Promises, Promises
A Bold Attitude for the Year Ahead
by Carl Pritchard

I am going out on a limb here. I will teach two-thousand students this year. I will keep the lawn reasonably free of oak trees. I will figure out a way to finance that beautiful house next door. I will meet the deadlines I promise clients. I will make enough money to consider it a successful financial year. I will carve out time for my wife, my sons, and my friends. I will...

I will stop there.

Daunting, isn't it? A full year ahead with promises. A full year ahead where I could readily fail on any/all of those commitments. And yet, If I don't set the bar, no one will. If I don't make the commitments to myself, they simply won't happen. No one else will hold me to these commitments. No one else will force me into these boxes except myself. And with the year-ahead doom-and-gloomers looming large on the TV news shows right now, it's very easy NOT to make these kinds of commitments because they will be overwhelming.

I refuse to be overwhelmed. Don't get me wrong. I have the voices in the back of my head screaming about the impossibility of getting a huge loan. I have the schedule for the year ahead laden with "please hold" commitments, rather than firm dates. If I don't have this all locked in stone, why am I publishing it here? Because we need to hold our own feet to the fire.

I personally have been infuriated by media coverage of the economic "meltdown." Why? I believe much of life (and as a result, much of project management) is self-fulfilling prophecy. If we believe that the project outcomes will have positive results, there is a much higher probability that they will. (Check Victor Vroom on "expectancy theory" on that one). If we continually sob about our current state of affairs and take a posture of withdrawal and timidity, there are likely to be no great strides. The economist, John Maynard Keynes, came up with a concept he called the paradox of thrift. In tough economic times, he found that people saved a higher percentage of their income. It would seem that we would save more in the times when we make more, but the opposite holds true economically. I would suggest that the paradox of thrift goes to ambition as well. We are most ambitious when times are already good. And we stifle that ambition during the leaner days.

It doesn't make sense, but it does seem to be the case. Organizations back down on their ambitious approached not just because of tight lending, but because of a fear of further economic degradation. At a time when we can best leverage our ambitions, we hide them where they don't see the light of day. And in the process, we lose the light...and the opportunities.

So for this new year, I wish you nothing but wonderful tidings...high ambitions, and a willingness to step out on a limb and announce to the world your intentions of great things. Then you (and they) can hold your feet to the fire...

Posted by Carl Pritchard on Friday, January 02, 2009

This article is copyright Pritchard Management Associates, Inc. 2009.  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.