The Path To The Corner Cube - A Project Management Fable, Chapter VII: What We’re Going To Do

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“No way that’s happening with Lindstrummer” Oscar muttered.

“He’s right” Jane confirmed. “What do we do?”

Jane’s question hung in the air (from last week’s blog), but I had no immediate answer, and heaved a sigh.

“You’re not in an impossible position, Jane, but a very difficult one. The thing about working in a business model that’s heavily predicated on the ‘maximize shareholder wealth’ paradigm is that it’s next to impossible to introduce, let alone implement, a management strategy that isn’t justified on that basis. That’s the reason Lindstrummer has phrased the decision on the best approach to monetizing your recent discovery using only those terms.”

At this point in the discussion I just happened to be glancing over the books on Jane’s office shelf, and caught a glimpse of a familiar title, right next to Jane’s PMBOK Guide®.

“I see you have a copy of In Search of Excellence.”

“Yeah, we all do.”

“Who’s ‘all’?”

“Management level and above. Daystrom loves Peters and Waterman. Attended a couple of Peters’ talks, and had the company buy every manager In Search of Excellence.”

I couldn’t help but to smile broadly.

“Oscar, fire up PowerPoint. We have a presentation to prepare.” Then, looking over at Jane, I added “We might have a real shot at this.”

*   *   *   *   *

I arrived early to the next day’s Operations Review meeting so that I could get a very specific place in the conference room.

“Where does Daystrom typically sit?” I asked Jane as we walked into the conference room.

Jane pointed to a place at the U-shaped table on the right-hand side, three away from the top of the U, where the projection screen was located. I walked over to one of the chairs along the wall on the opposite side.

“Aren’t you going to sit at the table?” Jane asked.

“Might come across as presumptuous.”

Jane understood. She went to her usual chair, right in front of me, and in the direct line of site to Daystrom’s chair. One by one the other attendees came in, some giving me a quick “who’s this guy?” second glance, others not bothering to notice. The next time the conference room door opened, Randy Jacobs walked through, followed closely by Acme’s CEO Lee Daystrom and Joel Lindstrummer, all engaged in conversation. As soon as Lindstrummer saw me, he exclaimed “Raspberry! What are you doing here?”

“I invited him, Joel. He has some analysis results for us.” Jane stated flatly.

“Raspberry? As in Stanly Raspberry?” Daystrom asked. He walked over.

“I’m Lee Daystrom, CEO of Acme. I’ve heard a lot about you.” Lee was a lean six-footer, with a surprisingly soothing voice and intonation which made quickly reading his frame of mind difficult.

“Hopefully not all bad” I replied. Daystrom laughed.

“Actually, it is mostly bad, but I overhear it from Monolithic execs at the country club, so it reflects well on you.”

“I hired Stanly to perform an analysis on our Project Management strategies” Jane began. “He has a few slides, if we can shoe-horn some time in this meeting.”

“By all means!” Daystrom responded, much to the chagrin of Lindstrummer.

The meeting began with progress reports from Acme’s major projects’ managers. I pulled the reports that Oscar had prepared for me, comparing the “bottoms-up” Estimates at Completion with their calculated versions, and waited for the most egregious example of an overly-optimistic EAC. By the time that PM was nearing the end of his presentation, nobody appeared to notice the absurdity of his asserting a negligible Variance at Completion.

“One moment, sir. This project is showing a negative two percent VAC – is that right?” I queried.

“Yeah, that’s right” the PM replied. Daystrom had been distracted, but suddenly focused when he heard me speak up.

“I’ve never seen anything like that before.”

“What’s unusual about it, Stanly?” Daystrom asked.

“Well, he’s 85% complete, with a Cost Performance Index of 0.83. At that rate, you would have to suddenly increase project performance by almost double – a To Complete Performance Index of around 1.57 is indicated – in order to come in even close to your stated EAC.”

“What about that, Jack?” Daystrom challenged. The PM stared intently at the figures he had projected onto the screen.

“Put that way, I think he has a point. I need to revisit my EAC.”

“Do so, and shoot me an update” Daystrom prodded. “Nice catch, Stanly.”

Not wanting to implicate Oscar for pulling the data, I merely nodded my acknowledgement. As the last of the major projects’ managers wrapped up their presentations, Daystrom addressed me directly. “Mr. Raspberry, take a seat up here at the table. What have you got for us?” Lindstrummer chimed in.

“We have a meeting in ten minutes to review some make-or-buy determinations” he reminded Daystrom.

“That can wait. I want to hear what this man has to say, Joel.” Daystrom responded.

Next week: I lay out my case.