Across the table, my colleague straightened, a eureka expression crossing his face.
“So you offer a ‘Fire and Forget’ service!” he exclaimed.
That sounded like something I should know the meaning of, but we all know it’s risky to assume.
“To be sure we’re on the same page, can you explain ‘Fire and Forget’?“ I replied.
“Sure, it’s a category of missile technology. You fire a missile and a guidance system automatically finds the target. You can just forget about it and still have confidence that you’ll hit your target.”
“And you think this is a good feature?” I asked.
“Absolutely! I need a project manager who’ll come in and I won’t have to babysit. Someone I can trust will hit all the right project targets. That’s what GPS is offering, Rich — Fire and Forget project management.”
I’m not sure how much I like that description, but my colleague made a great point. GPS brings the complete package — project management processes, software and experts — so that the client can just forget his or her worries about how well the project will be managed. With our experience it’s literally “Here are the projects, GPS. Get them organized for me.”
I hesitate embracing the Fire and Forget term. While it’s an accurate description from the standpoint of getting projects organized using our service, there is no magic wand where a project can “manage itself” to achieve success without leaders and managers actively participating. It is not incidental that the system we set up includes an ACTIVE role for project sponsors/leaders.
Fire and Forget is limited to getting your projects set up in the system in the first place. At that point, the right expectation for leaders needs to be “Fire and Engage!”
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