Back to the Future
October 2nd, 2003 by Hal
David Schmaltz and Amy Schwab happened to be in Chicago at the same time Greg Howell and I were there to conduct our Project Leader Studio™ Intensive. We had planned to join them for dinner, but President Bush decided to visit Chicago delaying David's and Amy's arrival at O'Hare. Greg and I had planned an evening bonus session for the program participants. Instead, we asked David and Amy if they would like to speak with our group.
You might remember David Schmaltz's name. He is the author of The Blind Men and the Elephant: Mastering Project Work. I wrote about the book in my postings For PMs Who Might Someday Have to Deal with Human Beings and then again There Can Be No Such Thing as a Project. David takes a provocative stance in his book. He claims a major source of problems on our projects is directly related to the quality of the conversations we have among project participants. Specifically, he calls on the leaders of projects to produce a convergence of interests among all participants throughout the duration of the project.
It was 8:00 PM when David and Amy joined the group, way too late for a lecture. Instead, they did one of their simulations. They call it Back to the Future. The simulation involved walking backwards on a mission to recover an object. The exercise was designed to interrupt our acceptance of planning as looking into the future. The simulation was a success and the conversation that continued late into the night was quite the bonus.
David and Amy do their own workshops on project management. Visit them at Project Community. And for the really curious (or brave) among you, spend some time with David's and Amy's Deep Thoughts.
Thank you David and thank you Amy for spending that time with us!
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