PM-Mastery

Mastering Adaptability in Project Management with Clinton Brooks Herman

• Walt Sparling • Season 1 • Episode 69

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In this episode: 

Clinton Brooks, affectionately known as the man with three first names, returns to the PM Mastery Podcast to share insights from his latest venture, the Adaptive Project Management Strategies course for PURE Management Alliance for the PURE Project Management credential. If you've ever wondered how to stay flexible in a rapidly changing project landscape, this conversation promises to equip you with the tools and mindset to master adaptability.

Clinton discusses the importance of moving beyond traditional methods, highlighting how the Pure Project Manager credential can help professionals earn PDUs in a way that fits their unique schedules. Whether you're renewing your certification or just beginning your project management journey, Clinton's expertise offers a fresh perspective on navigating change effectively. 

Walt Sparling and Clinton Brooks also reflect on the evolution of their careers and the wealth of resources now available for project managers. Clinton introduces a practical tracker he developed for the Pure program, designed to streamline the process of managing PDUs for PMI certifications. This tool allows users to efficiently organize courses by instructor and duration, making it easier to plot your professional development path. With a focus on adaptability and efficiency, this episode is packed with valuable tips and strategies to enhance your project management skills, whether you're a seasoned professional or just starting out. Tune in for an engaging and informative discussion that might just transform your approach to project management. 

Check the full episode show notes for additional links to connect with Brooks and check out his course and website. 

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Intro/Outro:

Welcome to the PM Mastery Podcast. This podcast is all about helping you master your project management skills by sharing tips, tricks, tools and training to get you to the next level, while sharing the stories of other project managers on their journey in project management. And now here's your host, walt Sparling.

Walt Sparling:

Welcome everybody to the current edition of PM Mastery. And today I have with me Clinton Brooks, herman, the man with three first names. Welcome, clinton.

Clinton "Brooks" Herman:

Appreciate it. Walt Glad to be here.

Walt Sparling:

Glad to have you on, so it's been a hot minute since you've been on here. I think you were the second ever podcast episode in the very beginning three years ago, and then you did another one in 22 with a job change and then you were also part of the Knights and Ladies Roundtable discussion on communication for PMs on LinkedIn.

Clinton "Brooks" Herman:

Which was a good one. I appreciate you putting that together.

Walt Sparling:

That was a fun one, and I do want to get back to doing more of those, but right now we've got a lot of other stuff going on.

Clinton "Brooks" Herman:

It's a little busy.

Walt Sparling:

Which is why you're on. So listeners know that over the last couple weeks we've been interviewing instructors on the new Pure Project Manager certification and you were one of the instructors.

Clinton "Brooks" Herman:

I was, so were you.

Walt Sparling:

Yes, and it was fun, it was educational. When you go from podcasting to actually doing video courses, it's uh, it's a lot different at least you do that. I still tend to stick with the blogs and, uh, keep my face out of the mix I tell people all the time I've got a face for radio so I don't do a lot of video stuff, but Pure tell us a little bit about your course.

Clinton "Brooks" Herman:

So I put together a course called Adaptive Project Management Strategies and I think it's overall about three and a half hours, which is a lot, but there's a lot going on, and a half hours, which is a lot, but there's a lot going on. Our world is constantly moving and changing and following the traditional methods of the waterfall flow is just not feasible anymore and you really need to kind of be adaptive and accept the saying that the one constant and we'll say in construction or project management is change. Change is constant, so it's definitely a central capability of being adaptive.

Walt Sparling:

So three and a half hours, which should be around three and a half PDUs based on the time out of a 60 PDU certification course once you complete. The cool thing we talked about with the other instructors is you get your PDUs as soon as you finish your individual class, it doesn't have to be the whole certification.

Clinton "Brooks" Herman:

Yeah, you can wait and save the whole certification for the 60 hours and just plug it in at once, or you can do it as you go, which is what I've been doing.

Walt Sparling:

Which I'm going to have to do because I have three weeks to finish all my PDUs for my next renewal.

Clinton "Brooks" Herman:

I feel like this is a renewal of a conversation we've had in the past.

Walt Sparling:

Oh yeah, probably about three years ago. The past oh yeah, probably about three years ago. So that brings me also to something that you started and I am going to update, which I already have started, but you created a tracker for you know, basically dedicated to the pure program. So you have the instructors, you have the course names, the instructors, the hours, the minutes, pdus, and you and I are both working on collecting all of the actual talent triangle.

Clinton "Brooks" Herman:

Yes, you can relate it back to.

Walt Sparling:

PMI, so that is going to be something that you already have a version on your website. I do it's out there on the website. Okay, and as soon as I get mine caught up, I'm going to repost the latest version of my tracker on there, which now adds all the pure stuff in. I think that's going to be a great tool and I love the concept that you did where you can actually sort the courses by the time, the instructor, whatever you want, so that you can organize your listening.

Clinton "Brooks" Herman:

So since last time I actually have updated it, so it's not sorting by that, it is sorted on course length automatically. There's some adjustments that I need to do to make it more user-friendly, if you will, but it's there and should help to be able to keep up with everything so you can plug it into PMI with your PMP or other certifications. I have the CEFP, which is Certified Educational Facilities Planner or, excuse me, professional, not Planner Professional, and I've actually been able to utilize the courses that PURE's put out there to help me get that certification renewal up too. So there's plenty of things that are within the pure program that I think are useful. No matter the credential you have. There's probably a use that somebody else will have with it uh, within their own certifications and credentials.

Walt Sparling:

Absolutely. And I know in the tracker, the first time I ever created my tracker it was for PMP only, and then I went back and did some research and found all the other certifications that it would work for under the PMI umbrella and added those in there. And there's links in there to get back to PMI, because they did change the triangle and they call it something different now. So, and you have to, you have the educational, you have the giving back and then I think the one that a lot of people miss is the daily work one where if you have a job, that's I believe it's eight PDUs right out of the scooter.

Clinton "Brooks" Herman:

Eight for up to three years yep, yep, so good stuff.

Walt Sparling:

So yours is run the title by me again Adaptive project management strategies. Okay, and three and a half hours. Do you know how many lessons are in there?

Clinton "Brooks" Herman:

37 lessons altogether, but that includes the promo video that we have at the beginnings too, so so 36.

Walt Sparling:

All right, so that's. That's a good, a good number of courses. So can you give us any kind of insight into, like a why did you choose this topic? I know you said a little bit about things are changing, but was there anything that drove you to this?

Clinton "Brooks" Herman:

always been, and I draw a blanket. I know I've brought it up on other podcasts with you, but I believe it was Bill Gates that made the quote. That and I'm paraphrasing what it is basically figuring out how to get steps from step A to Z, but not necessarily following every single step in between, because just because, yes, there is a cd and e, can you possibly run them at the same time, can you possibly skip over d and e because of adding one little piece into your, your method of following through? So I'm all for trying to figure out how to get to the end result in the fastest method, but still following all the rules of engagement from your employer with project management in general, and just staying on top of everything.

Walt Sparling:

Okay, well, that makes sense. It reminds me of one of the other courses that I think is offered, which is called Hacking your Projects.

Clinton "Brooks" Herman:

Yep, yep. I have not gotten to take that one yet, but I truly want to set aside some time to focus on that one.

Walt Sparling:

Yeah, that looks interesting In the show notes. I want to have links to your LinkedIn, your website, and there'll be a link Well, not directly to the file, but it'll be on your website. So if people want to download that Pure Tracker, they can do that off of your website.

Clinton "Brooks" Herman:

Yep, it's free for you. So, however, anyone would like to download it.

Walt Sparling:

And we'll add a Pure link as well for you, for your course. Anything else you want to add?

Clinton "Brooks" Herman:

So part of some of the process with the course and everything I was thinking, similarly to how I do with one of my blogs, which is CB Herman think outside the box. And that's encouraging teams to think outside the box. Yes, I'm repeating myself, but don't always think about again steps A through Z. There's other ways of doing it, just because that's the way we've always done it. That's the immediate statement that says okay, we need to find another way. That's not the best way necessarily Now. It could have been the best way five years ago, could be the best way in five years from now, but it may not be the best way today.

Walt Sparling:

So a little bit of creative thinking there, without violating the rules.

Clinton "Brooks" Herman:

Yes, you don't want to break the rules. We got to stay within our confines that our companies and just project management in general put together. But take a chance, try. You got to. It's continuous learning. We always need to be learning, and that's part of what the pure project management credential is all about is continual learning.

Walt Sparling:

So yes, and you know it is. When it comes to projects, it's about getting things done. Definitely, if you can eliminate a few steps that aren't necessary, then it gets you through the project hopefully quicker, awesome.

Clinton "Brooks" Herman:

I think some of the things that might be found while they're going through the course is how to pivot strategies and plans with, when conditions change, techniques for managing stakeholders and resources in dynamic settings and I know I think you even talk about some of that with your communications and being dynamic with the discussions that you have with them. Methods to build resilience and adaptability with them. Methods to build resilience and adaptability. And then tools for implementing flexibility into workflows. So, as far as the course goes, this course is tailored for anyone managing dynamic projects. Whether you're a project manager, a team leader or a business analyst. The content is designed to meet you where you are and take you to the next level. Meet you where you are and take you to the next level. Even if you're new to adaptive strategies, the course provides clear, actionable steps to help you grow.

Walt Sparling:

Do you have a post where you've done the introduction and each one of us did a little intro video? Is that on your website?

Clinton "Brooks" Herman:

Well, I don't know if it is or not yet.

Walt Sparling:

Well, if it is, you should add it on there.

Walt Sparling:

I should I'll provide a link, because I think the intro videos were not only fun in some cases but very informative and it gives you an idea of what do I want to do. I mean, if someone went through and watched all the intro videos and said, okay, I want to take these two courses, you know, next to each other and these two courses just so you can kind of focus. Like I know, there's multiple communication courses in here. I've done one, Melissa Chapman's done one, there's a couple others that talk about soft skills and which some of that is on communication. So it'd be kind of cool to be able to group. But I do think people should check out the promo videos if they're on ones that are available.

Clinton "Brooks" Herman:

No, I agree, and I mean I've actually been. I've had the privilege of taking both your course and Melissa's and they're completely unique, and I know you and I had discussions about that while we were gathering everything together and neither one of them match. Um, there might be some overlapping communicator discussions, uh, topics is what I'm looking for, and but that's project management. There's overlap throughout all of our trainings and that's where it all ties in together and becomes one item. That is the PM credential. At the end of it, the pure project manager credential.

Walt Sparling:

And that is something that Melissa and I just talked about, because I just interviewed Melissa on her course and we chatted about how our courses started out. I was nervous because I was looking, I had already came up with my whole outline, had started writing the course, and then I went on to the training site, where we keep all our material, and noticed that she had one on communication and I started going through her basically her index of course, course material and I was like, oh crap, and Amanda actually did a chat GPT comparison and said, no, you're fine, there's some overlap, but in reality it's just reinforcement. If you hear it from multiple trainers, it's the, it's hey, that's important.

Clinton "Brooks" Herman:

Well and a lot of us have different industries that we come from and, taking that knowledge, it could be how it's being presented slightly differently. I think David and I actually have similar. You also said, Robert, with hacking your projects, but David's, oh goodness, it was implementing hybrid project management. Oh goodness, it was implementing hybrid project management. So, and that plays into part of the adaptiveness to is being hybrid and adjusting and not playing in just the traditional waterfall methods. So I think we all we have some overlap, but it's only to an extent that it just exemplifies each of our own courses. So I think it's useful.

Walt Sparling:

It's not only reinforcing, but these courses are taught by practicing PMs and it's based on their experience. Yes, so it's not. Hey, this might happen. No, this has happened and this is how you deal with it.

Clinton "Brooks" Herman:

Yes, no, I mean. I think David comes from the IT side of things and mine's construction facilities owner management, so it's all different.

Walt Sparling:

It is. It's a good mix of fields and experience, for sure.

Clinton "Brooks" Herman:

Yes.

Walt Sparling:

All right, well, thank you for spending some time on here. We'll get this post out in the next week or so. And all right, we'll see everyone else in the next episode of PM Mastery.

Intro/Outro:

Thanks for listening to the PM Mastery podcast at wwwpm-masterycom. Be sure to subscribe in your podcast player. Until next time, keep working on your craft.

Walt Sparling:

I'm out.