LEADERSHIP

TRUST YOUR CAPE ® 

LEADERSHIP 

THE EVERYDAY SUPERHERO’S 

ACTION GUIDE TO PLAN AND DELIVER 

HIGH-STAKES PROJECTS 

Ron Black 

The Mentor Group 

Troutdale, Oregon

Copyright © 2015 by Ron Black 

Trust Your Cape® is the registered trademark of Ron Black. 

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, 

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without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in 

the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain 

other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission 

requests “Attention: Permissions Coordinator,” at the address 

below. 

The Mentor Group 

931 SE Berryland Circle 

Troutdale, OR 97060 

www.TheMentorGroup.com 

Publisher: The Mentor Group 

Editor: Ray Johnston 

Book Layout: © 2015 BookDesignTemplates.com 

Cover Design: Rodjie Ulanday 

Quantity Ordering Information: Special discounts are available for 

corporations, associations, and others. 

The author and publisher specifically disclaim any responsibility for 

any liability, loss, or risk, personal or otherwise, which is incurred as 

a consequence, directly or indirectly, of the use and application of 

any of the contents of this book. 

Leadership / Ron Black—1st ed. 

ISBN 978-0-9863652-1-8

Contents 

Everyday Superpowers ...................................................... 1 

Superpower Points ............................................................ 4 

Videos ................................................................................. 5 

Leading High-Stakes Adventures ................................... 21 

High Visibility is Good News for Superheroes ............ 22 

Sidekicks, Stakeholders, and Success .............................. 23 

Stakeholder Roles and Responsibilities ......................... 25 

Problems are Predictable ................................................. 26 

Superpower Points .......................................................... 35 

Video ................................................................................. 36 

Superhero’s Success System ............................................ 37 

Get in Control of Any Project ........................................ 39 

The Secret to Project Success .......................................... 44 

Project Initiation .............................................................. 48 

Control Documents and Checklists................................ 51 

Document & Checklist Downloads ................................ 55 

i


Video ................................................................................. 56 

Mastermind Your Action List ........................................... 57 

Simply Powerful Tools .................................................... 58 

Good Enough is Better than Best ................................... 61 

How to Create Your Action List (WBS)........................ 63 


Checklist ........................................................................... 71 

Who, Does What, When? ................................................. 73 

Start-Date Management .................................................. 77 


Video ................................................................................. 79 

Lead Before You Leap ....................................................... 81 

Right-Size Your Plan ....................................................... 83 

Power-Up Project Communications .............................. 85 


Superpower Planning Tools ............................................ 89 

Power-Up with Critical (Path) Thinking ...................... 92

Power-Up with Network Diagrams ............................. 104 

Superpower Points ........................................................ 111 

Videos ............................................................................. 112 

Battling Problems, Villains, and Killer Comets ......... 115 

Identifying Potential Problems ..................................... 116 

When it Gets Exciting ................................................... 119 


Stick the Landing ............................................................. 131 

Head-First Approach ..................................................... 132 

Final Reports .................................................................. 134 

Prepare for the Future ................................................... 136 

Reassign Personnel ........................................................ 138 


Assume the Pose .............................................................. 143 

Calling all Sidekicks, Fans, and Leaders .................... 149 

Glossary ............................................................................. 151 

About Ron Black .............................................................. 161 

iii

Dedicated to the everyday superheroes 

that make our world a better place by leading project teams. 

May your takeoffs be thoughtful, 

your team members engaged, and your landings sweet! 

And to my wife, Janell, 

who puts the SUPER into my every day!

Sometimes you get apprehensive, 

but when the time comes you just have to 

step up and bring out the CAPE! 

― MARK KITZMAN 

PROJECT MANAGEMENT PROFESSIONAL 

ROCKWELL AUTOMATION

CHAPTER ONE 

Everyday Superpowers 

T 

he best leadership advice I've ever received came from 

an eight-year-old boy on the rooftop of my neighbor's 

shed, as he zipped past me on a dead run and launched 

himself into thin air. 

"Ronnie," he shouted, "TRUST YOUR CAPE!" 

With words trailing off, he plummeted out of sight, his 

make-shift cape flapping wildly behind. 

I peered over the edge, expecting to see a bruised, battered, 

unconscious lump of a crumpled boy—most likely with broken 

bones protruding from his skinny legs. But there he stood. 

Alive! Unbroken! Triumphant! 

With hands on hips and feet planted wide, his chest stuck 

out and chin tucked in, he looked—and no-doubt felt—like a 

genuine superhero. 

We'd been marooned on that cold and windy rooftop for 

over an hour—plenty of time to argue whose fault it was, be- 

1

2 • LEADERSHIP 

moan our circumstances, and ponder the coming punishments 

should we miss our appointed "be-home-before-dinner" deadlines. 

Having clambered up a shaky stack of boxes to gain access 

to our new lair, reversing the route proved more difficult 

then we'd expected. As is often the case in adventures (projects, 

initiatives, and team assignments in general), when progress 

stalls: attitudes darken; pressure mounts; relationships 

become strained; and with no speedy resolution, the entire 

endeavor's success seems in jeopardy. Sooner or later, every 

adventure needs a leader. 

As our rooftop dilemma grew, we debated the pros and 

cons, risks and rewards, and the growing likelihood of mission 

failure. Had we been more sophisticated, and perhaps a little 

older, we'd likely have donned our finest corporate powersuits, 

scheduled the conference room, and resorted to a showdown 

of dueling PowerPoints. It did not matter that our adventure 

wasn't a project designed to save the world, increase 

market share, improve productivity, deliver meaningful 

change, or deal with disruptive competitive forces. It was our 

adventure. It was important to us—and therefore replete with 

the issues and angst every project team experiences. 

What can we do? What should we do? How does this affect 

me? Will the project fail? Will I fail? How can we achieve 

success? 

Fortunately, right there on the rooftop—or rather upon 

leaving the rooftop—my teammate found the leader's everyday 

superpowers: Clarity; Action; Purpose; Enthusiasm. 

What he so naturally and aptly demonstrated is that effective 

leadership isn't complicated. Most everyone has the potential 

to lead. Leadership doesn't come in a box. We can't get 

a degree for it at college. It can't be acquired with a Google

EVERYDAY SUPERPOWERS • 3 

search. I grant you, effective leadership depends on many 

competencies such as: running an effective meeting; successfully 

advocating an unpopular point of view; facilitating productive 

creativity; fostering collaboration; gaining stakeholder 

consensus and commitment; and planning projects that can 

succeed. But these are all supporting skill sets. 

Nor does leadership come from title, rank, or position— 

having "Provides leadership" in one's job description does not 

automatically make people want to follow you into the unknown, 

into risky ventures, or off the top of a roof. 

You can't hire it. You can't buy it. You can't acquire it. 

Leadership doesn't work like that. And thankfully, to be a 

leader you don't have to wear a cape, mask, or tights. 

Simply put, what is required to lead is to make the choice. 

We choose to lead by choosing to act—with clarity, with 

purpose, with enthusiasm—demonstrating our approach, modeling 

what can be, and making our commitment visible for all 

to witness. By choosing to act, we tap into our everyday superpowers 

and unleash these very same powers in others: 

transforming lookers into doers, whining into winning, and 

indecisive, unruly mobs into unstoppable, high-performance 

teams. 

Leadership is choosing to embrace risk, focus on the future, 

and work with what we have; a choice that almost always 

requires courage. After all, when there is no fear, confusion, 

or indecisiveness, we don't need leaders, do we? 

Leadership is choosing to stand up; to speak out; to visibly 

transform one's intentions into motion. It requires action. 

You've never heard of a NON-action hero, have you?


I took a deep breath, rose to my feet, and considered the 

challenge at hand. Backing away from the edge, I gathered 

resolve. My eyes narrowed in determination. I could no longer 

see the intended landing zone, but it did not matter: the impact, 

the roll, the superhero's pose were all vividly etched into 

my vision of what could be. 

I leaned forward in anticipation, and as if on command a 

gust of wind fluttered by, energizing my cape. With two 

choppy steps and a leap, I launched myself over the edge, arms 

outreached, cape flapping wildly behind. In what seemed like a 

slow-motion replay, I flew through the air for an impossibly 

long time, defied gravity, and soared like a superhero! Then 

came the impact—a single tumble—springing to my feet. I 

paused momentarily gathering my wits, checked for scrapes 

and scratches, spit the grass from between my teeth ... and 

assumed the pose. 

Tap into your everyday superhero. Choose Clarity, Action, 

Purpose, and Enthusiasm. Unleash your leadership superpowers 

and the power within your team. Trust your CAPE! 

Superpower Points 

• Sooner or later, every challenging project, initiative, 

or team assignment requires leadership.

EVERYDAY SUPERPOWERS • 5 

• Leadership isn't a title, position, or job description: 

leadership is the choice to transform intentions into 

action. 

• Everyday superheroes help others realize that they are 

more capable and resilient than they might otherwise 

believe. 

• The leader's everyday superpowers include: Clarity; 

Action; Purpose; Enthusiasm. 

Videos 

Trust Your CAPE® Unleash Your Everyday Super Powers for 

Business and Life keynote video trailer: 

YouTube http://youtu.be/GfWfy2-4TBQ or 

http://www.TheMentorGroup.com 

Leadership The Everyday Superhero’s Action Guide to Plan 

and Deliver High-Stakes Projects book video trailer:


YouTube https://youtu.be/XaRfMeLHHZA 

or www.Trust-Your-Cape.com 

All Chapter Videos are available at www.Trust-Your- 

Cape.com. Set a bookmark for easy access.

CHAPTER TWO 

Even Superheroes Need a 

Plan 

Y 

ou're going to need a plan. No matter how urgent the 

moment may appear—stopping killer comet collisions, 

derailing evil tyrants from world domination, or dashing 

through security, grabbing a latte, and boarding your 5:31 

AM flight in time to stow your roll-aboard in the last available 

space—you'll be more successful, more of the time, if you have 

a plan. This action guide fills that need. It provides a practical, 

scalable, no-frills, small-to-mid-sized-project approach to better 

organize yourself and your team around intended results 

and the work required to deliver these results. Project superheroes 

know that the plan is not the deliverable. The plan is a 

scalable tool that leaders use to bring people together, simplify 

complexity, and transform intentions into tangible results. 

7


The nature of work continues to evolve. Projects and team 

assignments are becoming an ever larger portion of the average 

professional's responsibilities. More than ever before, personal 

and organizational success requires you to interact 

effectively in constantly changing, cross-functional 

workgroups. 

Dedicated project teams, clear lines of responsibility and 

authority, and long-term work assignments have given way to 

shorter-duration, faster-paced, highly complex work environments. 

This multiple-project, multiple-team, multipleboss 

work setting reduces real productivity, increases stress, 

and generally makes Friday afternoon the most-loved day of 

the week. (Saturday used to be, but now Saturday's mostly 

used for catching up on lost sleep.) The average professional is 

working longer, harder, and faster than ever, but we're seeing 

fewer results, experiencing greater stress, and, sadly, a lessthan-satisfying 

work experience. 

We'd all like to get more done, get home sooner, and have 

the energy to enjoy life. And if it were possible, think of the 

results! More people than our bosses and customers would be 

calling us superheroes! You do remember the concept of lifeafter-work? 

This project leader's guide is compact, and it remains scalable. 

You can easily expand these methods to fit projects of 

larger scope and complexity. It has proven practical in a variety 

of projects, initiatives, and team assignments. All methods 

described here are real-world (aka: been-there-done-thatwon't-make-that-mistake-again) 

validated, and compliant 

with major standards of practice (such as PMI's PMBOK ® , 

PROSCI's ADKAR ® , and the DoD's IPPD).

EVEN SUPERHEROES NEED A PLAN • 9 

This guide is not everything you need to know to lead a 

successful project. You already bring much of that to the adventure! 

Your knowledge, your skill, your attitudes, and your 

values are more important than anything in this guide. (Trust 

your CAPE!) This guide provides a simple, structured, systematic 

and checklist-based approach that helps you: use what you 

already know; ask the right questions; share the right information; 

gain authentic buy-in at the right times; and propel 

your project, team, and personal success. 

I've learned over the years that the key to leading successful 

projects isn't just in knowing what to do or how to do it. 

My hundreds of projects, business startups, change initiatives, 

and turnaround assignments have proven that while knowing 

what and how is helpful, more important is knowing who you 

can trust. In fact, as long as you know who to trust, effective 

leaders don't necessarily need to know much of anything else! 

As the complexity of projects continues to rise, we can't 

know it all. The key to delivering challenging projects is the 

ability to bring people together—harvesting their skills, their 

knowledge, their energies, and their collective wisdom. 

We must rely on others—those courageous few who can 

and will take the leadership leap (from wherever they stand); 

those few who can engage the hearts, heads, and hands of others' 

(especially others who don't report to you) are today's superheroes. 

Three Reasons to Plan 

Ultimately, effective plans describe simply "who does what 

when." But as in fine automobiles, concise code, or delicious 

dining, the elegance and efficacy of functional brevity is not


easily achieved. Simple elegance isn't so simple! Rookie planners 

often think that precision and thoroughness improve 

coordination and control. To some extent, they do, but overly 

detailed plans can do as much harm as overly simplistic plans. 

The quest for precision, especially when it’s driven by fear of 

the unknown, high-exposure environments, and demanding 

workloads, makes right-sizing one's action plan ever more 

difficult and ever more important! 

Effective plans create a sense of ownership with every stakeholder, 

a sense of responsibility that comes only from engaged, authentic 

participants who know that success is possible if everyone pulls 

their weight—a Clarity of Purpose enjoined with Enthusiastic Action—who 

does what when. 

The effective planner bridges this gap—keeping the big 

picture in focus (purpose, goals, and deliverables) while drilling 

into the unknown strata deeply enough to reveal shortcomings, 

meaningful errors of omission, or fatally flawed 

assumptions—all without floundering in what can seem like a 

bottomless quagmire of detail. 

Effective leaders know the three primary reasons to plan: 

1. Plan to learn. We don't know what we don't know. 

Until we have taken the time and invested the energy into 

thinking through what we intend to achieve and how we intend 

to achieve it, everything is an assumption—maybe good, 

maybe not—and undoubtedly, some of our assumptions are 

potentially disastrous. Therefore, the first and foremost objective 

of planning is to learn: what we know; what we think we 

know; and what we don't know! 

The biggest threats to success are errors. Not those of 

commission (doing things incorrectly), but rather those of 

omission (leaving stuff out). Learning what you don't know


may sound like a conundrum, but as you shall see, it's easier 

than you might guess—if you use a collaborative approach, 

systematic process, and the right tools of thought. 

When you plan, simply visualize the future. And as you 

think through the steps, if you can easily visualize the work 

unfolding, you're likely tapping into what you already know. 

On the other hand, if visualizing the work is difficult, your 

experience or skill is likely lacking—and now you know what 

you don't know (unless ego, pressure, or urgency trumps rational 

thought.) In either case, always think through the work. 

Always challenge your own assumptions. Investigate options. 

Consider alternatives. When you assume that you already 

know the best way, you stop getting better at what you do. 

The planning process is a learning process, regardless of how 

much you already know. Invest the time to think through the 

work, explore your team's assumptions, uncover hidden pitfalls, 

reduce self-inflicted trauma, and get a little better at what you do. 

Even in the simplest of projects, there's plenty of adventure 

to go around. We don't need to look for ways to add blunders, 

bloopers, or boo-boos to keep things exciting. I for one prefer 

safe, simple, likely-to-succeed-without-superhero-effort projects. 

2. Plan to Communicate. No doubt your own intuition, 

experience, and common sense validates Murphy, Baker, and 

Fisher's seminal study, The Determinants of Project Success. 

These researchers found that communication factors accounted 

for over 75% of a project's success or failure. The study revealed 

key factors including: an understanding of the required 

work; stakeholder consensus regarding success criteria; roles 

and responsibilities at the individual level; workflow coordination 

and control points; and tracking progress at the task,


milestone, and objective levels. Clearly, if you intend to be 

successful, you need to thoroughly understand what needs to 

be done, who will do it, and when it will be completed. Like it 

or not, projects and initiatives are team sports. 

Even the simplest of projects must fit into a larger, more 

complex universe of organizational needs, stakeholder expectations, 

and workplace considerations. No one succeeds 

alone—even superheroes do better with a team. The plan not 

only provides a common reference for communicating who 

does what when; planning itself is leadership. 

Everyday superheroes use the planning process to bring people together, 

stimulate collaboration, build engagement, and deepen 

their buy-in and commitment. Planning is a prime opportunity to 

build a sense of shared purpose, create positive interdependence, 

and harvest the wisdom of your colleagues. 

And because we don't live in a perfect world, I'd be remiss 

if I didn't call your attention to the dark side. Beware! If you 

can’t engage your team—or a particular team member—in the 

planning process, don't expect attitudes to magically change 

when it's time to get to work. Anyone’s unwillingness or inability 

to participate in the planning process is a sign you cannot 

afford to ignore. Action heroes don't hide and watch, wait 

and hope ... they act! Moreover, they act sooner than most 

everyone else. Everyday superheroes remain vigilant, ready to 

spring into action at the first sign of trouble—while there's still 

time to do some good. 

3. Plan to Maneuver. Have you ever seen a perfect project? 

I certainly haven't. Regardless of the size, simplicity, or 

seemingly risk-free plan of attack, stuff happens. Late deliveries, 

competing priorities, disruptive events, overwhelming 

workloads, and brain-dead colleagues can turn what should be


an easy stroll into a frustration-filled, finger-pointing, mudslinging 

quagmire. It never fails to amaze me how quickly 

team assignments that begin as "good fun" can turn into "good 

grief!" 

The unexpected can and often does happen. And as the 

ubiquitous Murphy's Law reminds us, ever since that fateful 

day several decades ago when Edward A. Murphy Jr.'s hot-offthe-drawing-board 

prototype accelerometers failed to work 

on Dr. John Paul Stapp's test sled, as it rocketed him across the 

California desert and slammed him into a water breaking system 

(facing from whence he came) at 632 miles per hour: 

"Plan as if whatever can go wrong will go wrong. Furthermore, 

plan as if it will go wrong at the worst possible moment." 

Some say Murphy was an optimist, but I believe the 

real optimist was the guy riding the rocket sled. 

No project or initiative is ever as easy as it first appears. 

For the moment, please restrain your optimism. Take a step 

back from the edge of over-optimism and build as much flexibility 

into your plan as time and resource constraints allow. 

You need a plan. You need to plan. And you need to engage 

your team in the act of planning. Those who invest in planning 

typically finish faster, better, and safer than those who 

don't. 

Want to finish faster? Start slower. 

How "Slow" Should You Start? 

When dealing with challenging timelines and deliverables, 

too many project teams assume that they know enough to get 

started. They rush through the definition and planning activities, 

diving headlong into execution. It's difficult not to when


the boss or customer is ranting, "More! Sooner! Faster!" Even 

for those who realize that starting a little slower and fully exploring 

the project's "physics of success" likely reduces risk, 

lowers costs, and speeds things up, it's almost impossible not 

to be swept up in a group-think stampede. And once a stampede 

has started—whether it consists of American Bison, Type 

A Executives, or the lesser species (Corporate Lemmings)— 

nothing short of superpowers can avert the headlong plunge 

to disaster. Take note: stampedes are easier to avoid than to 

stop. 

Experience validates that taking enough time to understand 

your project enables better planning. In turn, better 

planning is the catalyst for improved communications, control, 

execution, problem solving, and, ultimately, speed. If 

forced to skip adequate planning, you'll likely work harder, 

take greater risks, and burn through more time and resources 

than you would otherwise need. 

The question the project team needs to answer is not, 

"Should we plan for this project?", but rather "How much 

should we plan for this project?" The amount of effort spent 

defining and planning a project is always a judgment call. It's 

best to think in terms of diminishing returns. At the onset of 

definition and planning activities, every dollar or minute 

spent returns itself many times over. However, in most projects 

the overall benefit diminishes at an increasing rate, depending 

on a host of factors. These typically include the 

project's size, complexity, and anticipated risks. At some point, 

additional effort poured into planning fails to appreciably reduce 

risk, time, or cost. 

Obviously, a small, simple project with little or no risk 

doesn't need as detailed a plan as would a large project with


more complexity and real risk. Knowing when good is good 

enough requires insight, intuition, and experience. 

Preplanning Considerations 

To maximize the return on your planning investment and 

to right-size you plan, consider these factors: 

• Project complexity 

• Project risk 

• The team's experience with this type of project 

• The team's experience working together 

• Potential technology issues 

• Confidence in vendors 

• Experience with extended team members 

• Availability of resources 

• The number and complexity of your other projects 

• The timeline 

In addition, always consider the physics of your project— 

the triple constraints. This wonderfully useful strategic concept 

helps us manage risk, even when we're in unfamiliar territory. 

Think of the triple constraints in the way that you think of the 

physics of fire. To maintain a flame we must have a balance of 

oxygen, fuel, and heat. Remove any of the three, and the fire 

goes out. Add any of the three, and the fire gets larger. It's 

physics! And you can't fool physics. 

A successful project or initiative also includes three essential 

elements that must be in balance: time, resources, and outcomes 

(aka.: performance constraint or scope). Known as the 

triple constraints, these elements set limits on your project's 

possibilities. If you have enough time and resources (people, 

material, supplies, equipment, infrastructure ...) to achieve the


intended outcomes, you can deliver a successful project. If you 

commit to more outcomes than you have time or resources 

for, you've set up your project for failure. It's physics! And in 

the real world, superheroes can't fool physics. 

The triple constraints set the stage for most strategic and tactical project 

management decisions. Flexibility improves options and agility. Inflexibility 

increases project risk. 

At the earliest stages of project planning, you probably 

won't know exactly how much time it is going to take or what 

resources will be required—but don't let that stop you from 

getting and keeping these essentials in balance. Trust your 

instincts. Trust your experience. Trust your CAPE. If you're 

thinking that time is too short, resources too meager, or outcomes 

overly optimistic, do something about it. You have only 

two choices. You can assume you're wrong—hide and watch, 

wait and hope, and face the consequences later—or you can


stand up, speak up, and do something about it now, while 

there's still a chance it'll do some good! My belief is that if 

you're wondering if it's time to speak up or to wait, you already 

know the answer. If you have to pitch a tizzy, you might 

as well do it now. Don't allow fear or indecisiveness to trap 

you, your sidekicks, your stakeholders, or your sponsor. The 

"too little, too late" black hole obliterates projects one choice 

at a time. 

And let's take it one step farther. If you think you have just 

enough time and just enough resources to achieve the outcomes 

as promised, you're already in trouble—I've never seen 

a perfect project, have you? Something always goes wrong, 

doesn't go as planned, or is overlooked. If you have just 

enough time and just enough resources, you've got just 

enough time and resources to get into trouble—not enough to 

deal with the heretofore unknown issues that will likely arise. 

To build a safe, simple, likely-to-succeed plan, you must first 

acknowledge that no plan is perfect. I recommend setting 

aside a little more time and/or a few more resources than you 

can identify needing. Operating at 100% capacity is a desperate 

choice—when options disappear, any little problem can bring 

it all down. Agility is your ally. 

Right-Size Your Plan 

The following illustration correlates complexity, size, and 

risk with the appropriate amount of planning detail.


The amount of planning detail required to lead effective projects and initiatives 

varies with the overall size, risk, and complexity. 

A word of caution: if your work process or methodology 

has become well defined over time, subtle changes in your 

standardized approach can create serious “gotchas." Seemingly 

innocuous events can dramatically increase a project's difficulty. 

Be wary when you modify your normal approach in any 

way—such as using a different vendor, substituting "or comparable" 

items, being forced to do work out of sequence, adding 

or changing team members, increasing the number of workers 

on a task, and speeding (or slowing) your normal pace.


In the end, when pushed hard to start faster, trust your intuition, 

your experience, and most importantly, trust your 

CAPE! To finish faster, "start a little slower." 

The planning process is the catalyst for improving engagement, 

interaction, and collaboration. It helps us improve 

understanding, simplify complexity, prioritize and coordinate 

workgroup activities, and facilitate better decision making, all 

by improving Clarity, revealing required Actions, building 

shared Purpose, and stimulating Enthusiasm and commitment. 

When you choose to plan, you choose to lead. Let’s get this 

adventure started! 


• Even superheroes do better with a plan. 

• When you choose to plan, you choose to lead. 

• Projects and team assignments are becoming an 

ever-larger portion of the average professional’s 

work. 

• Short-duration cross-functional teams with few or 

no dedicated resources and no clear lines of authority 

or responsibility are increasingly the norm. 

• The key to success with challenging projects lies in 

the ability to bring people together with Clarity, 

Purpose, Action, and Enthusiasm. 

• Right-size your plan based on project size, complexity, 

and risk. 

• To reduce risk and improve agility, negotiate flexibility 

in the triple constraints. 

• To finish faster, start a little slower.


Video 

Even Superheroes Need a Plan Physics of Success instructional 

video: 

YouTube https://youtu.be/9B3MPRPibR8 

or www.Trust-Your-Cape.com

CHAPTER THREE 

Leading High-Stakes 

Adventures 

I 

n both projects and grand adventures, leaders can count 

on two things: high stakes and high visibility. (Welcome 

to the realm of superheroes.) 

Every adventure—every project—is, by definition, important 

to somebody. Successful organizations don’t often fritter 

away resources on unworthy projects. (Careful now, I 

know what you’re thinking.) Somewhere along the line, 

somebody (project pros call them originators) spotted a problem 

or opportunity, thought of a solution, and decided to implemented 

it or convinced a sponsor to take it on. (Sponsors 

typically have clout in the organization and control resources.) 

Someone decided to invest time and resources, put off other 

uses (projects) for this investment, and take on the risks 

(known and unknown) that the project brings. 

21


From this point forward, project hypergravity kicks in: investment 

and exposure continually mounts (“We can’t stop 

now; we’re almost done!”), until, we hope, the project is completed 

and promised benefits are realized. 

In most organizations, failure isn’t a good option. And 

when you’re the one with toes dangling beyond the rooftop's 

edge, people notice! As exposure grows, visibility grows. 

That’s why effective organizations give this special high-stakes 

work to their best people—the people who can be counted on 

to get the job done no matter how the adventure twists and 

turns. To their superheroes. Pat yourself on the back; that’s 

why your project got you! I probably don’t need to mention 

that asteroid collisions, foul play, or failure to duck can also be 

deciding factors in the selection process. 

Challenging projects are interesting because we haven’t done them 

before—we don’t know what we’re doing—new issues, new technology, 

new systems, new teams.... That’s why we love them. That's 

what makes them adventures! And that’s why everyday superheroes 

need a systematic approach. 

High Visibility is Good News 

for Superheroes 

High exposure isn’t all bad news. To succeed, you need resources, 

and resources are always scarce. (Blame Adam Smith.) 

Which projects get the organization’s scarce resources is always 

debated. When people care about your project, visibility 

follows, and you’re more likely to get the resources you need. 

The added exposure may be unsettling, but high visibility is 

good news to everyday superheroes! Who wants to run a little 

project that no one cares about, that no one takes seriously, 

where the work always gets "re-prioritized?” Not me. I can’t

LEADING HIGH-STAKES ADVENTURES • 23 

afford for my project to fail. My next assignment depends on 

this assignment’s results. I’ve grown accustomed to living indoors 

and eating on a regular basis. 

Large or small, failures leave a stain on the cape. I want big 

projects that everybody knows about and cares about. And 

when it comes to priorities, I want the projects at the top of 

the “imperatives” list. 

Climb. The higher the better. Scramble to the top of your 

organization’s stack of high-adventure projects and assume the 

pose. You can. High exposure is the superhero’s best friend. 

Your best friend. 

Sidekicks, Stakeholders, and Success 

In projects, you can’t succeed alone. It takes an effective 

project team with a variety of skills and expertise to succeed 

even on small, “less complex" projects. (Is any project simple?) 

And like all effective work groups, project teams are most effective 

when goals, roles, and responsibilities are clearly understood, 

in sync, and fully committed to—Clarity; Action; 

Purpose; Enthusiasm. 

Just as superheroes have sidekicks (trustworthy teammates), 

projects have stakeholders (ideally, also trustworthy 

teammates—but we’ll chat about that later). My all-time favorite 

sidekick is Rocket Raccoon from Guardians of the Galaxy. 

If you’re not familiar with Rocky and his teammates, you can 

check out their intergalactic team dynamics at the link below. Be 

prepared to chuckle, you’re about to see team behaviors you’ll recognize. 

http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi1441049625/


This little high-energy fur ball reinforces the notion that 

you don’t have to look like a superhero to think and act like 

one. Your project teammates don’t have Rocky's panache, but 

I bet they bring sufficient technical and tactical skills to get the 

job done—assuming that they understand their roles and responsibilities 

and that they bring even a modicum of Rocky’s 

enthusiasm. 

Let’s take a look at the key members of your team. Each 

stakeholder is, willingly or unwillingly essential. The leader’s 

job is to engage each team member’s full commitment and 

authentic participation to achieve what are often unspoken, 

unclear, unacknowledged, but none-the-less essential roles 

and outcomes. Your project’s chances for success improve 

when each stakeholder’s goals, roles, and responsibilities are 

Clear, Purposeful, and Enthusiastically Acted upon. 

In the broadest sense, stakeholders—everyone who can 

impact or be impacted by the project—include the owner, end 

users, planners, implementers, and, depending on the industry 

or technology involved, many others. For government projects, 

for example, every voter is a project stakeholder! I don’t 

recommend that you attempt to lead at this level of minutia, 

but I recommend that you be aware of all stakeholder groups 

and their points of view, their potential influence, and exactly 

how their participation—or lack thereof—factors into your 

success equation. Some cute and cuddly little fur balls have 

sharp teeth.


Stakeholder Roles and Responsibilities 

Project success requires coordinated, effective contributions 

from all stakeholder groups. Each group, in its own way, 

is critical to the project’s success. 

Originator Identifies an opportunity to make things better 

and proposes the idea to someone in the organization. The 

originator can hold any position or title within or outside of 

the organization. 

Sponsor (Senior advocate and liaison) Helps guide intended 

outcomes, makes the case for resources and funding, and 

orchestrates the project’s fit with the organization’s needs and 

priorities. 

Project leader Insures project success (as defined in the 

project charter). They should be involved from the earliest 

phases of initiation. They are directly responsible for planning, 

execution, and closure. Their level of authority should 

be established by the project sponsor and upper management. 

Core team Provides the bulk of the expertise and produces 

most deliverables. They are responsible for accurate estimates, 

timely deliverables, authentic participation, and for holding 

themselves accountable to the team’s success. Best practice 

involves these team members early. Giving the team a voice in 

planning deepens their commitment to the project. 

Extended team Essential participants with little involvement 

during execution: budget approvers, technical specifiers, 

quality control, data providers, vendors, specialty skill providers, 

and others.


Problems are Predictable 

To stop problems, villainous behavior, or shoddy performance 

before it morphs into project-shattering chaos, everyday 

superheroes leap into action at the first sign of trouble. 

Effective project leaders expect problems. That's not to say 

they’re pessimists, naysayers, or doomsday believers. Effective 

leaders don’t see the glass as half full or half empty ... they see 

it as both! 

Effective leaders—pragmatists all—know that no organizational 

method is perfect; each has inherent strengths and 

weaknesses. No team is perfect. Every sidekick has a quirk. 

Vigilance empowers effective leaders to avoid, eliminate, and 

mitigate issues, before friction becomes smoke ... smoke flame 

... flame inferno. Reducing friction is less exciting, but more 

genuinely heroic, than fighting wildfires. 

In projects and initiatives, we tend to organize ourselves 

around work, rather than by department, supervisor, or the 

traditional organization chart. In doing so, we tug people 

away from their familiar workgroup relationships, roles, and 

responsibilities, and we expose them to potential problems. 

Many of these problems hide deviously in plain sight; if your 

vigilance falters, avoidable problems can deliver a mindboggling, 

project-staggering blow to your team, your project, 

and your reputation. 

Some of the deadliest sucker punches erupt in crossfunctional 

extended teams, especially those operating from 

remote locations—but I get ahead of myself. For now, know 

that forming new workgroups always brings challenges. Heed 

the warning and assume the pose: confidently vigilant.


At best, an organizational structure will not cause trouble. –Peter 

Drucker 

Don’t set up yourself or your team for a blind-side thumping. 

Getting whacked is painful for a few minutes and embarrassing 

forever. Stay alert. Don’t get taken out by an easy-toavoid 

BIFF, BAM, or POW! 

Cross-Functional Teamwork 

Technically complex projects frequently require groups of 

professionally diverse (and often geographically dispersed) 

workers who report through different bosses or organizations. 

These workgroups are commonly referred to as cross-functional 

workgroups, but shaping them into cross-functional teams is 

no easy task! It’s probably no surprise that research predicts, 

and experience validates, communication as the dominant performance 

factor. Fortunately, most of the difficulties and potential 

pitfalls within team communication and collaboration 

are easy to predict. You don’t need x-ray vision or timetraveler 

skills; a little refined insight will do. While projects, 

deliverables, technologies, and people constantly churn, human 

nature remains the same. Consider the findings by Baker, 

et al., on the causation factors for project success: 

Taken together, the communication elements accounted for over 

75% of the factors that enabled project success. These included such 

items as coordination, interpersonal relations, communication of 

the project’s importance, and consensus on the success criteria. 

Within cross-functional project environments, the leader’s 

most important (and possibly most challenging) mission is 

effective communication. Here’s a subtle but pivotal point 

many would-be leaders miss: to improve project communica-


tions we must first improve collaboration. And to improve collaboration, 

we must first improve interaction. The project 

leader's foremost role is to bring people together, increase interaction, 

facilitate collaboration, and thereby create an environment 

of effective communication. Let’s turn that around 

and pound this point deep into the frontal lobes: more interaction 

yields better collaboration; better collaboration yields improved 

communications. Don't expect this to be a quiet 

process—it’s going to get noisy! 

Choosing the most effective interaction strategies and tactics 

depends on many factors: the people and their personalities, 

their physical locations, cultural norms, the group’s 

feeling tone, their experience with one another, the nature of 

the project ... the list goes on. To improve a cross-functional 

team's performance, trust the CAPE: Clarity, Action, Purpose, 

and Enthusiasm. Let’s see how leaders can build highperformance 

teamwork within key stakeholder groups. 

Leading Extended Teams 

In terms of communication, commitment, and engagement, 

the most problematic stakeholder group is typically the 

extended team. Capable of throwing simultaneous knock-yoursocks-off, 

super-sucker punches, extended teams are dangerous 

for several reasons. First of all, they are essential. Secondly, 

they might not care about your project. In other words, 

they have something your project or initiative needs that you 

can’t readily gain elsewhere; and unfortunately, your project 

doesn’t command 100% of their attention. They were already 

busy before your project butted in—their “ordinary” work already 

dominated 100% of their time and energy. Your project 

may be viewed as an interruption to what they believe is most


important—keeping their own bosses happy. You’re just one 

more item on their already too long, to-do, today list. In net, 

you need them more than they need you. You’re left on the list 

for "tomorrow.” And, when it comes to making you happy or 

keeping their bosses happy, you know who’s going to be disappointed. 

Human nature often trumps best intentions. You 

don’t need x-ray vision to see this one coming. The only sucker 

in this punch is the unwary team leader. 

Even when your extended team members are highly motivated 

and responsible, “It slipped through the cracks” is a 

common lament. For extended teams I recommend frequent 

communications and careful control. And by frequent, I mean 

just-one-step-short-of-being-a-stalker frequent. 

Keep your communication cycle short—at least multiple 

times a week. This rate of communication may feel like too 

much, but keep it up. It only seems like too much to you, the 

person most familiar with, closest to, and who likely cares the 

most about the project. The more remote the team members 

are (in terms of geographic proximity, operational visibility, 

and personal or emotional buy-in), the greater the effort leaders 

must place in communication and control activities. 

One marketing communications study I’m aware of shows 

the attention/intention rate of decline to be about 5% per day. 

While we can argue about the percentage of erosion, in terms 

of frequency of communications, shorter is better than longer. 

Once you get your team members’ attention, don’t back off. 

Carefully nurture communications and interactions throughout 

each team member’s circle of involvement. 

I want you to guard against two additional sidekick threats. 

When problems arise in either of these, we often tend, due to 

interpersonal dynamics, to hide and watch, to hope and wait.


That is to say, when somebody is acting like a bonehead, we 

don’t want to have to call them on it. Be vigilant, trust your 

instincts, take a stand, and trust your CAPE. Superheroes 

thoughtfully limit how long they’ll hide and watch, wait and 

hope. When necessary, effective leaders take a deep breath, 

visualize the landing, and engage with Purposeful Action. 

Leading the Core Team 

First, let’s do the easiest, your core team. I’ll bet you know 

what to expect from these people. Chances are you’re familiar 

with the content they provide and the technology or methods 

they use to deliver it. And you’re probably aware of the inherent 

risks, challenges, and typical problems that arise in their 

work. Furthermore, you may have worked with some of these 

individuals on other projects. And if you have, you’ll have a 

pretty good understanding of who you can trust, and perhaps, 

who you shouldn’t. In any case, core-team members have significant 

involvement, contact, and interaction with each other 

and with you. This provides opportunities to learn their styles, 

skills, and expertise, and it gives you more opportunities to 

organize, direct, and orchestrate their efforts. If weaknesses or 

problems arise, you’re in a good position to discover them and 

take preemptive action. Compared to extended teams, the core 

team’s closer proximity and greater involvement makes their 

authentic participation easier to attain. 

On the dark side… if you have an unsavory character within 

your core team, beware. This type of disengaged team 

member can wreak more havoc than an invisible, psychopathic 

super-villain on a Red Bull-induced rage. You’ve seen 

the type: saying “yes” but meaning “no”; always “on schedule” 

but delivering nothing but excuses on the deadline; shunning


any work they see as “beneath their skills.” These passiveaggressive 

types add nothing but angst, frustration, and risk to 

the project environment. Their shadowy misbehavior directly 

reduces achievement (within their assigned responsibilities), 

undermines team performance (slowing related work), and 

can cast a pall of frustration and foreboding over the entire 

team (who can I trust?). Unfortunately, some of these invisible 

super-villains are masters of getting their own way at the expense 

of others. Tricky-mean shadow tactics can destroy an 

unwitting team. Whatever the motivation, be it vendetta, 

clashing personalities, or hyperactive selfishness, you don’t 

need to psychoanalyze—but you do have to lead. Whenever 

attitudes darken and villainous behavior creeps in, it’s time to 

trust your CAPE. 

It’s difficult to spot these shadow tactics, so look for what’s 

missing. When you don’t see purposeful action delivering tangible 

results, get involved. Find out why. Left unchallenged, 

the dark side will surely prevail. 

Saddled with a less-than-optimal team? Don’t despair. Think like 

a sculptor. Just as there is a work of art hidden in every block of 

stone, within every team member—even your favorite blockhead 

(used with love)—hidden potential awaits the call. The leader’s job 

is to chip away and reveal what others may not see. 

I prefer to work with a slightly smaller, highly engaged 

team than a slightly larger, perhaps more capable, but less engaged 

team. I don’t fear challenging work. I fear inattentive 

team members. One person’s inattentiveness (or passiveaggressive 

behavior) can put the entire project team, project, 

and organization at risk. I want to surround myself with those 

who have Clarity of Purpose and show it with Enthusiastic Action. 

How about you?


In a best case, facilitate the speedy removal of any disingenuous 

team mate. Be respectful. Don’t do or say anything 

your mom wouldn’t approve of, but get the problem out of 

your world as quickly as possible. I know what you’’re thinking 

... and you’re right. It isn’t easy. There is risk. Leaders are 

obligated to champion others, help them be successful, do the 

right thing, yadda, yadda, yadda. Mom wouldn’t have it any 

other way. Nor should you or I. Remember, we have a responsibility 

to the organizations we serve, our team members, and 

to ourselves. Leaders have the oft-challenging responsibility to 

serve “the greater good.” Great leaders somehow get it mostly 

right, most of the time. No one gets it right all the time. In 

these emotionally charged interpersonal situations, it helps to 

think in terms of Clarity, Action, Purpose, and Enthusiasm. First, 

strive for clarity of a shared, that is to say, mutually supported 

purpose. Then move your unruly team members forward with 

the enthusiastic facilitation (clear and firm deadlines) of mutually 

agreed-upon, specific actions. 

Directing your comments towards the work rather than 

the worker—the actions rather than the actor; the results rather 

than the bonehead (I say this with love)—reduces the 

angst for all parties, and likely improves outcomes. Stay cool, 

calm, and focused on the work. This strategic approach helps to 

depersonalize the conversation, thereby reducing the emotional 

energy on all sides—yours and theirs. Focus on the 

work, not the person doing it. Bring your team member’s errant 

performance back to the shared purpose and focus his or 

her attention on the actions that are required. While you may 

not see anything near enthusiasm at this point, the conversation 

shouldn’t end until there is complete clarity of what you 

expect and until each one’s authentic commitment is obtained.


A less desirable strategy for dealing with disengaged team 

members is to minimize their contact, thereby limiting their 

adverse effect on your team. Isolation on an uninhabited planet 

(perhaps a very uncomfortable uninhabited planet) would 

be nice, but you might have to settle for a remote corner of 

your building. No one wants to resort to this option, but leaders 

must be realistic. Not everyone can be "fixed,” nor is it the 

leader’s responsibility to “fix” people. However, leaders are 

responsible for protecting the sanity and well-being of the 

entire team—by maintaining an equitable, trustworthy, supportive, 

and productive work environment. 

The leader’s worst option is to do nothing. Thoughtfully 

postponing action, while getting your bearings and developing 

an understanding of what are often nuanced complexities, is a 

good idea. Waiting, watching, and hoping for things to 

change on their own isn’t. If conditions don’t improve, the 

longer you wait the harder it becomes to take effective action. 

Sometimes you just have to stand up, speak up, and make the 

leap from observation and contemplation to action. Trust 

your CAPE. 

On a positive note, whenever possible, core team members 

should be collocated. Their ability to interact professionally and 

personally enables the team to bond in ways that email, instant 

messaging, web meetings, conference calls, and even videoconferences 

can’t match. If team members cannot collocate, 

provide a common project room where they can gather and 

that they can use as their own. If they must remain physically 

separated by doors, floors, buildings, time zones or continents, 

get your team together as early and as often as your budget 

will allow. Interaction is priceless.


Whenever team members are physically separated, communication 

is dramatically impacted. Effective leaders facilitate disciplined, 

detailed, and systematic team interactions. 

Project Sponsors 

I’ve left for last what can be the most important, frustrating, 

and decisive project team peculiarity: the working relationship 

between the project leader and the project sponsor. 

Unless you’re the genuine Master of Your Universe (selfemployment 

doesn’t count—we’ve all got customer-bosses), 

the sponsor is your most influential teammate. The sponsor 

establishes your responsibilities, your access to resources, and 

your level of authority. Ideally, you, the sponsor, and possibly 

a few of your core team members will collaborate at an early 

stage, molding the project plan within the confines of the organization’s 

resources and objectives. Early collaboration 

broadens options, facilitates best use of resources, and helps 

minimize every project leader’s worst nightmare: your boss’s 

over-optimism! 

Unfortunately, communication and collaboration between 

the project leader and sponsor is rarely as good as it should 

be—usually falling into the range somewhere in the range of 

“doesn't know I exist” to “I need to hire an intergalactic hitman”. 

(Don't get testy—it goes both ways). Making effective 

decisions requires trust, respect, and genuine rapport, all of 

which takes time to develop. Unfortunately, many projects 

just don’t last that long. 

In addition, the ability to communicate project status in a 

meaningfully way, requires a common project language, an 

understanding of fundamental project management tools, and 

an agreed-upon basis from which to evaluate (goals, schedules, 

baselines, etc.). Throw in high stakes, high visibility, and a few


mixed signals that you’ll find on any project, and you’ve got 

the makings for a high-grossing superhero adventure film 

with several sequels! 

High-performance teamwork—in and within crossfunctional, 

core, extended, teams (e.g.: all stakeholder 

groups)—is only possible with effective communication. Effective 

communication is only possible in a team environment 

with high levels of mutual trust and respect. This is the everyday 

superhero’s primary reason for getting up in the morning, 

squeezing into the tights, and ironing the cape. Everyday superheroes 

create high-performance team environments 

through clarity, action, purpose, and genuine enthusiasm. 

I recommend that you do everything you can to improve 

your vantage point—climb high! Reach out. Stay alert. Observe. 

And most importantly, listen to your sidekicks. No single 

person, with or without superpowers, has a perfect view of 

the world. Those leaders who are most approachable (by earning 

trust and respect) likely have the best understanding of the 

situation, the potential, and the risks. Fortunately, the factors 

most debilitating (or empowering) to your team’s interaction, 

communication, and commitment are difficult to conceal. In 

fact, they’re usually forehead-slapping obvious—if we take the 

time to ask, listen, and look. Trust your everyday superpowers. 

Be visible. Be approachable. Look for the obvious and the 

not-so-obvious. Listen to your sidekicks. Trust your CAPE. 

When the stakes are high—and it seems like they always 

are—I want all my sidekicks to be just like Rocky. 


● 

Even superheroes need a team.


● 

● 

● 

● 

High-visibility projects get more attention and resources, 

making them more likely to succeed. 

Given an understanding of the stakeholders, you can 

predict and avoid many common problems. 

High-performance teamwork can be built only on a 

foundation of mutual trust, genuine respect, and authentic 

participation. 

The superhero project leader improves team communications 

by bringing people together, increasing interaction, 

and facilitating collaboration. 

Videos 

The Guardians of the Galaxy by Marvel Studios movie trailer 

is courtesy of www.IMDb.com and can be viewed at 

http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi1441049625/. 

Leading High-Stakes Adventures Problems are Predictable 

instructional video: 

YouTube: https://youtu.be/sCGhLWkExD8 


CHAPTER FOUR 

Superhero’s Success 

System 

N 

ot long ago, I was called into a gnarly situation by the 

CEO of a mid-sized tech company undergoing “market 

transformations.” For those unfamiliar with corporate 

speak, this roughly translates as “HELP! We’re getting our 

heads bashed in.” Several months prior, they’d launched a major 

initiative to revitalize competitiveness. Teams were 

formed, plans were made, and work progressed normally—or 

so they thought. Every time the big boss asked, “How's the 

project going?” the reply was a cheery, “Fine!”, “Great!”, or 

“Good!” These, of course, really mean “I don't know but I’m 

swamped and nobody’s yelling so I guess it can wait a while.” 

37


As deadlines came and went, status reports (and attitudes) 

steadily darkened. When “need a little more time” became 

“OMG!” the boss sounded the alarm and called for help. I arrived 

too late (sorry, but this superhero flies in coach class). 

An energy-sucking, excuse-making, finger-pointing (first the 

index, then another) project melt-down was in full swing. 

(Argh!) Have you suffered a similar experience? In the movies, 

this is the superhero’s cue to swoop in and save the day! But 

this isn’t the movies. As much as I would like to be able to relate 

a satisfyingly cinematic happy ending, I cannot. The project 

was a disaster. It failed. Fact is, it failed a long time before 

I got there—before the whimpering, before the fingerpointing, 

even before the first “How’s it going?” 

Projects do not fail at the end; they fail at the beginning. 

In a project’s late stages the good choices have already been 

made, missed, or ignored. The further you go back in a project’s 

lifecycle, the more options were available. Here's the conundrum: 

in the final days of a project, you know exactly what 

worked and what didn’t, which assumptions were right or 

wrong, and what might have been a better approach—in fact, 

your vision is superhero-perfect! Unfortunately, you can’t 

time travel. But early in the project, when maximum options 

and choices are available, your vision is at its worst. At best, 

you’ve only a fuzzy idea of where you’re going, how you’ll get 

there, what you might expect along the way. 

Late-stage in a project, few choices and options remain, 

and most of these bring undesirable consequences: 

● Kill the project and admit defeat 

● Ask for more time and more money (again?) 

● Start over with new people

SUPERHERO’S SUCCESS SYSTEM • 39 

● 

● 

● 

● 

● 

Try a different approach 

Hire different vendors 

Change the scope 

Declare victory and hope nobody notices 

Dust off the resume 

Get in Control of Any Project 

To deal with this vision-versus-options control conundrum, 

effective leaders use a systematic approach—a process 

model—to guide communication, decision making, and control. 

While no process model is a perfect fit for all projects, the 

fundamentals are highly applicable to a wide variety of situations. 

Like all tools, the skill with which it is used is as important 

as the tool itself. 

The Project Management Process 

The most widely accepted process models correlate with a 

project’s typical lifecycle: initiation, planning, executing, controlling, 

and closing phases. Overall, the process model guides 

stakeholder participation, facilitates learning, structures communication, 

and greatly improves collaboration. The following 

list describes each phase and its usefulness in achieving 

project success. 

Initiate Activities in the initiation phase screen the concept, 

define purpose, describe known constraints and assumptions, 

summarize the work, assign a project manager, and 

authorize planning to proceed. 

Plan Planning activities validate the assumptions made in 

the initiation phase, model the implementation approach, 

identify and communicate essential milestones and decision


points, and verify earlier decisions and assumptions. The decision 

to proceed to project execution is carefully considered, 

and then authorized or denied by the key stakeholders. From 

this point forward, project costs rapidly accrue, as do the consequences 

of failure. 

Execute Execution of the project commences in accordance 

with the baseline plan established in the planning phase. 

Control Control activities occur throughout the project 

lifecycle, and are at their zenith during the execution phase, as 

teams monitor progress, report expenditures, compare schedule 

actuals to the baseline plan, evaluate performance, and adjust 

project team effort and actions as required. 

Close Tasks in this phase include formal acceptance and 

sign-off by the stakeholders and customers, final billing, administrative 

closure, final inspections, reassignment of project 

staff, archiving of information, and assessing lessons learned. 

Gaining stakeholder satisfaction is frequently (and wrongly) 

attributed to this phase. Stakeholder satisfaction (the primary 

indicator of success) is best gained as the natural outcome of 

an engaged, concept-to-conclusion management process. 

The following chart illustrates the relative importance of 

each phase as a determinant of project outcomes. As the type 

size implies, small efforts in the initiation and planning phase 

have significant impact later on. If you have stakeholders who 

believe they have no time to plan and that the best course of 

action is, “hurry up and get started,” this illustration might 

alter their perspectives. More than once, I’ve scratched this 

diagram on anything handy—from white boards to napkins— 

and made the appeal, “the little time we take now will make a 

big difference in your satisfaction at the end of this project.


Please help me design and deliver the project you want and 

need.” 

At each transition between lifecycle phases, the adventure 

intensifies. Options deteriorate and the consequences of a 

stalled or failed project increase. Each transition point is 

therefore a natural decision point, or stage gate. Manage stage 

gates carefully: when you manage decisions, you manage success. 

Your ability to impact success rapidly deteriorates as the project life cycle 

progresses. The most important decisions must be made early on, when 

understanding is low; this is the project planner’s abiding conundrum.


For best results, adapt and scale your process model to the 

needs of each project. For example, a simple project with little 

risk requires less structure, control, and analysis than does a 

large project with greater complexity or risk. 

The foresighted management guru, Henri Fayol, stated in 1916, 

“Principles that are established should be viewed as flexible, capable 

of adaptation to every need. It is the manager’s job to know 

how to make use of them, which is a difficult art requiring intelligence, 

experience, and, most important, a sense of proportion.” 

Even though I wish it could, the process doesn’t give us the 

superpower to see into the future. However, it does the next 

best thing. An effective project management process expands, 

refines, and sharpens what we currently know, it keeps the allimportant 

outcomes in clear focus, and it brightly illuminates 

our choices. With a good process, you can move your project 

forward faster and safer than ever before. Trust your CAPE! 

Own the process model—don’t let it own you. 

How to Get in Control of Failing Projects 

If you dislike stalled projects, only the foresight provided 

by an effective process model can keep you out of trouble. 

Frankly, I hate troubled projects. I try to stay away from them 

and I advise that you do the same. However, every professional 

who enjoys living indoors and eating on a regular basis 

must eventually deal with a gnarly project, complete with illtempered 

teammates, supercilious stakeholders, and vexing 

vendors. Case in point: I took on the turnaround assignment 

mentioned at the beginning of this chapter. I knew it was a 

risky endeavor, but I had a secret weapon: I trusted the principals 

and they trusted me. They agreed to my “never-take-on-


anyone-else’s-project-mess-unless” rules as described below. 

We (and I do mean we—this was a team victory) were eventually 

successful, and the organization was stronger for it. If 

you’re ever in a similar situation, here’s my project turnaround 

strategy: 

● Save what you can. Capture any progress, deliverables, 

or knowledge achieved. If all there is to show for the effort 

is knowing what not to do, at least that’s something. Only 

if the major stakeholders are willing to concede defeat with 

the current approach will you have a chance of accomplishing 

the next step. 

● Kill the project. Allowing it to continue wastes already 

thin resources, sends mixed messages to the project 

team, and creates false hopes within the major stakeholders. 

As long as this project is kept alive, it continues sucking the 

life from the project team and makes the next step impossible. 

I know this step is gory, but nobody can outrun a zombie forever. 

● Save the people. The team didn’t make this mess. 

The organization as a whole made this mess with no process, 

poor stakeholder participation, overoptimism, and probably, a 

host of other core issues. This team has probably learned some 

very expensive lessons (or at least they’ll be more receptive to 

a better approach). If you keep them and treat them with dignity, 

they’ll likely respond with renewed determination and 

authentic participation. By saving the people, your organization 

can benefit from the lessons you’ve already paid for. Finally, 

and perhaps most importantly, the way people are 

treated in times like these sets the stage for staffing and teamwork 

in all your future endeavors.


● Start over. This time, do it with the structure, discipline, 

and benefits that come from using an effective project 

management process. 

The Secret to Project Success 

There’s no shortage of theories on the secret to success. 

Philosophers of every age counsel the benefits of attitude, perseverance, 

courage, and dozens of similar profundities. There’s 

probably an element of truth in each. The truth about projects 

is that they’re all different—and most are difficult. It seems 

more can go wrong than can go right. That is, while one thing 

can create failure, no one thing can create success. 

Regardless of whose research you cite, both numbers and 

experience validate that project failures are commonplace. 

There are too many unknowns, flaky vendors, over-worked 

teams, unreliable systems, fickle customers, and overly optimistic 

senior managers for anyone to have a perfect project 

record. To improve the odds of success, we need a system that 

helps us make fewer wrong choices and more right choices. In 

effect, we need a decision management system. 

To be successful, you don’t have to understand the project—but you 

do have to understand the process. 

The choices leading to success (or failure) are more likely 

identified and correctly made by using a stage-gate process 

model. The illustration below portrays our success system as a 

block-diagram flow chart. Note that the initiation and planning 

stages are sequential and clearly preparatory to the execution 

stage. In contrast, execution and control are shown as 

interrelated, concurrent activities. Once the threshold of exe-


cution is crossed, the project team applies force as necessary 

(within project constraints) to complete and close the project. 

The more difficult the project, the more important the 

process. The process can lead you to success in difficult situations 

and is especially useful when dealing with new teams, 

high-risk endeavors, complex work, challenging timelines, 

untested methods, new technologies, widely distributed stakeholders, 

lagging consensus, and stakeholders who have lost 

focus. 

If you manage project decisions, you’ll manage project success. 

The process isn’t magic. It doesn’t provide answers. Its superpowers 

emerge by structuring decisions and helping us ask 

the right questions at the right time. When you know the 

right questions and trust your CAPE—the right decisions are 

close behind. 

The superhero’s success system uses structured questions and stage-gate 

decisions to manage the project’s lifecycle.


Manage Decisions and Manage Success 

The activities in each stage produce decisions and information 

that will be used in the next stage. Asking the right 

questions in the right order enables us to explore options and 

make better decisions. The transition following each process 

stage is a natural decision point, typically called a phase gate or 

stage gate. At each gate, the consequences of inadequacies or 

failures dramatically increase. The decision to proceed, revise, 

or kill the project at each phase gate should be carefully considered 

and formally accepted by at least the sponsor and the 

project team leader. Depending on the project and organizations 

involved, it is sometimes helpful to require formal signoff 

by other key stakeholders such as the design engineer, customer 

representative, or finance officer. 

While carefully controlled stage-gate decisions are important, 

it’s also helpful to realize that some of the stages can 

and should overlap. Consider the time-phased diagram below. 

Notice the relative activity levels, timing, and interactions 

among the five phases over the course of a project’s lifecycle. 

Notice the treatment of the closing phase. In reality, close is 

not the final step. This phase begins the moment stakeholder 

expectations begin to form, possibly establishing unendorsed 

but nonetheless anticipated outcomes. Without formal decision 

management, every stakeholder could have different and 

possibly opposing project expectations. (Did a troubled project 

you know of just come to mind?) This is a serious issue and, 

unfortunately, it is quite common. 

Expectations set in the beginning establish the finish line all 

stakeholders must cross. Carefully manage stakeholders’ early expectations.


Similarly, control encompasses the entirety of the project 

from concept screening through completion and after-project 

evaluations. We typically think of control in terms of schedule, 

quality, risk, and costs. It is helpful to expand your thinking 

of project control to include the control of the process, the 

decisions, and the expectations. 

The success system is an overlapping, sometimes iterative learning process 

that safely transports your team into unknown territory. For best results, 

carefully manage process activities, interactions, and phase transitions. 

Note that, in like manner, initiation and planning overlap, 

as do planning and execution. Think of it this way: the project 

process is an iterative, learning process. We explore, propose, 

validate; choose to move forward, revise, or stop; thoughtfully 

move from assumptions to conclusions. 

Now that we’ve explored the strategy of decision control, 

creating a process model tailored to any given type of project 

is fairly easy. However, as in many skill-based endeavors, the 

greater difficulty is implementation. Lead with Clarity, Action, 

Purpose, and Enthusiasm and help your team unleash the system's 

superpower. Only your team can provide the will and 

discipline to make your system their system and their success


your success. It’s time to trust your CAPE. Let’s jump into 

your project where it’’ll do the most good. 

Project Initiation 

Don’t skip project initiation! The greatest opportunity to 

deliver success lies within the initiation phase. This is your 

best opportunity to rig your project for success. Now—before 

Action, not after—is the time to gain Clarity of Purpose and fully 

Engage your team. Think of it like this: you’d never leap off a 

rooftop without looking around, would you? Okay, so you 

probably wouldn’t jump off a rooftop—how about into a 

swimming pool? Would you jump in without checking the 

depth, impact area, and splash zone? [Spring Break pool parties 

don’t count.] Superheroes always look before they leap. 

Pools, rooftops, and projects deserve respect. Don't let a buddy, 

boss, or beverage control your choices, unless of course, 

you’re busy dodging bullets, death rays, or drunks. In which 

case, even a bad choice is better than standing still and getting 

whacked senseless. 

More importantly, superheroes always lead before they leap. 

They never ask anyone to do something they wouldn’t do. 

Leaders aren’t watchers, followers, or despots—they engage the 

thoughts and actions of others. In the initiation stage of the 

project management process (aka, Superhero's Success System), 

define the project, describes its limits, and explore the 

working constraints. Rightly or wrongly, assumptions will be 

made (such as time allowed and resources required) that impact 

project success. Your job is to facilitate open and honest 

discussions by all stakeholders. An effective leader uses this 

stage to create respectful and productive interactions; in effect,


harvesting the wisdom of the stakeholders—leading others to 

Clarity, Action, Purpose, and Enthusiasm. 

Six essential questions must be asked and answered before 

entering the planning stage. (You’ll recall that our process 

doesn’t provide answers; it provides questions.) 

1. Goal - Describe specifically what the project will deliver, 

improve, reduce, or change. Describe how success will be 

measured. Ensure that all key stakeholders are in agreement 

on the goal statement. Judge for yourself (and ask others to do 

the same) whether this goal is realistic. Identify (or impose) 

any time constraints to create a managed sense of urgency. 

You probably recognize this as an adaptation of the researchbased 

“SMART” goal format. 

2. Objectives - How will this goal be achieved? What 

strategies, methods, or approaches will be used? Wise leaders 

recognize that there are always multiple ways to achieve any 

goal. As discussed in Mastermind Your Action List, choose an 

approach that achieves the goal and lives within the project’s 

constraints. 

3. Stakeholders - Who will be involved in this project? 

By definition, everyone who impacts or is impacted by a project 

is a stakeholder. As Problems are Predictable describes in 

Leading High-Stakes Adventures, many issues can be foreseen, 

avoided, or mitigated by thinking through each stakeholder 

group's expectations, participation, and authority. From an 

academic viewpoint, projects are successful when the significant 

stakeholders are substantially satisfied. (Ouch!) If you 

don’t know who the significant stakeholders are, or how 

they’ll measure success, your project is doomed from day one. 

4. Assumptions - All projects have assumptions—some 

large, some small; some noticed, some ignored; some real,


some as crazy as a chrome-plated rudder on a duck’s butt. 

Identify all assumptions—the larger the assumption, the larger 

the risk. Are you assuming that vendors will deliver as specified? 

That sponsors will respond to queries? That remote team 

members care as much as you do? The list is endless, but by 

acknowledging assumptions, you reveal risks—many of which 

can be avoided, mitigated, or braced for. Ask each stakeholder 

group, “What are our working assumptions?” and standby for 

enlightenment! Lastly, don’t assume that all stakeholders are 

sane. 

5. Triple constraints - The triple constraints describe the 

project’s scope, resources, and time balance. When a project’s 

amalgamation of desire and ability is out of whack, bad things 

happen. Stakeholders want “good, fast, and cheap,” but “too 

good, too fast, and too cheap” is like watching a horror movie—don’t 

open that door! Project teams who maintain flexibility 

in any or all three of the triple constraints are more 

resilient, more capable, and far more likely to succeed than 

those who have just enough time and just enough resources to 

deliver the stakeholders’ lofty desires. For tips on creating triple 

constraint flexibility (and rigging your project for success), 

see How “Slow” Should You Start in Even Superheroes Need a 

Plan. 

6. Commitment - The most important question of all is, 

“Are we committed to success?” As a turnaround specialist I 

routinely deal with fuzzy goals, cloudy objectives, ignored assumptions, 

and muddled constraints—that’s why they hire me. 

What I can’t deal with is apathy. If people don’t care, they can’t 

win and, by extension, we can’t win. Without people who care 

about each other, the project, and the organization, the


world’s best plan will fail. Superheroes need enthusiastic sidekicks! 

Think of the initiation stage as the first step in your iterative 

learning process. Stay vigilant—evil lurks within and 

without. Be on the lookout for these common (and potentially 

deadly) villains: 

● Errors of Omission - Much project failure is caused 

by not understanding the work required for success. 

● Overoptimism - Have you noticed that the further 

you get from work, the easier it looks? The reverse is also 

true. The closer you get to work, the more difficult it becomes. 

What sounds reasonable in the boardroom may prove 

impossible in the real world. 

● Overcommitment - Motivated individuals (and their 

organizations) tend to overcommit. Though intentions may 

be honorable, one too many projects can put an entire portfolio 

at risk. Remember that all systems have a limit. 

Control Documents and Checklists 

The merits of an effective project management process 

can’t be fully realized until the organization has adopted, usually 

through trial and error, an appropriate set of documents 

and checklists to provide structure, detail, and convenience. 

The documents and checklists included in this section are not 

industry specific. They are necessarily general and represent a 

minimum control baseline which you may add to, delete from, 

and edit as appropriate for your projects and situation. 

You’re encouraged to download and use as a starting point 

the documents and checklists presented here. Each fits on a 

single page for hand-written notes and small projects. For


larger projects, each heading can expand as required when 

using the files on a word processor. 

To promote the use of your project process documents and checklists, 

keep them as simple as possible and place them where everyone 

has access. Many organizations set up a project section on 

their networks where information, templates, procedures, and 

checklists are readily available. 

When considering which documents and checklists are 

best for your project environment, keep in mind that brevity 

encourages thinking. In contrast, complexity reduces thinking 

(if it were important there would have been a box for it). 

Complexity also reduces the likelihood that the documents 

will be picked up and used. Think of these documents and 

checklists as suitable for most small-to-medium-sized projects 

and as a way to “prime the thought-process pump” on larger 

projects. We’re all looking for time savers, not time wasters. 

By the way, please don’t resell these documents. If you do, 

may the ghost of failed projects curse you with a thousand 

change orders. (Just kidding. I wouldn’t wish that on anyone— 

projects are hard enough as it is.) 

Process Control Documents 

Concept checklist - The concept screening checklist helps 

to ensure that only viable projects that support the organization’s 

goals and objectives are allowed to proceed. Screening 

criteria include preliminary investigations, feasibility studies, 

evaluation of merit, strategic fit, viability, delivery of real benefit, 

risk level, project portfolio fit, and whether doing the 

project would detract from ongoing operations or other projects 

or capacities. Project prioritization begins at this point.


Project Charter - This document establishes the authority 

for a project manager to undertake the project and sets the 

limits of responsibilities and power. It serves as a formal notification 

and alerts stakeholders that project initiation will proceed. 

Statement of Work (SOW) - This document helps the 

originators and sponsors to clearly describe and document 

their expectations of the project. It includes project’s goals, 

measures of success, constraints, deliverables, and intended 

outcomes. It eases the hand-off from upper management's 

vision to the planning-and-execution team’s realities. It will 

likely be challenged, negotiated, and modified as various 

stakeholder groups interact with it. Before moving forward, 

reach consensus on the S.O.W. content with all significant 

stakeholders. 

Before moving forward, reach consensus on the S.O.W. 

content with all significant stakeholders. 

Project Initiation Document - This is a one-page aggregation 

of all initiation-phase decisions for smaller projects. 

Ease of use and brevity is weighted heavily in its design. It can 

readily serve as a preliminary document when you’re considering 

how much process structure and control is suited for a 

given project. This document is of my authorship and is not 

recognized in the PMI PMBOK®. 

Scope Statement - The scope statement takes on a project-specific 

format. Its purpose is to describe in great detail 

everything that the project includes and, conversely, everything 

that the project does not include. It helps manage stakeholder 

expectations and provides the planning team with a 

starting point for identifying the work activities, materials,


resources, and others items necessary for achieving the project’s 

outcomes. 

Baseline Plan - This term is used to describe what might 

need to be many documents. They could include the project’s 

schedule, resource requirements, budget, finalized scope, 

communications plan, and others. In the context of the process 

model, the baseline plan is the agreed-upon approach and 

formally signed-off notice to proceed to the execution phase 

of work. The baseline plan is used in conjunction with measured 

progress actuals, to track progress, evaluate results, and 

judge the effects of corrective actions. Strategically, the baseline 

plan should be a safe, simple model that supports all project 

constraints and objectives and is deemed highly likely to 

succeed by the planning and execution team. 

Scope Change Request - This control document identifies 

requested changes and helps manage alterations to the 

scope of the project. It describes the change, its purpose, any 

important background information, the proposed approach, 

and the impact on progress, cost, time, and resources. The 

document can serve as a formal notice to proceed or to revise 

or kill the proposed change. Signature lines should be included 

to signify authorization and agreement. From the project 

manager’s point of view, it provides the information and sets 

the stage so that they can advocate properly for or against the 

requested change. 

This listing of process documents is representative of a 

typical small-to-medium-sized project, with average risks and 

complexities. It provides the basic structure necessary to manage 

and control the project management process. It also can 

serve as a starting point to scale or refine the process for the 

specific needs of a project, organization, or industry.


The project management process improves stakeholder 

collaboration, project management effectiveness, and your 

odds of success. To reap maximum benefit, the process must 

exist beyond the files, documents, and checklists in the project 

leader’s office. For best results, the process must live in the 

thoughts and actions of the entire project team, from the top 

executive to the most remote team member. Ideally, the project 

management approach becomes part of the organization’s 

culture—the culture of accomplishment. 

Document & Checklist Downloads 

The following documents may be downloaded as MS 

WORD documents at http://www.thementorgroup.com/freearticles-checklists-forms.html. 

Concept checklist - Use to screen proposed projects for 

merit, fit, feasibility, and priority within the organization’s 

project portfolio. 

Project Charter - Use to formalize go-ahead, authorize initiation, 

and set responsibilities and levels of authority within 

the project team. 

Statement of Work - Use to describe the project and its 

intended outcomes. 

Project Initiation Document - Use this simple one-page 

checklist for smaller projects. 

Scope Change Request - Use to control alterations to the 

project’s scope during the execution phase.



● Project success or failure is determined in the beginning, 

not at project completion and closeout. 

● You cannot effectively lead a project team without a 

project process and supporting control documentation. 

● Scale and refine the process documentation to meet 

the needs of your project, organization, and industry. 

An effective process model improves decisions, helps manage 

expectations, and improves collaboration among the project’s 

stakeholders. 

Video 

Superhero’s Success System Projects Don’t Fail at the End … 

instructional video: 

YouTube: https://youtu.be/ZixnYOi4NVU 


CHAPTER FIVE 

Mastermind Your 

Action List 

P 

erhaps the most daunting challenge planners must resolve 

is how to identify every activity required to accomplish 

their project or initiative. Even in small initiatives 

there are dozens, if not hundreds, of essential tasks that must 

be identified, agreed upon, staffed with willing and able resources, 

paid for, and successfully completed in a timely fashion. 

Large or complex projects might hold thousands of line 

items awaiting our discovery and completion. Thinking of 

everything can be mind-boggling, especially if you’re doing a 

project for the first time or if you’re inexperienced in a particular 

area or subject matter. 

57


Be wary. Errors of omission are the planner’s archenemy; 

while it might be easy to deal with some missing items, others 

can create chaos tantamount to a supervillain’s revenge. Consider 

the following two planning scenarios. In the first, you’ve 

listed all of the required work, but one line item is incorrect— 

perhaps the conditions weren’t as expected, your understanding 

of the work was flawed, or your team's assumptions were 

off target. In other words, you knew work had to be done, but 

you planned the wrong activities. In the second version of the 

plan, this same element of work was completely overlooked. 

Which plan would you prefer? Of course you’d rather have an 

accurate plan, but given the choice between a flawed plan and 

a plan with a gaping hole, I’d rather deal with flaws than holes. 

When dealing with wrong work issues, at least there are some 

time and resources available. Assuming that the error is discovered 

in time, one might be able to reallocate the time and 

resources from the wrong work to the correct work. In the 

second scenario, errors of omission leave you with few options—you 

have neither the time nor the resources to recover 

from omission errors. As compared to errors of commission, 

errors of omission are far more damaging. When listing the 

required work, it’s better to make a bad guess than no guess. 

The superhero’s most dangerous foes are invisible. 

Simply Powerful Tools 

To create an action list for any given project, the process is 

simple. I didn’t say easy ... I said simple. In reality, we’re simply 

making a to-do list. Remember, planning is creating an understanding 

of who, does what, when, to engage your team’s authentic 

participation. The first step of the planning process is

MASTERMIND YOUR ACTION LIST • 59 

to identify all required work—the “what” that needs to be 

done. Most achievement-focused leaders naturally use this 

work-centric, action-oriented approach. We identify the work 

first, and then analyze the work’s required resources, costs, 

skills, durations, and workflow sequence—finally creating the 

baseline plan. 

Experienced project planners use one of two methods, or a 

combination thereof, to create their list of required work. 

Think of these approaches as tools of thought; and as with any 

tool, craftsmanship is important. These tools are simple—but 

simple isn’t always easy! 

The first and perhaps most natural approach is to imagine 

the project as a movie playing in your mind’s eye. Visualize the 

work in a step-by-step fashion, listing each activity as you 

move through the project from the beginning to the end, scene 

by scene 

Anyone who picks up your action list (if it’s done correctly) 

and reads it will be able to visualize the same movie playing in 

their mind’s eye. 

The second approach becomes increasingly useful as the 

complexity of the project grows. This process is known as decomposition, 

and in project-management terms, the output is 

known as a Work Breakdown Structure or WBS. 

The Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) subdivides the project into 

smaller, more manageable components. Use as many levels as 

needed to organize and describe all required activities, milestones, 

and constraining dates. 

In essence, the WBS is a visual hierarchy of goals, objectives, 

strategies, and tactics. Creating the hierarchy reveals 

how a project’s major outcomes are supported by key objectives 

or strategies and, in turn, what tactics or activities are


needed to implement them. Perhaps most importantly, within 

this simple tool lie the superpowers that effective leaders use 

to engage others, facilitate collaboration, build buy-in, and 

encourage positive interdependence. 

There are two key benefits of using the decomposition 

(WBS) approach. First of all, we are less likely to leave gaping 

holes in our plan. By thinking through the project from its 

goal to its major units of work and then breaking each major 

unit into smaller and smaller units of supporting work, we 

make little pieces out of big pieces—hence the thought process 

of “decomposition.” For example, start by breaking the project’s 

goal into its supporting objectives, phases of work, or major 

milestones of completion. Then break each of these into its 

supporting work packages, activities, or the smallest planning 

unit of all, tasks. (By definition, project planners think of work 

packages as collections of related activities, which in turn are 

collections of related tasks.) 

The second major benefit of using this decomposition 

thought process is that it enables subject-matter experts to 

focus on their specific areas of expertise, and to interact, collaborate, 

and coordinate with other subject-matter experts 

who are focusing on their own special areas. With a tip of the 

hat to Julius Caesar and Wolfgang von Goethe, I like to think 

of project decomposition as the everyday superhero's strategy 

for dividing and conquering the work while uniting and leading 

the team. I don’t know of a better way to get stakeholders 

working as a unified team than to get them together, focus on 

the goal, and begin the process of creating an action plan they 

can all live with. Interaction stimulates creativity, promotes 

collaboration, builds on our sense of unified purpose, and


helps everyone understand how they fit into the project as a 

whole. 

There’s a notable difference between rookie and expert leaders: 

rookies seek bigger and better tools; experts seek bigger and better 

skills. Some of the most important project tools, like the work 

breakdown structure, are conceptually very simple. Don't dismiss 

simple tools. In the hands of a consummate expert, simple tools are 

powerful tools. 

In the next section, I’ll walk you through the facilitation 

process I use to bring people together, focus on results, and 

create a unified understanding of the adventure they’re about 

to embark on. 

Finally, recall from Even Superheroes Need a Plan the 

three primary purposes of planning: to learn, to communicate, 

and to maneuver. Your success at each of these relies on how 

well you and your team understands the work. Mastering 

these simple tools of thought—scene-by-scene visualization 

and decomposition (WBS)—whether used alone or in combination, 

increases engagement and collaboration, improves 

everyone’s understanding, and serves as the foundation for all 

other planning, coordination, and control activities. 

Good Enough is Better than Best 

Your mother and your teachers told you, many, many 

times, “Always do your best work.” I’m here to tell you that 

following their advice isn’t always the best strategy. 

One of the reasons I’ve been successful leading projects, initiatives, 

startups, and turnarounds is that I’m lazy. Well, maybe 

that’s the wrong term. Perhaps economical is closer to the 

mark. My strategy is simple: do as little as possible as fast as


possible, and then quickly move on to the next opportunity or 

challenge. I realize that in many endeavors—art, science, medicine 

and the like—my strategic approach may not be appropriate. 

But in competitive business environments—or in any 

other organization with limited resources, a sense of urgency, 

and imperatives pending attention—ignore your mother’s advice. 

“Always do your best work” isn’t always the best strategy. 

The competition doesn’t care a whit about making your mom 

happy or seeing A’s on your report card. You are a highperformance 

achiever, and if you want to achieve more, you 

have to be economical with how you spend your limited energy, 

time, and resources. 

My advice is, “Get the project done and move on to the 

next as quickly as possible!” I want to see results—lots of results. 

I suggest that you focus on achieving imperatives and 

essentials quickly, rather than slowing to refine and polish. 

Spend your time on accomplishing a bucketful of got-tohaves, 

rather than on a handful of nice-to-haves. Don’t get me 

wrong. I’m not saying do shoddy work. Far from it! I’m saying 

don’t let yourself, or your team, get sucked into the “we-canmake-this-better” 

helix to ... I better stop in case Mom reads 

this. High-performance achievers prefer success over perfection. 

Said another way, your mother is wrong—mediocrity is your 

friend because perfection sucks the life out of progress. Don’t ignore, 

and don’t let your sidekicks ignore, the highperformance-achievement 

strategy: good enough is better than 

best. 

So how good is good enough? The answer is clarified when 

we replace “Is this our best work?” with "Is this fit for purpose?” If 

you want to be a high-performance achiever, make all your 

work fit for purpose, as rapidly as possible, and then move on.


You have neither time nor budget to spend on nonessentials, 

nice-to-have accoutrements, or ego-polishing shine. 

For high-performance achievers, good enough is better than best. 

How to Create Your Action List (WBS) 

Before you jump in and start listing all the work required 

in the upcoming grand adventure, take a moment and review 

the big picture. Whether you’re going about this project solo, 

as part of a core team, or as the leader of the whole shebang, 

take a moment to gather your wits, focus on the goal, and steel 

your resolve. Make sure that you and everyone on the team 

understand the project’s purpose, your working assumptions, 

expected operational conditions, and the flexibility or inflexibility 

of the triple constraints (see Preplanning Considerations in 

Even Superheroes Need a Plan). Thinking through the Project 

Initiation Document and the Preplanning Checklist will 

keep your team on track. (Download and freely use these MS 

Word documents at www.TheMentorGroup.com/freearticles-checklists-forms.html.) 

Keep your plan as simple as possible. It’s easy to allow niceto-haves 

to creep into your plan at this point—especially if 

your colleagues follow their moms’ advice! I always remind 

myself and my team that the action listing we want is lean and 

agile, not fluffy and lovable. Implementing tasks that lie outside 

the project’s essential scope is risky: the project becomes 

more difficult to manage, more resources must be found, the 

sequence of work becomes more complex, and risks—known 

and unknown—rise. I want my project to be as safe, simple, 

and speedy as possible. Nonessential activities siphon time,


money, and attention away from those tasks you absolutely 

must accomplish. 

Don’t ask for trouble. Most projects are challenging 

enough already! Remember: the key to successful planning is 

to identify all essential tasks while keeping your project as 

simple as possible. 

Mastering the Action List Step-by-Step 

Step 1: Assemble your core team. 

You’ll obviously want to include subject-matter experts— 

preferably those who will be doing the work. Planning is an 

iterative learning process, so surround yourself with trustworthy, 

competent, collaborative professionals and harvest their 

wisdom. 

If you want something done right, don’t do it yourself. Engage the 

subject-matter experts who will be doing the work. By facilitating 

participation, you create buy-in, which in turn boosts authentic 

participation, clarity of purpose, and enthusiastic action. 

Step 2: Review purpose, assumptions, conditions, and the 

triple constraints. 

There are always two (or more) ways of doing a project—I 

describe these optional approaches as “my way” and the "team 

way.” Ask any of us and we’ll naturally prefer our own approach: 

our experience, skills, and personalities carry significant 

weighting as we consider how to approach work. 

Effective project leaders remind participants that the best way 

to do this project may or may not be the participant’s preferred 

approach. The best way is the team’s chosen approach: 

the safest, simplest, fastest approach that achieves the purpose


and lives within the stated assumptions, conditions, and constraints. 

Think before you leap. Before beginning to identify your project’s 

required work, review the project’s purpose, its underlying constraints, 

your stakeholders, and the assumptions. The quality of 

your plan depends on your team’s clarity about these underlying 

elements. 

Step 3: Choose an approach. 

At this point, choose the most promising approach. You 

might be lucky and choose a near-optimal strategic approach— 

or you might be living in la-la land. We don’t know what we 

don't know, but choose and proceed (albeit, with cautious optimism). 

The planning process is an iterative learning process. 

If you have surrounded yourself with the right people, the 

next few steps will help you know if your choice is good, bad, 

or ugly; risky, rewarding, or insane; doable, deadly, or doesn’ttake-a-superhero-to-succeed-simple. 

Frankly, I prefer the 

simple, safe, likely-to-succeed genre. If your chosen approach 

looks dubious, go back and either choose another approach or 

adjust the project’s purpose and triple constraints until your 

intentions are likely to succeed. 

Projects don’t fail at the end. They fail right here ... at the very beginning. 

Step 4: List the major categories of work, phases, or objectives. 

Always start listing work from the top down; that is, from 

the large chunks of work to the smaller items. The process of 

creating a listing of work is known as “decomposition” for a 

reason: we break the goal into its major categories of work, 

phases of progress, or primary objectives first, and then break


each section into subcategories if needed. Using this “topdown” 

decomposition thought process helps keep the project’s 

work in perspective and prevents losing sight of the goal by 

dwelling, too soon, on too-fine details. It’s easy to become lost 

in a forest when there are no visible landmarks. For best results, 

make sure your entire core team participates and is in 

agreement on how these major categories of work, phases, 

and/or objectives fit together to make the whole. 

Step 5: List the work packages, activities, and/or tasks required. 

At this point, the team leader must rely heavily on each 

core team member’s judgment and contribution. I like to see 

task lists from my subject-matter experts that are detailed 

enough for all team members to understand but not so detailed 

that the listing becomes unwieldy, difficult to communicate, 

or impossible to track. When you are surrounded by 

people you trust, you need less detail. 

When dealing with projects, technology, or people that 

you don’t know (or perhaps don’t trust), dig a little deeper— 

add detail. Perfect listings are neither possible nor desirable. 

We seek understanding, not perfection. 

Choosing how much detail to place in your WBS is an important 

decision. Excessive detail bogs down communications and control. 

Inadequate detail misses important work elements, overlooks potential 

problems, or puts too much faith in the wrong people. 

Step 6: Identify key milestones and any notable constraining 

dates. 

As your team members think through the work and how it 

relates to the rest of the project, key points of achievement, 

coordination, or stage-gate decisions will likely be recognized.


Capture these “milestone events.” They will become crucial 

control and communication points as the project unfolds. 

Step 7: Organize, review, and validate against the stated 

purpose, assumptions, conditions, and triple constraints. 

Now that you’ve chosen the most promising approach to 

your project and carefully thought through the work, you’ve 

probably learned a great deal. Before proceeding, validate 

what you now know against your project's stated purpose, 

assumptions, conditions, and constraints. 

If the adventure ahead looks simple, safe, and likely to succeed, 

you’re ready to proceed. Rally your team, announce your 

intentions, and leap into action. Charge ahead with alacrity! 

If the outcome looks dubious, it’s time to do a reality check. 

Go back and reconsider the project and/or the approach. Rethink: 

should we move forward with what we now know; 

shall we loop back and adjust our purpose, conditions, or constraints; 

or should we kill this project before it has a chance to 

kill us. 

Trust your instincts. Leaders recognize that people are the 

organization’s most important resource. Knowingly casting 

yourself, or your team, into a likely-to-fail project is at best an 

act of desperation. At worst, it is closer to the behavior of a 

supervillain than that of a superhero. 

Worthy leaders champion their people. 

Step 8: Publish the Action List. 

The interaction required to create the Action Listing 

(WBS) has many benefits, not the least of which is improving 

the participants’ buy-in and commitment. To build on this 

effect, publish the task listing—make it as visible as possible. 

Think the opposite of “out of sight, out of mind;” think “al-


ways in sight, always in mind.” In some environments a simple 

listing on the wall of your meeting room or common area 

does nicely. If your team members are geographically separated, 

an electronically distributed document may work best. Do 

as much as you can to keep the work listing visible to all parties; 

this might include individual to-do lists, sticky notes on a 

flip chart, Microsoft SharePoint solutions, weekly web conferences, 

cloud-based collaborative systems—whatever it takes to 

keep the work top of mind. Effective leaders keep people focused—drawing 

people together around the Action List like 

early mankind huddled about a fire—interacting, collaborating, 

and engaging as if their well-being depended on mutual 

respect and accountability. 

Power-Up Your Action List 

Your project plan needs to be easily understood by everyone 

involved. To get off to a good start, here are some things 

you can do (an explanation for each follows a little later): 

● Use consistent naming conventions throughout your 

task list. 

● Use an indentation system to communicate hierarchy 

relationships. 

● List the tasks in their general sequence of workflow. 

● Use summary tasks and milestones to make the project’s 

work easier to understand, monitor, and manage. 

Review your WBS naming conventions for consistency 

and clarity. Not only does your WBS communicate the strategy 

and tactics of your project more clearly to everyone who 

uses your plan, clear names facilitate many planning chores, 

such as structuring workflow logic, estimating costs, and esti-


mating durations. Use these guidelines and examples when 

naming: 

Tasks—Tasks are the heart of your project. Describe tasks 

with clear and unambiguous wording in units that enable accurate 

cost estimates, accurate time estimates, and clear assignment 

of responsibilities. An action outcome format is 

effective. Examples: Excavate footings; Survey users; Issue 

purchase orders; Debug code. 

Milestones—Arrival at a milestone confirms that all tasks 

it depends on have been successfully completed. An outcome 

achieved format is a good way to communicate a milestone’s 

importance. Examples: Testing completed; Users trained; Approval 

received; System operational. 

Summary tasks—These items are subheadings within a 

task list. Tasks may be rolled up into the summary task, thereby 

greatly simplifying complex projects. Include a grouping 

term in these items. Examples: Mobilization phase; Needsassessment 

section; Training category; Production department. 

In summary, the Action List (WBS) is a visual tool used to 

discover, organize, and communicate every essential element 

of work. This hierarchy of goals, objectives, strategies, and 

tactics reveals to all stakeholders the work required and how 

your team proposes to deliver results. Perhaps most importantly, 

within this simple tool lies hidden superpower—the 

power effective leaders can use to engage others, facilitate collaboration, 

build buy-in, and encourage positive interdependence.


You’ve considered the big picture, chosen a strategic approach, 

and created an Action List. Next, I’ll help you analyze 

the project’s workflow, estimate tasks and durations, develop a 

comprehensive Critical Path Schedule, and if needed, develop 

an understanding of your project’s resource requirements. But 

for now, you’re off to a great start! With a focus on Clarity, 

Action, Purpose, and Enthusiasm, you’re well on the way to unleashing 

your team’s superpowers! 


● Planning is an iterative, learning process. 

● The work breakdown structure (WBS) is the best 

method for identifying all required tasks. 

● An understanding of the project’s purpose, assumptions, 

stakeholders, conditions, and constraints is a prerequisite 

to creating an effective Action Listing. 

● Engaging the subject-matter experts (SMEs) and 

core-team members who will be doing the work to create 

your WBS builds buy-in and commitment. 

● Use consistent naming conventions to improve communication 

throughout the stakeholder group. 

● Keep your project plan as simple as possible— 

eliminate nonessential tasks and deliverables to reduce resource 

requirements, reduce risk, and improve the likelihood 

of achieving the project’s key outcomes. 

● Publish the WBS to facilitate stakeholder interaction 

and engagement and to maintain top-of-mind awareness of 

the work at hand.


Checklist 

The following document may be downloaded as an MS 

WORD document at http://www.thementorgroup.com/freearticles-checklists-forms.html. 

Preplanning Checklist Use this form as a starting point to 

create an error-prevention checklist for your projects and operational 

environment.

CHAPTER SIX 

Who, Does What, When? 

E 

arlier I described the Action List as the primary outcome 

created using the Work Breakdown Structure 

(WBS) tool. In its simplest form, we've created the ubiquitous 

"to-do" list. I can't imagine anyone on the planet not being 

familiar with the concept, but that doesn’t detract from its value! 

You probably already summon this tool whenever you 

don't want to forget actions, activities, or work. "Better to 

have a short list than a long memory!" The to-do list is undoubtedly 

the world's single most important project, productivity, 

and keep-you-out-of-trouble with your boss, your 

honey, or yourself, tool. It comes in many sizes and shapes: on 

paper, whiteboards, sticky notes, refrigerator doors, smartphone 

apps, bathroom mirrors, computer programs, and the 

73


palm of your hand. I encourage you to describe your next project’s 

"to-do" list as an "action" list. 

For those familiar with project planning techniques, the 

traditional name for a project “to-do” is Task Analysis Chart, or 

Task Chart. But when you’re working with a core team or 

stakeholder group that hasn’t been formally trained in project 

planning techniques, drop the geek talk and get people focused 

on what counts. Help people reframe their thinking about the 

required work. I want my team to visualize work being accomplished 

rather than visualize work sitting idle on an easyto-ignore-maybe-somebody-else-will-do-it 

list. When you 

describe your Task Chart as an Action List, you help people visualize 

the required work with Clarity of Action and Purposeful 

Enthusiasm. 

Effective Action Lists are easily created with the tools already 

at your disposal—it’s the content and accessibility that 

matter most. A word processor, spreadsheet, sticky note, flip 

chart, whiteboard, or sheet of graph paper and a No. 2 pencil 

is all you need. You don’t have to invest in planning and 

scheduling software to create this communication and teambuilding 

super-tool. 

Whatever media you use, make sure the Action List remains visible 

and accessible to all team members all the time. Top-of-mind 

awareness is essential—effective leaders keep people focused on 

what counts. 

Wise leaders keep everyone on the project (willingly or 

unwilling) in the communications loop. The Action List is 

central to these efforts. Some leaders achieve this by conspicuously 

posting the Action List on a common wall, where everyone 

can check off their progress, sweat out deadlines, and 

celebrate the team’s accomplishments together. Some achieve

WHO, DOES WHAT, WHEN? • 75 

the same effect by emailing a weekly updated version and following 

up with a short conference call. Others might choose 

to deploy a real-time, cloud-based work-group and projecttracking 

system, coupled with frequent check-in calls. I prefer 

a caffeine-enabled, weekly stand-up meeting in the war room 

every Monday morning at 7:56 AM. 

Whatever communication methods you choose, leverage 

the power of your Action List. Make it the center of attention. 

When items are completed, check them off the list and republish—show 

people that progress is being made. Build a sense of 

urgency. Keep people focused on results. The Action List can 

help reinforce your team's commitment, shared purpose, and 

mutual ownership. Granted, this communication strategy may 

not fix the die-hard, passive-aggressive dork, but it can provide 

leaders a seed for change—that grain of sand every team 

needs to build their pearl of trust, engagement, and empowerment. 

Use the Action List to help your team coalesce, find 

their sense of shared purpose, hold themselves mutually accountable, 

and deliver super-hero results. 

If you’re new to project planning, it is probably tempting to skip 

this section, install MS Project or one of its competitors, sit back, 

and enjoy the benefits of automation. You can better decide whether 

you want to use a software product once you've considered 

whether you need a Critical Path schedule to load and level resources 

or to monitor, track, and report across a broad stakeholder 

group. As long as possible, stick with simple and avoid the temptation 

to automate! 

As with any persuasive document, form and format are 

important, so be careful with your spelling, neatness, and accuracy. 

I'd rather have a scribbled page with the right tasks 

than an official-looking document riddled with errors. The 

pride and care you take at this stage sets the communication


tone and the expectations for everyone involved. Avoid excessive 

detail, and right-size the list. 

Because the purpose of our Action List is to communicate 

who, does what, when, you'll need at least three columns on your 

Action List: the task, the resource doing the work, and date information. 

Hence the name Task Analysis Chart—each task 

can be analyzed in terms of required resources, durations, 

workflow, costs, and other elements. Columns are added to 

the basic Task Chart as needed. 

Task Analysis Charts begin as a simple to-do list. As a better understanding 

of the project is required, add columns to analyze and communicate workflow 

relationships, durations, costs, and control information such as actual 

starts/finishes, actual costs, percent complete, etc. 

Under the column marked “Task” we’ll list all required 

work activities, any grouping terms used in the WBS (such as 

phase of work, department, or major work category), and all 

milestones (anything used to track and communicate key 

points of accomplishment, decisions, or events). The second 

column header is traditionally entitled “Resources.” By definition, 

resources include people (name, skill set, department, or 

vendor), materials, equipment, and anything else needed to 

accomplish the task. In our simplified approach, what we need 

to know is, "Who is responsible to accomplish this task?" So 

for most smaller projects, I recommend using the “Resource” 

column to document who is responsible for accomplishing the


task—in which case it’s okay to title this column “Responsibility," 

thereby reinforcing each team member’s role. 

Whether the project plan is 10 tasks or 10,000 tasks, one of my 

success rules is to make sure each line item has one person responsible 

for it. This “single-point” responsibility strategy improves 

commitment and buy-in and improves project communications. 

Whether it takes one person, a team, a vendor, or an entire army 

to complete the task, I want to know exactly who to call at 3 AM. 

Start-Date Management 

The third data set required in a basic Action List describes 

when. Before I recommend what information to publish in the 

date column, ponder this: Which date is more important, the 

start date or the finish date? Most people view the “deadline,” 

e.g., the project’s due date, to be most important. If you share 

this opinion, let me ask another question: Which date do you 

have more control over, the start date or the finish date? 

To get better results more of the time, shift your team’s 

thinking away from “finish-date management” to "start-date 

management.” The real “deadline” on a task or project is not 

the project's (or task’s) due date. The last minute you can start 

and still get done in time is the most important date. I think of 

it as the “hidden deadline.” 

This approach isn’t so odd. Most people are already pretty 

capable of managing their start dates—if they’re identified. 

And that’s the project leader’s role: help everyone identify and 

honor both the finish date and the start date that constrains 

when we may, and when we must, start or finish any given 

task or project. Manage the start dates, and the finish dates 

will manage themselves.


Using proper project management vocabulary, these “hidden 

deadlines” are known as Start No Later Than (SNLT) and, as 

you might have already guessed, Finish No Later Than (FNLT) 

dates. Let’s put these into context with a personal example. 

Let’s say you’re booked on a flight for a long-awaited and welldeserved 

vacation. The flight departs (from your local airport) 

at 8:00 AM on a Tuesday. What’s the last minute you can 

leave your home and make it to your first-class seat? (I know 

what you’re thinking, but you need to take better care of yourself, 

at least once in a while.) 

As you think through this little project, you probably visualized 

the steps (tasks) required to accomplish your goal ... 

hopefully with little or no stress. You might have visualized 

when you wanted to be in the boarding area, allowing time for 

each task (security, baggage, parking, driving, breakfast, 

showering, waking up) until you’ve backed up all the way to 

identify what time to set on the alarm. Visualizing a project in 

this manner, from its FNLT backwards (known as backward 

pass planning), reveals the project’s SNLT deadline. Let me 

ask again: which date is more important ... the FNLT or the 

SNLT? Which date can you better manage? 

If you want to finish on time, manage Late Start dates carefully. These “hidden 

deadlines” are revealed using a backward pass—subtracting each task’s or 

project’s duration from its Finish No Later Than date.


FNLT dates are important, but the most important dates to 

manage in your project are the built-in hidden deadlines, the 

SNLTs for each task. To stay in control, manage your team’s 

start dates with Clarity and Enthusiasm. This concept is available 

as an instructional video clip at this link. In the next section 

I’ll show you how to identify every control date in your 

project using the Critical Path Method. Make your hidden deadlines 

visible and get in control! 


• Get work finished on time by identifying and managing 

the Late Starts, eg: the hidden deadlines, of every 

task. 

• Keep everyone focused on who, does what, when. 

• It’s not a plan until it’s published and the team authentically 

commits to it. 

• Single-point responsibility improves communication, 

buy-in, and teamwork. 

Video 

Who, Does What, When? Your Superpower: Hidden Deadlines 

instructional video:


YouTube: https://youtu.be/kgd9I8PW5xY 


CHAPTER SEVEN 

Lead Before You Leap 

T 

ake one project and ten teams and you have the potential 

for 10,000 project plans. There’s more than 

one way to accomplish anything! Depending on individual 

skills, preferences, experience, and personalities, favorite approaches 

vary widely—from good to bad, optimistic to pessimistic, 

possible to impossible, brilliant to, well ... not-sobrilliant. 

The effective leader rallies team support and engagement 

around an effective approach—not necessarily the 

“best" approach (there are no perfect plans) nor anyone’s “favorite” 

approach (my way is rarely the team way). Leaders 

who create the project’s action list (WBS) by engaging their 

core team are ahead of the game. Options and approaches 

have already been discussed, negotiated, and decided upon. If 

81


you’ve arrived at this chapter without a solid list of tasks and 

milestones, STOP! Now is no time to be jumping off the roof! 

Go back and build consensus around an approach and its required 

activities and actions. Remember, every outcome from 

this point forward is based on the quality of the WBS: bad list 

= bad plan = bad results. 

It’s easy to move forward with the wrong WBS—we can all 

be blindsided. Everyone can fall victim to the proverbial “unknown 

unknowns." And once you’ve made the leap into implementation, 

changing trajectories mid-air isn’t always an 

option. That takes superpowers you’ll find only in Marvel 

Comics. For now, I’m moving our planning discussion forward 

with the assumption that either you have a good task list 

(created by the people who will be doing the work) or you’ll 

build one before taking this next step: creating the schedule. 

I know you're ready to jump into this project and get 

things moving as quickly as possible, but before you leap, 

make sure all everyone team members on your team knows 

their roles and is are committed to their responsibilities. The 

work breakdown structure process has given you and the core 

team members a pretty good idea of who's going to be doing 

what, but at this point you need to get specific: exactly who, is 

going to do exactly what, exactly when. Getting specific about 

roles and responsibilities is the leader's job. Don’t ignore this 

simple but essential step: make sure all team members know 

their roles, responsibilities, and timeline of results. Facilitating 

Clarity of Action helps leaders reinforce Purpose and nurture 

their team members’’ Enthusiasm. 

In small-project environments and where team members 

frequently work together, a little additional planning and 

communication ado may be necessary to keep everyone in

LEAD BEFORE YOUR LEAP • 83 

sync. For larger projects with more people, greater complexity, 

or a fuzzy understanding of how activities are interrelated, 

a more sophisticated and robust approach is required. That’s 

the focus of this chapter. As a leader I’m sure you know, “For 

some people, you just have to draw them a picture.” 

Right-Size Your Plan 

If you’ve facilitated Clarity of Action, shared Purpose, and 

Enthusiasm, now is the time to take a breath, step back, and get 

out of your team’s way. It’s time for them to leap into action. 

An enthusiastic, well-informed team that knows who, does 

what, when, can self-synchronize their efforts and deliver results 

faster than a Starbucks crew can deliver a four-shot buzz. 

Grab your spill-proof commuter cup: these action heroes are 

taking flight! 

On the other hand, if your project is complex, the team is 

spread across three time zones, and nobody knows anybody ... 

well, let’s just say you’ll be the one needing those four-shot 

buzz builders. 

Scale your communication process to the project’s complexity, 

the size of your core and extended teams, and any other 

relevant factor such as: dedicated or shared resources; 

physical proximity of team members; team members’ experience 

working together, their levels of competency and expertise, 

and their performance history; and the organization’s 

cultural climate. 

At a minimum, you’ll want to make sure everyone on the 

team knows the deliverable date, their own share of the work, 

when it must be delivered, and their teammates’ work and due 

dates. In other words, everyone needs to understand the big


picture, how they fit into it, who they are relying on, and who 

is relying on them. 

In a comprehensive study of workgroups, Katzenbach and Smith 

described the high-performance team as a small number of people; 

with complementary skills; committed to a common purpose, goal, 

and approach; for which they hold themselves mutually accountable. 

Here’s the frightening fact you must battle in every project 

or initiative: the volume of communication effort required to 

monitor and control expands at a rate directly proportional to 

the number of people participating, and their physical geographical 

separation. I won’t drag you through the research— 

rather, think about how much time you spend on a typical 

project to stay informed and synchronized. I’ve seen studies 

ranging from 2 to 6 hours per person per project per week for 

email, meetings, phone conversations, and person-to-person 

chats. In addition, most everyone has several projects going at 

once. Plug in your numbers and do your own math. How 

much time do you spend communicating per project per 

week? How many projects do you typically have going at 

once? Multiply the two, subtract the result from the number 

of hours you spend at work each week (or your desired maximum), 

and yes ... you have my permission to engage in a pity 

party. Even superheroes occasionally need alone time. 

Now consider the number of people on your team and the 

communication pathways which must be navigated. In teams 

consisting of two individuals, there are two communication 

pathways: A to B and B to A. Teams of three have six pathways 

which must be served: A to B; A to C; B to A; B to C; C 

to A; C to B. The pathway calculation is (N 2 - N). If your core 

team consists of 5 people, 20 communication pathways exist


(5 2 - 5). Add one teammate and for 6 individuals you’ve 

bogged down communications with 30 pathways. Bump the 

team to 10 people and you’re dealing with 90 pathways—and 

“nobody knows nuttin’!” 

Every superhero has an archenemy. For project team leaders 

the nefarious, cunning, relentless supervillain you must 

battle every day is poor communication. Regardless of the size 

or complexity of your project, make sure everyone knows 

WHO, does WHAT, WHEN. 

The best approach to boosting productivity in a project environment 

is to 1) let people focus—minimize the number of projects per 

individual at any one time; 2) minimize team size—for productivity, 

use teams of 3 to 6; for creativity, use as many as possible, just 

short of losing control; and 3) co-locate your team—anything beyond 

face-to-face sharply reduces information flow (face-to-face 

beats phone, which beats email, which beats text, which beats silence). 

Power-Up Project Communications 

You may not possess the powers your favorite superhero 

brandishes on the big-screen, but you do have many superpower 

tools in your communication arsenal. I'm not talking 

about email, videoconferencing, or telepathic wizardry. I'm 

talking about communication tools that experienced project 

and initiative team leaders use to communicate, monitor, and 

control their project's implementation. 

Some of these tools are simple and some are complex. I 

prefer the fast, easy, and effective methodologies—how about 

you? Keep in mind that every tool has its limits and wise leaders 

match the tool to the job. There are projects and situations 

where a cloud-based, resource-leveled MS Project plan is the


only sensible approach for adequately communicating, tracking, 

monitoring, controlling, and reporting. There are also 

times when sticky notes on a whiteboard delivers better results. 

Use what works; always consider your stakeholders. 

What’s the message you’re trying to send? Effective project 

managers help their teams keep both the big picture (such as 

milestones) and the details (tasks) in focus at all times. Managers 

who can keep this broad perspective are rare—those who 

focus on goals, objectives, and results may ignore the detail. 

Those focused on the detail often lose sight of the goal. A 

good project plan bridges these styles, showing how tasks produce 

milestones; and achieving milestones produces successful 

projects. Good plans keep teams focused on milestones with 

just enough supporting detail to ensure that tasks are started 

and finished on time. This requires start and finish dates for 

all tasks, single-point ownership on each task, visually clear 

association of tasks to their milestones, and a clear connection 

between milestone achievement and the project’s success. 

When working with your core team, sticky notes on a 

whiteboard might be the best choice—fast, easy, and effective 

(see Creating the Network Diagram, below). Using the same 

methodology with your boss’s boss or with your newly acquired, 

uber-important client might leave them wondering 

what kind of whack job they’re relying on. Always choose 

your planning tools to fit the situation. As we proceed, please 

keep in mind that one size, style, or planning format does not 

fit all project, team, or stakeholder group’s diverse needs and 

expectations. Nonetheless, I advocate using the simplest tool 

possible and then boosting your effort and detail only when 

essential.


Are you ready to build a beautiful, awe-inspiring, professional 

project plan? Okay then, here we go ... oops ... one last 

caution: please remember that no matter how cool your 

schedule looks, pretty doesn’t fix a bad WBS. 


• Right-size your project plan by considering risk, 

complexity, and team size. 

• Smaller teams reduce communication burdens and 

improve productivity. 

• Good-enough plans are better than best-plans—too 

much detail hides what’s important. 

• Facilitating collaboration and interaction during 

planning is a powerful leadership opportunity. 

• Don’t move forward until your team understands 

their roles, responsibilities, and the timeline of results.

CHAPTER EIGHT 

Superpower Planning Tools 

W 

ant to engage your team’s attention, get things 

moving, and drive results? Then you need to 

know: who, does what, when. You need a schedule. I choose 

among a handful of favorite schedule formats, depending on 

the project, people, and situation at hand—always mindful that 

“good plans” are better than “best plans” (see Good Enough is 

Better Than Best in Mastermind Your Action List.) My favorites 

fall into two categories: tables and diagrams. For those 

new to these tools, it helps to know that the basic information 

in these planning documents doesn’t change—it's simply the 

layout and drafting conventions that change. On small projects, 

who, does what, when is easily communicated on a simple, 

tabular listing. As project complexity grows (in terms of work, 

89


workflow, resource availability, constraining dates, and other 

factors) time-phased workflow diagrams become ever more 

useful. Each of these planning and communication tools has 

pros and cons. Wise leaders choose their tools with purposeful 

intent: to maximize communication, improve engagement, 

and drive results. 

In small projects the team simply needs to know, “Who’s 

going to do what?” This intuitive divide-and-conquer approach 

is easy to visualize, understand, and engage with. But 

as soon as the dimension of time is added— “Who’s going to 

do what, when?” —complexity explodes. To answer this question, 

two additional data sets are required: task durations and 

workflow dependencies; e.g., “How long will each task take?” and 

“Is there a preferred or required order of work?” Most of us 

probably agree with the cliché, “A picture is worth a thousand 

words.” I’m convinced that this saying grossly understates a 

picture's power to analyze and communicate the array of 

mind-boggling, time-phased data found in even the simplest 

of projects. Whenever the leadership challenge includes requires 

helping others visualize, understand, and engage 

around a time-phased action list, draw them a picture. I recommend 

using a critical path scheduling method (C.P.M) diagram. 

In the next few pages I’ll show you how easy and powerful 

these diagrams can be. For now, always start with a tabular 

listing—the table. If you need to take the next step, it’ll be obvious. 

Always keep your planning tools scaled down as much 

as possible. Bigger is not always better. Keep it as simple as 

you can, and move on to an appropriate C.P.M. schedule diagram 

only as needed. Be ever mindful that your Purpose is to 

help others visualize with Clarity who, does what, when. 

Leadership points are not awarded in the “most-accurate-and-

SUPERPOWER PLANNING TOOLS • 91 

complex-plan-that-no-one-will-ever-read" category. Good plans 

are better than best plans. 

Commonly used tabular formats include the ubiquitous todo 

list and my superhero-themed preference, the Action List. 

These are both forms of what the project management body of 

knowledge refers to as Task Analysis Charts or simply Task 

Charts. They’re intuitive, easy to create, and effective. They’re 

particularly useful in smaller projects with straightforward 

workflow—for example, when you can simply work your way 

down a to-do list. Task Charts may also be the best choice for 

team members who aren’t conversant with more sophisticated 

planning tools such as those noted below. 

Commonly used diagram formats include the Gantt Chart 

(sometimes referred to as a timeline or bar chart) and several 

types of network diagrams that are most commonly drawn as 

Activity on Node (A.O.N.) charts. This popular format models 

each task (activity, work package, or milestone event) as a 

node and uses connecting arrows to display the workflow. 

There are countless variations of these charts, and to the 

newcomer they can look intimidating. I encourage you to 

press on and master these time-phased-data communication 

tools. The critical-path method is easier to learn and apply than 

you might guess. And whether you create a full-blown resource-leveled 

critical-path network on cloud-based software 

or a simple critical-path network on a white board with sticky 

notes, you'll unleash your team’s superpowers to understand, 

engage, and achieve.


Power-Up with Critical (Path) Thinking 

I’m glad you’re considering powering-up your projects 

with the Critical Path Method. Once you see how intuitive (and 

beneficial) it is, you’re going to wonder why some folks shy 

away from it. Creating a C.P.M. schedule isn’t rocket science— 

think of project scheduling as third-grade math and secondgrade 

coloring. The calculations required are rudimentary; 

problem is, there’s a ton of them to deal with! Simply stated, 

four interrelated data sets (tasks, durations, workflow, and 

resources) are described within a set of commonly agreedupon 

communication conventions. The process is straightforward: 

1. List the work 

2. Estimate task durations 

3. Identify workflow relationships 

4. Draw a C.P.M. chart 

5. Assign resources 

6. Publish your baseline plan for all to behold! 

The schedule, complete with SNLT and FNLT dates for 

each task, magically reveals itself. We use “standardized” conventions 

so that the information will be easy to compile, read, 

share, and use. It’s all about better communications. Using a 

common vocabulary, recognizable drafting conventions, and 

methodologies consistent with peer-reviewed best practices is 

essential if you want to set team expectations, enable coordination, 

and deliver timely results. You see, this really isn’t 

rocket science, but it can be—many uber-awesome adventures 

have been launched using the critical-path scheduling method. 

Consider the Mars Rover Curiosity. Who isn't awestruck by 

the selfie-snapping, rolling laboratory the size of an Audi A4,


cruising about the Martian boondocks, laser-zapping rocks 

from ten paces, instantly analyzing the plasma cloud with a 

Chemcam spectrometer, beaming the results 350 million miles 

to a dude’s iPad (albeit 14 minutes later) as he sips iced coffee 

at a downtown-Pasadena Starbucks? 

The following example demonstrates how easy it is to 

power-up your projects with the critical-path method, even if 

your adventure doesn’t include iced-coffee rockets, rocks, or 

laser beams. 

Let’s assume that your key client (or perhaps a senior 

member of your organization) drops an unexpected project 

into your already-too-crowded workload. You know from the 

instant the project arrives that the stakeholders are in a hurry 

and that what likely brought you this opportunity (aka perilous 

adventure) was your reputation for leading fast and consistently 

successful projects. (Superheroes rarely lack 

opportunities.) 

While it’s always nice to be noticed, how would you respond? 

Would you be pleased and honored, eager to make the 

leap and add another win to your record? Or would you step 

back, knowing that one more project could push you and your 

team over the edge? Perhaps the project looks interesting, 

your team has the required skills, and you like the idea of continued 

employment. On the other hand, you’re busy, your 

team is busy, and if you take on this project you certainly can’t 

afford to fail! (Small or large project, failure is always a bad 

option.) It probably takes only a moment to realize that greater 

clarity will help you make the right decision—right for you, 

your team, and your client. You need to understand the work 

required and the workloads your team would have to support. 

Before you can commit, you need a plan! So like an experi-


enced superhero, you take a deep breath, steel your determination, 

grab your cape ... and call a team meeting. 

Fortunately, your sidekicks understand that investing in a 

plan is important, especially when it seems like there isn’t 

enough time to plan! Carving 30 minutes out of everyone’s 

busy schedule, you organize a stand-up meeting for the next 

morning. Coffees in hand, the team gathers in the conference 

room, scanning the single-page initiation document you’ve 

created for their review. You want everyone “on the same 

page”—assuring their understanding of the project’s goal and 

their ability to discuss the driving constraints and confidently 

settle on a promising approach. Gathered about a flip chart, 

your team doesn’t take long to build an Action List. (We’ll 

keep the example project simple with five tasks: A, B, C, D, 

and E). 

A few minutes into the planning session, the impatient client 

pops in. 

“Hello guys!” 

Allison politely interrupts the gathering and gets right to 

her point. “I see you’re working on my project. So, how long 

do you think it will take? My people are in a tizzy to get this 

one done!" 

Ever mindful that the best way to influence an “outsider” is 

to make them an “insider," our hero Juan welcomes Allison 

into the conversation and brings her up to date. 

“I’ve assembled our core team and we’re in the process of 

determining what this project is going to take. So far, we’ve 

listed the work, estimated durations, and analyzed the workflow. 

Would you like to see where we’re at?” 

Stepping up to the flip chart, he presents the team’s Task 

Analysis Chart.


Organize your Task Chart with tasks you expect to begin early near the top 

and those which will begin later towards the bottom. 

“Oh, oh! Are you saying this project is going to take 8 

weeks to complete? If I add up all those durations, that’s what 

it looks like to me. I already made promises to my people. Are 

we in trouble?" 

“At this stage of planning ...,” Juan begins his explanation 

in a soothing tone, “the required work shows that it might 

take up to 8 weeks, if all the tasks run sequentially; that is, if 

we execute one task at a time. But there might be tasks that 

can run concurrently, or as we say in the biz, in parallel. To determine 

the shortest possible duration for the project, we’ll 

need to take the next step in planning and analyze the tasks’ 

workflow dependencies. Let’s take a closer look.” 

Knowing that everyone on his team is conversant with the 

planning process, Juan gestures to a teammate and asks, 

“Would you walk us through the next steps, please?” Sophie 

picks up a blue marker as if it were a pointer. "Actually,” she 

begins, “what we need to do now is figure out which tasks can


be done right away and which ones must wait for something 

else to be completed. If you want to get fancy, you can call it 

analyzing the workflow dependencies. She added a column to 

the Task Analysis Chart and titled it “Pred.” for Predecessors. 

Pointing the marker at the first task on the list, she engaged 

the group. “What are we thinking? Are there any tasks 

that must finish before we can start this task?” (Though she 

chose to begin the discussion on task A, she could have just as 

easily started on any task—top, bottom, or middle; it all works 

out the same.) Everyone agreed that Task A had no workflow 

predecessors—it could begin as soon as the project go-ahead 

was received. She placed a dash in the Predecessor column to 

indicate that there were no dependencies, and moved to the 

next task on the list. A short discussion revealed that B could 

not start until after A had finished (the most commonly used 

dependency, known in project management as a “Finish to 

Start” or simply an “FS” relationship) and noted this on their 

chart, by writing the letter “B.” They worked their way, in like 

manner, through the tasks and noted all workflowpredecessor 

requirements. Task A had no predecessors; Task 

B can begin after A finishes; C can begin after the finish of B; 

D follows A’s completion; and E could begin as soon as the 

project was started, just like Task A.


To create a schedule, you need a good understanding of the tasks, their estimated 

durations, and their workflow predecessors. At this stage, assume 

enough resources—keep your plan as simple as possible for as long as possible. 

“Awesome! Looks like you can have my project done in 3 

weeks!” Allison exclaimed. 

“Hold on,” Juan cautioned. “This project requires a minimum 

of 4 weeks to complete.” 

“Four weeks?” You could hear the disappointment in her 

voice. “I don’t see why it will take so long!” 

“Time-phased schedule data is difficult to picture without a 

good diagram,” Juan concedes. “But we can show you in a 

much clearer way what the task analysis chart has revealed." 

Power-Up with a Gantt Chart 

Tearing off the flip chart, Juan turned to a nearby white 

board and placed the large sheet on the left side of the open 

area. “Do you have enough space to create the timeline, Sophie?”


Sophie nodded and continued on cue. “What we’re about 

to create is a timeline chart. This is also known as a Gantt Chart 

in honor of Henry Gantt, the guy who made it popular about a 

hundred years ago. It’s a time-honored way,” pausing for her 

pun to sink in, “…of understanding tasks, workflow, durations, 

and resource requirements. You know the old saying ... 

‘a picture is worth a thousand words!’” 

“Let me show you the thought process,” she continued. 

“Beginning with the first task, we ask, ‘How soon can we start 

this task?’ Since there are no predecessors, task A can start 

right away, so we mark its earliest possible start date with an 

ES,” as she notated on the timeline, “at time zero. That would 

be like a Monday morning at 8:00 AM, for example. Then you 

check in the duration column and see that the time estimated 

to complete the task is one week. Now we can add the estimated 

duration to the earliest possible start time, the ES, and 

calculate the earliest possible finish date, the EF.” She notated 

the chart as she proceeded. 

“We continue in like manner down the list, identifying 

each task’s ES, adding the duration, and notating our chart 

with the resultant EF. Pretty easy, eh? We call this process of 

adding the duration to the task’s ES to determine the EF a forward 

pass. I love the Gantt Chart because it makes time-phased 

data relationships much easier to understand.” 

Sophie stepped back and with a flourish worthy of a gameshow 

host announced, “Ta-dah!”


A Gantt chart helps you graphically demonstrate why the project takes as 

long as it does, what effect delays will have on the schedule, and how each 

task fits into the workflow. 

Juan picked up the narration. “Most of our clients are in a 

hurry—that’s just the nature of business,” he stated. “That’s 

why I like using this method, that is, the Critical Path Method. It 

helps us model the fastest way of doing the project and it helps 

us do a better job of showing our clients what we’re thinking—and 

perhaps more importantly, what they’’re asking!” 

Pointing at the chart, he continued, placing his finger at 

the far right end of Task D. “Knowing that time is always of 

the essence, we can identify the earliest possible finish date of 

the last task to be completed.” 

“That’s the last task on the longest series of tasks.” He illustrated 

by tapping on the lines indicating Task A and Task D. 

“This longest workflow path is known as the critical path, 

and not because these tasks are more important—everything 

in the project is important. Indeed, all tasks are essential or we 

wouldn’t waste the time or money doing them. We call this 

path the critical path because this is the longest path.” He 

marked the finish of Task D with a diamond to denote its importance.


“This point is the theoretical earliest date the project can be 

finished, the end of week 4. No extra time is allowed for problems, 

slowdowns, or resource shortages. Any slowdowns on 

this critical path—on Task A or Task D, that is—would delay 

the project’s completion.” 

Adding durations to early starts yields the early finish date—a process 

known as a “forward pass.” The longest path determines the shortest possible 

project duration. 

“However,” chimed in Rayna, an experienced team member, 

“the Gantt Chart also reveals where we have flexibility 

within the schedule. That's why I like it! If I’m needed on two 

tasks at the same time, I can just look and see whether either 

of them is on the critical path. And if the task isn’t on the critical 

path, then it has some schedule flexibility ... we call it slack. 

To say it another way, slack is the flexibility between when a 

task must start or must finish and when it may start or may finish. 

I like to identify any flexibility in the schedule—you never 

know when you might need to move work around or to deal 

with some unexpected problem! 

“For example, Task E may start as early as time-frame zero, 

but absolutely no later than time-frame 2, to not delay the 

project’s fastest possible finish on week 4. Task E, therefore,


has 2 weeks of flexibility—of slack. I’ll notate our chart with all 

these LS and LE dates, because for me,” Rayna concluded, “I 

want to know what my options are.” 

LS dates are determined with a backward pass, subtracting the duration 

from the late-finish date of each task. The schedule flexibility between a 

task’s ES and LS (or EF and LF) is slack. 

“And when you know all four dates—the ES, LS, EF, and 

LF on every task—everyone knows how to get their work 

done without delaying anyone else! I love it! It really helps us 

all optimize our own workloads.” 

“You might also notice,” Sophie added, “that whenever the 

ES and the LS fall on the same day, it’s on the critical path, and 

therefore there are no options as to when it could start …… at 

least not if we want to get done on time! And on our team, 

there’s no excuse for not knowing!” Everyone nodded agreement. 

“Okay. I get it,” Allison replied. “Can I get a copy of that to 

show my people? I think it’ll help me justify why I need their 

decision right away!” 

In one blurred motion reminiscent of The Flash fighting 

crime in Central City, Sophie whipped out her iPhone,


snapped a photo, and with thumbs hovering over the image, 

asked, “Allison, what’s your e-mail address?” 

Resource Availability Versus Time 

Generally speaking, the faster a project must be accomplished, 

the more resources are required. Conversely, the fewer 

resources available for a project, the longer the project 

takes. It is therefore important to assess the intended duration 

of the project in conjunction with resource availability. Once 

again, the best way to do this is with a preliminary plan. 

When time and resources are both in short supply, carefully 

assess the resources required for each task. An easy way to 

visualize the resources required on any given day or week can 

be created with the Gantt Chart. Simply add rows beneath the 

Task Chart to list required resources. Depending on the level 

of detail needed, you may choose to list resources by name, 

skill set, or by department. To illustrate the thought process, 

recall our example project.


The number and timing of resources required to complete your project on 

schedule may be determined by adding total resources required per task per 

period. The example above assumes that all resources have all necessary 

skills. On smaller projects, identify resources by name. On larger projects 

categorize resources by job title, skill set, or FTEs (full-time equivalents). 

If we assume that each task (A, B, C, D, E) requires one 

person to do the planned work, we can easily calculate the 

people required during any given week. For example: in the 

first week, we need two resources—one on Task A and one on 

Task E. That is to say, to keep the scheduled tasks (A and E) 

starting and finishing as early as possible, two resources must 

be available during the first week. During the second week, 

Tasks B, D, and E each require a resource, for a weekly staffing 

count of three. Week 3 (tasks C and D) requires two people, 

and week 4 (task D) only one to complete the remaining 

work and finish the project on its scheduled Early Finish. 

Generally, if resources aren’t available when required, the 

work is delayed. In some cases—where the delays don’t fall on 

the critical path—these delays don’t impact the project’s scheduled 

completion. For example, if only two resources are available 

for this project, the astute leader can utilize the schedule’s 

slack (for more information see Chapter Superpower Planning 

Tools) and still finish the project on time. This resource 

shortage can be accommodated one of two ways: by moving 

Tasks B and C out one week, thereby reducing the overallocation 

on week 2 and using the underallocation on week 4; or by 

splitting the work on Task E, completing the first half during 

week 1 and the second half during week 4. 

Slack is the superhero’s best friend—but only if it remains a secret 

friend. When noticed by errant team members, slack mysteriously 

disappears, as do your options.


In like manner, with only one resource available to staff 

this project, it takes a minimum of eight weeks to complete. 

On the other hand, many tasks have an optimal resource loading, 

so having more than the required resources doesn’t necessarily 

shorten the schedule. For example: on a construction 

task, the optimal resource loading might consist of one welder, 

one helper, and one welding machine; doubling the number 

of welding machines does not speed things up. A surgical 

procedure requiring two surgeons, an anesthesiologist, three 

nurses, two technicians, and one patient takes two hours even 

if you double the number of nurses and anesthesiologists. You 

can’t shorten your commute by owning more bus passes or 

automobiles—well, maybe you can if one of your new cars is 

the Batmobile. Every project has an optimal resource loading 

factor. 

If resources are off by only 10% or 20%, small adjustments 

in the schedule may compensate for the shortages. On the 

other hand, if the required resources fall short by 100% or 

200%, serious problems are likely to occur. Proceeding without 

a substantial increase in resources or time, or a reduction 

in project scope, would be foolish. 

Power-Up with Network Diagrams 

Many seasoned project team members swear by (and 

sometimes at) the network diagram. This informative chart 

uses the same task-analysis data, but rather than represent 

each task with a bar or line, we use a node. The network diagram 

has no time scale like the Gantt chart, but workflow relationships 

are easier to visualize. Each node is connected to 

its workflow predecessors and successors, creating a network


effect. This chart is great when you need to spot potential bottle-necks, 

such as: work bursts (single tasks branching into 

several successor paths); work merges (several paths coming 

together), and milestone control points (interdepartment coordination 

points, client approval, funding release date, vendor 

deliveries, etc.). Most people find the network diagram 

preferable to Gantt charts whenever complex workflow relationships 

must be modeled, analyzed, communicated, and controlled. 

I like Gantt charts for showing timelines and slack, 

and for analyzing when I need people or resources. I like network 

diagrams whenever it’s important to show the big picture 

and how each task fits into the workflow. The following 

network diagram was created using software to analyze workflow 

risks and resource-usage issues. 

For a strategic understanding of your project’s workflow, create a Network 

Diagram. This biotechnology project has three major threats to its timely 

completion: a long critical path (many opportunities where a single task 

could delay the entire project); a work burst (creating possible coordination, 

control, and workload issues); and a huge workflow merge (causing an extreme 

risk of a bottleneck stoppage).


Knowing that you can fly is one thing; sticking the landing 

is quite another. So, grab a stack of sticky notes and a sharp 

felt-tip pen. Before I send you off on a solo mission, I want to 

show you how fast and easy creating the network diagram— 

without software—can be! Ready? 

Sticky-Note Network Diagram 

Step 1: Using the data directly from your WBS or the Task 

Analysis Chart, write each task name on a single sticky-note. 

(See the illustration below). At this stage of planning, you may 

or may not have completed the Task Analysis Chart with task, 

duration, responsibility, and predecessor data. If not, don't 

worry. With this fast and effective scheduling method, you 

can go straight from brainstorming the Action List to network 

diagramming. Any missed tasks or milestones become apparent 

as you move sticky-notes around into their logical workflow 

sequences. Planning is a learning experience! 

The network diagram can also be created with scheduling 

software, with flowcharting software, or by using preprinted 

cards taped to the wall with yarn showing workflow; but 

frankly, I use sticky notes to plan more than any other method. 

You may not need all of the information I’ve listed on the 

example below, but the layout works well.


List one Task per note card, and then add predecessors and arrange the 

cards into a network diagram. Add durations, identify the critical path, calculate 

schedule dates, and assign responsibilities. Now, go forth and save the 

planet! 

Step 2: We’ve got worlds to save and villains to thwart, so 

let’s get to it! Clear off a section of your desk ... (okay, so that's 

not such a good idea)... find an empty flat surface where you 

can attach your sticky notes—a flip chart, a whiteboard, or 

perhaps a window. (It’s nice if you can use an erasable maker.) 

I often hang a flip chart on the back of my door. If your Bat 

Cave is the size of a cube, get a flip-chart stand. 

At the left of the open area, place a starting node to serve 

as an anchor for all workflow paths. We can come back to this 

node later and fill in the planned or actual project-calendar 

start date (aka the go-ahead milestone); the project’s baseline 

start date; the contract date; and sometimes, the wish-wecould-have-started-sooner-than-this 

date). Affix each sticky 

note to the chart in order of workflow. It’s a good idea to keep


each path on an even, horizontal axis. You’ll probably find 

yourself moving notes around as workflow relationships become 

clear—and that’s one of the great things about this approach. 

Planning is a learning process. 

When you’re satisfied with the workflow, draw arrows between 

the nodes to indicate all workflow pathways. Add one 

last node, the Finish node, on the far right of the diagram to 

indicate our completion milestone. Extend each workflow 

pathway from its previous last task with a final arrow terminating 

on the Finish node. There should be no dangling pathways 

when you’re done. 

Step 3: If you haven’t already done so, place each task’s duration 

estimate on the sticky note. Now you’re ready to identify 

the critical path. You’ll recall that the critical path is the 

longest workflow path; it determines the shortest possible 

time in which the project (given adequate resources, of 

course) can be completed. When your duration estimates are 

complete, create a small table off to the side of your network 

diagram or on scratch paper. Title the first column "Full


Paths” and the second “Path Duration,” as shown in the completed 

table below. 

Starting at the left edge of your network, trace along each 

full path (a path which begins at the Start node and can be 

traced to the Finish node). When a path splits and merges, 

each succinct pathway must be listed—it's as if Google Maps 

were providing alternative routings to the destination; but in 

our case, all of these route combinations must be identified, 

listed, and eventually completed. As you trace, list each Task, 

separating it with a comma, in the “Full Paths” column. Once 

the full paths are identified, go back and add the durations 

along each path. Place the result for each in the “Path Duration” 

column. 

When analyzing project workflow data, use task name abbreviations 

to ease the process. Most planners (and software scheduling 

products) add a Task ID column in the Task Analysis Chart to 

identify each line item with a unique number. 

Now scan the Path Duration column and find the longest 

duration. Go back to your network diagram and bold out the 

critical path for all to see. KA-BAM! You’ve just identified the 

project’s Critical Path and the fastest way to deliver results!


Step 4: Now we can calculate the Start and Finish Dates 

(both Early and Late) for each task and for the whole project. 

You can do this with a plan-from-start or a plan-from-finish 

perspective—depending on the question at hand. 

For example, you might be in the situation where the project 

has to be completed on or before a certain date. This is a 

typical Finish No Later Than (FNLT) date constraint. By entering 

the FNLT as the LF of the final task on your critical 

path, you can anchor the project’s finish to your planning calendar, 

and proceed with a backward pass (recall the formula 

LS = LF - Duration). Working right to left, fill in each task’s 

LF, subtract its duration, and identify its LS. In this manner 

we work our way along each path, right to left, arriving finally 

at the first task, and noting its Late Start date. This is the last 

moment at which we could start the project and still deliver 

before its FNLT deadline. (If the Late Start date has already


passed, you’ve got some rethinking, renegotiating, or retreating 

to do!) 

On the other hand, let’s assume you want to answer the 

question, “When can we be finish if we start on _______?” In 

this case, use the proposed start date as your Start No Earlier 

Than (SNET) planning constraint and do a forward pass 

through the workflow. Beginning with the first task, note the 

ES with the project’s SNET, add the duration, and fill in the 

task's EF date. Use this first task’s EF as its successor task’s ES, 

add the duration, and so forth, until you’ve identified every 

task’s ES and EF. The EF of the last task on the critical path 

constitutes the project’s EF. Like I said earlier, schedules are 

easy to create—it's just a lot of third-grade coloring and 

(thankfully) second-grade math! 

Step 5: Settle on your baseline dates. Make sure your team 

understands their roles and responsibilities. Now, get out 

there and save the planet! 


• The Critical Path Method combines tasks, durations, 

workflow, and resource availability into a powerful 

communication and analysis tool. 

• Total project duration is determined by the longest 

workflow path—the Critical Path. 

• The task’s (or project’s) Early Finish is calculated by 

adding the estimated Duration to the Early Start date, 

aka.: the Forward Pass.


• The task’s (or project’s) Late Start is calculated by subtracting 

the estimated Duration from the Late Finish, 

aka.: the Backward Pass. 

• Identifying Late Start dates increases control, improves 

flexibility, and decreases risk. 

• Slack (Float) is flexibility within the schedule between 

a task’s Early and Late, Start or Finish. 

• When Slack is zero, the task is on the Critical Path. 

• Delays on the Critical Path extend the project’s total 

duration. 

• The Gantt Chart graphically portrays time-phased data—tasks, 

durations, workflow, and resources—and 

helps leaders communicate responsibilities and schedule 

flexibility (Slack). 

• The Network Diagram (Activity on Node) graphically 

portrays workflow and helps leaders communicate 

roles, responsibilities, and does not readily reveal 

Slack. 

• Whenever possible, build flexibility (Slack) into your 

schedule, and carefully control its use. (Slack is your 

friend, as long as it’s your secret friend.) 

Videos 

Superpower Planning Tools Rapid Planning: Gantt Charts 

video:


YouTube: https://youtu.be/2_PkkROw97s 

or www.Trust-Your-Cape.com 

Superpower Planning Tools Rapid Planning: Sticky-Note 

Chart video: 

YouTube: https://youtu.be/zSHKvEq7f6Q 


CHAPTER NINE 

Battling Problems, Villains, 

and Killer Comets 

E 

very once in a while, you’ll see a project that runs so 

smoothly that you’d think it could run itself. But don't 

worry; there’s always plenty of work for superheroes. Adventure 

happens! In fact, superheroes must remain ever-vigilant. 

The physics of projects doesn’t change—as in the first law of 

thermodynamics, energy can neither be created nor destroyed 

… it can only be transformed. And there’s plenty of energy 

(potential and kinetic) in every project: with high expectations, 

limited resources, and overly optimistic time lines, adventure 

happens! Never mind that many projects are one-ofa-kind, 

ambiguous undertakings; or that people make mis- 

115


takes; or that there’s no such thing as a perfect plan. If you 

think about past projects, you’ll likely agree: every adventure 

includes an ordeal, crux, or dramatic moment. Dealing with 

problems is inevitable. The only questions are: when and how 

severe? Problems are an integral part of every adventure—large 

or small. 

In some projects, you’ll spend most of your time dealing 

with problems. It can make even a superhero consider changing 

vocations. I have a colleague who jokingly describes projects 

like these as vampire projects. “You wish you could kill 

‘em but you can’t. And as long as they’re alive,” Matt grumbles, 

“they’ll suck the life out of everyone on the team!” 

Silver bullet, anyone? 

Fortunately, good planning and an experienced team can 

help you avoid most serious problems. (And keep you working 

safely in the daylight or in the dark.) 

Identifying Potential Problems 

Don’t be afraid to go ugly early. 

All too often, when emerging problems are spotted, silence 

abides. Rather than sounding the alarm, startling their workmates, 

and interrupting group bliss, most people choose to 

hide and watch; to wait and hope. 

“Maybe I’m wrong,” they think. “Maybe it will go away,” 

they wish. 

“Maybe we’ll fail!” I say. 

Rather than risking a racket—or worse yet, ridicule—over a 

brewing undoing, many team members hold back. I prefer 

dealing with issues quickly—knowing that I’ll react to an occasional 

false alarm—to battling a full-blown brouhaha. How

BATTLING PROBLEMS, VILLAINS, & KILLER COMETS • 117 

about you? The earlier you spot a problem, the more—and the 

better—your options for doing something about it. Not only 

does early detection reduce adverse effects, it inevitably provides 

more time to develop and deploy options. I advise my 

sidekicks, “When you see a potential problem, there are only 

two choices: remain silent—hide and watch, wait and hope— 

or sound the alarm. If you have to sound the alarm, no matter 

how ugly that may be, you might as well go ugly early, while 

there’s still a chance it will do some good.” 

The best time to deal with problems is now—go ugly early. 

Fatal, Substantial, or Nuisance? 

The difference between a good project leader and a great 

project leader is that great ones know what they can afford to 

ignore, and they have the courage to ignore it. Ignoring problems 

undeserving of your attention is wise; ignoring others 

can be disastrous. To make the most of your scarce time and 

resources, it's helpful to categorize and rank potential issues. 

Just as General Dwight D. Eisenhower taught his team in 

1942, and as Dr. Stephen Covey taught readers in 1994, superheroes 

can ill afford to confuse urgency with importance. 

I recommend putting potential problems into three categories: 

those potentially fatal to project success; those that substantially 

impact success; and those that are superficial 

nuisances. Bear in mind that the timelines for preventing, 

avoiding, reducing, or mitigating these problems' impacts will 

vary—focus first on each problem’s importance (impact) and 

then on its urgency (timeline).


The Vigilant Superhero 

Many problems can be foreseen long before the project 

even begins. And that’s the best time to deal with them— 

before they cause serious trouble! It's then that you have the 

most and the best options for solving or avoiding the problem. 

In this early phase of the project, watch for the killer problems—those 

that could prevent the project from achieving its 

intended purpose, and those that could violate any driving 

constraints—budget, time, relationships, laws, and ethics— 

promises, and expectations. Many of the major risks your project 

faces are not unknowns. When trying to identify what 

could go wrong in a project, your team’s collective experience is 

indispensable. Don't ignore any team member’s intuition— 

don’t ignore this everyday superpower. 

When you first start planning—thinking through implementation 

options, creating the work breakdown structure, 

establishing the initial schedule—be alert for potential problems. 

Rather than think like the naturally optimistic superhero 

that you are, think like the tricky-mean supervillain that you 

must defeat. Look in the dark corners. Open creaky doors. 

Stay hyperalert and at least slightly paranoid. It’s nigh impossible 

to avoid, or even detect, all the problems, but that’s okay. 

We're looking for the big ones—the comet collision whoppers 

that could turn your project, your reputation, and your team 

into space dust. To uncover problems bearing catastrophic 

potential, ask the following questions: 

• Of all that could go wrong, what do you fear 

most? Trust your experience and intuition. No 

one is better positioned than you to assess threats 

to your project’s success. Guard against everything


your hunches tell you is a potentially large problem. 

• How do the triple constraints stack up? Are all 

of them highly important? Are any of them flexible? 

Be especially alert for anything that might impact 

the driving constraint. If the drivers aren’t 

met, the project fails. Having even one flexible 

constraint reduces project risk. If they want it 

good and fast, be sure you have plenty of budget. If 

they want it fast and cheap, make sure you’re not 

trying to deliver premium quality. If they want 

good and cheap, make sure you have plenty of 

time. And if they want it good, fast, and cheap, 

well, it’s physics—superheroes don’t do magic. 

• Are stakeholders being overly optimistic? Of 

all the mistakes project teams make, overoptimism 

is the most common and the most deadly. Too 

many leaders base their assumptions on how they 

want their project’s operational environment to 

be, rather than on how it is. In the early stages of 

planning, please restrain your optimism. 

When it Gets Exciting 

At the first sign of trouble, don’t panic. In fact, don’t do anything—yet. 

Superheroes look before they leap. Before taking 

action, make sure the problem merits your attention, time, or 

resources. Remember, you’re seeking success, not perfection. 

To stay on track, save your limited resources for the serious 

problems. Sometimes you have to ignore the little problems to 

be able to deal with the big ones!


To decide which problems to ignore and which to attack, 

ask the following three questions: 

1. Will it impact the critical path? Problems that threaten 

the start or finish of any task on the critical path threaten 

the project’s scheduled completion date. Time is usually very 

important, and if it happens to be the driver of your project, 

delays seriously threaten the project's success. When a problem 

is “on the path,” it needs your immediate and full attention; 

move quickly and forcefully to resolve it. 

Getting Critical about Paths—Tasks with no time flexibility are 

called critical tasks. The critical path is determined by finding all 

full paths (those continuous sequences of tasks that stretch from the 

beginning of the project to the end) and adding up the durations 

for all tasks on the path. The longest path determines the shortest 

time in which the project can be completed. A task “on the path” 

cannot be delayed without delaying completion of the project. Reserve 

your use of the word critical to describe those tasks that lie 

on the critical path. For more information on critical paths, see 

Superpower Planning Tools. 

2. Will it impact the driver? The driving constraint must 

be protected at all costs. If the driving constraint is not 

achieved, the project is a failure. Don’t do anything your mom 

wouldn't approve of; but otherwise, do whatever you have to 

do! Your project, your team, and your reputation are at stake. 

When the driver is at risk, take decisive action immediately. 

The Driving Constraint—Every project can be described in terms 

of time, resources, and outcomes—the triple constraints. The driving 

constraint for a project is the least flexible of the three. For the 

project to be a success, the driving constraint must be met. Always 

protect the driver. When hard decisions must be made, protect the 

project’s driving constraint at the expense of a more flexible constraint. 

For additional information on this important concept, see 

Superhero's Success System.


3. Who will be affected? When problems arise, people 

can get hurt. As the project manager, one of your responsibilities 

is to make sure that no one on your project gets hurt. 

Never blindside a teammate, never hurt the project’s customer, 

and never surprise your boss (negatively, of course). As 

soon as you realize that the potential for harm is present, advise 

all who may be affected. There is another reason besides 

“It’s the right thing to do.” When you’ve found and informed 

all the stakeholders who could be negatively affected, you’ve 

just populated and motivated a problem-solution team! Atrisk 

individuals are most likely to help you solve the problem. 

You’ve Got a Problem. Now What? 

When battling big problems, don’t go it alone. You’ve got 

sidekicks! You have a team, and now is the time to rely on 

them. Now is not the time to be selfless, heroic, or shy. Solicit 

help from everyone who is likely to be affected by the problem. 

Anyone in harm’s way—official team member or not— 

will likely be motivated to help solve the problem! 

Trust your cape. Now is not the time to be tentative. Act 

with clarity, purpose, and enthusiasm to engage your team. 

Begin by briefing your sidekicks on the importance of the 

problem. State—frankly and honestly—the nature of the risk. 

Don’t underplay or overplay the significance of the situation. 

Next, define the apparent problem. Take nothing for 

granted. Don’t assume that you completely understand the 

problem. You want to have a good definition of the problem, 

because with the definition lie the solution strategies you’re 

seeking. State the apparent problem from your stakeholders’ 

points of view as well as your own.


Creative Thinking When Your Job Depends on It 

The ability to be creative is a function of how willing one 

is to take a risk. It follows that, when you have a climate of 

risk aversion, creativity is stifled. Creative project teams 

emerge from a nurturing, rather than criticizing, climate. 

Make sure that your team knows it’s okay to have a crazy idea. 

That way, when you need creativity to solve a problem, you’re 

halfway home! 

Breaking the Right Rules—Some of the most creative people I 

know are playful, incorrigible rule breakers. They probably spent 

most of their school days in the principal’s office explaining why 

their idea was better than the teacher’s. When you’re faced with a 

tough problem (and they’re all tough until you find a solution) ask 

your team: “What rules can we break?” Now is not the time to be 

compliant! Hopefully that unruly student has grown up and is 

now on your team. So long as you protect the driving constraint 

and achieve the project’s ultimate goal, break any rule you must. 

It’s best if you don’t bend or break any of the triple constraints, but 

when that’s your only option, break the weak constraint first; the 

project can still be a success. What rules can you break? All of 

them, as long as your mother approves. 

The best way to get a good idea is to get a lot of ideas. 

There is always more than one solution to a problem. Our job 

is to find the best one for now. The goal when seeking solutions 

is to generate as many ideas as possible, so effective leaders 

often rely on an everyday superpower: brainstorming. 

Finding solutions can be difficult, so the tendency is to stop 

at the first idea that comes along. Don’t do that, because you 

need options! In fact, don’t even consider the first idea. Make 

a note of it and continue the search. Tell your team to turn 

their creativity throttle up and their evaluation throttle down. 

Create as many new ideas as possible. When some are truly


ridiculous, that’s good. You know the team members are comfortable 

enough with one another to be playful, take a risk, 

and be genuinely creative. 

Even with creative people who work well together, you’ll 

usually find a long gap between the first idea and the second. 

And usually there is an equally long gap between the second 

and third. However, somewhere along the line, the flow of 

ideas picks up noticeably. When that happens, it's a good sign 

that the team is focused on the task at hand, not on their last 

phone call or yesterday’s meatloaf. Collect all the ideas you can 

and then begin the evaluation process. 

Try It Before You Buy It—If your proposed solutions involve 

changes to schedule, resource, or scope, revise your critical-path 

schedule. Explore possible unwanted ripple effects before implementing 

the changes. 

The team should also evaluate the ideas. What may seem 

like an impassable roadblock to one person may be easily 

solved by another. After you’ve considered the options and 

examined their effects on your schedule, seek consensus from 

the group. Although not everyone may agree that, from their 

point of view, any given solution is the best choice, all can 

agree to support the idea. 

Gaining Consensus—Consistently use the same phrase to gain consensus 

in collaborative work groups. This helps everyone understand 

that you’re trying to gain group support for a decision. Use 

these words: “Is there anyone who cannot support this solution 

(idea, approach, method…)?” When you use these words, even 

those who never speak up in a meeting must either actively voice 

their disapproval or agree to support the decision. 

Now it’s time to implement the solution. This may be done 

by the team as a whole, or (more likely) by one or two indi-


viduals. And when the solution is being implemented by a few 

for the good of the whole, it is important to remember that 

they are part of the team. Should things not work out as 

planned, don’t allow them to take the heat for the team. By the 

same token, when the implementation is successful, don’t allow 

them to soak up all the praise. (If your organization is like 

most, you probably won’t have to worry about that one; there 

will be scant praise to soak up!) On teams made up of everyday 

superheroes, the members hold themselves equally and mutually 

accountable in all situations. 

Using the Language of a Team—It’s not my idea or your idea, it’s 

our idea or the idea. Leave all the personal, singular, possessive 

pronouns out of your language and out of your thinking. To remind 

yourself to use good team language and thinking, before 

you enter team meetings, leave all your personal possessions in the 

hallway—your personal possessive pronouns, that is. You’ll see an 

immediate effect in your team’s attitude and behavior. 

And while you’re leaving things in the hallway, leave all your buts 

out there too. Replace them with ands. Which is better, “Yes I 

heard what you said, and…” or, “Yes I heard what you said, but…”? 

But negates everything that comes before it. When you replace but 

with and, you raise trust and respect because the other person's 

point of view is accepted rather than rejected out of hand. These 

simple changes (implemented with genuine trust and respect) can 

dramatically improve your leadership effectiveness. 

Follow up on solution implementations carefully! You’ve 

determined that the problem is an important one to solve, so 

make sure that the intended solution is rapidly deployed and 

that it achieves the desired results.


Bright Ideas for Dark Times 

Your best insurance against success-threatening problems 

is flexibility. Knowing how to adapt, how to move fast, and 

how to bend without breaking are essential skills if you want 

to build a reputation as a superhero. 

Paradoxically, flexibility comes from tight control—an accurate 

schedule and close monitoring of actuals versus planned 

durations, costs, start and finish times, and milestone 

achievements. You can know where to slow down or (using 

available slack) let tasks slip—thereby releasing resources for 

other work—only when you have an accurate plan. When you 

need flexibility, tight control is your most important superpower. 

Slack Is Your Friend!—The biggest hidden resource in every project 

is slack—the amount of time a task can slip without affecting 

project completion. Knowing where slack is hiding is knowing 

where there’s flexibility. 

Most problems we deal with have to do with failure to 

meet the project’s time, cost, or performance requirements— 

when one, two, or all three are in jeopardy. It's difficult to save 

a troubled project if all three constraints are threatened. 

When you’re behind schedule, over budget, and the deliverable 

isn’t deliverable … you’ll likely wish your superpowers included 

invisibility! 

Beware of Changing Constraints—Before leaping into a solution, 

verify that the triple constraints are still prioritized as they were 

at the beginning of the project. Changes in the marketplace, management, 

technology, or other such external forces can change 

your project's triple constraints and your ability to adapt.


Projects facing trouble on multiple fronts suffer from many 

issues—the genesis of which probably leads back to the project’s 

definition. Goals were overly optimistic. Assumptions 

were incorrect. Stakeholders were never truly committed. Resources 

weren’t forthcoming. Information was lacking. Thus 

is your vampire project born! 

When you find yourself in a situation like this, the superhero’s 

first objective is to save the people. All too often the 

team takes the heat for management’s overly optimistic (or 

overly simplistic) view of the world. Your second job is to save 

as much of the project as possible, knowing that you likely 

missed any real opportunities for success long ago. Focus all 

energies on salvaging the driving constraint and the people. 

Fortunately, you now have a Superhero Success System to 

guide you through the danger-wrought early stages of project 

leadership. So from here on out, the problems will be fewer 

and less pervasive. But if you find yourself battling persistent 

problems, vengeful villains, or killer comets, review the following 

strategies, engage your team, and always trust your 

cape! 

Parallel more tasks or paths—When you’re finishing too 

late, consider paralleling more tasks. Of course, you must first 

shorten the critical path to use this strategy. One way to do 

this is to examine all tasks on the critical path to see whether 

any of them could be split off onto a parallel path. You may 

also be able to use one of the following suggestions on a critical 

task to split off several other tasks for the new path. 

Add resources—Managers often resort to piling on more 

resources. But unless the resources are taken from tasks that 

don’t need them, and unless the resources are assigned to you 

for the duration of the project, this option can get expensive


quickly. In some cases, you may be able to spend the same 

amount of money in a shorter time, and that’s great; but all 

too often, you reach a point of diminishing returns—overtime, 

double-time, or just-too-tired-to-think time—and costs go up. 

Make-or-buy considerations—In some situations, you may 

be able to buy or hire out work segments you originally 

planned on doing with your own resources. Sometimes you 

can save both time and money by doing this. Other times you 

may have to spend more money to same time or more time to 

save money. Don't decide to reject this option until you’ve 

researched the situation. Send out a request for proposals and 

see what rises to the opportunity! You may find someone who 

can do the task better, faster, and cheaper than your own work 

force can. 

Use incentives and disincentives—These can be a powerful 

way to motivate vendors and subcontractors to prioritize 

the use of their resources in your project’s favor. When all else 

is equal, limited resources will be loaded onto those tasks (or 

projects) where there is the largest penalty for late completion 

or the greatest reward for early completion. Be sure all rewards 

or disincentives are agreed to before the project begins. 

Substitute alternatives—Reminder: Adam Smith is on 

your team. And besides working against us from time to time 

with the notion of unlimited needs and limited resources, he 

also keeps the spirit of competition alive and well. Chances 

are, you can find a second source for almost everything you 

need on your project. Shop around. Make Adam proud. 

Go for substantial completion—If the project’s main goal 

can be achieved without finishing all tasks, focus on those 

tasks that produce a usable, if incomplete, project. Finish the 

nonessentials later.


Narrow the scope—Once in a while you can or must narrow 

the scope of a project. Perhaps needed resources aren’t 

available, the weather is unusually unruly, or you just couldn’t 

foresee how difficult the project would turn out to be. In the 

face of major changes in project assumptions, it’s wise to return 

to the definition stage and narrow your project’s scope. 

Salvage as much progress (not work, but progress) as possible, 

and set a new, more realistic goal. 

Renegotiate—When worse comes to worst, beg for mercy. 

Call in favors, beg forgiveness, or just plain grovel. If you 

have something you can negotiate with—a throw-in for reconsideration 

of the agreement—now’s the time. It’s not always 

pleasant, but, as a last resort, renegotiating beats failing. 

Expedite—If the project is running over schedule and the 

budget is not the driver, consider expediting the project. This 

is also called crashing the schedule. (Owners and originators 

get a little nervous when project managers use the word crash, 

so save yourself some trouble: refer to crashing as expediting.) 

This is a formal technique in which you consider how, and at 

what cost, to shorten the duration of each task. The resulting 

information can be considered together with the workflow 

sequence diagram (your network diagram or Gantt chart), and 

you can see how much it would cost to shorten a task, path, or 

series of parallel paths. 

Murphy reminds us that things always look darkest just before 

they turn totally black. But that’s okay. With your new 

problem-analysis and problem-solution tools, you’ll never 

need to fear the dark, or to fear vampire projects, again.



• If you have to go ugly, go ugly early, while there’s 

still a chance it will do some good. 

• Not all problems merit attention. Ignore nuisance 

problems and conserve your attention, energy, and 

resources for more substantial problems and, 

above all, for potentially fatal problems. 

• Understanding your project’s triple constraints enables 

you to prioritize problems and better deploy 

limited resources. 

• Constraints can change during the project, so reassess 

priorities before implementing solutions. 

• When evaluating solutions, keep the project’s goal 

foremost in mind. 

• Control produces flexibility. Accurate plans and 

tight monitoring provide the impetus, alternatives, 

and flexibility required to solve problems. 

• Critical-path schedules facilitate the early identification 

of potential problems. 

• Use critical-path schedules to test solution options 

and effects. 

• To avoid, mitigate, or reduce problems, take 

whatever action is required and break whatever 

rules you must—as long as your mother would approve.

CHAPTER TEN 

Stick the Landing 

A 

re we there yet? Anyone who has ever managed a 

substantial project (or a road trip with children) is 

familiar with this mantra. Some projects seem like a journey 

that lasts forever. The anticipated destination is always just 

around the corner, within sight but out of reach. Eventually, 

even the longest journey comes to an end. Sometimes projects 

end with elation and celebration. Other times projects roll 

over and sink below the surface with little more than an oil 

slick and a few survivors bobbing about in life-jackets marking 

the spot of the demise. 

Hopefully you took my advice when planning your project. 

If you did, chances are good that your project has steadily 

picked up speed on its journey to completion. Rather than 

131


sinking into memories of misery, project completion has arrived 

as expected—on time and in good order—and with a full 

contingent of healthy and happy teammates on board. 

In any case, the project leader has several closing responsibilities 

to the project and the stakeholders of the project. No 

matter whether the project falls short of, meets, or exceeds 

expectations, it’s best to bring professional closure to the endeavor. 

When all else is lost on an unsuccessful project, do everything you 

can to save the people. Many organizations like to oversimplify 

difficult situations and fix blame on an individual or group. More 

likely, the project failed because of many issues, and no one person 

or team was responsible for its demise. If there are lessons to 

be learned, your team members are the individuals who are most 

aware of them and who will be most able to help the organization 

improve its performance. Save the people—their experience is the 

organization’s most important asset. 

Head-First Approach 

Your first goal (and responsibility) in project closure is to 

make sure that the project is accepted as complete. The project 

must meet its specified goals and objectives. 

Oddly enough, the most important step you’ll ever take 

toward the completion of the project is in the initial stages of 

the project—in the definition stage. That’s when you set the 

rules that your project’s success will be judged by. That’s when 

you set the expectations that must be met for the project to 

reach a successful conclusion. It is here that the specific, measurable 

project outcomes are documented and agreed upon by 

all stakeholders. Trying to negotiate a completion agreement 

at the end of a project is at best frustrating and at worst suicidal.

STICK THE LANDING • 133 

Many organizations have a formal procedure for documenting 

project acceptance. If you do not have a formal procedure 

or if the project documentation does not specify a 

procedure, use the following checklist as a guide: 

Project Acceptance Checklist 

Notice to Complete Project – At the 80–90% completion 

point, send a notice that you are about to complete the project. 

This alerts the project’s end users to be ready for the deliverables. 

It alerts the project’s originator that since this stage is 

about to conclude, the originator can prepare for completion. 

It also puts the team on notice that the final push is on; team 

members can prepare for the transition to other duties. 

Substantial Completion Review – Hopefully, communication 

between the stake holders has continued throughout 

the project. In any case, the focus of one formal communication 

should be to review the project’s progress against the 

plan. List all work that has been successfully completed to 

date, and list all the remaining work items. As a baseline for 

this review, use the original definition of the project and any 

agreements made during the project. 

Remaining Work Identified – Identify, and describe in 

detail, any remaining work and, if possible, gain stakeholder 

signatures at this point. In this way, work that does not appear 

on the list will not be expected at some indeterminate point in 

the future. Frequently called a punch list, the identification of 

remaining work can help to successfully bring even troubled 

projects to a satisfying close for all parties. 

Final Completion Plan – The final push to completion 

can be facilitated with a good completion plan. Closely manage 

this important, time-sensitive stage of the project. Don’t


let down your guard yet—if you ignore this step, you open the 

door to the many things that can still derail your project’s success. 

Team members may lose focus, owners may be overly 

anxious to accept the deliverables, and many people’s lives will 

change as they move on in their professional endeavors and 

personal relationships. Stay alert and stay in close contact with 

all stakeholders. Make sure you have the personal commitment 

to the final completion plan from each responsible party. 

Formal Notice of Completion – After the final items have 

been delivered and the project has been completed according 

to the documentation, send a written notice of project completion 

to the stakeholders. Contractual responsibilities, ownership, 

and authority may dramatically change at this point. 

Check with your legal and financial team to make sure that 

your i’s are dotted and your t’s are crossed. 

Formal Acceptance – This may come as a legal document, 

a letter of acceptance, or a thank-you note. If a legal document 

is required by the project’s documentation or by your organization’s 

policies, don’t ignore this final task. The job isn’t done 

until the paperwork is signed, sealed, and delivered. And as 

always, the project leader is ultimately the person who accepts 

the responsibility. 

Final Reports 

If required, a project’s final reports will probably be outlined 

in the project’s documentation. These may include quality-assurance 

audits, specification-compliance test results, 

engineering documentation, training manuals, or as-built 

drawings. It’s not unusual for project documentation to include 

union, state, or federal labor-compliance reports as well.


Some project leaders create a wrap-up report for senior 

management. This is a perfect opportunity to communicate to 

your principals the project’s accomplishments, challenges, and 

lessons learned. It is also a good time to formally thank key 

contributors, team players, and others who made your job a 

little easier or more successful. 

Writing the Final Report 

The wrap-up report may be as brief as an interoffice memo 

or as lengthy as a total project review. Regardless of the size, 

write the report with a professional, objective tone. Keep your 

report as brief as possible. The longer the report, the less likely 

it will be read! Focus on the reader’s point of view, and make 

sure the report is appropriate for everyone who will have access 

to it—senior management’s report is probably not appropriate 

for the project team or the customer. It’s the project 

leader’s responsibility to handle all sensitive information carefully. 

Report Content 

At a minimum, include the following five sections in every 

final report. This format sets the stage for objective, positive, 

and professional renderings of your projects. Each section’s 

length and exact content can be altered depending on your 

audience. 

Executive Summary—A short, written overview of the 

project’s goals and achievements, a summary of the project’s 

implementation process, and an overview of how well the 

project met the performance, time, and cost constraints. If 

you’ve used a Task Analysis Chart to track progress, adding a


variance column to compare the project’s baseline to actual 

durations and costs provides a powerful summary snapshot. 

Achievements—A complete listing and analysis of the project’s 

goals and objectives. Refer to the project initiation document, 

statement of scope, and any amendments made to 

these during the project. For larger projects, add the required 

test, audit, or inspection documents. 

Implementation Analysis—A detailed analysis of how 

well the project met performance, time, and cost objectives, 

and of how well the project used resources, met financial objectives, 

and attained quality objectives. 

Recommendations—Report any new issues or tasks that 

need future consideration. Recommend changes to methodology, 

staffing, administrative procedures, technology, resources, 

and any other issues that can make the organization 

more productive or cost effective. 

Special Acknowledgments—You didn’t do it alone, so 

give credit to those who made the project a reality. (Go, 

Rocky!) 

Prepare for the Future 

Every project is a learning experience; to make the most of 

it, create a project archive. Borrowing a few words from the 

poet, you never know when you may pass this way again! 

Create a Project Archive 

Some of the most important bits of information to collect 

before they’re thrown out by the cleaning crew are all time 

cards and records of time spent on tasks. As you have seen, an 

accurate duration estimate is the key to creating an accurate


schedule. And an accurate schedule is the project manager’s 

best (and sometimes only) friend! It exposes the project’s hidden 

resources, slack time, and flexibility. It provides the primary 

baseline for successful monitoring and control of the 

project. It allows you to gain meaningful commitments by and 

for stakeholders. And the single best source of accurate duration 

estimating is from your own history file. 

So, even if you have to dig through the trash to get them, 

save all the time records for every project you work on. You 

don’t have to compile or evaluate the data right now. Just save 

it. If a similar project is in your future, you’ll be glad you 

turned into a time-card collector! 

If you’re likely to do a similar project in the future, create a 

project template. The work breakdown structure, workflow 

logic, duration estimates, and resources can all, with minor 

edits, be ready to go. 

Capture Historic Information 

It’s also a good idea to maintain a complete set of project 

communication documents. On rare occasions, I’ve been asked 

to explain what happened or who did what, several years after 

a project has been completed. It’s amazing how much you can 

recall with a few dated meeting notes, memos, or archived 

email messages to jog your memory. 

Depending on the size of the project, you may want to use 

a clear plastic file folder, a three-ring binder, or perhaps cardboard 

file boxes. Whatever you do, keep the project records in 

one place and label the container with the contents and a 

shred date. In addition to a copy of your project journal, gather 

the original concept checklist, project charter, statement of 

work, project initiation document, scope statement, baseline


plan, and all scope change requests. Include any pictures of the 

project or the project meeting notes. You can also sort your 

email archives by name or content to find project related 

emails. And finally, if you keep a phone log, you’ll want a copy 

of that in the archives as well. 

Okay, call me a pack rat, but I would rather have it and not 

need it than need it and not have it! Case in point: four years 

after completion of a project, my firm successfully defended 

itself with a note that had been scrawled on a used paper napkin 

(ick!) and saved in the project archives. A short note really 

is better than a long memory! 

Capture Lessons Learned 

The difference between good project leaders and excellent 

project leaders is often surprisingly small. Take some time at 

the end of each project to survey your team. Ask them what 

went well, what they learned, and what they would do differently 

next time. Ask them how you could help them be more 

successful on the next project. Small lessons can turn into big 

wins on the next adventure. 

Reassign Personnel 

Some projects grind to a halt as they approach completion. 

Most of the time this is the direct result of poor definitions or 

lack of stakeholder buy-in during the crucial, early stage of the 

project. Other times the resistance to completion comes from 

within the team. For many reasons, some teams just don’t 

want to finish up and move on. If you find yourself (or your 

team) trapped in a self-imposed never-ending project, be


ready to provide some nurturing leadership. (Superheroes 

have empathy.) 

Personnel problems come disguised in excuses and ambiguity, 

so they can be hard to identify. When nearing the completion 

of a project, be on the alert for these people problems. 

Woe Is Me—The End Is Near! 

You can expect two kinds of personnel problems when 

nearing the end of a project. In one case, team members are 

abandoning the project like it’s an oil-carrying super-tanker 

ablaze. Their focus lies on self-preservation, rather than navigation. 

You can expect a few of these my-ship-is-sinking types 

on every project. It’s easy to understand their point of view. 

Perhaps they’ve worked long and hard, and now, as they realize 

the end is near, they’re panic stricken! 

“What next? How am I going to make my mortgage?” 

Whether they’re justifiable fears is another question. In any 

case, it becomes a major challenge to keep these folks on task 

and achieving at acceptable rates. 

The best course of action with these nervous types is one 

of reassuring leadership. Stay with them emotionally—address 

their fears. Let them know they’ve done a good job, they’ve 

been noticed, and that you’ll hate to see them go. A little honest 

respect goes a long way in reassuring these folks that 

things will work out for them. Your confidence in their abilities 

is a powerful stabilizing force. Keep them focused and informed. 

Help them understand the situation, the wrap-up 

process, and the timeline involved. These folks need to be in 

control of their own destinies, so the more forthcoming you 

are with the facts, the better off you’ll all be.


When the project is over, refrain from complaining about any 

team member’s behavior. Little can be improved after the fact, and 

no one responds to whining. What has been done is done, so drop 

the past and focus on the future. What’s important now is to spend 

your energy celebrating those who contributed to the project. Make 

sure they understand that you recognize and appreciate them. 

On the other extreme are the people who don’t want the 

project to end, no matter what! They like it here (or perhaps 

anything is better than the unknown future). From these types 

of team members, stretching the job out or downright sabotaging 

it can be a real threat to your project’s success. Be on 

the alert for work slowdowns. Don’t wait for the first sign of 

trouble. Just expect it and take action. You see, the folks who 

are afraid to move on need exactly the same reassurance and 

leadership as the group that’s prematurely abandoning ship. 

They have the same fears; they’re just acting them out in a 

different way. 

Both of these troublesome sets of team members will respond 

to your genuine caring and honest support. Their fears 

are real and they are, of course, entitled to them. Now is the 

time to dial up your skills of nurturing leadership. Let your 

team know that you genuinely care about them, the work 

they’ve done, and their futures. Most of your team will respond 

positively as professionals. 

Moreover, if you can help them find a new project, write a 

sparkling letter of recommendation, or put in a good word to 

a colleague, all the better. Your team took care of you; now it’s 

time to take care of the team.


Follow Your Mother’s Advice 

It seems like moms are getting a lot of good press in this 

book! You have to admit, they’ve usually got some pretty good 

advice. 

Well, there is at least one additional piece of Mom’s advice 

that every project manager should remember: Remember to 

say thank you! These are probably the most powerful words in 

a leader’s vocabulary (and in some organizations, the least frequently 

heard). Not only do these simple words make people 

feel good, they also send a powerful message. Recipients know 

that you understand the contribution, risk, hard work, and, 

often, sacrifices they’ve made for the project. 

Some organizations maintain a budget for bonuses, incentives, 

and rewards. If yours does, use it! But take care. In some industries 

(such as defense contracting), there are strict rules; make sure that 

you know what is and is not permissible. There’s another problem 

with gifts and bonuses—if there’s one secret that’s impossible to 

keep in any organization, it’s who got the biggest bonus—and who 

got none! Team parties or victory celebrations often have a better 

team-building effect. And if you don’t have a budget for such festivities, 

get creative! Have a pot-luck lunch in the conference room 

or order in pizzas. Make certificates of appreciation on your computer. 

Twenty dollars and a visit to The Dollar Store buys plenty 

of gag gifts. Whatever you do, the important thing is to say something 

positive about every team member’s contribution. No matter 

how modest the embellishments may be, it’s the thank you and 

recognition that count the most. 

And as an added bonus, saying thank you even makes you 

feel good! Seriously; the next time a project rolls around and 

you want to staff it with high achievers, those who know that 

you appreciate their contribution will be on the list of volunteers. 

If there’s one thing I’ve learned leading project teams, it’s 

that personal recognition is the leader’s most important, eve-


ryday superpower. Put it to work; it’s effective. Moreover, I 

guarantee that your mother will approve! 


• The best way to close a project is determined in the 

initial planning stages, where you carefully define, in 

measurable terms, the project’s goals and objectives. 

• Ideally, project progress accelerates from planning to 

execution to completion. When projects falter during 

closing, it is symptomatic of inadequacies during initiation 

and planning. 

• Your success depends on how well the stakeholders’ 

expectations are met. It is difficult, if not impossible, 

to change stakeholder expectations late in the project. 

• Personnel issues frequently arise during the project’s 

late stages. Some team members lose focus in anticipation 

of their eminent departure; others tend to 

hang on beyond their usefulness. Everyday superheroes 

ease job transitions with nurturing leadership.

CHAPTER ELEVEN 

Assume the Pose 

“R 

onnie,” he shouted, “TRUST YOUR CAPE!” 

Two boys marooned on top of a garden shed…not the scenario 

in which we expect the universe to reveal its secrets. In 

truth, epiphanies are rare—especially for eight-year-olds. Like 

most kids that age, we hadn’t heard of Virgil nor were we familiar 

his Aeneid. And even if we had been, knowing that audentus 

fortuna iuvat—fortune favors those who dare—wouldn’t 

have gotten us off that roof. Knowledge is important, but 

knowledge isn’t action. To achieve, one must act. 

143


Adventures test one’s mettle in many ways—emotional, intellectual, 

physical, and more. And for most of us, learning to 

have faith in oneself is the greatest challenge of all. Can you 

imagine what you might attempt—and accomplish—if you 

believed you would not fail? Few among us go forth unencumbered, 

bearing no self-doubt, having no difficulty making 

decisions, able to confidently embark on a course of action. 

Most of us hesitate, procrastinate, hiding and waiting … second 

guessing, fretting, and stewing over options. We observe 

others’ grand achievements and we naturally wonder, “What 

good fortune brings them success? Is there a secret?” You 

know the answer: audere est fucare—to dare is to do. 

Ten years after the rooftop adventure, I sat on a bus among 

80 young men, all awaiting the unknown. We were frozen in 

place—sitting silently, at attention, with only an occasional 

cough punctuating the stillness. Just outside my window a 

poorly lit archway beckoned. Large block letters underscored 

the business at hand: MARINE CORPS RECRUIT DEPOT 

SAN DIEGO, CA. It might as well have born an inscription 

from Dante’s Inferno, ABANDON ALL HOPE, YE WHO EN- 

TER HERE! We weren’t there for the surfing. 

About midnight—long after sitting had become painful and 

bladders threatened disaster—Senior Drill Instructor Stelling 

entered the bus and with three staccato blasts, louder than any 

human could possibly create, contemplations ended— 

transformations began. 

“GET OFF MY BUS!” 

“FALL IN ON THE YELLOW FOOTPRINTS!”

CALLING ALL SIDEKICKS, FANS, AND LEADERS • 145 

“GET IT DONE!” 

[Edited for polite company.] 

We leaped into action, spewing through the doorway as 

quickly as frantic shuffling allowed. As we “attacked” the footprints 

I heard Johnny, whispering loudly, just above the fracas, 

“Ronnie … trust your cape!” 

For the next 13 weeks, I did just that. Morning, noon, and 

night. Johnny’s advice reverberated in my thoughts, helping 

move my exhausted, sweaty, stinking, sunburned, battered 

being ever forward. I graduated carrying the unit’s colors, 

among Johnny, Steve, Gary, Mark, and 68 others—everyday 

superheroes, all. 

Four years later … I stood at the end of a long aisle in my 

new J.C. Penny’s sports jacket, with Johnny at my side, white 

Carnations adorning our lapels. I didn’t want to look nervous, 

but I’m sure that I did. Johnny looked like he’d just seen Drill 

Instructor Stelling. The organist struck her cue and my bride 

glided into view—poised, beautiful, and strong. I took a deep 

breath and contemplated the future. Just then Johnny leaned 

in and with the spittle that inevitably accompanies inappropriate, 

uncontrollable laughter, he blurted, “Ronnie … trust 

your cape!” 

I did. 

Shortly thereafter, “I do.” 

I still do. 

For most entrepreneurs, executives, professionals, and 

leaders, there is no shortage of opportunities upon which we 

might test Johnny’s advice. This principle has guided my ca-


reer (albeit, a somewhat “checkered” career): founder of nine 

businesses (and no, they weren’t all successful), VP in a Fortune 

500 Defense Electronics firm (does 2 years and 7 months 

count?); sales and marketing adviser for more than 250 companies 

and new products; four-time turnaround consultant; 

author of three books; professional speaker with over 2000 

paid engagements … I use Johnny’s advice frequently. 

Every endeavor of importance, personal growth, or professional 

achievement embodies at least one transformative moment. 

You’ve no doubt noticed that sooner or later in every 

project, initiative, startup, turnaround, or team assignment a 

crux appears—be it a key decision, critical stage gate, important 

milestone, or creative event. These do-or-die moments 

lie at the cusp of transformation—the juncture of 

confidence and action. "I know what needs to be done," our 

hero says. But doubt shouts back, "Am I capable? Will it work? 

What will people think? What if I fail? Must I abandon hope?" 

Facing and overcoming challenges makes grand adventures, 

great novels, epic films, and successful careers. It transforms 

ordinary people into everyday superheroes, and 

ordinary opportunities into extraordinary results. Transformation 

lies at the crux of all growth, achievement, and adventure. 

Where there is no daring, there is no transformation. 

Everyday leaders enable transformation by daring to act, 

daring to stand up, and daring to speak up; by engaging others 

in authentic participation towards a common goal; by helping 

individuals build a sense of shared purpose; by facilitating an 

agreed-upon approach to which people can hold themselves 

mutually accountable. When leaders dare to tap into their everyday 

superpowers, they unleash the power of teamwork.

CALLING ALL SIDEKICKS, FANS, AND LEADERS • 147 

Lead your project teams’ success with clarity of who, does 

what, when. When responsibilities, control dates (late and 

early, starts and finishes), workflow, and schedule slack (flexibility) 

are authentically agreed upon, urgency intensifies, 

choices and consequences become clear, better decisions can 

be made, and purposeful action engaged. Without clarity of who, 

does what, when, leadership is reduced to little more than 

meaningless sideline cheering—teams suffer, decisions lag, and 

achievement declines. Don’t allow people to hide and watch, 

wait and hope, and inevitably suffer the consequences. Dare to 

act. Lead by example. Climb high and be seen. Stand up. Speak 

up. Lead your team with the daring of a superhero. 

Choose Clarity, Action, Purpose, and Enthusiasm—transform 

ordinary adventures into extraordinary results. 

Trust the cape. 

Take the leap. 

Assume the pose!

APPENDIX ONE 

Calling all Sidekicks, Fans, 

and Leaders 

I 

f you’ve found this book useful, please join the Trust 

Your Cape ® Sidekicks and help us spread the word. Tell a 

friend, write a review, or buy a few copies for your workmates. 

If you know someone who could benefit, why not tell 

them? It takes a team to deliver success! 

Subscribe to monthly Sidekicks’ Superpower Points at 

http://www.thementorgroup.com/skill-tips-andtechniques.html. 

Consider Leaving a Review Book reviews are vital to the 

promotion of an author’s work. Please consider posting your 

thoughts on Amazon or your favorite book vendor’s website. 

149


Thanks in advance for the kudos! To rate this book on Amazon: 

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B017MSNFS6. 

Purchase Additional Copies Care about the success of 

someone you know? Why not show them your support? 

To purchase additional copies from Amazon go to: 

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B017MSNFS6. 

The paperback edition is available in bulk at discounted 

rates. Ask us about tailoring the back cover with a personalized 

message for your organization’s sidekicks and superheroes. 

Comments and Questions Your comments, thoughts, 

and questions are warmly solicited. Do you have a concern? 

Need some clarification? Or, just want to chat? Email your 

comments, thoughts, or questions directly to Ron. Yes, he 

answers his own phone and mail. 

Hire Ron Black 

To hire Ron to speak at your next conference or corporate 

event contact him directly or use his use his 24-hour, on-line 

assistant to check availability and place courtesy holds. 

800-381-8686 (USA toll-free) 

1-503-618-8703 

RonBlack@TheMentorGroup.com 

www.TheMentorGroup.com

APPENDIX TWO 

Glossary 

Activity An element of work (task) which must be accomplished 

to complete the project. 

Activity Duration The number of work periods needed 

to accomplish an activity. Usually measured in hours, 8-hour 

days, or 40-hour weeks. 

Activity-On-Arrow (AOA) A network diagramming 

method that uses arrows to represent activities. 

Activity-On-Node (AON) A network diagramming 

method that uses nodes or boxes to represent activities. Often 

referred to as a network diagram. 

Actual Cost of Work Performed (ACWP) The total of 

all costs incurred during a given time period. 

151


Actual Finish Date (AF) The date work on an activity 

was completed. 

Actual Start Date (AS) The date work actually started 

on an activity. 

Administrative Closure Formally closing the project in 

accordance with the organization's documentation procedures. 

Arrow The link between tasks in a network diagram that 

shows the sequence of workflow. 

Arrow Diagramming Method (ADM) A network diagram 

where activities are shown as arrows. 

As-of Date The date the data was collected. 

Backward Pass Calculating the dependent task's late 

start date by subtracting its duration from the successor task's 

late start date. 

Bar Chart A network diagram of activities where the 

tasks are listed down the left side and activity duration is 

shown as a horizontal bar scaled to the length of the activity. 

Also known as a Gantt chart or time-line chart. 

Baseline The scheduled dates, durations, resources, and 

costs according to the plan used to implement the project and 

monitor progress. 

Baseline Finish Date The originally scheduled finish 

date. 

Baseline Start Date The originally scheduled start date. 

Budget At Completion (BAC) The planned total cost 

(baseline cost) of the finished project. 

Budgeted Cost of Work Performed (BCWP) The total 

value of activities actually completed with a given period according 

to the planned costs.

GLOSSARY • 153 

Budgeted Cost of Work Scheduled (BCWS) The total 

value of activities as planned for a given period. 

Calendar The methodology used to schedule workdays, 

shifts, resources, tasks, and the project as a whole. There are 

four calendar types in Microsoft Project 2000: base, project, 

resource, and task. 

Change in Scope A change in the goals, objectives, or 

content of the project after implementation has begun. 

Chart of Accounts An accounting numbering system 

used to relate project costs to the organization's financial control 

system. 

Charter The responsibilities and authorities assigned to 

the project. 

Contingencies An allowance set aside for potential problems 

to mitigate risk. 

Contingency Planning A planning technique used to 

identify and mitigate potential problems. 

Control Measuring, evaluating, and taking action based 

on actual performance compared to the planned performance. 

Cost Estimate The total of direct and indirect expenses 

required to achieve project activities. 

Cost Performance Index (CPI) Budgeted costs divided by 

actual costs (BCWP/ACWP). Sometimes used to predict project's 

completed costs. 

Cost Variance (CV) The difference between actual and 

estimated costs of an activity. 

Crashing Shortening the duration of a task or project by 

any means available. Usually increases costs. Also known as 

expediting. 

Critical Activity Any activity that is part of the longest 

sequence of tasks from project start to project end. If the com-


pletion of a critical activity is delayed, the total duration of the 

project is delayed. 

Critical Path The series of tasks in a project schedule that 

requires the most time to complete. Activities on the critical 

path have zero slack or float. 

Critical Path Method (CPM) A project scheduling technique 

where the duration of the longest complete series of 

tasks from project start to project completion is used to predict 

project duration. 

Deliverable Any specific, measurable project accomplishment 

or outcome. 

Deadline The project’s finish no later than constraining 

date (FNLT). 

Dependency Term used to describe the relationship between 

two or more activities or tasks. 

Dummy Activity A drafting convention used as a placeholder 

to show a logical relationship in an activity-on-node or 

activity-on-arrow diagram, but where no duration is planned. 

Also used to describe a task that requires no work or resources 

other than time. 

Duration (DU) The number of minutes, hours, weeks, or 

months required to complete an activity. 

Early Finish Date (EF) The earliest possible date an activity 

can be completed based on the schedule. 

Early Start Date (ES) The earliest possible date an activity 

can start based on the schedule. 

Earned Value (EV) The total cost of work calculated by 

comparing planned work for a period against actual work accomplished. 

Effort The amount of work units needed to complete an 

activity.


Estimate A forecast of cost or duration for an activity. 

Estimate At Completion (EAC) The expected total cost 

of an activity or project when finished. 

Estimate To Complete (ETC) The expected additional 

cost needed to complete an activity or project. 

Event-on-Node A network diagramming technique 

where activities are shown as nodes or boxes and workflow 

logic is shown with arrows. The original Program Evaluation 

and Review Technique used event-on-node technique to diagram 

workflow. 

Expedite Shortening the project’s duration by any means 

available without changing the workflow logic. Usually increases 

costs. 

Fast Track Shortening the project’s duration without increasing 

costs. Usually relies on changing workflow logic. May 

increase risk. 

Finish Date The actual, planned, estimated, early, or late 

date an activity is to be completed. 

Finish-to-Finish (FF) The workflow logic between two 

tasks where the dependent task may not finish until its predecessor 

task is finished. 

Finish-to-Start (FS) The workflow logic between two 

tasks where the dependent task may not start until its predecessor 

task is finished. 

Float The amount of time a task may be delayed without 

pushing out the project finish date. Also called slack. 

Forward Pass The calculation of the early start and early 

finish dates of all activities in the network diagram. 

Free Float (FF) The amount of time a task can be delayed 

without pushing out the start of any immediately following 

activities. Also called free slack.


Free Slack See free float. 

Gantt Chart A network diagram of activities where the 

tasks are listed down the left side and durations are shown as a 

horizontal bar scaled to the length of the activity. 

Lag Describes the delay of a successor task from its predecessor's 

start or finish. 

Late Finish Date (LF) The latest a task may finish without 

delaying the project's finish date. 

Late Start Date (LS) The latest a task may begin without 

delaying the project finish date. 

Lead Describes the accelerated start of the predecessor 

task from its successor’s start or finish. 

Leveling The process of effectively allocating resources to 

tasks. 

Link The arrow that shows the logical work sequence relationship 

between tasks. 

Logic The workflow sequence. 

Logic Diagram A project's network diagram. 

Logical Relationship The workflow logic between two 

project tasks or activities (the predecessor and the dependent 

tasks) described as a finish-to-start, finish-to-finish, start-tofinish, 

or start-to-start relationship. 

Milestone A point in the network diagram that shows 

significant accomplishment. 

Monitoring Collecting progress information for judging 

progress against the plan. 

Network Logic The workflow sequence as shown by a 

network diagram. 

Network Path Any series of tasks in a network diagram. 

Normal Plan A term used in the project management 

methods as espoused by Ron Black: a plan created under con-


ditions that are typical for the organization. Ideally, these conditions 

maximize effectiveness while minimizing costs, duration, 

and risks. 

Overlap See lead and lag. 

Noncritical Task Any task or activity that does not fall on 

the longest (critical) path. 

Path A series of activities in a network diagram. 

Percent Complete (PC) Estimate of progress derived by 

comparing the amount of work completed with the amount of 

work planned for an activity or project. 

PERT Chart An activity on node chart used to show 

workflow logic. Strictly speaking, a critical path scheduling 

method using the Program Evaluation and Review Technique 

of weighted average duration estimates. 

Phase A major sub-unit of a project's work or set of project 

deliverables. 

Planned Finish Date (PF) The scheduled finish date of 

the project. 

Planned Start Date (PS) The scheduled start date of the 

project. 

Precedence Relationship The description of two or 

more task's workflow sequence. 

Predecessor Activity The task which immediately precedes 

the dependent task. 

Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) A 

critical path method of scheduling a project using the 

weighted average method to estimate durations. 

Project The implementation of a strategy to create a specific, 

measurable outcome. 

Project Charter The document that authorizes a project 

manager to utilize the organization's resources in a project.


Project Management The process of undertaking and 

completing a course of action to meet the stated goals and objectives 

of an endeavor. 

Project Manager (PM) The person responsible for planning 

and implementing the project, aka: superhero. 

Project Network Diagram A diagram showing the 

workflow sequence of all tasks required to complete a project. 

Remaining Duration (RDU) The amount of time required 

to complete a task. 

Request for Proposal (RFP) A non-binding solicitation 

for proposals from potential vendors. 

Request for Quotation (RFQ) A non-binding solicitation 

for quotation typically based on the project’s specifications 

or equals therein. 

Resources All the people, equipment, materials, and 

money required to complete a project. 

Resource Leveling Applying available resources to a project 

to determine task start and finish dates, project duration, 

and resource utilization rates. 

Resource Planning Estimating the people, equipment, 

and material resources required to complete a project. 

Risk Assessment Evaluating potential risks and their affect 

on the project. 

S-Curve The graph of cumulative project expenditures 

plotted against time. 

Schedule Performance Index (SPI) The work performed 

compared to the work scheduled (BCWP/BCWS). 

Schedule Variance (SV) The actual versus the planned 

cost, duration, work, or percentage complete of an activity. 

Scheduled Finish Date (SF) The date the task was to be 

completed according to the plan.


Scheduled Start Date (SS) The date the task was to be 

started according to the plan. 

Scope The description of the project's intended breadth 

and depth. 

Scope Change Alterations in the project's goals or objectives 

at any time after the project has been initiated. 

Slack The amount of time a task or path can slip without 

causing the project to finish late. See float. 

Stakeholder An individual or group that can impact the 

project or can be impacted by the project. 

Start Date The actual, planned, early, late, or baseline 

date a task is scheduled to begin. 

Start-to-Finish (SF) The workflow logic between two 

tasks where the dependent task may not finish until its predecessor 

task has started. 

Start-to-Start (SS) The workflow logic between two 

tasks where the dependent task may not start until its predecessor 

task has started. 

Successor Activity The activity that follows a predecessor 

activity. 

Task An element of work which must be accomplished to 

complete the project. Also known as an activity. 

Target Finish Date (TF) The baseline date that work is 

scheduled to finish. 

Target Start Date (TS) The baseline date that work is 

scheduled to start. 

Total Float (TF) The amount of time a task or path can 

be delayed without delaying the completion of the project. 

Triple Constraints The interrelationship of a project's 

time, cost, and performance elements. Understanding their


relative importance facilitates decision making and problem 

solving. 

Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) The decomposition 

of the project's goals and objectives into increasingly detailed 

units of work, eventually identifying all tasks, activities, work 

packages, phases, and milestones that are essential to the project's 

successful completion.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR 

Ron Black 

W 

hen it comes to leading people through growth 

and change, Ron Black speaks from experience. He 

is the founder of nine companies, a four-time turnaround 

consultant, Fortune 500 marketing division VP, and adviser to 

161


over 250 start-up businesses. Ron’s pragmatic approach helps 

busy professionals get traction in a turbulent world—focusing 

on imperatives, mastering essential skills, harvesting the wisdom 

of teams, and working with what they have—to transform 

intentions into lasting results. 

He has spoken at over 2000 conferences and corporate 

events in 47 states, throughout Canada and Australia, in Columbia, 

Brazil, and Russia. 

Ron’s current keynote and executive development programs 

are listed on his website. To discuss your needs and objectives, 

check availability, place a calendar hold, or book Ron 

to speak at your next event, contact him today: 

800-381-8686 (USA toll-free) 

1-503-618-8703 (international) 

RonBlack@TheMentorGroup.com 

www.TheMentorGroup.com

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