Preface

It’s like a bad joke. The more labor- and time-saving devices we produce, the faster things go and the busier we get. This is what I’ve called “working at warp speed.” One major drawback to all this hurry is that it encourages machinelike behavior. That is, we rely on the speed of preprogrammed responses to crank out ever more tasks in ever less time. In a sense, that’s the punch line of the joke—we seem to be getting nowhere fast. What’s worse, something very essential has gotten lost in the process. This book looks at the performance of project teams to discover just how high the cost of this neglect has become, what we can do about it, and why taking action now is so important.

For twelve years, clients have used my Project Master Class to rescue their teams from the depths of despair (or slipping deadlines, whichever came first). The problems they have confronted are predictable, and I have collected them into a kind of “greatest hits” list featuring the ten most common complaints. I use this Warp Speed Barrier Checklist to begin our work with a simple question.

“Which of these barriers, if any, do you struggle with?”

Invariably the reply is “All of them!” People feel overloaded, saddled with unrealistic deadlines and constantly expanding scope. They do a poor job defining the goal and planning. Then they become buried in constant firefighting, miscommunication, and conflict while trying to straighten it all out.

I believe you could walk into any company and ask any employee, at random, if they experience any of the barriers on this list and you will likely get the same reply— they struggle with them all.

This universality can surprise people who still think of project management as something reserved for NASA engineers or contractors and high-stakes developers. Most of us have yet to realize how thoroughly project thinking has permeated every aspect of our lives. Have you ever remodeled your home or helped plan a major event like a wedding or fiftieth birthday party? How many times did you have to improvise in the face of an unexpected crisis? That was classic project management. Run a political campaign, make a movie, or organize a group backpacking trip, and you’re contributing to a project. In fact, any time you need to get a group of people to complete anything by a deadline you’re relying on project fundamentals. Law firms, ad agencies, hospitals, architects, meeting planners, publishers, social activists, you name it—the warp speed barriers confound us all, and we improvise our own version of project management solutions to overcome them.

But why reinvent the wheel when tackling this list of chronic frustrations? Much of the work has already been done, and the results have been collected here, compressed into the pages of this little book. How is that possible? Frantic problems often have simple solutions, as when, after a desperate search, we find our missing glasses perched on the top of our head.

In much the same way, our search for relief from the chaotic pressure of the 24/7 warp speed world results in some obvious but surprising conclusions. The solutions are frequently counterintuitive. The source of the problem is not what we think and often turns up where we least expect to find it. By the end of this book, however, I promise you will discover a set of simple steps that will enable you to find relief from every single one of the Warp Speed Barrier complaints.

Taking you through a simulated training is the easiest way to demonstrate the genesis of this people-centered approach. To this end, I have created a fictional project team. Although the characters are composites, the problems they address are all too real. So, too, are their observations and objections. For instance, the letter from Ellen, in the final chapter, is based on actual correspondence. The behaviors I describe are things that I have watched people re-create day in and day out for over a decade. In other words, I have attempted to make this virtual world as much like the real one as possible.

Some early reviewers suggested that the characters seemed too open to these new ideas and that they should present more resistance. In fact, for the sake of both interest and clarity, I have invented far more contention in this simulated classroom than I have ever encountered in the real one. The reason for this lack of resistance, I think, stems from the fact that I do not ask people to take anything on faith. We run experiments, observe the results, and, together, draw logical conclusions. Sometimes the results are surprising. If you find any of the outcomes suspect, try running the experiments yourself. I’d love to know what you discover.

For myself, this twelve-year journey of discovery has been a dream come true. I have so many people to thank. At the very beginning, Kelle Olwyler counseled me to become a corporate shaman despite my inability to find that category in the “Help Wanted” section. Tom Pinkson, a real shaman, helped with the inner healing that preceded the outer work. Elaine Hamilton, wherever you are, thanks so much for my first gig. How I got a master consultant like Ron Tilden to mentor me, I’ll never know. Ron, none of this would have been possible without you. Dick Miller of Western Learning Systems and Peller Marion kept me working and paying the bills while I learned the ropes. Without my friend and virtual partner, Sue Smith of Effective Training Associates and her incredible staff, I could not possibly be where I am today. To all my extraordinary clients from whom I have learned so much, I can’t thank you enough. That goes double for Steve Piersanti and the entire Berrett-Koehler team. Without you, this book would never have happened. In the course of its development, so many extraordinary friends and associates, too numerous to mention individually, gave me the benefit of their insights. Your guidance and encouragement have been indispensable. Most of all, I want to express my love and appreciation to my wife Sharon who kept me going, gave me invaluable feedback through endless rewrites, and has made my life heaven on earth. To all of you, and the Great Mystery from which we have received the miracle of life itself, words are wholly inadequate to express the gratitude I feel.

Barry Flicker

December 15, 2001

Woodacre, California