Excerpted from The Truth about Getting Your Point Across…and Nothing But the Truth

Within a few months of my open door policy, I saw my own productivity drop and my frustration level rise because I kept getting interrupted by people taking me up on my open-door policy.  My open-door policy soon turned into a series of random interruptions that caused me to not get my stuff done.  I came to recognize that I needed to be accessible to people but that I could control the accessibility through scheduled time.  Open-door means be accessible, not come in whenever you want.

Talk about your character-building experience...

I was a young hot-shot project manager on an engagement that I had sold to a client.  I had it all planned out and had delusions of completely delighting my client with an issue-free project.  It all seemed so simple, then the project started...and never finished.

I'll spare you the gory details of my harrowing experience but what I can tell you is that I put more focus on selling and planning the project than I did on its execution.  I took a naive attitude of the project being able to pretty much run itself with some junior analysts running the day-to-day aspects of the work.  It blew up in my face and I got booted from the client never to return again.  It was my inaugural visit to the project management guillotine. 

Excerpted from The Truth about Getting Your Point Across…and Nothing But the Truth 

Several years ago, I invested in a business with someone who was my best friend at the time. It all started with a lot of excitement and dreams of how we were going to change the world together.

As time progressed, reality set in. The idea was great, but the financial return wasn’t there. My best friend worked incredibly hard but just didn’t have the right skill set the business demanded. We weren’t aligned on my engagement, particularly as I saw the financial demands of the business exceed my willingness to provide. I ended up shutting off funding, the business failed, and I lost a friend.

Ah, the naivete.

Read more at ProjectManagement.com. 

Bill was a newly appointed project manager over a mission-critical systems development initiative. Ann, Bill’s boss, trusted Bill to lead the initiative and gave him the latitude he needed to execute without getting in his way. While the two worked well together, they did struggle in one area: decision-making. They had several instances where Ann was surprised by key decisions Bill made but didn’t inform Ann. Bill also didn’t benefit from Ann’s experience on several issues and made uninformed decisions that hurt the project. Ann asked Bill to include her more on decisions, but Bill took that as him needing to come to her on decisions he could have made on his own. Bill grew frustrated with his perception of Ann micromanaging him, whereas Ann just wanted to ensure she was in the loop on key decisions. The project ultimately got done, but not without a lot of friction between the two.

Friction that could have been avoided.

Several years ago, I consulted with a large IT organization working for the VP of program management. This VP and I have a long history of delivering results for more than 25 years. His organization was comprised of program directors with varying levels of project managers working in each program director’s organization. The program management VP had a peer VP accountable for product management. The product management VP also had directors, which included product managers and product owners.

The product management and program management organizations didn’t get along well. There was confusion on role clarity, and a chronic “that’s not my job” mentality. The product managers didn’t think they should be accountable to the program managers, and the program managers had difficulty pinning down what the product managers were—and were not—accountable to deliver.

Shortly after I started my consulting gig, the VP of product management hired a new product management director. In one of his first meetings, which included the program management VP, the product management director referred to himself as “CEO of the Product.”

Read more at ProjectManagement.com.

I love baseball. I grew up playing as a kid. I had a pretty good fastball and a knee-buckling curve. I like to think I could have broken into the pros if it only I was bigger, stronger, faster, and had more talent. (Only a few minor details that stood between me and the Cooperstown Baseball Hall of Fame.)

I particularly enjoy going to spring training games in Arizona. This year, I went to four games in five days, including a day and night game on the same day. At the night game, Patty and I took my 91-year-old father-in-law. I bought good tickets that minimized the number of stairs, and we sat in the section behind home plate.

We had peanuts and beer during the game. The weather was beautifully comfortable; not too hot or cold. We stayed until the middle of the 8th inning and left to avoid traffic. The one thing from that game that will stick with me into my old age was during the seventh-inning stretch.

Read more at ProjectManagement.com.