Episode 178 – My Project is a Three-Ring Circus!

The podcast by project managers for project managers. Sometimes a project can feel like a three-ringed circus! You are managing the schedule, the budget, and the requirements, and at the same time, you’ve got to consider the stakeholders, team members, and the organization. We are taking a look at the early 20th century traveling circus to see how they kept the circus performing as a “well-oiled machine.” Table of Contents 02:36 … Meet Jennifer03:42 … The Golden Age of the Traveling Circus05:04 … The Impact of the Railroad06:16 … The Project Manager of the Circus08:27 … The Daily Schedule12:13 … Logistical Magic14:07 … Maximize Impact and Profit Margin15:07 … Leveraging the Business Model16:43 … Strategic Planning18:45 … Planning Routes21:56 … Thinking Holistically24:36 … Kevin and Kyle25:42 … Procurement and Inventory Control28:22 … Managing Resources29:31 … Network of Support31:02 … Communicating Lessons Learned34:00 … Planning for Risk Episodes37:07 … Company Culture39:49 … The Satisfaction of a Common Purpose41:02 … Clarity of Roles Builds Trust43:38 … Find Out More45:24 … Closing JENNIFER LEMMER POSEY: ...if you are in this project with me, if you are trying to make this outcome the best that it can be, just like I am, then we’re together, and everything else doesn’t matter. This is about what we’re trying to accomplish. I love that attitude. I think it’s one that we all could learn from. Put aside your personal differences and get this thing done. WENDY GROUNDS: Welcome to Manage This, the podcast by project managers for project managers. I’m Wendy Grounds, and in the studio with me is Bill Yates and Danny Brewer. We’re excited to talk to you today about the circus. Our guest is Jennifer Lemmer Posey. She is the Tibbals Curator of Circus at the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota, Florida. And she’s been working with circus collections and the international circus community for 20 years. Jennifer’s also served as editor for Bandwagon, the Journal of the Circus Historical Society, and was an advisory scholar for the Smithsonian Folklife Festival celebrating the circus arts in 2017. You may be wondering why are we talking about a circus when we are a project management podcast. If we listen carefully to the story of the circus, we tie in so many lessons for project management, from building community, to planning and coordination, for being resourceful. BILL YATES: Some of you may be thinking, “My project is a lot like a circus.” WENDY GROUNDS: That’s what we were thinking. BILL YATES: You know, Wendy, the traveling circus back in the early 1900s resembled a small city. It’s like a traveling city. It entirely packs up and moves to another city every day or every few days. The performance and movement of the circus must have required great discipline and carefully executed planning. But it was so impressive that the U.S. Army sent a number of officers to study Barnum & Bailey Circus for a week. The report the officers sent back praised the complex logistical operation of this massive project. Here’s a quote: “It is a kingdom on wheels, a city that folds itself up like an umbrella. Quietly and swiftly every night it does the work of Aladdin’s lamp, picking up in its magician’s arms theater, hotel, schoolroom, barracks, home, whisking them all miles away and setting them down before sunrise in a new place.” It is magical what they did with the circus. And there are so many tiebacks, so many points that we can connect with the projects that we run. WENDY GROUNDS: Hi, Jennifer, welcome to Manage This. Thank you so much for being our guest. JENNIFER LEMMER POSEY: Hi, I’m delighted to be here. Meet Jennifer WENDY GROUNDS: So we want to dig in and find out more about the circus. But you have a very interesting job. What was your career path? How did you become the Curator of the Circus at the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art?