Content provided in partnership with

Business Services Industry

Success in project management: the lighten up approach

Defense AT&L, Nov-Dec, 2005 by Wayne Turk

Project managers as a group seem to take themselves way too seriously. That's understandable. They have to deal with unreasonable expectations, unrealistic schedules, unworkable budgets, too few resources and crises that seem to pop up on a daily basis. You have to question why anyone would want the job and the stress level that goes with it. One way to deal with that stress, though, is to add a little bit of humor.

Joel Goodman, in one of a number of articles from the HUMOR Project <www.humorproject.com>, points out that you need to take your job seriously ... and take yourself lightly. He quotes Don Seibert, former chief executive officer and chairman of the board of JCPenney, as saying, "Humor helps you to keep your head clear when you're dealing in highly technical information or difficult decisions where choices aren't that clear." That last part sounds like a typical part of project management to me.

Most Popular Articles in News: The Ten Best Laptop bags; Tata plans cheapest-ever car for Indian market; GLOBALIZATION AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF UNDERDEVELOPMENT OF THE THIRD WORLD; Corn is good for you; Corn is not only a tasty treat, but also a cereal that ...; THE 50 BEST STYLISH HANDBAGS TO CARRY; More »

Goodman also says, "You can be a serious professional without being a solemn professional." To illustrate this, he quotes the very successful former manager of the New York Yankees, Casey Stengel. When asked his secret for winning. Casey replied, "The secret of managing is to keep the five guys who hate you away from the four ... who are undecided." Goodman emphasizes that humor can help us to survive--and thrive--at work. I think he's right.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

In over 30 years of management experience, I've seen that humor can be a lifesaver and even a career saver. Once I lightened up and added a sense of humor, it made a world of difference to my attitude and my health. During my career, I've also collected a few humorous (all right, twisted) rules concerning project management that have helped me keep a sometimes irreverent attitude toward my chosen field. There could be an ounce or two of truth in them.

The Rules of the Game

Mistakes are going to happen on your project, so:

* Never make the same mistake twice in succession. Always make at least one intervening mistake.

Which leads to the corollary:

* When your goal is to keep from repeating a mistake, you are sure to make a doozie.

And when you've made that doozie of a mistake, there is another rule:

* Carry bad news to the boss the day that his promotion is announced. (Don't you wish you could always time it that well?)

There are many articles written about standardization, processes, rules for success, and similar things that could make people believe there is a cookie-cutter approach to project management that will always lead to success. Not true: There is no single approach that guarantees success. In the real world--versus the world of management theory and advice--there are rules concerning projects that you might want to remember.

* Twins occur in one out of every 93 births in humans, but never with projects.

If you try to mimic the last successful project, you are destined to be a chapter in a Lessons Learned book.

You don't want to be held up as a bad example, so treat each project as an individual, unique entity. Yes, there are general concepts and guidelines for every project, but each project is different, with different people involved, different planned outcomes, and different problems. Be careful about treating all projects the same or you might end up as the point of a Dilbert comic strip.

* Two of something that you cannot use is NOT better than one of something that you cannot use.

It happens all of the time when users aren't involved in the requirements process from the beginning through the testing and deployment. That's like the old joke about a retailer losing money on every product he sells but making up for it in volume. Make sure that you design what a user needs.

* It is easy to meet a Mean Time Between Failures requirement if you leave it broken. (Of course you might have to explain some availability problems.)

A lighthearted way of saying not to bend your ethics or take shortcuts to meet a requirement.

* Users are sometimes nervous about flying, floating, or driving in something when all parts are built by the lowest bidder.

I guess that we might want to consider quality and past performance in choosing contractors. But we always do that anyway, right?

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

* Don't assume that the train moved just because you blew the whistle ... unless, of course, you are the client.

I think that I had better not add any comments to that, but it does marry up closely with the next one, which is the primary rule of project management:

* The Golden Rule -- He who has the gold makes the rules.

Here are a few other random rules and thoughts to go with them:

* Whatever happens, behave as though you meant it to happen.

Confidence and a cool facade will fool all of the people some of the time and some of the people all of the time, to paraphrase old Abe. And that buys you some time to fix things.

* The first place to look for information is in the section of the manual where you least expect to find it.

Business Services Industry

Success in project management: the lighten up approach

Defense AT&L, Nov-Dec, 2005 by Wayne Turk

Find Research Guides for:

Find Featured Titles for: Business

Most Popular Articles in News

Most Popular Publications in News