Those who know me well know me to be the terminal optimist. There will never be a time when there's no work. There will never be a time when there are not new opportunities. There's a brighter day ahead. I write this in reflection after reading my last column, which makes me sound like a bit of a "doom-and-gloomer". I'm not. On that score, I am my mother's son.

My mother (Mary Beth Hoon Pritchard) was a wonderful human being. She taught elementary school much of her life, and she had that "tomorrow-is-a-brighter-day" attitude. On the days when tomorrow did NOT seem brighter, she would take her thumb and index finger, juxtapose them and start see-sawing them back and forth saying "One finger, one thumb....keep moving." It was her way of saying that there's no point in mulling over problems and not making forward progress. It was her way of reinforcing that there's progress to be made, whether the environment warrants it or not. That may not sound like an optimistic act. In fact, it comes across as a dictum to soldier on, despite adversity. But it is optimism. And it's optimism in the perfect frame for project managers.

Projects are often the fruit of someone's optimism. The Statue of Liberty, for example, was the optimistic act of Frederic Bartholdi, who wanted to acknowledge the centennial of the United States. Like so many projects, it had supporters and detractors. The statue was hard to fund... (One finger, one thumb...) The statue was considered a waste of U.S dollars... (One finger, one thumb...) The statue almost sunk at sea and then sat in crates for most of a year (One finger, one thumb...) The pedestal ran out of money... (One finger, one thumb...) The statue was ten years late (One finger, one thumb...) For those with true vision, the image of the lady in the harbor never changed. But there must have been times when the challenges seemed insurmountable.

How did they survive?

One day at a time. Knowing that every day that passed was another day closer to fruition (WHENEVER it happened).

We tend to think of optimism as cheerfulness, exuberance and ebullience. The reality is that optimism (according to Dictionary.com) is "a disposition or tendency to look on the more favorable side of events or conditions and to expect the most favorable outcome." Does that inherently lead to a brighter disposition? Perhaps. But it is a matter of perspective. It's a perspective that says that we have the ability to succeed...eventually.

Our role as project managers is to infuse that kind of attitude into our projects and our teams. It's not an attitude that "Everything is all right", but instead is an attitude that "We will achieve positive results...eventually. And in the meantime, we must continue to move forward".

If we can instill that attitude (that any day of even the most modest progress is a good day), we create the sense that our efforts have meaning. Victor Vroom (social theorist and management guru) deduced (in his expectancy theory) that if we believe our work will ultimately have meaning and that we have hope of achieving that goal, that we will be motivated to produce. Vroom believed tomorrow could be a brighter day as well. Just like Mom. Just as we should.

So what's the first step? That's what I'd like YOU to post. Or e-mail me. Or better still...just DO! I'd like you to take one small step toward sharing the notion that you and your team and your peers have a chance at better outcomes. And that you can do it with one tiny incremental step forward...today!

(for e-mail, send them along to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ) Thanks for reading!!

Posted by Carl Pritchard on Monday, September 03, 2007

This article is copyright Pritchard Management Associates, Inc. 2007.  Members of the Silver Spring PMI Chapter are granted rights to reproduce in full for personal and professional use, but not for resale or commercial use.  All other rights reserved.