The Project
Last few queries from the printers dealt with so Project Program and Portfolio Management in easy steps should even now be rolling off the presses. The end of a project is always a little fraught and I just realized they didn’t send me a final proof to check but the only thing they should have changed is adding a few graphics to liven up the bland pages. Once I get a printed copy in my hand I can close the project.
Looking back at the handover notes from one of my old projects (strictly speaking a program), I was struck by the difference between the flexible approach we had adopted over the preceding two years and the rigid approach that the new team was going to take. This was based on their use of a set way of doing everything on a project.
The Way
A poor project manager will often takes a rigid approach and is set in his ways of doing things. He will repeat what he has done before, as he ‘knows it works’. But that will make his project management structured and repetitious and he will be unable to cope with those more ‘interesting’ moments and team processes that seem to happen on real projects.
The wise project manager, on the other hand, knows that what is flexible and flowing will tend to grow and develop. So he allows the team to go with the flow and things develop naturally.
A man when living is flexible and weak,
At death he is firm and strong.
All creatures, plants and trees when living are flexible and fragile.
When dead they are withered and dry.
Therefore the firm and the strong are companions of death.
The flexible and weak are companions of life.
Therefore if an army is not flexible,
Then it cannot conquer.
Strong trees are used to make weapons.
The great and strong will fall.
The flexible and weak will achieve.
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