Storm chasers are professionals (or should be) who watch for tornados and hurricanes during the summer months in the southern and Midwestern United States.  Their goal is to get close enough to a storm to photograph and video it without incurring any harm to themselves.  Some do it for the thrill, while others chase storms for legitimate research purposes. Though most are trained and experienced in what they do, they can in no way control the direction the storm will take (without warning, storms can often veer off in a new direction).  One way to view the situation is as a high-stakes ‘cat and mouse’ game, with the participants risking injury or even death if they get caught in the path of the storm.  To mitigate the risks, storm chasers rely on inputs (such as seismic data and weather predictions), using modern technology and expert judgment for the planning and execution of their work.

What does this have to do with program and project management? Well, aside from the obvious dangers that storm chasers face, one could say that these professionals deal with a high degree of complexity and ambiguity, much like many project and program managers.  There is another similarity to which we will draw a comparison, having to do with the internal structure of the storm. Inside the tornados/hurricanes storm chasers are chasing, there is a calm environment known as ‘the eye of the storm’.  As the program or project manager, you must hypothetically keep yourself and your team positioned in a calm environment, even if and when serious issues arise and various chaotic events are ‘swirling’ around you. What steps and actions can you take in order to shield your team from the chaos, and ensure they stay in the calm eye of the storm when times are difficult?

Although every situation on a program or a project is different, below are our principle suggestions for dealing with the difficult situations on projects and programs, garnered from our combined experience:

Follow the plans

At the start of the program or project, under your guidance, your team will have developed several project plans (Risk, Communication, Schedule, Success, Cost, Implementation, Iteration, Quality, Training, perhaps Safety, etc.) that, at the time they were created, were your team’s best assessment of the work to be done and how it should be performed.  We also assume that your customers and stakeholders approved your plans so that you could begin to execute them.  It is important to continually refer to those plans as your baseline for documenting gaps or deviations. Even simple things such as tracking Milestone dates and showing missed or updated milestones are important to managing the plans. For example, if a milestone is missed, keep it in the document but mark it as ‘crossed out’ and insert the new date beneath the original milestone, or rebaseline in the schedule to reflect both the previous agreed date, and the new. This approach will keep all parties aware of and in tune with the plan versus reality.

Communicate Non-emotively

It is widely agreed that communication comprises 90% of project management. We believe how communications are delivered (both the medium, tone, and expression) is just as, if not more, crucial as what is being communicated. When focusing your team and stakeholders, to remain within the eye of the storm, we believe it’s best to follow some key principles which we summarize below:

-        Deal with facts, not opinions.

-        Summarize the detail for appropriate levels of management.

-        Keep it timely, accurate and of a high quality.

-        Follow a pattern – get people accustomed to your updates.

-        Present Program/Project impacts and alternatives to Key stakeholders. (Not just, “here are the issues.”)

-        Don’t focus on blame if things go wrong – focus on solutions (i.e., options analyzed and the recommendation).

Others Will Follow Your Example

At all times, ‘Remain Calm’. If you as the leader of the team begin to waver or fall apart, it will have a ripple effect throughout your team.  Further, your stakeholders and customers will continue to believe in the team’s success if confidence permeates team communications.  Let people vent their emotions when necessary (when appropriate and in the right environment – negativity should be controlled). Allowing time for venting may serve no other purpose but to reduce the pressure or stress proportionally, but it will be appreciated later.

Focus On the Key Milestone Dates

‘Keep the eye on the prize’ (remember that the agreed benefits are the reasons your program or project exists) and continue to drive to the next milestone date.  Getting there will increase everyone’s confidence and you can then do an impact analysis on the changes from baseline.

80/20 Decision Making

Don’t wait on all facts to make an informed decision.  When you have sufficient information – act upon it.  Yes, it’s a bit of a gamble but delaying action can also have the same negative impact.  This is where experience, instinct, and ‘gut’ feel come into play.  However things turn out in the end, it was the right action to do at the time.  Sometimes mistakes may occur as a result, but you will learn from any mistakes made. By keeping focused on what you need to do, you will get there.

Clearly Define Success vs. Time

If the benefits change during program/project execution, advise the appropriate stakeholder and customers accordingly so they adjust their expectations.  Ensure that they want to continue the effort.  Accept discontinuation of the project if it gets to the point at which the costs (not just financial) outweigh the benefits.  Always capture and record lessons learned, and agree on how to share them so that new programs and projects take them on board.

In conclusion, remember that, as the program/project manager, you are the leader and your team will tend to mimic your actions – particularly in a crisis or in times of stress.  Follow the basics of keeping cool under pressure and maintain the ‘calm eye of the storm’ for your team. Remember, your program or project is a temporary endeavor and ‘it too shall pass’.  We hope you take this short article and put a copy in your crisis or risk folder for reference if you ever need it. We would really like to hear from you if you have any feedback or a story to tell us. If so, please email us at Contactus@pmoracles.com.

By Gareth Byatt, Gary Hamilton, and Jeff Hodgkinson with Eric Lamond (Larry Fine’s grandson)

Background:

For those of you not familiar with the Three Stooges, they were an American vaudeville and comedy act of the early to mid–20th century best known for their numerous short subject films. Their hallmark was physical farce and extreme slapstick. In films, the Stooges were commonly known by their first names: “Moe, Larry, and Curly” and “Moe, Larry, and Shemp,” among others. The film trio was originally composed of Moe Howard, brother Shemp Howard and Larry Fine. Curly Howard replaced brother Shemp, who later returned when Curly suffered a debilitating stroke in May 1946.  Starting in 1922 until Moe’s death in 1975, the team appeared in exactly 220 films (30 motion pictures and 190 short films).

Some 50 years after their last short film was released, the Three Stooges remain wildly popular with audiences around the world. Their films have not left the television airwaves since first appearing in 1958, and they continue to delight old fans while attracting a new legion of fervent admirers. A hard-working group of working-class comedians who were never the critic’s darlings, the team endured several personnel changes in their careers that would have permanently sidelined a less persistent act. Despite his watching two of his brothers die in a brief span of time, the Stooges would not have lasted as long as they did as a unit without Moe Howard’s guiding hand.

In the end, it is the durability of the 190 timeless short films the Stooges made at Columbia Pictures that acts as an enduring tribute to the comedy team.  Look for a full feature movie to be released in 2012.

Guest Contributor

We are thrilled that Eric Lamond, grandson of the Stooge, Larry Fine, agreed to be interviewed for this article.  Mr. Lamond is the Director of MarketingC3 Entertainment, Inc, which licenses the Three Stooges.  We asked if any of the original hand drawn production schedules were available for use in this article but, unfortunately, none remain.

So, how did the Stooges work?

Each member was a successful Vaudeville entertainer in his own right; they teamed up in the late 1920’s somewhat by chance to become ‘The Three Stooges’, with a mutual career goal of going to Hollywood to make films. They signed with Columbia Pictures to make feature films; however, because their audience couldn’t get enough of their wit and comedy, they continued to make their numerous 16-minute ‘short films’.  Keep in mind that in the 1920’s, with television still decades in the future, the movie experience to the public consisted of a newsreel, cartoons, a short film, and then one or two feature films. A ticket cost 25 to 50 cents USD and, for another 25 cents, you could get all the popcorn, candy, and soda you could eat and drink.

During their lengthy careers, (from 1934 to 1958), the Stooges released a total of 190 short films, or 8 short films per year. A Master plan for the intended short films was published annually at a rate of eight per year.  This Master plan had to take into account the 10 weeks that the Stooges devoted to public appearances, vacations and such. Each short film had a storyline with a ‘situation’ which was then scripted, edited, final scripted, cast, rehearsed, and scheduled to film (which took 4-6 days). There was a team of writers, directors, supporting actors, props, grips and film editors working on these films. The Stooges contracted with the studio only one year at a time and, toward the end of this period, they made the break into longer feature films. This happened in 1958, just as television became popular and 60 of their short films were released for TV, which helped their popularity soar and resulted in their finally being invited to make full length films.  Films, personal appearances and a cartoon series continued until 1970 at which time Larry had a stroke. Both Moe and Larry died within months of each other in 1975.

Neither Moe nor Larry had any regrets about their career paths, other than their wish to have done more motion pictures versus short films. Keep in mind that during the Depression when the market was only for their short films, they were paid well, lived well and eventually achieved their goal of making only feature films.  They were proud of what they had accomplished and lived by a motto quoted from Joe DiMaggio (a famous baseball player from that era) that “whatever I do, this might be the one and only time people will see me so I have to do my best.”

So, what can we take from this for our program and project management community?

Analysis in Program/Project Terms:

• Moe was the Program Manager of the team in their 50-year program consisting of 220 projects. He led the overall Masterplan. Larry was the Assistant Program Manager, supporting Moe’s work.

• For 24 consecutive years, they scheduled a steady eight projects per year. Each project had a lifecycle of Idea, Final Script, Casting, Rehearsing, Scheduling, Set-up, Filming, Editing and Release. That is to say, these guys worked to a controlled schedule.

• They had a strict budget for each film, as the theatre would pay only so much for short films. Their budget management had to be very tightly controlled.

• The Stooges had to deal with a diverse group of stakeholders – a project team of writers, directors, actors, managers, camera men, prop personnel, schedulers, and others involved in the making of films. All of this means that they had to deal with different ideas and views. They knew that their key external stakeholders – the Columbia studio executives and the theatre audiences – could make or break their reputation, and they kept them in the forefront of their minds.

• They had a vision and an end goal, which was to make full length movies. That took the Stooges 30 years to achieve, yet they never lost sight of it; all of their actions took them closer to this goal as they steadily enhanced their reputation.

• Upon completion of their goal, they had no real regrets and had executed to the best of their abilities over all those years.

• Their projects have stood the test of time, and, arguably, realised all the benefits they had hoped to achieve.

In Conclusion

People in the program/project management profession would probably not readily identify the Three Stooges as being relevant to their daily work – however, our research and the interview kindly granted to us by Mr. Lamond suggests otherwise. Although we only see the final output of the “16 minutes of buffoonery” in their short films, and their movies for that matter, the amount of project management activity undertaken by the Stooges when producing these iconic pieces of popular culture was tremendous. Keep in mind this was well before the existence of computers, scheduling software, email, mobile phones, and all the collaborative and productivity devices that we PM practitioners use today. They had a plan and they worked that plan. How many of us will be able to say that 50 to 80+ years after the completion of one of our projects, that outputs will still be utilized and enjoyed globally?

We hope this article has given you a different perspective on how to view and appreciate project management. For those readers that don’t agree with us and/or don’t like this article, we can only respond with a time-honoured Stooges quote: “Nyuk – Nyuk – Nyuk”….

The Three Stooges(r) is a registered trademark of C3 Entertainment, Inc