Cheetah Project Manager – Finding Balance Between the Extremes
Michelle LaBrosse, PMP, CAC, PMI-ACP, CCPM, RYT
Finding balance between extremes is the norm for Cheetah Project Managers.
My friends tease me saying “You are a dyslexic snow bird as you prefer being in Alaska in the winter and Arizona in the summer. I joke back “it’s because I find balance being in the extremes.” I like living this way because I get to exercise my project management capabilities to exist in extreme locations and be comfortable. In Alaska, I’ve built in redundant heating capacity and love to keep my wood stove roaring, especially while there is a blizzard in full force outside. While in Arizona, I’ve set up shade sails, and designed an energy efficient pool cooling system to keep the pool at 85 degrees as the temperature soars about 110 degrees every afternoon. Where I actually spend much of my time in both places, the indoor temp averages in the 70’s – whatever it’s doing outside.
Just like in my life, in project management there are two extremes for managing projects – one extreme says nothing ever changes, stay the course, finish the project the way it was originally envisioned. This is called the “Predictive Project Management” approach and while it’s useful, even necessary for the construction project where you need to stick with the construction plans and build the building, plane, car, whatever the way it was designed, it’s not all that useful for software or other projects using fast changing technology where creating a “minimum viable product” would make much more sense. This other extreme where everything is always changing is called “Agile” project management.
Most projects exist between these two extremes (just like for me where my normal indoor temp is in the 70’s). Things are not in a state of perpetual status quo, nor are they always changing at a rapid pace. Sometimes it makes more sense to stick to one path, and set up the project as if the outcome will occur as you predict it (even if that rarely occurs) and other times it makes more sense to keep things fluid and allow a much wider path for flexibility – even when you know what the outcome will be, eventually.
It takes wisdom to know how to navigate this terrain and keep things in balance with how you manage projects. This is what you master by becoming a Cheetah Project Manager.
“The first thing my boss said when I told him I was interested in getting my PMP certification was that if I was going to do it, he’d heard Cheetah Learning was the best.”