The Seinfeld Strategy

Patti Gilchrist, PMP, is a Senior Technical Manager with more than 20 years of IT experience. Visit her website at www.freepmstudy.com

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An often overlooked yet essential component of a comprehensive and effective management strategy is the reward and recognition of resources. If you are tempted to summarily dismiss the human resource aspect of project management without further thought as being trivial or “soft”, just remember what happened to Jerry Seinfeld when he refused to show the obligatory appreciation to his friend.

In episode 23 (“The Face Painter”) of the sixth season of Seinfeld, Jerry accepts free tickets to the Rangers/Devils NHL playoff game at Madison Square Garden from his friend Alec Berg--but subsequently refuses to call him the next day to express his gratitude. Jerry defiantly protests against showing appreciativeness as an excessive and pointless societal ritual, brazenly exclaiming: “No, I don't believe in it. I'm taking a stand against all this over thanking.” Kramer warns Jerry that there will be consequences, claiming Alec will be upset because he wasn’t thanked and predicts that, in turn, Alec will not give him tickets for the upcoming Friday night game.

Perhaps throughout your career, you have encountered leaders that seemingly share a similar disdain toward recognition. Or perhaps you have witnessed individuals whose only ostensible involvement with this practice is profuse self-acknowledgement of their own accomplishments.…

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