In the winter, my family spends almost every weekend skiing. This season we eagerly started in mid-November at Mount Snow, VT. The following weekend we skied at Bretton Woods, NH. All this while we waited for Ragged Mountain, NH to open where we had purchased season passes. When it did open on Friday, November 30th we were so excited. Although we missed the opening day, we made sure to be there on day two and almost every weekend thereafter.
Sunday, April 7 however was the last day of the 2018-2019 ski season at Ragged Mountain. In a way it reminded me of closing out the projects that we manage in the IS PMO. There were no releasing resources, closing out procurement accounts, etc. but there was an exercise in lessons learned that might be helpful.
Firstly, there are fabulous deals to be found at the end of the ski season for the following season. We learned that by purchasing our season pass in the late spring for the following year, we could reap great savings and enjoy the mountain for a lot less financial outlay had we waited till the opening of the new season.
With a bit of research and advice from ski forums and blogs, we learned of places where we could rent the kids’ skis and snowboard and purchase a season pass for much less than the cost of the season pass alone at the mountain. This is a great benefit as our kids are growing fast and every year they would need new skis, boots, and a snowboard.
We also learned not to fully trust some of the reservation websites on the internet. Many times, those photographs look a lot better than the hotel when you get there and check in. Additionally, we learned that if the site says, “only seven miles from the ski mountain”, you need to verify that because the reality may be quite different.
The last lesson learned is from my seven-year-old daughter Margaret: “Don’t go down a run just because it looks fun.” I recall a run at Sugarbush, VT when we followed Margaret down a run because she thought it “looked fun”. It turned out to be a black diamond (ski rating category for advanced skier), which led into an ungroomed double-black diamond (ski rating category for expert skier) that really challenged me (the project manager) and took me about 30 minutes to get to the end of the run. Meanwhile the rest of the project team had completed the run in no time. When I finally met up with them, they asked me, “What took you so long?”
Hmmm, this reminds me of our projects when we miss deadlines and our sponsors, users, etc. ask why is this taking so long? Did we go down a run just because it looked like fun?
Ha! Good point, Michael!