The People, Process, & Progress Podcast - Scan Your Project Like an EMT | Foundations Friday S5EP2

Episode Date: May 30, 2025

This week, we apply an EMT’s trauma checklist to project leadership. Using the DCAP-BTLS framework, we explore how to scan your project for failure symptoms—before they spiral.Key focus areas:• Spotting early signs of project breakdown• Clarifying roles and responsibilities• Responding with intention, not reactionCall to Action: Identify one “injury” in your project—like burnout, misalignment, or scope creep—and treat it today.People first. Combined process. Progress together.

Please silence your cell phones, hold all sidebar conversations to a minimum, and let's get started with the People Process Progress podcast in three, two, one. Hey everybody, welcome to this Foundations Friday. Scan your project like an emergency medical technician. In the last full episode earlier this week, what EMTs can teach us about failing projects, we borrowed the trauma assessment acronym, DECAP-BTLS, where in the trauma world, we're looking for deformities, contusions, abrasions, punctures, burns,

tenderness, lacerations, and swelling, but on projects, we're gonna look for deviations, communication, accountability, process, bottlenecks, tension, leadership, and stakeholder gaps. So just like EMTs assess the body for damage, right, before it spirals, it bleeds out, the consciousness is lost, whatever it is that the burns get worse,

there's so many different things you can look at in a trauma. We as project leaders need to scan our teams for what's breaking them down before the failure hits, right? So this week is a quick field check on your project. You don't need a stethoscope or trauma shears, but you just need the willingness to step back, take an honest look at where the project might be bleeding out. So here are three things you can do to ask yourself as a project manager to assess your

project like a patient. Okay? Where are we hurting the most? Is it our roles are misaligned? We're overworking teams? There's friction between people? Are we missing deadlines? Is it because of are misaligned? We're overworking teams, there's friction between people? Are we missing deadlines? Is it because of those other things?

The second thing is who's unclear about their role? This is kind of a deformity, if you will, of the team structure. That's why I really am a big fan of making an organizational chart when you make your charter early in the project. Seeing who's in what box and who's working in what group or team or whatever makes a big difference.

You can also use the racy, who's identified as responsible, accountable, who are we gonna consult and get info from or who are we just gonna keep informed. And the third question we wanna ask is, are we reacting or responding? In trauma, response is intentional. Typically something has to happen

and then we respond to it and we treat it as opposed to regular medicine where we get preventative treatment. Projects need the same mindset. So we are gonna intentionally respond and treat the signs and symptoms we see or are aware of on our project with our people, with the outputs, with the quality,

with the big ones, right, scope, schedule, cost. We just need to respond to that. And we are gonna react as well. So we're kind of doing both, I think. So a quick scan your project like an EMT. Where are we hurting the most? Who's unclear about their role? And are we gonna react or respond?

And what are we gonna do about it, right? You're not trying to solve every problem every day, but you are trying to find the spots before they become open wound, so to speak. So pick one of these DCAP BTLS points, and if you go back and listen to the previous episode, maybe it's swelling scope creeper, tenderness from burnout, and address it directly.

Don't wait, don't let it fester. That could mean rebalancing someone's workload, resetting scope expectations, or simply checking in with a team member who's struggling. Because we're all human, as disconnected as we are, it comes down to the people, right? People first, then process, then we'll make progress together.

So project failure doesn't just happen, right? It builds slowly. Our job as project managers is to catch that early. Take five minutes today. Scan your project like an EMT, scans a trauma patient with urgency, clarity, and care. Thank you all for listening to the People Process Progress podcast. Go to peopleprocessprogress.com for more to listen to previous episodes, get some resources there, buy the book, The Stability

Equation to help you balance your life out. When it comes to leading projects, remember, people are first. We're going to work a combined process, and we're going to make progress together. Thanks for listening, everybody. You can follow me process, and we're gonna make progress together. Thanks for listening everybody. You can follow me on X and Instagram, at PanelKG. There's also a Panel 5 Fitness Club YouTube channel so you can get fitness ideas, cold plunges, jiu-jitsu, 15 seconds at a time, and I appreciate your time as well. Godspeed.