Michael F. Palladino, PMP
Faculty in Project Management Program, College of Professional Studies
Michael Palladino has established a global reputation over the last three decades as a thought leader in Agile methodology and an authority on project management. An adjunct professor with 草榴社区鈥檚 College of Professional Studies and sought-after keynote speaker who has presented for audiences in more than three dozen countries, Professor Palladino has taught thousands of business leaders and decision-makers strategies to strengthen teamwork, increase production and optimize efficiency in projects.
鈥淎gile principles enable high-performing teams to accelerate decision-making and increase transparency, accountability and engagement while improving employee retention,鈥� he explains. 鈥淚t boils down to breaking work into smaller pieces, bringing teams together to function better and eliminating wasteful steps that don鈥檛 add value.鈥�
After working for some of the top pharmaceutical corporations worldwide, including GlaxoSmithKline, Sanofi-Aventis and Pfizer, Professor Palladino was recruited by Bristol Myers Squibb in 2018 to implement the adoption of Agile practices for its more than 30,000 employees worldwide.
The Agile approach of working has been gaining momentum in a wide range of industries, but the advantages were made abundantly clear in 2020 when COVID-19 suddenly changed the way the world does business. One of the world鈥檚 largest pharmaceutical companies, Bristol Myers Squibb had to adapt to a new way of working virtually overnight. 鈥淭he Agile teams didn鈥檛 skip a beat,鈥� says Professor Palladino. 鈥淭hey already had the structure and the capability needed to adapt.鈥�
As director of Enterprise Agility at Bristol Myers Squibb, Professor Palladino has the opportunity to influence drug discovery and manufacturing processes that could change millions of lives. 鈥淲e鈥檙e developing transformational medicines that have the potential to save lives if they can reach the market sooner,鈥� he says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 my mission to help teams work smarter, faster and more cost-effectively to produce higher-quality results so we can make that happen.鈥�
REAL-WORLD IMPACT
Legos as Learning Tools
What is the Agile methodology and how does it work? An expert in simplifying complex theories into more comprehensible parts, Professor Palladino has chosen quite an unexpected medium to demonstrate the answer to those questions: Legos.
During a four-hour workshop that Professor Palladino developed, participants use Agile techniques to gain hands-on learning as they simulate a start-up project by building a tropical resort using more than 10,000 Lego bricks. He鈥檚 hosted the training nearly 120 times at 16 sites across Bristol Myers Squibb, with more than 1,800 employees completing it in the last three years.
This year, Professor Palladino offered the Agile Lego workshop for the first time in collaboration with the Project Management Institute, a not-for-profit professional organization with almost 700,000 members and more than 300 chapters internationally. This fall, he hosted the training exercise in Lisbon, Belfast, Birmingham and London.
鈥淢y approach to teaching and managing is to incorporate experiential knowledge so that theories can be applied immediately at work,鈥� says Professor Palladino. 鈥淭hose I鈥檓 instructing, mentoring and collaborating with learn firsthand what the Agile mindset is by moving, thinking and grasping an understanding very quickly.鈥�
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Vaswati Chatterjee, PhD
Assistant Professor of Public Administration