Project Management Happy Hour

Ever worked on a project that felt like a complete disaster... only for leadership to call it a huge success? In Part 2 of our Mr. Beast series, Kim and Kate dig into the reported chaos behind Beast Games—from weather disasters and safety concerns to unhappy contestants, lawsuits, and production challenges. But here's the twist: despite all the problems, does the sponsor spin it as a win? If they...

Ever worked with a stakeholder who changes direction faster than your project plan can keep up? Then this episode may feel a little too familiar. Kim and Kate dive into the rise of Mr. Beast and the making of Beast Games through a project management lens—not to critique content creation, but to examine what happens when vision outpaces execution. From sponsor behavior and scaling challenges to agi...

You know the moment. Your project plan is solid. The scope is defined. The team is ready. Then an executive walks by and casually asks: "Can we just make this AI?" Suddenly you're no longer managing a project. You're managing expectations, buzzwords, corporate excitement, and whatever article someone just read on the flight home from a conference. In this episode, Kim and Kate tackle the question...

AI is changing work fast enough to give every project manager emotional whiplash. New tools, new workflows, new expectations… and somehow you're still expected to hit deadlines, manage stakeholders, and explain for the fifth time why the project scope changed after leadership changed the entire business strategy. In this episode, Kim and Kate sit down with Kelly Heuer from Project Management Insti...

If your to-do list is 47 items long, your Slack won't shut up, and you ended the day thinking, "Cool… but what did I actually accomplish?"—welcome. You're among friends. In this episode, Kim and Kate take on the very real, very unsexy side of project management: figuring out how to manage your own work when everything (and everyone) is demanding your attention. This isn't about finding the perfect...

If your weekly calendar looks like the loser in a state fair quilt competition - just solid blocks of mismatched colors with no room to breathe - this episode is for you. Today, we're joined by facilitation expert Evan Unger to talk about a topic that Kate and Kim geek out over: meetings . Specifically, why most of them are terrible, how they drain organizational productivity, and exactly what you...

Boss fights and boardrooms. Kate puts Kim through meeting hell in this tabletop roleplay episode. Kate: "Help me torture Kim." That was the prompt. What followed was a meeting dungeon built from listener-submitted horror stories, tabletop chaos, and the exact kinds of project meetings that make smart people question their career choices. In this April Fool's episode of Project Management Happy Hou...

Escalation : it's a word that can make even experienced project managers tense. But what if you approached it as a tool rather than a threat? In this Top Shelf Replay of Project Management Happy Hour, we revisit the classic episode " Embracing De-escalation, " exploring how savvy project managers use escalation to enhance visibility, make informed decisions, and navigate risk—without losing their...

Why do smart teams still deliver failed projects? Most project failures don't begin with a catastrophic mistake. Instead, they begin with small deviations—minor compromises that seem harmless in the moment. A warning sign gets ignored. A shortcut becomes acceptable. A risk is acknowledged but tolerated because "nothing bad happened last time." Over time, those deviations quietly become the new nor...

Have you ever gotten feedback that made you want to flip a table because it was both insulting and totally useless? In this Top Shelf Replay , we revisit "They Told Me I'm Too Nice" and break down what that kind of vague feedback is really doing (sometimes gendered, almost always inactionable), why it hits so hard, and how to respond without spiraling - or people-pleasing your way into a personali...

"Three PMs walk into a bar: a business PM, an IT PM, and a Vendor PM…" Sounds like a bad joke, but if you don't get it right - the joke will be your project. Very often, you aren't the "one PM to rule them all" on your project - you may have other PMs involved that you need to work with. But how do you decide who does what, and how do you prevent turf wars from turning your project into a slow-mot...

Project managers are constantly told they need to "learn how to say no." But in the real world—especially when the ask comes from a sponsor, executive, or important customer—just saying no often isn't productive, strategic, or even possible. In this Top Shelf Replay episode of Project Management Happy Hour, Kim Essendrup and Kate Anderson revisit one of the show's earliest "Appetizer" episodes: Sa...

Thinking about going contractor ? Kate and Kim share how they each left corporate and made the leap—two very different stories (burnout vs acting early) with the same core truth: contracting is built on relationships, reputation, and value … not job boards and commodity rates. We cover how to know if you're ready, why sales is part of the job, what to watch out for (hello, 2008), and how to avoid...

As project managers, we spend a lot of time talking about tools, processes, and delivery frameworks—but far less time talking about the invisible structure that holds projects together: trust. In this Top Shelf Replay episode of Project Management Happy Hour, Kim Essendrup and Kate Anderson revisit one of the show's earliest and most enduring concepts: Trust Bricks. Originally recorded in 2018, th...

Kim and Kate settle in for a classic PM Happy Hour episode — the kind where the drinks are metaphorical, the conversation is wandering in the best way, and the insights sneak up on you. This one covers three big themes that hit close to home for project managers, leaders , and anyone who's ever had to keep a project — or a career — moving forward despite chaos. It starts with a deceptively simple...

What happens when you drop a senior project manager into a room full of attorneys, tribal leaders, political operators, and massive personalities? In this Top Shelf Replay, Kate & Kim revisit one of the most beloved—and re-listened—episodes in PM Happy Hour history: "Stage Direction in the Boardroom" featuring master facilitator Sheila Morago . If you've ever wondered how elite leaders steer compl...

Kate didn't plan to measure their burnout by the number of bags of pink-and-purple Mother's animal cookies consumed at their desk…but here we are. Kim's clue was a rotating cycle of stomach aches and "maybe these aren't panic attacks but the room is definitely spinning." And our guest, Norlander Wilson, talks about showing up to work without showering or brushing her teeth for days because she lit...

Ever freeze up in a tough project conversation? Or worse—blow it up? In this episode of Project Management Happy Hour, Kim and Kate revisit their all-time favorite: Crucial Conversations by the team at VitalSmarts (now Crucial Learning). This book completely changed how they lead, negotiate, and manage conflict. Learn how to spot when a conversation turns "crucial," stay in dialogue instead of def...

Are you defining project success the wrong way ? Most project managers are — at least according to PMI's Dave Garrett . Project Management Happy Hour hosts Kim Essendrup and Kate Anderson sit down with Dave — Senior Advisor at the Project Management Institute (PMI) and co-founder of ProjectManagement.com — for a frank and real conversation about PMI's new definition of project success to talk abou...

Ever been dropped into a troubled project that's already gone off the rails? Welcome to life as " The Wolf. " Inspired by the fixer from Pulp Fiction , Kim and Kate revisit one of our most popular episodes—now a PMI Global talk! —and break down how to step in, take charge, and rescue a broken project without losing your cool. Kim shares his new 3-part formula for project recovery: People first – Y...

Why bother with risk management when you can just deal with problems as they happen? In this episode, Kim and Kate dig into the heart of that question—and the answer might just save your future self a world of pain. You'll hear: Hard-hitting stats: 1 in 6 projects go 200% over budget (Harvard Business Review), 17% of major IT projects threaten company survival (McKinsey), and why 69% of projects d...

Please. Let it end. PLEASE! A defining characteristic of a project is that it ends. Finally. Just finish it, right? If it were only that easy!  In another Top Shelf Replay, Kate and Kim revisit one of their classic past episodes, "The Closer." We play highlights from the original Closer episode as they talk about how to build up to a crisp conclusion to your project, making it a win for everyone....

Projects aren't remembered for how they started —they're remembered for how they ended . In this PM Happy Hour episode, Kim Essendrup and Kate Anderson unpack why finishing strong is critical to your reputation and your project's legacy. Drawing on real project stories, they explore the axiom that people will remember your project the way it ended—and two key corollaries every project manager need...

Ah, executives. They fund your project, cheer you on, and sometimes… ask for things that make you want to slam your head into your Gantt chart. Like: "The project's almost done—let's change everything!" "I read about [X] in CIO Magazine—can we bolt that on?" "Why are we doing it this way? Let's redo it completely differently… and badly." In this Top Shelf Replay, we revisit the best parts of this...

"Well begun is half done"  — Aristotle (or Mary Poppins, depending who you ask) The beginning of a project is a time when all stakeholders THINK they know what they want, and maybe the team thinks they know what they are supposed to do. Or maybe they are just wondering, "what the heck is this new madness that I'm getting drug into?!"   Regardless, it's a near certainty that your team, your stakeho...