PPP 520 | Are Smarter AI Tools Making Us Less Capable?, with LEGO® Serious Play® co-creator Johan Roos

More from People and Projects Podcast: Project Management Podcast

1. 

   30 Sep 2026 · 53 min

   PPP 523 | The New PMP® Exam: What Project Leaders Need to Know Now, with PMI VP Kelly Heuer

   Summary In this episode, Andy talks with Dr. Kelly Heuer, Vice President of Learning at PMI, where she leads global learning strategy across professional standards, training, certification, and career-long development. Kelly takes us behind the scenes of the updated PMP® exam and explains what changed in project work that made this refresh necessary. You'll hear why the business environment domain now makes up nearly a quarter of the exam, how new multi-question case scenarios assess judgment instead of memorization, and why broader recognition of associate and vocational degrees matters to…

2. 

   5 Sep 2026 · 58 min

   PPP 522 | Are You Removing the Wrong Friction?, with Maggie Sass and Ross Blankenship

   Summary In this episode, Andy sits down with Dr. Maggie Sass and Dr. Ross Blankenship, consulting psychologists and authors of Friction: How Tension, Emotion and Change Reveal Better Leaders . Project managers are trained to remove blockers, and much of the time that's exactly right. But Maggie and Ross draw a distinction that's easy to miss: some friction is simply waste, and some friction is information. You'll hear how the unwritten rules we learned about emotion early in life still shape how we lead, what starts happening in a room before an irritated leader says a word, and the four…

3. 

   28 Aug 2026 · 53 min

   PPP 521 | Neuroscience-Based Principles to Resolve Conflicts, with Dr. Jeremy Pollack

   Summary In this episode, Andy sits down with Dr. Jeremy Pollack, a social-organizational psychologist and founder of Pollack Peacebuilding Systems, author of Wired for Peace: Using 7 Neuroscience-Based Principles to Resolve Conflicts . Jeremy looks at conflict through the lens of the brain and nervous system, which helps explain why disagreements escalate so quickly and why the fixes we reach for often make things worse. Andy and Jeremy talk about why de-escalation has to come before problem-solving, since solutions and stress do not mix. Jeremy walks us through his Sapien Model of six basic…

4. 

   14 Aug 2026 · 1 hr 11 min

   PPP 519 | Overcoming the Inner Propaganda That Sabotages Projects and Teams, with Owen Fitzpatrick

   Summary In this episode, Andy sits down with Owen Fitzpatrick, a psychologist, speaker, and author of Inner Propaganda: Leading Hearts and Minds through Turbulent Times . Owen has spent close to 30 years studying how beliefs form and change, interviewing people everywhere from North Korea to Rwanda to Afghanistan. His thesis is unsettling: our brains do not simply take in facts and reach objective conclusions. They build a story we then experience as reality. Owen and Andy work through what that means on real projects. You'll hear how a warning from a colleague can quietly harden into a…

5. 

   7 Aug 2026 · 54 min

   PPP 518 | Why Better AI Prompts Aren't Enough for Better Decisions, with author Cheryl Strauss Einhorn

   Summary In this episode, Andy welcomes Cheryl Strauss Einhorn, founder and CEO of the decision sciences company Decisive and author of The Human Edge: Smarter Decisions in the Age of AI . Cheryl has spent decades helping people make better decisions, and her message here is a simple one: AI can gather, summarize, and compare, but it can't know what matters most unless we do the thinking first. Andy and Cheryl talk about why "AI first" can quietly turn into AI only, and why a poor answer from AI is actually useful feedback about your own thinking. Cheryl explains why separating the what of a…

6. 

   30 Jul 2026 · 47 min

   PPP 517 | The Hidden Costs of Avoiding Difficult Conversations (And What To Do Instead), with Gustavo Razzetti

   Summary In this episode, Andy sits down with Gustavo Razzetti, culture consultant and author of Forward Talk . Gustavo makes a case that surprises a lot of leaders: fear is only part of why people stay quiet at work. The bigger driver is what he calls the pointlessness paradox , the belief that speaking up will not change anything. Andy and Gustavo talk about conversational debt and how it compounds over time, why silence is so often mistaken for alignment, and the subtle signs that a team is drifting into avoidance, blame, or groupthink. Gustavo unpacks the difference between backward talk…

7. 

   7 Oct 2026 · 48 min

   PPP 524 | Why More Discipline May Not Be the Answer, with 100 Days of Rejection expert Jia Jiang

   Summary In this episode, Andy talks with Jia Jiang, bestselling author of Rejection Proof and creator of the 100 Days of Rejection experiment, about his new book, Easy Discipline . Growing up in Beijing, Jia was taught the value of chi ku , or "eating bitterness," the idea that the more pain you can tolerate, the more you can achieve. The problem? He was terrible at it. Over time, he discovered that his best work came when he was having the most fun. Andy and Jia explore what easy discipline does and doesn't mean, why action goals can work better than outcome goals, and how stepping into a…

8. 

   27 Jul 2026 · 53 min

   PPP 516 | Becoming the Project Manager, with Stuart Taylor

   Summary In this episode, Andy welcomes back his friend Stuart Taylor, a PMO leader and PMI PMO Awards judge, author of Becoming the Project Manager . Most of us didn't grow up dreaming of leading projects. We drifted into the role, and then discovered it's far less about plans and methodologies than it is about people, pressure, and learning to lead while you yourself still feel unsure. Stuart shares the story behind the book, including the university project where he publicly chastised a teammate and the response from his dad that changed how he understood leadership. He and Andy dig into…

9. 

   14 Jul 2026 · 49 min

   PPP 515 | The Dangerous Drift Away from What Matters Most, with author Tom Rath

   Summary In this episode, Andy sits down with Tom Rath, one of the most respected researchers on wellbeing and human potential, author of What's the Point? Turning Your Purpose Into a Superpower . Tom argues that we can be incredibly busy while slowly drifting away from what matters most, optimizing our schedules while our lives quietly leak away. Andy and Tom explore why "follow your passion" can be harmful advice, how status seeking becomes career quicksand, and why our smartphones may be one of the greatest threats to purposeful living. They also discuss how many of us inherit ambitions…

10. 

    10 Jul 2026 · 1 hr 2 min

    PPP 514 | Never Settling for Less: Why You're Leaving Value on the Table, with Attia Qureshi

    Summary In this episode, Andy sits down with Attia Qureshi, a coach and negotiation expert who is co-author, with John Richardson, of Never Settle . There's no shortage of great negotiation advice out there, yet in real conversations with real stakes and real emotions, that advice often fails to turn into action. This book tackles that gap between insight and habit. Attia shares why emotions are not a distraction from negotiation but central to it, why getting clear about what you actually want is harder than it sounds, and how we leave value on the table without realizing it. You'll hear…

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