Masonry Magazine April 2007 Page. 66
Full Contact Project Management
Starters Don't Cut
Practice
FULL CONTACT
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Gary Micheloni
Let's say that you wanted to make the team. As a matter of fact, you always wanted to make the team even dreamed about it every night. I'm not sure what your plan of action was, but let me tell you what I did.
As a kid, I watched the game on TV and in person. I played the game with my friends: at school, after school it didn't matter. I always wanted to play at a higher level, for the school team and beyond.
When I tried out for the school team, I found out something, though. Lots of guys wanted to play. Lots of guys had dreams. Lots of guys signed up. It was a big deal: real coaches and real uniforms, with real refs and real people watching the games. I wanted to be a part of all that. How about you? Remember trying out for any school teams? I mean any school team: athletics, band, cheer, academics, music, drama you name it.
In my case, two teams come to mind: football, as a 16-year-old high school senior, and the college debate team, as a 50-year-old "senior" on a team with 18-to 24-year olds (and that's a separate story altogether!) Both teams had coaches and players, and the coaches told the players what was expected of them.
Here's what mine told me: We had practice every day until the season began, then four practices a week, plus game day. We all understood one thing if you didn't make it to practice, you had better be dead or seriously injured, because cutting practice was just not tolerated! As a matter of fact, the consequences of missing a practice were serious, because you let down your entire team; plays couldn't be run with the right mix of players in them, and other guys had to cover for you. And the fact that you missed practice was never overlooked by the coaches, either!
During practice, we spent most of our time doing conditioning drills, both physical and mental. We were expected to come to practice prepared, and ready to leave it all on the field, every day. Nothing less was tolerated-not that we would we have wanted it any other way.
"But Coach, what does all of this have to do with project management?" I thought you'd never ask!
Team, it has everything to do with your work as a PM and a leader on your projects. Think about this for a second. When you were a part of a competitive team back in school, and were about to step onto the "field" to do your part, how prepared were you? I'm not saying that you weren't nervous; sure, it's a little scary. But you went there with the knowledge that your coaches had prepared you, that you were as good as you could possibly be, and you knew that your teammates could count on you, and you could count on them.
Is it any different today? Don't you count on your crew members to do their
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64
Masonry
April 2007