- Introduction
- Intuitive and counter-intuitive thinking an analogy
- Making commitments
- Camp One: "We must over-commit to succeed"
- Camp Two: "We cannot over-commit and succeed"
- Changing
- Your next step
- Conclusion
Camp One: "We must over-commit to succeed"
Camp One's behavior is the result of having one or moreof the following underlying beliefs (intuitive thoughts):
Managers believe that their job is to commit the organizationto "please the customer."
Project managers and engineers think they must take scope and deadline requests from management almost verbatim and run as fast as they can to "please the manager."
Project managers and engineers don't believe that they need to sell their proposal to management with Jane's elegance (e.g., provide recommendations on scope, risk and resource options from which to choose). It is sold as, "Take this option or give us more resources."
The players in Camp One believe that they will eventually be able to recover the project and succeed. Recovery is accomplished by waiting for some other dependency to slip, thereby providing the whole project with more time, or by providing management and the customer no other alternative than to delay delivery.
The current economic climate is also used to support Camp One's premise. If the economy is booming, it is declared that there is no time for practices such as planning and risk management. Intuition says, "We are successful without those practices." If the economy is in a slump, it is declared that one must underbid and overpromise to "get in the door with the customer," or "tell the customers what they want to hear."
Camp One can continue for years before its behavior and results change, either because customers become used to the problems, or because people come through at the end of the project with heroic efforts. Usually, neither the organization or customers are happy.