was cool being, you know, kind of an incident command system officiato and, you know, someone that's been involved in that world for a bit. Some other elements there. So I thought that was cool being kind of an internet command system aficionado and someone that's been involved in that world for a bit. Cool history lesson for me as well. So hopefully you all benefited.

Number 17 was a show summary from 2018. I started the podcast in September of 2018. So it was a pretty short summary. Didn't have a lot of episodes. Total episodes for the show is 57, including kind of some short bonus ones. So, um, you know, the end of 2018, having started it in September, I was trying to stay on a pace of one a week. Um, did so, uh, pretty good for a bit. I have three boys, I'm married, uh, working. Then I was on call still actually, uh, doing

emergency management stuff. So, you know, some variation in there, um, something to was on call still, actually doing emergency management stuff. So, you know, some variation in there, something to work on and improve on in 2020, for sure, and my plan for the new podcast there. So number 18, key elements of a project charter, 115 downloads. So just talking about, you know, what are the things I've used in a charter is an outline that's a good start. There's probably, you know, what are things I've used in a charter is an outline that's a good start. There's probably, you know, different charter structures at every organization that you could look at that has project management of some level. Even within the same organization, there's probably different templates. But that's one thing I know where I am.

And in other places that, you know, you definitely work towards shoring up is have the same template so that it's the same message, right? Which helps improve communications across the board. Number 19, this was a fun one. I'm a big comic book nerd. So I did a foundational for creating a superhero group. So I thought if I, you know, what objectives would I have to make a group and what organization would I have? Who, you know, what archetypes, kind of the typical, a fast person, a strong person, a leader, you know, those kinds of things. So like in Avengers or Justice League, who would I pick? I did across DC and Marvel. So, you know, that was kind of a fun episode, but, but really the other point of it is, is again, applying that foundational four of pull folks together, get objectives going, get an organization. So people know who's who,

who's doing what, pull your resources, coordinate and request them early and then communicate was really the gist of it and a way to do that with a fun thing with a superhero group. The 20th, I had about 30 that had over 100 downloads. So that was pretty cool. But the 20th most downloaded, 113, was again my buddy Rob Rowley. It was the Have a Leg to Stand On, where he and I talked through working up the leg of the planning P, so kind of the bottom left part of a big capital P.

The planning P is shaped like that, a big blocky P, and there's steps in there. So that is the 20th most downloaded, 113. We worked through that, and that's where we there. So that is the 20th most downloaded, 113. We worked through that and that's where we kind of owe another episode and we'll pick up on that and pick up on more in the People, Process, and Progress podcast coming in early 2020.

Thank you all very much for listening to this recap. I hope if you haven't listened to some of these top 20 episodes that you go back and do, I would love to hear your feedback on them. I would also love to hear more about what you'd like to hear. What people would you like to learn about or hear from? What processes would you like to share or learn more about that I'm aware of or could do the research about? And what progress have you made or do you have questions about throughout my life? And that's

what I'm going to include in some of the episodes. So I was a volunteer firefighter at a very young age, joined the Navy with visions of becoming a Navy SEAL, didn't make it, and then got into computers, then went back to school for Homeland Security, then got into computers again, got into safety and bad email, back into computers and project management and things. And so within each of those steps are successes, failures, lessons learned, people that influenced me, processes that I picked up along the way, progress that I made, progress that I made and then fell back on. So I know I'm not unique.

I know, though, I have some pretty good stories and experiences, and I'm going to share more of those in the People, Process, and Progress podcast. And I appreciate each of you listening, all my family, friends, folks I've never met, folks from around the world that have reached out to me. Please continue to do so. I've said the name of the podcast People Process and Progress peopleprocessprogress at gmail.com if you want to get a hold of me

and we'll spin up new socials and we'll get that pushed out thank you very much Godspeed best to you in 2020