Get the work done

We will meet the boss man at late afternoon. Sp and the princess are not available because of their meetings. I realize Sp is not a bad guy after all. Involving him in the meetings of the S projects has made him happy now that he is involved. I think he can help me manage the princess as well. I think bringing him into the loop is good overall as the boss man will also know the problems we face especially with their team.

Managing contributors is getting to be a crucial part. Often people think that writing emails and making long PowerPoint presentations show the project is moving. To a certain extent it may be true but it is also important to have face to face working meetings and interactions. One important element is to determine what is the next step as explained in D. Allen's book Getting Things Done.

I think this is a key skill which I think E.de Bono talks about known as 'operacy'. It is more like the ability to get the work done. We are all good at some skill like writing emails or making presentations but the core skill of moving a project forward or 'operacy' may be missing. This is the key point that I believe is lost in the company. But the project management methodology is a step in this direction by providing a structured methodology to use.

I have to finish the project plan for the meeting today so I have to go to work early. We hope to have cleared the budget mess last Friday with the phone conferences and meetings. We agreed to reduce the budget at our end to account for the needed work until June. Hopefully our counterpart at head office will take up the slack and put the amount needed from July to December in his budget.

I think our accountant committed the mistake by not having the account created in our system. But I guess the issue is bigger than that because it's more a governance issue which is tied to managing work and its corresponding costs. But at the end of the day the customer should not suffer which is what will happen if this mess is not cleared. Now I understand the frustrations of the boss man with our department.