Ignoring Bad Behavior

    I can see why you chose this because a PM does not want to be distracted by bad behavior. Chuck knows others that have confronted Ean and Izzy are not well liked by the leadership team; They do not get raises, or new projects. 

   Chuck is a bit nervous because unchecked negative stakeholders could eventually cause havoc on the project and his career.  He shrugs it off because IF this behavior continues, he will handle the situation. For now, he will keep his head down and work the scope of the charter and eventually be successful. 

   At The Flying Fig all projects go through leadership for approval before execution. In theory, gaining leadership approval would increase team cohesion and reduce negative stakeholders so Chuck carefully crafts the presentation using the 'standard' template.  Chuck has a nice display of the signed charter, lifecycle, and the estimated timeline, budget, and resources.

   Chuck proudly shares the presentation with his sr. manager, George Custer, because he runs the leadership council and he doesn't like surprises. George Custer calls Chuck to his desk. George is very tired of his team submitting leadership presentations that make it difficult to grasp the purpose. Chuck is to use a new report named BLUF (Bottom Line Up Front) that will give leadership what they need. Chuck is to remove all the other slides as they are not needed. 

   Chuck makes the requested changes and decides to hide his other slides in case they are needed. 

Meet George Custer, sr. Business Operations Manager. George has been in this position for less than one year. He worked his way up from a business analyst very quickly.

   George learned his leadership style while serving in the military. His bio states that he is a servant leader, but the people who work under him know he is a dictator.

   George is climbing the corporate ladder and believes it is his destiny. He has written lots of articles on how to be a great manager, and his team is still waiting for that great manager to emerge. 

   George's next promotion is dependent on meeting his career goals to digitize this dashboard in three months.

Project Related Measure
Interest High
Influence High
Subject Matter Expert Low
Supportive High
Works in same organization Yes
Barometer for disagreement High

   Chuck presents the plan for execution of the project to the leadership council using the BLUF slide. It was a rough meeting. The director, who is also new to the organization, asked some great questions about the new agile process and the timeline. To respond to her questions, Chuck shared the hidden slides he created earlier.

 Meet Debbie the Director who has been in this position for two months. She is fresh out of college but had great grades and some excellent connections.

   Debbie is not sure how to manage The Flying Fig, but she does know that a happy workplace is a productive workplace, so she has one rule: be nice and play nice or get a job elsewhere.

   Debbie believes her leadership council knows what is best for the company and is very open to their suggestions. 

Project Related Measure
Interest Low
Influence High
Subject Matter Expert No
Supportive Neutral
Works in Chuck's Organizaiton? No
Barometer for Disagreement Low

   Before Chuck is done with his presentation Ean launches into a tirade of accusations about business operations taking over engineering projects that do not belong to them. He states that Chuck's BLUF presentation was unclear, and it is obvious that Chuck is not the best PM to execute this project. He insists engineering take over this dashboard immediately and that his team has been working on this project for months and are well prepared. 

   Debbie, the director, asks George Custer if he agrees with Ean. Knowing Debbie's one rule is "be nice and play nice or get a job elsewhere", George agrees with Ean and asks Chuck to hand over all his project documentation.

Exit the Game – Chuck did not win today.

   Well darn! You cannot win them all!

   A PM should never ignore bad behavior. A wise man once said if everything was fine, they would not need a PM. 

   Thanks for playing the game.

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