Davy, the project manager sat alone. Distressed. He leaned over the project plan as he had done so many meetings before, squinting, trying to read the gantt chart, knowing that when the project team arrived, he was doomed...
He took a deep breath, sighed and waited for the project team to arrive.
His heart pounded. Thump. Thump. Thump.
His throat hurt from lack of sleep. It was dry and achy. A feeling he knew all too well. He hadn’t slept the night before, and so many nights before then. The spooky forest of work and risks and deadlines had kept him awake. His heart pounding...1 AM, 2 AM, 3 AM. He watched the clock. He knew he had an 8:00 AM meeting. He’d be sleepless for sure, and the feeling of ‘sick’ would last all day.
As the project team arrived, the aura of distrust was amuck. The thick muddy bog of arguments began. His ability to concentrate was deminished, slow and painful.
Suddenly he felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned around to see Sandy looking down on him. He relented. She spoke. “When are you going to be done with that project?” she said in a monsterous voice, full of accusation.
Davy sat motionless, gasping for breath and a response that did not come to him until it was too late.
He breathed in purposefully to keep his exhaustion at bay. He felt another tap on his shoulder. Thump. Thump. Thump. The finger tapping felt more like a bat striking -crushing, pounding his shoulder - than a finger tapping. He turned to see Angie, the head of Marketing leaning too close for comfort.
“We need you to add this new feature,” she growled like a werewolf, just quiet enough for only Davy to suffer the impact.
Then the floor manager began, “Hey, I need to use your most important resource to fix this new problem on the floor.”
Davy woke to realize it was all just a dream. His subconscious was reminding him of his scary past, still vivid and raw, the time before his company had implemented Lean Project Managment practices supported by PLAYBOOK software. He shook his head and woke himself up enough to know that his project-status meeting that day was going to go AWESEOMELY! He had a clear picture the prioirity tasks for the day, the team’s availability to complete them, and the impact of any changes that came their way.
He sighed with relief and breathed in and out. "Whew," he thought, turned over and fell soundly asleep again. ;-)
Happy Halloween everyone!
