“You’ve Got To Ask Yourself One Question … ‘Do I Feel Lucky?’”

I’m confident that the majority of GTIM Nation, and many other readers who have just happened by, will instantly recognize the quote in the title. It is, of course, uttered by none other than Inspector Calahan, from the first Dirty Harry movie, played masterfully by Clint Eastwood. Each time he utters the line, or some variant, Inspector Calahan is pointing a large hand gun at a suspect who has just committed a serious crime, a weapon is within easy reach, and they’re being asked if they want to risk being shot. The reason I’m bringing it up is because it strongly reminds me of a particular organizational behavior and performance pathology, one that affects everybody in the company so afflicted, but PMs specifically, and it is this: does the organization you’re working for believe that you are lucky to be there in the first place?
Of course, this unstated question is not being posed at the end of a deadly weapon, unless the organization we’re talking about here is some sort of organized crime unit. Instead, it’s a part of the culture, it permeates throughout, and manifests in several different ways. On at least one other occasion I’ve shared with GTIM Nation the story of the time I was interviewing for a PMO Director job at a mid-sized aerospace engineering firm, but it bears repeating here. The conference room was filled with engineers and engineering managers, and the Human Resources director. The engineers and (real) managers asked challenging and insightful questions about the type of cost and schedule performance measurement systems I would implement in a variety of settings and circumstances, and what would be expected out of them and their staff in order to make it work. I thought I was doing a bang-up job of addressing their concerns, when the discussion turned to HR.
It was finally her turn, and she looked at me like she was doing me a favor for even being there, and asked “Why do you want to work for (company name)?”
I actually had a really good job at the time, and was participating in this interview only because a friend of mine had asked me to, having recognized just how backward this company was from a PM capability point of view. As good as I had it, if these people could make a better offer, I was completely okay with entertaining it, hence my attending the interview.
“I’m not sure that I do.” I began. “What does this company offer that would make it an attractive destination?”
You would have thought that I just insulted the appearance of her pets, based on her reaction. The interview abruptly ended, and I never heard back.
Which was just as well. What the HR director inadvertently showed was that this particular company thought an awful lot of itself, to the point that they were more than willing to display its arrogance to potential workers. If it was so transparently haughty to interviewees, imagine how it displayed this hubris to its existing employees.
Where the “you’re lucky to be working here” narrative gets really interesting is when we use it to analyze how the four different Maccoby architypes[i] would deal with it. Generally speaking, the organizations that have more Gamesmen and Craftsmen will outperform those with a preponderance of Company Men and Jungle Fighters. But the organizations that holds the “lucky-to-be-here” narrative as part of its corporate culture will tend to repel Gamesmen, who are known for needing the decision-making latitude to take risks to bring in more work. Similarly, Craftsmen, who are focused on providing the highest-quality good or service that they can, will easily become frustrated when corporate policies and procedures mandate a technical approach that isn’t necessarily the optimal one, but the lucky-to-be-here zeitgeist strongly dissuades operating outside of those confines.
Conversely, the Company Men will tend to swallow this dysfunctional macro-assertion in its entirety, and behave consistent with that belief. The combination of the presence of a significant number of Company Men in the organization, combined with this belief, will almost invariably deliver the phenomena of managers who are willing to fail (in PM space, to bring in their projects on-time, on-budget) rather than operate outside company guidance, even in the smallest degree. And this environment is perfect for the flourishing of Jungle Fighters, who can use their favorite tactic, the ex parte conversation, to point out every single variation from policy/procedure, large or small, real or perceived, to the detriment of their enemies. In short, the presence of the “you’re lucky to be here” narrative in any given organization’s culture will drive away the true performers, and lead to a highly political office environment.
So, unless you’re really in to working in highly politicized workspaces, when you are evaluating a potential place to work, well, “you’ve got to ask yourself one question: do I feel lucky (for working here)? Well, do ya, PM?”


[i] Maccoby, Michael, The Gamesman; The New Corporate Leaders, Bantam Books, 1978.