S4E8215 August 2021

S4E82: Why Good Project Planners are like Gold Dust with Sunchana Johnston

📅 Planning & Scheduling 📈 Data Analytics 🔧 Data Engineering 🤖 AI & Technology 👔 Leadership & Management 💬 Communication 🔄 Change Management ⚠️ Risk Management

S4E82

S4E82: Why Good Project Planners are like Gold Dust with Sunchana Johnston

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This episode it proudly brought to you by JustDo.com, PlanAcademy.com & InEight.com. In this week’s pod, we welcomed Sunchana Johnston. We discussed why good planners are like gold dust. Originally from Croatia, Sunchana is a Chartered Program Professional, with over 25 years of experience consulting on complex transformational initiatives such as Brexit Programs in the financial industry, Fintech, EMEA telecoms, water utilities and UK civil service. The main topics discussed on the podcast were:

The best planners need to demonstrate a level of secrecy given the volume of information they see Effective planners are effective storytellers Focus on whether you believe a candidate has a high level of intuition when trying to fill planning vacancies A senior planner should be able to demonstrate management of a 40,000+ line schedule and how they were able to shape it It is important for planners do not own their schedules. They need to be able to quietly influence the actual owners The most effective storytellers when discussing Brexit showed the day in the life of a prawn from capture in Scotland to a restaurant in Spain Effective planners will look for the business case to understand why their project exists The ability to transition between industries often depends on the speed of change. IT/Finance industries are evolving constantly whereas construction and defence industries are shower to change Always be learning! People need to constantly improve their skillsets to make themselves more employable The best planners will know their worth in the market. Companies will pay well for the best employees therefore it is important not to undersell yourself AI is coming, this will change how planning works. The industry should embrace this

Guest

Sunchana Johnston

Principal PMO Consultant - Director at Private Consulting

Sunchana Johnston is a Chartered Program Professional, with her career spanning over 25-years (yes, I started young) successfully consulting on the complex transformational initiatives such as Brexit Programs in the financial industry, fintech, EMEA telecoms, water utilities and UK civil service.

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