Tonight I was in Arlington, Texas for the Annual Boy Scout Pancake Feed. My friend Bert Johnson (no blood relation) is one of the scout masters (I guess I am using the title correctly here?)
I guess I have attended this event for at least the last 15 years only missing one year to an unusual snow storm in early March here in North Texas.
It’s an amazing thing looking at the long term, operational view of things, from a project view. I say it this way in that I have seen a lot of these young boys, and girls (in the case of some sisters that help as well) grow up over the years, but typically in one year at a time increments.
It’s an amazing dynamic of teamwork. The community pulling together to support the boy scouts with their event. The dynamics of Bert’s father as a senior scout leader (portfolio manager) at the event, his two sons, and others as still senior leaders (program managers), and the influence they have with the young boy scouts (project managers) as they manage their own tables or areas of the food cooking and processing as they are satisfying their stakeholders needs.
I look forward to the field of project management continuing to evolve and get to the point where the mentoring and guidance gets established to help grow future leaders in the field of project management.
Just like the requirements in going from a cub scout, to weblos, to boy scout, people go from their technical fields to project and program managers in their technical fields. The work that a lot of the volunteers at the various PMI Chapters and SIGs worldwide do to help grow the profession of project management should be commended.
I recall in Houston giving a speech and being asked a number of questions at the end of the speech by this older gentleman. At the end as people were leaving, I asked him if I took care of his questions. He said yes, and that it was pretty decent, in that he didn’t have to roll up his pant legs once. I asked what he meant, he said I didn’t pile it on too deep.
I asked this man, Aren’t you PMP #1? His reply, “PMP#1, Member #3, Old Fart #8, something like that yeah, I guess”.
This man was at the dinner table when PMI was formed on the East Coast 40 years ago. I enjoyed speaking with him about the history that he has seen grow from the momentum of that dinner meeting four decades ago.
I am also reminded of a woman from our most recent PMP boot camp who has had a very good career path so far. She has worked at one place. They have put her through her bachelor degree and she is currently working on her MBA. She came to us to work toward her PMP. In our course exit interview she asked if we had a mentoring program. Truth of the matter, we don’t have a formal one, but I want to try to do anything I can to help our alumnist’s, so I explained to contact me as necessary and I would do anything I could to assist as opportunities came up.
As you are out managing your projects, programs and portfolio’s let’s remember what people like Bert Johnson does in Arlington, Texas, and Eric Jennett (PMP#1) have done over the years, and I try my best to do as I can, let’s remember to help grow and develop those around us. Hopefully someone did it to us years ago. Let’s pay it back, if they didn’t let’s pay it forward ( to use a phrase from that movie title).
Regards,
Tony
