Article summary
I played Dungeons & Dragons in the early 1980s when it was definitely not seen as a cool thing to do. It takes some time when you first begin role-playing games to understand the capabilities of the characters you can play and the monsters that you may face. You have to handle ambiguity and use your creativity to respond to any challenge the dungeon master throws your way.
Trial by Fire
In the first few expeditions, I died rather quickly along with most of the rest of the party. We learned that to have any chance of success, we needed a diverse set of skills and abilities. The thief would help find the traps and pick the locks. The fighter would take and give out the bulk of the damage when you came up against the fire giant. The cleric would be there to help patch everyone up. The magician could cause damage from a distance and sometimes tell you not to pick up the shiny sword that would actually curse you.
Only by working together and leveraging each other’s strengths did we stand a chance of making it through to the next level (well, at least most of us). Just as in real life, there were still disagreements. There was also the occasional chaotic evil party member just waiting for the right moment to sabotage the party. But the desire to keep gaining experience and new abilities provided a lot of incentive to work together.
Wisdom gained
Little did I know that I was learning lessons relevant to a future career as a consultant. As a project and program manager, I found that success required a wide variety of knowledge and skills. The standard project management body of knowledge is just one small piece. Here are ways I leveled up so that I was prepared to lead complex and large projects in very different industries.
Always keep adding to your spell book.
Early in my career, I helped manufacturing companies improve their processes to increase throughput and improve quality of their products. I use those same skills today in helping to deliver custom software. Along the wa,y I learned many thing,s including six sigma techniques, agile software principles, cloud architecture principles, and security best practices for applications open to the internet.
Know where the dragons are.
You can’t track every issue and know every detail. Success depends on recognizing the key areas of risk and don’t let those come back to bite you. That includes the business drivers and alignment of the technical solution to support that. Bring the lessons learned from previous campaigns and share those across the team.
Don’t try to fight the battles by yourself.
Regardless of how much experience you have, your clients will always have insights about their particular organization or business that will be critical to understand and incorporate into the solution. Collaboration is key to surfacing those and building applications that will provide value and be used for the long haul. Create an environment where your team knows the goals of the project. That enables them to engage their own creativity in helping the team move towards success.
While the tools and technologies we work with keep evolving, these underlying principles remain the same. Your success on project campaigns will depend on how well you embrace them.