UMBC Mic'd Up

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Project Management

May 20, 2022 UMBC Mic'd Up with Dennise Cardona and Mr. Quincy Wright Season 2 Episode 29
UMBC Mic'd Up
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Project Management
Show Notes Transcript

In this latest episode of UMBC's MIc'D Up podcast, we chat with graduate faculty, Mr. Quincy Wright, MBA, CCM, PMP, about the importance of operating in the professional world of engineering and project management through a lens of diversity, equity, and inclusion. We discuss various circumstances in the workforce environment that can be affected by a lack of attention to DE/I. He shares his professional experiences and offers us insights into his path to leading organizations and project teams in commercial and government sectors, and ultimately to teach at UMBC.

Timestamps:
0:00 Introduction
0:49 Welcome Mr. Quincy Wright
1:19 Path to UMBC
2:44 Most enjoyable aspect of project management
7:02 Reducing group think in teams
12:12 The benefits of a diverse working team
14:27 UMBC’s professional development courses in project management
14:43 Inclusive Leadership in Project Management
16:59 Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Mindset in Project Management
17:58 Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in Engineering
22:51 Why should someone take these courses
24:41 Student engagement
25:50 How to get the most out of UMBC courses
27:33 Final thoughts

Learn more about the non-credit option-engineering management courses in DE/I at UMBC here.

Learn more about UMBC's Graduate Certificate Program in Project Management here.


About Mr. Quincy Wright, MBA, CCM, PMP
Quincy M. Wright, MBA, CCM, PMP is the President of PMO Nerd LLC, a Project Management Training, Development, & Coaching Firm. Mr. Wright is a Project Management Professional (PMP) and Certified Construction Manager (CCM) with 15+ years of experience leading organizations and project teams in commercial and government sectors. Mr. Wright graduated from Texas A&M University-Commerce with a Master of Business Administration (MBA). He also earned a Bachelor of Science in Construction Management, and an Applied Science in Architectural Engineering Technology from the University of Cincinnati. Mr. Wright is a subject matter project due diligence, project planning, project execution, and project closeout. Mr. Wright's portfolio includes commercial, industrial, manufacturing, utility-scale transmission & distribution, grid modernization, renewable energy, and technology projects and programs. He is regularly sought after for speaking engagements, consulting, and coaching amongst organizations around the world related to expertise in project management, agile, strategy, and creating inclusive cultures of belonging to enhance organization performance.

Dennise Cardona  0:00  
Welcome to this episode of UMBC's Mic'd Up. My name is Dennise Cardona from the Office of Professional Programs. We are joined by Mr. Quincy Wright, president of PMO nerd LLC, a project management training, development and coaching firm. Mr. Wright is a project manager, professional, and certified Construction Manager with 15 plus years of experience, leading organizations and project teams in commercial and government sectors. Mr. Wright graduated from Texas A&M University Commerce with a Master of Business Administration. He also earned a Bachelor of Science in construction management, and an applied science in architectural engineering technology from the University of Cincinnati. We hope you enjoy this episode of UMBC Mic'd Up. Welcome Quincy. It's so great to have you here on UMBC's Mic'd Up podcast.

Quincy Wright  0:58  
Hey, thanks for having me.

Dennise Cardona  0:59  
So we are going to talk today about the project management courses that we have here at UMBC. So let's just dig right in. I think first, it would be helpful if you could give listeners a little background on what your path looked like to teaching here at UMBC?

Quincy Wright  1:23  
That's a great question. So I didn't have that traditional path of teaching. So I started my career in project management/program management. I spent about 15 plus years managing projects and programs. And from that, as I transitioned more from a project manager to leadership role, I started noticing some gaps in learning some gaps and knowledge. So one of the things I want to do is start creating some training opportunity for my team, different corporations I was working at and what gaps on notice was, we really didn't have a cohesive team. So I wanted to develop what that looked like, as far by sound conscious, bias traded things of that nature. That kind of led to me doing a lot of webinars speaking engagements, I had a couple of my peers at UMBC attend those engagements, they recommended that I bring that to us and really teach these courses around inclusive leadership and DE/I mindset, and leadership and project management.

Dennise Cardona  2:23  
It's such an important topic. In the landscape today, it's really important. And it's a hot topic, because it's important to corporations, it's really important that everybody understand the gravity and the importance of providing that type of an environment where everybody feels welcomed, everybody's equal, and it's an inclusive environment. What do you enjoy most about the project management aspect of what you do?

Quincy Wright  2:51  
I love both aspects of what I call the science and art of project management, right. So the science of project management is pretty straightforward as learning the different principles, tools and techniques in order to manage the project in order to really deliver the requirements to the client. So in both of these courses, we really focus on those aspects. So you will gain that knowledge of how to become a better project leader, project manager. But one of the things I like to focus on really kind of over the last five years, it's putting the emphasis on that diversity, equity, and inclusion, and really understanding the soft skills and the growth mindset as a leader to really just make your team feel comfortable and being part of a team. When I started off in project management, construction management in the early 2000s, the attitude was different right? Environment was different. It was hey, leave your personality at the door. Work is work. Personal is personal, right? So when you fast forward 20 years later, you know, 2022 people want to bring that holistic self to work. And as different events that go on, just you know, not just in the US just globally, that you can't just turn off when you come to, to manage the project or lead teams. So one of the things I wanted to do is create a safe space with people feel comfortable, bringing in a holistic self. And that's why I really enjoy. I really enjoyed the different personalities to help lead projects. And one of the things I figured out early in my career, which led to being successful, is we really have a diverse project team. And diversity you look different as far as not just gender and race, which is really one of the forefronts that we focus on right. Also the socio economics, class, sexual orientation, different religions, everything when you bring that to the table and kind of create the melting pot, you get different points of views of how to solve those problems. And when you get those different points of views, what I notice is the team become more engaged. The team become more efficient, productivity levels increase, the NET client facing engagement is better, right? Because your client is typically going to be a variety of, you know, different people, different organizations, different institutions. So by really creating an inclusive environment, what I notice is, the outcomes are better as well. So not just focusing on traditional, you know, scope management, budget management, schedule management and stakeholder engagement, also, improving that growth mindset, that people skills or soft skills in order to really lead your project team from point A to point B, right? No one wants to be part of a project team, where you was able to deliver the project where you like, Man, I hate being on that team. My morale is down, I want to look for a new job, right? You want to create an environment where people is like, Man, I love being part of this team. I love this culture. And I just feel comfortable here. I can't wait to work the next project with you.

Dennise Cardona  5:46  
Absolutely you know, it's all about it's that quality of life, that work life balance, that ability to bring your personality into what you do. I've been very fortunate working at UMBC for 15 years now. It's always been that kind of an environment and it keeps getting better and better and better. It's it's a rich environment, where it's just a bunch of diverse ideas coming together to be able to create just a really great rich environment. And I think that's so important when you think about, especially nowadays, the the work environment being that it's hybrid, a lot more, that we have more of a remote or hybrid type of work environment, being able to have that group cohesiveness that finger on the pulse of that that energy vibe that makes teams work. And I just Yeah, I think that's such an important thing. One thing that you mentioned that it made me think of groupthink, you know, there's such a problem when you're working with teams, having the same mindset, everybody has the same mindset. It's just like waters things down and dilutes possibilities and opportunities, and creating that diversity inclusive. That type of an environment where you have personalities from different lenses creates that opportunity for new things to emerge. Because it's I think it's almost impossible to have groupthink when you have a diverse body of people working at the helm. 

Quincy Wright  7:18  
I definitely agree with you. I think that's one of the key things. Because a lot of times as leaders and we manage them projects, you know, we have a hard start or end date to get that project delivered to that client. A lot of times as project managers and leaders, we still focus on those outcomes. And we forget the people, people's skill sets of the internal team, right. So we might do a great job of that client facing kind of engagement, of being respectful and listening, because, hey, we want that client to be a repeat client. But then we fail internally where our internal team as far as that people's skill sets. And also that group thinking I remember when I was in corporate America, and I was interviewing for this particular leadership role in project management is a new startup. They've been around five years, and they grew that startup to about $100 million. Now notice, I was interviewing with the CEO, CFO, the CEO, I was interviewing for VP and project management. So I was interviewing that see what that C level. And I notice, the full 50 People that was work at this organization was all from Harvard, MIT and Stanford. Right? So everybody had that background. So as I was interviewing, throughout today, with five different sea level personnel, I receive a similar question by each well, undergrad, university I attended, right? So to my mind, at this point in my career, and 15 years experience, I have an MBA, have a second master's, I have the license and certifications, even though my undergrad degree is in a technical field. I'm so past that it's not as relevant to what I'm currently doing now. How can I leave your organization developer you PMO and one of the things I notice is my answer that question throughout the day, hey, I went to university Cincinnati, a public institution, right? Their body language change here now verbal cues kind of was like, Oh, you didn't go to Stanford or MIT. So he had a group thinking he was thinking about of what a leader looks like, right? They stereotype what a successful leader look like to manage $100 million organization from a project management standpoint. So you know, a lot of times we focus, which I think is extremely important to focus on gender and ethnicity and race, because as things we can quickly see or try to self identify others like, Hey, you are white woman, even though I should ask you how do you identify Right? and be respectful? There are a lot of times that we be honest, we see people and we put them in these categories, right? It is important to understand that from a race and gender, but once you get past those two foundational blocks You have socio economic class that plays a significant role in project management, right. So for the only stereotype that a leader had to have went undergrad wise to the MIT to Harvard, to that Stanford reality, leaders slip different elites should look different for different people. So I really practice the empathy leadership on the servant leadership and a situational leadership, which I really feel is needed, regardless the leadership approach to really connect with people. And that's why I really try to focus on both of these courses, while being a leadership and technical project management and the other being a DEI mindset, and technical project management to give you the tools and techniques to take your leadership's down and have that level of empathy leadership, where you connect with each person, and go away from that group thinking of, hey, you know, every leader is a white male, they went to Harvard, in reality, you can be a woman, you can be part of the LBGT community, you can be part of the minority community, leadership is going to look different. And we have to get away from what a stereotype or what the norms to leadership typically was in the past.

Dennise Cardona  11:09  
Oh, that's powerful, you know, reminds me I just took a course a graduate course this past semester at UMBC. And it was project management based it was for a Learning and Performance Technology graduate program. And our instructor purposely put us in groups that were we had different personalities, differing backgrounds. And they did, we did a personality test to be able to peek he did that he had us do a personality test to determine what our strengths were, what our weaknesses were, where our personalities were, what we considered, you know, just what, how we worked. And so he purposely put us in these groups where we were almost opposites. And at first, it was the most challenging thing, it really was. Because we all operate within a certain sphere, you know, it's just how we operate. But most growth happens when you put yourself out of that comfort zone, and you take on the views of other people, that's when the real growth happens. And that's when the real magic happens. Because now, you see possibilities and potentials that were not there before when you had your own blinders on.

Quincy Wright  12:13  
Now, I definitely agree with that. Because when you start when you have more diversity on a team, you have different personalities, you start seeing different viewpoints. So another example I'm use social economics as an example, more people that come from a lower social economic status, or you know, space in life, they tend to have a more conservative risk taking approach, right, because they, they know how it feels not to have something, right. So they're going to look at it and look at it from a logical risk assessment. And that lens is needed versus someone who may came from a nonprofit at or a higher social, economic standing, they may take risk and say, hey, you know, I'm from a background where, you know, I can take a lot of risks, because I know, I have the status or the support where I can overcome that. We're somewhere from my background, which I come from a a two family household, my, my dad was a military, my mom was to say, oh, Ma, but we was in that working class also. So I really come from it from my Hey, a logical risk taker approach where I'm very conservative, with my risk taking were some of the people I went to college with some of my peers that come from a higher social economic status, or at least in America culture of how we gauge that, right Israel, really, from the lens of that. They take risks every day. And they have no fear of failure failure, where you know, others, you know, is not putting an environment with fairy look like, right. So a lot of times what I like to teach in the class is you have to communicate those assume norms, and communicate what filming look like, what felling look like to be successful as well, because a lot of times with just different lenses, we let others fail, and others we hold accountable for those failures a little bit more. So it's really about creating an equal space and inclusive environment, the equity approach where everyone feel that they have a pathway to success and opportunities as well. 

Dennise Cardona  14:15  
Well, we've certainly established the importance of this being a center of focus for professionals out there dealing with project management and actually any aspect of a business world. So let's talk now about the upcoming courses that you'll be teaching at UMBC. I understand they are titled inclusive leadership and project management and diversity, equity and inclusion, mindset and project management. Can you talk a little bit about each of those?

Quincy Wright  14:44  
Yes. So the first course is inclusive leadership and project management that's really meant for working professionals, our project manager roles and leadership roles, and they really look into you have a more in depth way of improving their leadership style. Natalie's approach, or you hit on it, we in a hybrid, remote kind of environment, right? We are not all co located. So that's a shift. Also, we're going through this generational shift of baby boomers to my generation, to the next generation of where you have these leaders as very young, very used to technology get transitioned to more of these frontline, mid level leadership positions, where leadership look different, right? So for me, I'm more of an inclusive leader, more of a, I love working remote, I love to say, hey, I want to support my my personnel support my team, I don't want to micromanage where others may want to be co located, may want to see people because they feel more comfortable that more, you know, productivity and increase. So what this course really focus on, is really open up your growth, mindset, our development and more of a growth mindset, and your staff people skills to connect with everyone, regardless who they are, I really focus on social identities. So inclusive leadership, identifying that what separates everyone on your team is your social identities, the way you think your values and your feelings, right? And what I want you to do is create allyship and remove barriers, right? So identify any ways you think your values? And are they creating barriers between you and your team. If so, what ways you can remove rows as a leader, because let's face it, when you're in a leadership position, you have an authority, you control a lot of things in that person's life as far as their career. So you don't want to create barriers or stereotypes of what success looked like or the path for them to come and grow as a person. So I want to one, identify those biases, unconscious biases that separate us as people or as separate, separate us as leaders, were a project team, remove those barriers, and create more of an ally ship in order to grow your team and really create that inclusive environment. So then I transitioned to on a DEI mindset. So diversity, equity, inclusion, mindset and project management, which now I want to give you some tools and techniques to really improve your project team. Right. So first one focus more on the leadership approach. The second one is throughout the project lifecycle. So initiating, planning, executing, closing out the project. Regardless if it's a traditional project, or more of a waterfall, or a hybrid project, or a agile project, I want to give you some hardcore principle to some techniques that you can incorporate right away on your project team to make it more of a diverse, inclusive team. In order to increase it, it also develop a more organic way of everyone coming together to deliver the project on time and within but within the budget.

Dennise Cardona  17:54  
All important factors for sure. When it comes to managing projects. Why is Diversity Equity and Inclusion important to the field of engineering?

Quincy Wright  18:05  
It's extremely important because for the first time where you see the growth of more women, minorities entering into those STEM fields, enter into an engineer, do you see a more of a growth for people from different socio economic classes entering into that. So my theme today have been really focused on gender, race and social economic classes was a lot more social identities that that people bring to the table this enter into those fields. So it's extremely important to as a leader to really have that lens of diversity, equity inclusion, being at the forefront as you managing your teams, right? Because let's face it, everyone is going to bring different levels of knowledge, training experiences to the table, but it's your job as a leader to identify each person's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in order to help grow their career, right. So I really feel as a leader, you are there to support that person identifying what barriers are in a way and removing those barriers, but more importantly, looking at it from the lens that barriers are going to be different for different people. Early in my career. It was one of those things where if someone wasn't good at something, they would not necessarily remove that barrier. There will be a stereotype where what person XYZ are good at Why are you not right? And in reality, maybe I didn't gain experience needed to be that to be good in that particular role. So I use a budget for example, as well. Are you do you feel comfortable given a woman or minority or someone from the LBGT plus community $100 million project? Are you traditionally gonna give loans to white males right? And this is not an attack on white males at all, but I'm using it as an example. But are you comfortable with letting someone from minority manually manage a large, complex project right? When in reality most organizations that companies are not right now like to do this exercise where people research any company that you want, you look at their C level, they mill mid level leadership, the senior leadership, in some cases, they may have a frontline leadership and look at see who are part of that leadership team, right. And traditionally, you will not see a lot of minority or women leaders, right. If you do see minority women leaders, they are more of like a DEI, VP or a human resources, you don't see those leaders in technical roles. So it's extremely important to have that lens that dei lens and engineer because you should promote a really pushing develop that path for minority and women leaders into those technical leadership roles and positions. You can do that in a number of different ways. One, you have to allow them to gain experience, right? So if you say hey, that person will have experience managin a 100 million dollar project. What was their pathway to gain experience. And what these courses do is really open your eyes and really give you some tools and techniques to remove those barriers and help you understand how to create pathways for people to to gain experience in those Sakho backgrounds. They really look at it from a DEI lens, understanding where some of the stereotypes are. So norms that we are pushing out there to limit that person ability to gain experience. So I give an example, the best thing ever happened in my career was my transition to renewable energy. My VP really empowered me and trust and put his trust me right up to that point, as a project manager, I always had this glass ceiling of only managing projects $5 million or less, I really was banging my head against the wall, like, wait, I have an MBA, I have a Master's, I have a PMP I have all I checked all the boxes that you say I need to check. But I don't get those bigger, more complex projects. It took a leader taking a chance and give him the opportunity where he had handed me the keys to the to the building, right, I was able to really transform his organization, and probably a lot of skill sets that has his current team wasn't did not necessarily have are they have that lands, I was able to grow his organization now moved from managing family type of projects, to those 50,70, 100 million dollar projects and not just manage them well, but really increasing revenue because clients and one or more diversity clients wanted someone who would think outside the box and bring different ideas. And I was able to check those boxes.

Dennise Cardona  22:51  
What would you say to a student who may be on the fence about taking these courses? What would you say to them? Why should they do it?

Quincy Wright  22:57  
That's a great question. I really thinking it comes back to to one UMBC being a great institution, great college to attend and to the personnel, right. So you, as an instructor leading this course, you're receiving someone who have 15 years experience, we can talk you through those great areas of leading projects, right. So I'll get it from the science and art project management, science being those core tools that you need to lead a project on time within budget. And you know, according to scope of work, but now also soft skills needed, I have a ton of experience. I think by attending this course, you get best of both worlds, you get someone who can articulate different situations and give you strategies to overcome different barriers you're facing also gives you those core values needed to be successful. As a project manager, I'm able to communicate and talk with everyone who wants to attend this course regardless on the background and understanding how to remove those glass ceilings how to really maneuver to out your career to be successful. And we have, for example, one student who was in the spring course. And I did a one hour webinar for I recently received for PMP certification. And one of the things she was really focusing on is how can I grow my career. And we really work through that path of what that success look like. So you're not just gonna get that academic approach to it. But you're gonna give that real life approach of how to be successful in your career. What's licenses and certifications, how you can leverage this class and its knowledge in order to become a better project manager and a better leader.

Dennise Cardona  24:41  
What will student engagement look like in these classes?

Quincy Wright  24:45  
What I like to focus on is an open format of engagement, right? So we will have that traditional discussion questions and things of that nature. But I really wanted to bring real life examples to the table and walk through those examples. And just as students How would they as a leader, how would they handle that particular situation? Right? Well like to bring in real life real world examples, and really paint the picture of what leadership could look like. And really focus on identifying your leadership approach and giving you too soon in techniques and improve that and be better leaders. So is it gonna be open forum, open communication, a lot of engagement. It's easy to focus on the you know, the test taking, hey, tell me what, you know initiating stage look like, I don't want to focus on I want to focus on soft skills, or people skills, you really do something similar to what you went through? Were you able to connect with different different students, different instructors, and really gain a more holistic view of things from a DEI lens?

Dennise Cardona  25:50  
And my last question is, how can a student get the most out of these courses? Like, what would the ideal student come in and do like to really get the most out of it?

Quincy Wright  26:00  
My recommendation is to be engaged, right? If you're looking for a course, that, you know, you just want to take a test and walk away, this probably won't fit that if you really want to get the most out of it. Because we work on soft skills, is engaged in those group discussions, engaging in those breakout groups, and it really get outside of your comfort zone, this course is really going really going to focus on you getting comfortable, being comfortable with understanding who you are, and how to improve who you are, in order to create an inclusive environment. We're going to talk about a lot of tough topics around project management and around leadership, and your approach to improve those scenarios or situations. So to get the most out of it, just engage, engage, be open and willing to bring examples be open and willing to respond to questions I'll pose it really having that comfortability of learning from your peers and learning from your excuse me, instructors as well.

Dennise Cardona  27:03  
Is there anything else that I haven't asked you that I think that you think would lend value to this conversation that you think people should know about? Project management and diversity, equity and inclusion? Are the courses that you're going to be teaching?

Quincy Wright  27:39  
Now? That's a great question. I think the last thing I want to leave everyone with is project management is the art and science right? You have to be able to balance the core project management principles, and the soft skills needed to be successful. If you are looking for a way looking for knowledge, or tools and techniques to grow your career, or grow as a leader, the both of these courses will be perfect, because we will definitely lay out a path to understand and develop the growth mindset to be successful within that project management lens. Right. So we're gonna take those high level diversity, equity inclusion that your company organizations or institutions have and look at it from a project manager viewpoint and really focus on how can be successful lead in projects in a way that the team feel comfortable, and a team around is still high at the end of the project. Because let's face this projects are complicated, stressful, and you work a lot of hours, sometimes I'm really gonna give you the tools and techniques of really creating a sustainable, repeatable process is very lean, is very stress free. When you walk away from this course, I really want you to walk away with those tools and techniques that you can apply on any type of project, regardless if it's a technical project, health care construction, it that you really feel comfortable leading teams and we really feel comfortable leading diverse teams in a way to really deliver the results to the clients. Now think about taking these courses, you will gain that knowledge you will gain those experience and the benefit of working in a mist course like working professionals and traditional students that now you will have that melting pot of experiences that you can gain right away through that five week or 15 week course that you decide to sign up for it.

Dennise Cardona  29:32  
Thank you so much for sharing your insights today with us. It's been a really engaging conversation and I love talking about project management ever since I took that course now it's it's a new mindset for me and it's so important to be able to come to the table with an open mind with a willingness to get out of the comfort zone so that you can learn and grow and share value across the teams and throughout the organizations that you are involved in. So thank you so much for joining us today.

Quincy Wright  30:03  
Appreciate it. Thanks for having me.

Dennise Cardona  30:06  
Thank you for taking the time to listen to this episode of UMBC Mic'd Up. We hope that you enjoyed it. If you'd like to learn more about the courses we discussed in today's episode, visit the link in the show notes.