Just Do It!; “He who hesitates is lost”; and “Strike while the iron is hot” are all expressions used with impunity when a project is about to start as we are encouraged to ‘get on with it’ as nothing can go wrong, go wrong?, wrong!
After all, ‘a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step‘ and projects have to start sooner or later. Continue reading
“That’s not my job” …an inevitable response when a ‘somebody’ is asked to do something that requires their effort and which they believe they don’t have to do, don’t won’t do, or can’t do. This familiar cry is often said with such impunity that the requester may well feel that they are in the wrong…but who is wrong and who has been wronged?
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We have probably all uttered (or muttered) that immortal line of “if you want something done, do it yourself’ when confronted with a less than satisfactory performance from somebody else. The quote is attributable to Napoleon Bonaparte who, as an emperor, certainly found that this dream of doing everything yourself wasn’t really possible and, perhaps, his downfall may have been attributable to trying to live this dream rather than delegate effectively? Continue reading
In project management we can’t always be in control of the environment around us. We can only forecast rather than predict risk and despite our ‘reasonable’ or even ‘best’ efforts to mitigate risk; shit happens and emergencies ensue! It’s not just physical emergencies but also those related to time and cost; overbudget or late projects can create an emergency for stakeholders. Continue reading
Many moons ago during a visit to a major tunnel project a senior executive realised that he was lost; the tour group had moved on. He saw a locomotive and asked the driver “where am I” and demanded to be taken to the surface. During the ensuing altercation the executive said, “Do you know who I am?” as he ‘pulled rank‘ and put the driver ‘in his place‘ through ‘executive’ power. The driver radioed the surface saying that a man who didn’t know who he was, or where he was, needed help! Continue reading