Don’t Put Projects on Autopilot — No Matter How Busy You Are
From the Voices on Project Management Blog
by Cameron McGaughy,
Lynda Bourne, Kevin Korterud, Peter Tarhanidis, Conrado Morlan, Jen Skrabak, Mario Trentim, Christian Bisson, Yasmina Khelifi, Sree Rao, Soma Bhattacharya, Emily Luijbregts, David Wakeman, Ramiro Rodrigues, Wanda Curlee, Lenka Pincot, cyndee miller, Jorge Martin Valdes Garciatorres, Marat Oyvetsky
Voices on Project Management offers insights, tips, advice and personal stories from project managers in different regions and industries. The goal is to get you thinking, and spark a discussion. So, if you read something that you agree with--or even disagree with--leave a comment.
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By Cyndee Miller
There are a slew of training courses, business books, and, yes, even blog posts about situational awareness. It’s a fairly straightforward theory: Pay attention to what’s going on around you.
Mercedes Ramirez-Johnson added a new depth to the topic in her closing keynote at PMI Global Conference. She shared her story of surviving a 1995 commercial plan crash over the mountains of Colombia that killed 160, including her parents.
A multiyear investigation into the crash revealed the pilots made two fatal mistakes. First, they entered the wrong airport code into the flight computer and veered 130 miles (209 kilometers) off course. And second, when the alert started to sound that they were getting too close to land at too fast a speed — it was a mountain — they pulled up, but forgot to release the speed breaks.
Had the pilots released those breaks, experts said they had a 95 percent chance of clearing the mountain and not crashing. It’s a perfect example of knowing what to do and not putting it into practice, says Ms. Ramirez-Johnson.
It’s a loss of situational awareness. And it can easily happen to business leaders and project leaders of every ilk. When people are busy trying to survive project to project, deadline to deadline, they won’t thrive, Ms. Ramirez-Johnson
The physical recovery of the ordeal included a prolonged stay in the intensive-care unit and weeks in bed, not moving, not eating. For a while, she was bitter and entered a “why me” tailspin (and let’s be honest, who wouldn’t?).
To pull herself up, Ms. Ramirez-Johnson says she started plotting the life she wanted to live with her second chance. “Even though I didn’t have control of what happened to me, I had 100 percent control of how I was going to move on,” she said.
Ms. Ramirez-Johnson made the choice to live with intention, to reset her perspective and to persevere. And she says project and program managers can — and should — do the same. "When we put projects on autopilot, we lose situational awareness and we don’t have the sense of what dangers are around the corner or what opportunities exist," Ms. Ramirez-Johnson said.
How are you using situational awareness in on your projects?
Posted
by
cyndee miller
on: November 01, 2017 05:17 PM |
Permalink
Comments (7)
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Agreed. Thanks for your post
Stéphane Parent
Self Employed / Semi-retired| Leader Maker
Prince Edward Island, Canada
I took a mindfulness course a few year ago. It highlighted how many times we act on auto-pilot. Just focusing on being deliberate can make a tremendous difference.
Vincent Guerard
Coach - Trainer - Speaker - Advisor| Freelance
Mont-Royal, Quebec, Canada
If a project cold be done on auto pilot, an AI system could do it!
Drew Craig
Sr. Agile & Product Coach| Vanguard
Philadelphia, Pa, United States
Auto-pilot on projects does not make sense for me. Success is dictated by facilitation and engagement activities throughout the entire project cycle.
That was a powerful story. Must have been an emotional keynote.
Great story and inspiration. Thanks for sharing Cyndee.
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