It’s been five months since I’ve written a blog post and of course I am tempted to write about the Patriots’ sixth Super Bowl championship. This win is a gift to blocked writers across New England, a blog softball lobbed right at me. There are so many angles from which to choose. “Never count the Pats out,” “Told you so!” “Gronky and Vivi ride the Duck Boats,” “10 reasons why Tom Brady really is the G.O.A.T.,” the list goes on. Of course, now that I’ve written the word “G.O.A.T.,” and I have the attention span of a wide-eyed three-year-old in FAO Schwartz, I’m thinking instead of writing about my fascination with the fainting goat videos popping up all over Facebook and YouTube. Yes! Who doesn’t want to write about those?
Then something happened, and my blog brainstorming turned more serious. I have a few projects in process right now across the institute. Sometimes they go well and it’s easy to feel good about my role and contributions to the project. Other times, having a solid run of smooth days and weeks feels maddeningly elusive. I don’t know how other project managers feel, but when things don’t go very well, it’s hard for me to not feel responsible and try to figure out what I can do to sort things out.
Just the other day I published a bi-monthly status report on an implementation project. The update included a summary project timeline slide. Many of the testing-related tasks were running long, for good enough reason, and the task statuses changed from “green” to “yellow.” Not my favorite update to send, particularly since it took so long to get the project to a great place, but the yellow status was appropriate. All was not terrible since the go-live date is not in jeopardy and with some extra work across the team, we’ll get the work done. Nonetheless, I much prefer delivering cheery “all is well in the world” status updates so I didn’t look forward to sending this one out to the executives. No one likes lukewarm news, right?
A funny thing happened, and it made my day. I’m sure that no executive, and no key stakeholder, enjoys receiving a report that shows things a bit off track. The response I received to the email? “Thanks, so much Sandra! And I really like your timeline slide. Very easy to follow. Thanks again!”
So much pressure was mitigated by the response such that my worries around the messaging dissipated, allowing me to better focus with the team on working through the timeline issues. And I knew, more than ever, that all the right people have our backs while we execute these projects. Here at Dana-Farber, I have found that this kind of support is more the norm than the exception. Despite this knowledge, when the going gets tough it can be easy to be blinded and forget just how much support is available and just how many people want you to succeed. It was quick and simple, I’m sure, to provide that one positive reply. I know I appreciated the feedback and encouragement.
Think of all the times Tom Brady gave some words of encouragement to his teammates when things weren’t going well. This is the 28-3 guy, he practically has a PhD in encouragement.
It’s amazing what a simple kind and encouraging word can do, especially when we need it most.
I can hear Belichick saying – just do your job! Of course, you were doing your job and doing it well! It’s great that you feel supported even when times are tough.
Thanks for transforming my view of Brady’s excellence from a limited understanding of how he quarterbacks into a more dynamic view – you’re right, he IS the 28-3 man. Team work makes the dream work, no matter how much emphasis another team might put on their quarterback.
Many of us PMs are our own worst critics. I’m glad to hear you at least one person came through with a well-deserved word of encouragement.