How to face a review meeting
When everything seems lost
I am in the middle of an over-delayed project, badly botched up due to poor project management (I am the project manager :( ). Yesterday a review meeting was scheduled with the client to review what we had delivered against our promises. The earlier review had gone pretty badly, with everyone pointing their fingers at me (actually my organization, as everyone who pointed fingers clarified) for all that was wrong with it.
Very little had been achieved since the last meeting. I called an emergency telecon with my team and started on what should be done and the strategy for the meeting. Now it was the turn of my team to point fingers at me, for agreeing to everything that the client said. They encouraged me to be bold and tell the client that things are simply not going to be done in a hurry.
The Remedy
With this frame of mind, I started out towards the slaughterhouse. I usually pride myself on being a non-believer, saying that one should take responsibility for whatever situation that one finds oneself in. But today I found my mind subconsciously appealing to all the gods to be with me in my time of distress (Habits, that are learnt from childhood are not that easily rid of, right?) On my way I saw a line of mendicants sitting outside a place of religious worship. Normally I walk past them, without giving them a second glance, but today my hand involuntarily started to search for coins; if I wanted the gods to be on my side, then I'd better do my good deed for the day.
Having thus reinforced my position I walked to the review with a spring in my step. I took the review confidently. Surprise, surprise! The review went without a hitch, with the client agreeing that the reasons for the delay were beyond control and setting a new dates for future deliverables. Everyone was so kind to me, with the CEO even offering to take me out for lunch. I thanked my stars and all the supportive gods.
The future?
Now I am in a dilemma - do I continue being an agnostic or do I start believing? Anyway, no time for that now, it can wait till the next major crisis that I face - now, it's time to party - yaay.
Cheers to that. :)
