Contingency Planning

I found out early on in my career about the importance of project management. Fresh out graduate school, I was assigned the lead on a major HR project with the company. This project took place once a year and consumed about 60% of my time. My team was comprised of employees from the corporate office, and from the company’s seven subsidiaries around the SE. This was a high-visibility project that was commissioned and sponsored by senior management.

I wore two hats on the project: one as an applied researcher and the other as a project manager. I was very successful as a researcher, but struggled managing the size and complexity of the work. The quality of our products and services was never questioned. However, a major element of the company’s culture was getting things done on time. I learned early on that timing was everything! During the first couple of years, our team struggled to stay on schedule. We were never fully prepared for untimely delays, resource shortages, or technical slowdowns or in some cases meltdowns. Yes, we got better at avoiding predictable occurrences, but we were never fully prepared for the unexpected. We’d usually end having to work long, long hours to make up for lost time – even then we oftentimes missed critical project milestones.

I realized that I needed to do something quickly. After some encouragement from management, I enrolled in a couple of project management classes. These classes equipped me with the skills I needed to become a more competent and confident project manager. The skills quickly paid off and I was quickly promoted to serve on other important projects within the company. I’m no longer with the company, but still use many of the skills I learned from my classroom and on-the-job training. Most of all, I’ve learned to spend a little more time upfront preparing for “Mr. Murphy,” because just when you think things are going smoothly the bottom can (or will) drop out. As we've all experienced and read in the CareGroup case study, having a carefully thought out back-up or contingency plan can bail you out of a lot of problems. Bottom-line – be prepared!