"How Projects Are Run... shoot the Project Manager" is a short story from the Plain of Plenty. This is the story of the survival of mobs of meerkats facing extermination by a clan of hyenas known as the Sharp Teeth Gang.
Meerdom lived in the Plain of Plenty. That was the only world they had, and as was laughed off during the brainstorming, it was not easy to pull up stumps and move to a new virgin ground to start over again. They had to stay. They could not remain without doing anything either. They had to change. They had to live smartly.
The meerkats had lived a lovely existence of peace and tranquillity and then having to adjust their living to accommodate the dangerous presence with a clan of hyenas. The hyenas lived there too because, by the laws of nature, they had to go where their prey was. Though they feasted on the meerkats, that was what they had to do. So the battle now is between who had the superior intellect. Likewise, the birds of prey. They just had to learn to hover till a meerkat lost its bearings and pounce.
The matriarch of the group recognised the danger posed by the predators and thought of how to outwit them. She, before, confirmation by the group meetings decided building fortifications that would protect meerkats while they went about their daily chores.
The meerkats, in the end, decided to run the "fortifications" as a project. The important point here was the meerkats recognised that they needed meerkats working full time on the task to get it done. Doing it any other way was going to take a very long time. They had to vote money and resources to the project to pull it through. But therein lies the real story here. They appointed the project manager to help them build up their fortifications. In so doing, they lived all the emotions during project implementation:
- Excitement - this is at the start of the project when the project team is all about preparation and setting the project on a solid footing
- Confusion and worry - when finding your way through a project seemed unending. It takes a lot to prepare documentation for a project and carry on at the same time. You have to keep for focus.
- Getting wrongdoers - you have been working on the project for a while. Then some events come up that seems to have been deliberately put in your way.
- Just persecute anyone - sometimes you feel any persecution will satisfy the project team. You have worked so hard, yet the end seems so far away... sometimes you shoot the project manager.
- Adornment of the observers - now the project has been delivered, and as you we know, success has many parents. Here we reward those that are left standing. All observers!
This is a story about survival when you have to do anything for survival. In the plains, the predators were everywhere. In the sky were eagles and other birds of prey and on the ground was the ever-present hyenas, snakes and others. The meerkats had to put on their thinking caps to think through how best to neutralise all the predators.
It was not an easy task because there was no holiday while they built. The fortification had to be "built" in the fire.
But like all things, there is the relationship element. The project manager, albeit a good one, forgot his own self. He did not cultivate relationships with senior management to provide him with some cover. So he went about his duties, and his rivals plotted and shot him down. In the end, he had to leave his post. This has happened to many. And this serves a reminder that project managers should look after themselves too. What good are you when you get chopped down when you have done all the work for some bystander to jump into your seat so take all the glory.
