Misled by a big sign
“Sorry lady, you’re in the wrong place!” Wait, let’s rewind, so that you can see exactly where those words came from.
I was on my way to a function held in a venue I have never seen or heard of before. Naturally I drove slower than Miss Daisy, while trying to recall what the directions were. I couldn’t remember what the building was supposed to look like but I clearly remember that somewhere it said: “Parking will be available after 17h00,” being in Town and all, I immediately assumed that there will be undercover parking available for attendees.
Now I’m driving along a busy street, looking for building 125, or at least one of the street names that I can remember. And boom, I see a street name I’m on the lookout for and bam, there is the number 125. Am I not the luckiest woman alive? And as if luck is my truest friend, there is this huge red writing saying: “CUSTOMER PARKING”, furthermore there are these bold arrows supporting my thinking that I will have safe, undercover parking. Then I took a left… in retrospect… I now know I should’ve never made that turn.
Instead of ending up in a parking space, I ended up.., (sigh)… in a car dealership! Gorgeous, clean and new cars surround my not-so-gorgeous, not-so-clean and not-so-new car. How in goodness’ name did that happen? The sales person didn’t say it, but I could see it in his eyes: “Sorry lady, you’re clearly in the wrong place.” Not only was I in the wrong place, but it also took some pretty fine driving skills to get out of there!
Right then and there I realised that one way or the other, all of us are just looking for a sign guaranteeing us a world of promise. And sometimes we grab it, without thinking it through, and end up in a tricky situation. Luckily my situation didn’t involve any loss of money, but just a lot of embarrassment.
Imagine my car was your project. Imagine you made that hasty decision. Imagine you end up in a place where you couldn’t make a three (in my case - a six) point turn and to correct your wrong and head in the right direction.
During the initiation stage in any project, people are usually so swept away by the idea of “WOW!” that they do not really think the when, where and how through. That’s a huge problem. The trick of good Project Management (before you do your actual planning - WBS’s, budgets, schedules – and all those nice things), is to start with the end in mind!
Too many PM’s come out of a scoping meeting with the Client with promises that are impossible to actualise within the parameters ‘provisionally’ set. It is within that meeting already that you have to sketch your routes to get to point X. Planning a project should be the scripting of the concept that you have played out in your head a million times. And if someone else provides you with the road map and have the best routes already highlighted, it doesn’t hurt to check them out for yourself.
Do not be distracted by bells and whistles (and customer parking signs) and dive head first into a project – have a goal, sketch the route, don’t assume, plan the route, drive the route, and reach your goal.
By Jeanne Fredericks
I was on my way to a function held in a venue I have never seen or heard of before. Naturally I drove slower than Miss Daisy, while trying to recall what the directions were. I couldn’t remember what the building was supposed to look like but I clearly remember that somewhere it said: “Parking will be available after 17h00,” being in Town and all, I immediately assumed that there will be undercover parking available for attendees.
Now I’m driving along a busy street, looking for building 125, or at least one of the street names that I can remember. And boom, I see a street name I’m on the lookout for and bam, there is the number 125. Am I not the luckiest woman alive? And as if luck is my truest friend, there is this huge red writing saying: “CUSTOMER PARKING”, furthermore there are these bold arrows supporting my thinking that I will have safe, undercover parking. Then I took a left… in retrospect… I now know I should’ve never made that turn.
Instead of ending up in a parking space, I ended up.., (sigh)… in a car dealership! Gorgeous, clean and new cars surround my not-so-gorgeous, not-so-clean and not-so-new car. How in goodness’ name did that happen? The sales person didn’t say it, but I could see it in his eyes: “Sorry lady, you’re clearly in the wrong place.” Not only was I in the wrong place, but it also took some pretty fine driving skills to get out of there!
Right then and there I realised that one way or the other, all of us are just looking for a sign guaranteeing us a world of promise. And sometimes we grab it, without thinking it through, and end up in a tricky situation. Luckily my situation didn’t involve any loss of money, but just a lot of embarrassment.
Imagine my car was your project. Imagine you made that hasty decision. Imagine you end up in a place where you couldn’t make a three (in my case - a six) point turn and to correct your wrong and head in the right direction.
During the initiation stage in any project, people are usually so swept away by the idea of “WOW!” that they do not really think the when, where and how through. That’s a huge problem. The trick of good Project Management (before you do your actual planning - WBS’s, budgets, schedules – and all those nice things), is to start with the end in mind!
Too many PM’s come out of a scoping meeting with the Client with promises that are impossible to actualise within the parameters ‘provisionally’ set. It is within that meeting already that you have to sketch your routes to get to point X. Planning a project should be the scripting of the concept that you have played out in your head a million times. And if someone else provides you with the road map and have the best routes already highlighted, it doesn’t hurt to check them out for yourself.
Do not be distracted by bells and whistles (and customer parking signs) and dive head first into a project – have a goal, sketch the route, don’t assume, plan the route, drive the route, and reach your goal.
By Jeanne Fredericks
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