75: Without Greed

April 4, 2008 @ The Tao of Project Management from P M Blogger

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The Project
Well it was a good week in a few ways. The big news is that the Council finally approved the budget for the project on Wednesday, so I am now in the happy position of having £5.48m to spend over the next three years. That’s the sword of Damocles removed; now we can get on with the project.

It seemed opportune that a Network Team meeting had been scheduled the following lunch time at the “Mill on the Exe”, so I was more than happy to buy the first round and thank everyone for their work and raise a glass to the project. It was a nice day, the sun was shining, they are a great team and it seemed a terrible pity to have to go back to work.

The Way
The team will not prosper if the project manager grabs the lion’s share of the credit for the good work that has been done. The team will rebel and resist if the project manager relies on strict controls in an effort to make things happen a certain way. The team will become deadened and unresponsive if the project manager is critical and harsh.

The wise project manager is not greedy, selfish, defensive or demanding. That is why the project manager can be trusted to allow an event to unfold naturally. I know this, for this is the way of the project manager.

The Tao
Lao Tsu tells us:

Why are the people starving?
Because the rulers eat up the money in taxes.
Therefore the people are starving.

Why are the people rebellious?
Because the rulers interfere too much.
Therefore they are rebellious.

Why do the people think so little of death?
Because the rulers demand too much of life.
Therefore the people take death lightly.

Having little to live on, one knows better than to value life too much.


This article is syndicated from The Tao of Project Management . The original article is available here. Read more in Project Management News, The Tao of Project Management .

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