Strategic Lessons Learned – the Rejects

 

For those of you who suffered through my Webinar “Strategic Lessons Learned From a Battle-Hardened Project Manager,” I mentioned that I had excluded quite a few lessons from the presentation due to running out of time. Well, although that is a true statement, the real issue of “time” was that they were not prime-time ready.

So, since blogs are about bearing personal truth, I thought I would show you some of the rejects, and based on the response of the one or two that read my postings, maybe I’ll show more at a later time. After all, this is about “rejection therapy,” that is, overcoming my fear and desensitizing myself to the blog statistics page.

OUT ON A LIMB

As project managers we push for effort estimates on all tasks; however, we treat the estimates differently based on the approach used (e.g. waterfall, hybrid or agile). Have you ever noticed this effect, wherein a team or individual incrementally decreases their effort estimate as they become more familiar with the subject matter? Such situations are likely to put you out on the limb, and when the perceived float turns to bloat, the mass determines your fate – oh, snap.

ISOLATION OF EXTREMES

Behind every policy or process is an “army of exceptions” that guard the predominate facts against exposure to the light. This naturally occurring phenomenon requires an offensive strategy called the “tactic of isolation.” Start your engagement by locating the central core of understanding and then make your advance on your target, rejecting every exception that encroaches on your position. – Knowledge will be revealed with the objective is no longer concealed.

CLOSING

So, before I embarrass myself any further, let me know if you have an interest in postings of this type. It would also be interesting to hear some of your “strategic lessons,” and/or your thoughts related to the subject matter of the ones I posted above.