Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

Project managers have various goals. Here is one to consider: the people who work on your project are willing to work on another one.

Working on a project can be tough. The requirements change, if there are any requirements. The schedule shrinks, if there is a schedule. Weekends – what are weekends? – are spent in the office to meet the deadline.

Who wants to work on a project? What’s more, who wants to work on a project after having survived one?

This is one measure of a project manager – the people who worked on a project you managed are willing to work another project. You didn’t ruin them.

This basic measure extends to many endeavors.

• Writers – the reader of your book is willing to read another book after reading yours.
• Programmers – the user of your program is willing to use another program after using yours.
• Furniture maker – the person who sat in a chair you made is willing to sit in another chair after sitting in yours.
• Parent – the children you raised became fine people.

I could go on with examples. Simple to do? Perhaps not. I have seen examples of the opposite: people swear never to work on another project again, swear never to read a book again, swear never to use software again, swear never to speak to their parents again.

Doing something doesn’t have to inspire people to great heights. A simpler goal is to have people willing to try something again. A simpler goal is to not ruin someone in some way. Allow people to see that managing  a project, writing a book, and raising kids is not as easy as it might appear. Allow them to see that you tried.

What is most important, allow them to see that what you cared about most is them.