Project Management Workshop? What kind of black magic is this?

So yesterday I had the opportunity to attend a project management workshop led by a few professional project managers from DHL. A huge thank you to the DHL staff who sacrificed their weekend to do this for us and to Teach For Malaysia south region staff members for organizing the workshop!

I want to focus this piece of writing on my reflection so I will only provide an overview of the workshop for you.

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[You may skip this paragraph if you have attended the workshop as well.]

We learned about project management through a game stimulation. The teams were given the task to build a spaceship for a customer, who wants to go to the moon to visit his girlfriend whom lives there. (Bro, just give up and find a new girlfriend could you?) For the final product, we were asked to build a ‘spaceship’ for an egg. Our products will be tested by dropping the egg in the spaceship from height. We could only use materials and equipment sold by a shopkeeper (role-played by a DHL facilitator) to build our spaceships. Only project manager from each team was allowed to meet and talk to the customer. As we were playing this stimulation, we went through the major stages in project management: initiating, planning, and executing.

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Before the stimulation, the speaker highlighted seven themes in project management. Projects are kept on track by constantly addressing these themes. The first two themes are: (1) quality – what does the customer really want? The wants and needs of a customer should be clearly defined so that the product fits the bill (pun intended). For example, the customer demands comfortable seating in the spaceship so he wants no seatbelt around him (no masking tape in contact with the egg to the ship).

(2) Business case – why are we doing this? For example, the customer wants the product because he has a girlfriend to visit at the moon. For us, we want the product in order to win a bid of $30 million. If the girlfriend or the reward is pulled out of the picture, we might be aborting the mission. The speaker emphasizes that there is no shame in aborting the project if the business case has changed and there is no longer a need for the final product; waste occurs when business case has changed but the workers are still insisting on finishing what they have started. (and kids, that’s how some of the unwanted superheroes are born. ;))

I attended the afternoon session workshop and by the end of my session, all teams failed. All the eggs broke during testing. Time was certainly a limiting factor but I don’t think that’s the determining factor. During the debrief session, the facilitators mentioned that some of us were over-confident about our prototype designs, so when we were designing our budget at the beginning, we did not allocate much room for changes. I knew some had that problem, but was it really the case for everyone?

[Disclaimer: whatever that I am about to say next is purely my personal opinion and reflection. If you can resonate with my writing, great! If not, please don’t get all worked up and try to debate with me about it.]

I felt like rather than over-confident, some of us were actually not confident.

Why did we ask for a small budget to carry out the project? Because we were unconfident.

Are you being serious now? Did you not recall how some of us were naively optimistic about our design? How could we be not confident?

Erm…just try to follow along my train of thought.

During the planning stage, the customer told us that he doesn’t care about how much money he spent, as long as he can get to the moon safely. He did mention if two products worked, he would consider the cheaper one. (Of course, reasonable statement.) However, right after he said the second statement, all four teams went fanatic and planned for a spaceship design that would use as little material as possible, in hope for a cheaper final product. We lost focus of the customer’s first statement, which was obviously the most crucial quality to uphold!

Why did all of us want to build a cheaper product? Because we thought our products or our talents were not worth the big price. We were afraid that if we asked for more than the others, the customer would reject us. In all honesty, what’s wrong with building a spaceship that is way beyond the market price? The customer doesn’t care, so why should we?

Now, one step further back, why would we think our products or our talents were not worth the big price? Because we were doubtful about our self-worth. Some of us role-played as designers, we might have a good design, but because we were not confident about ourselves, we didn’t stand up and fight to persuade the project manager or the accountant that even though our design might be pricey, it was worthy.

Again one step back, why were we doubtful about our self-worth? Because we lacked the experience. Maybe, just maybe, nobody has ever told us that we were worth the price. Although we are young and inexperienced, we do have what it takes, and so we are allowed to demand a huge price.

Our head of region, who attended the morning session workshop as a participant, mentioned that two teams in the morning session succeeded in the task. I wonder, how much budget did they ask for and who were in the team?

Thinking back, for the past eight months as a teacher, there were so many times I was being reserved or I didn’t stand my ground because I thought as a new teacher, I shouldn’t be demanding or appear over-confident.

Let me give you an example. In April I needed to conduct oral test with the Form 5 Chinese students. I gave them a very hard and structured topic because I was afraid that they would take my status as an invigilator lightly if I gave them a simple topic to prepare and talk about. To be honest, up till then I had always been doubtful of my worth as a Chinese teacher because teaching Chinese as a native language is seriously no joke, and my form 4 and 5 students are quite perceptive, so often I felt inferior in front of them.

Later, I had an assessor came in to evaluate my grading. The assessor and I conducted an oral test together. She gave them a very simple topic to debate on. I facilitated the session by asking add-on questions. After the session ended, she commented on how skillful I was in facilitating the kids, pushing them to think deeper and use more precise words. Her encouragement had definitely brightened my day and lifted my worries away. Kids, I might have some weird pronunciation here and there, but that doesn’t mean I am any less. I am improving, and I expect you to improve and grow with me.

"Don't let anyone think less of you because you are young. Be an example to all believers in what you say, in the way you live, in your love, your faith, and your purity." - 1 Timothy 4:12 (NLT)

This workshop experience has reminded me of a novel that I had read earlier this year as well. The title of the book is ‘Salmon Fishing in Yemen’. Yes, the story is literally about salmon fishing in Yemen. More precisely, the story is about how a Yemen billionaire and a US fisher scientist are working together to make salmon fishing in Yemen a reality.

Spoiler alert, at the end the project was aborted. However, through the process of this project, the Yemen billionaire has inspired the scientist to finally take action on his unhappy marriage, and he has promoted the governments of these two countries to come together and consider more collaboration. How does this novel related to project management? My inference is: an optimist plans, a pessimist sets boundaries, a realist builds, but a project manager does all of the above, plus inspires.

[If you have read till this point, you should really give yourselves a big round of applause!]

So, what have I learned about project management from this workshop? Erm…based on this reflection, I think the answer is none. *hahahah, dry laugh*

I know most likely you wouldn’t be able to read this, but I would like to take this opportunity to apologize to all my team mates and the DHL facilitators as well for my unprofessional conduct yesterday during the workshop. I was mentally exhausted so I was rude with my speech and action. (Still, I know, tired is not an excuse. At least not in the adult world. L)

两头不到岸

我爱水，但是学不会游泳，所以我又特怕水。

念大学时，有一段时间我处于低迷期，当时常常幻想自己站在沙滩，静看着一片黑漆漆的大海。看着看着，脚就不由自主地渐渐前行；走到水淹过胸口之处时回头一看，一片光秃秃的海滩上渺无人烟。孤独和无助感油然而生。

之后很长一段时间，我都没想起这样的画面。

这几天莫名其妙地摊上了一个以前从来不是问题的问题，说不准是任督二脉打通了开始懂事想事了还是太多事要处理了思绪暂时捯饬不及，反正我就是突然转牛角尖起来。这事说大不大，说小不小，说穿了就一桩麻烦事。结果我一时死脑筋，处理不当反倒把事情给推进死胡同去了。该死。

然后我的朋友估了估我的现状，说了句：“两头不到岸。”

一言惊醒梦中人，醒来发现我在深海浮沉。

冷暖自知。在一团黑水之中乱踢乱蹬了七个月，就为争一口气、为发掘及培育多几颗深海明珠。猛然慢下来，才后知后觉自己呛了一肺的咸水，出了一身的冷汗。

望向四周，满满地都是一起跳船的疯子，或近或远地游着，只是一个人也摸不着。

何止两头不到岸？简直里外不是人。人情世故还没搞懂搞得自己里外不是人，也被这一波波的公务折腾得里外不是人。

吵了一会儿，又想了一会儿，先决定：不要紧呗。睡一觉醒来又是一条好汉。兵来将挡，水来土掩，我不怕后悔，只求做到问心无愧。

我尽力。