Grad-YOU-ation

This weekend, my niece Trisha graduates from high school.  Seems like only yesterday I got the call from my brother-in-law announcing her arrival.  Now she's going out into the world along with thousands upon thousands of other graduates.

This post is for all of you graduates.  The rest of you can find some creative way to occupy your time.

You are about to initiate one of the most important projects of your life:  YOU.  You are now both project manager and executive sponsor of this project.  Some of you already have defined your "project scope" to the nth degree of detail and know what you want your end product to look like.  Others of you are utterly incredulous that you even made it to graduation day (in which case, you may need to look up "utterly incredulous" in the dictionary.  Go ahead.  I can wait).  You will eventually learn to accept accountability for this project's results.  Sure, stuff is going to happen to you that you would never think could happen.  And you'll deal with it.  Because that's what project managers do.  It won't be easy since the project is YOU, but you'll find a way.

Some of you will find your project's scope changing.  You think you will have your life - your project plan - all mapped out and then WHAMMO!  You will be heading in a totally different direction than you had planned.  Some of you will like your new direction better than the old one.  Some of you will spend the rest of your life trying to get back to your old direction.  The trick is to just keep moving.

Some of you are risk averse.  You hate ambiguity and want to know all the answers to all the pertinent questions.  And they won't be there.  And you will need to learn to embrace a little risk now and then.  Who knows?  You might find you like it.  Others of you think risk is a food group.  You will take chances.  You will fail.  You will pick yourself up again.  You may fail even more grandly the second time.  Or you may experience success beyond your wildest imagination.  (In all honesty, that's what I wish for all of you.)

Your project team will change over the course of the project.  Right now, you may have mom and dad as your key project resources, helping you begin your greatest project.  At some point, a spouse or life partner will join your project team and propel you forward in your greatest project.  At the same time, though, you must remember that you are on their project team helping them do the same thing.  You will have to come to grips with the fact that it's not all about you.  Eventually, many of you will add children to your project team, and in so doing start new projects that will be even more adventurous than your own.  Children are a very precious gift, and they require a lot of attention.  Just don't lose sight of the fact that you are still project manager and executive sponsor of the YOU project that is still going on.  Your children will be watching how you manage that project, and they will look to you for how they will manage their own project when their time comes.

You will need numerous skills on your YOU project.  You will need courage to know when to speak up.  You will need tact to know when to shut up.  You will need creativity to splash carelessly into the great unknown.  You will need problem solving to analyze that same great unknown to determine if it's right for you.  You will need the ability to assess the details around you, all the while needing to see how those details fit into the big picture.

Unlike the projects I manage, the YOU project has only one status report.  At the end.  It will be the most important deliverable you will ever create.  It will tell what you've accomplished while you worked on your project.  It will also tell what legacy you left for other project managers.

Good luck with your YOU project.  I hope our paths cross in the future and I will get to be a part of your project, just as you may get to be a part of mine.  You will be a great project manager.  Just believe in yourself and CARPE FACTUM!!

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