Shoot for the moon
19th March 2009
Blue Fish Events EP, Jeremy Miller, was asked to be a guest lecturer last night to students studying for a Masters in Event Management at the University of Technology, Sydney. His topic was Project Management for Major Events.
Its one thing to manage an event, its quite another thing to lecture on it, as Jeremy found out. He says that he struggled for a while to articulate processes that he tends to do out of habit. In the end he broke it down into these key tasks:
1. Set the goal
2. Breakdown the tasks
3. Setup the team structure
4. Set the deadlines
5. Track the progress, review if needed
6. Communicate to staff and stakeholders
7. Don’t let them whittle it all away.
We asked Jeremy to give us an example of ‘Set the Goal’ and he pulled out a speech from John F Kennedy (Jeremy is a bit of a politics geek).
How’s this for setting a goal:
I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to earth.
I believe we should go to the moon. But I think every citizen of this country as well as the Members of Congress should consider the matter carefully in making their judgement, ... because it is a heavy burden and there is no sense in agreeing or desiring that the United States take an affirmative position in outer space unless we are prepared to do the work and bear the burdens to make it successful. If we are not, we should decide today and this year.
This decision demands a major national commitment of scientific and technical manpower, materiel and facilities, and the possibility of their diversion from other important activities where they are already thinly spread. It means a degree of dedication, organisation and discipline which have not always characterised our research and development efforts. It means we cannot afford undue work stoppages, inflated costs of material or talent, wasteful interagency rivalries, or a high turnover of key personnel.
New objectives and new money cannot solve these problems. They could in fact aggravate them further – unless every scientist, every engineer, every serviceman, every technician, contractor and civil servant gives his personal pledge that this nation will move forward, with the full speed of freedom, in the exciting adventure of space. (Go here for the full text)
Wow, Kennedy knew how to set a goal. We can’t all be a Kennedy, but you can try something similar next time you need to set the agenda for your team – “I want us to do this task. Its going to be amazing and you’re going to tell your grandkids about it. Its also going to be very, very hard and its going to require everything you’ve got. If you don’t think we can do it, if you don’t think we should do it, say so now. There won’t be any more money and there won’t be time for squabbles and distractions. If we’re going to do this then I need you with me. Trust me, its going to be worth it.
And ‘Don’t let them whittle it all away’? Jeremy said that there will be people every step of the way who will try to whittle down your goal. Its too big, its too hard, you don’t have the budget, the experience, or the time to do it.
Kennedy didn’t compromise, and neither should you. Kennedy didn’t say “oh, okay, we’ll just send a man into space, maybe the moon is too hard.” Give in little by little and suddenly your grand goal is reduced to a guy in a hot air ballon. You let the dream be whittled away.
If you’re ever asked to speak at your local university, college or high school - do it! Think about everything you learnt from guest speakers when you were a student and take the opportunity to give the next generation that same opportunity. And besides, Jeremy says you’ll be surprised by how much fun it will be!
