Page 56 - Straight Talk On Project Management IV

Brandon is 29. He has a few years of experience under his belt. IT, project management and this
particular team are all he’s ever known. A resume of his last 15 years would read: computer club
leader at secondary school; tech degree at university; gained project management qualifications;
landed project management job with current employer.

Jennifer is 49. She has many years of experience under her belt! She has just returned full time to
the industry after raising her two boys. The company she started her project management career
with is long gone, as is the one she was working at when she left to start her family! She has seen
many changes! She maintained a part-time presence through what she calls her ‘priority parenting’
years, benefitting from the flexibility of Project Management as a Service opportunities to keep her
hand in.
You can see how differently these two will see their jobs, roles and careers. Even down to getting the
whole team together for a social night out is tricky – Jennifer loves a sit-down meal and nice wine
with a taxi home at 9, Brandon prefers the pub, followed by a club and an Uber home for a few
hours of sleep before work later the same morning!!

Getting such diverse team members to interact and bring their complementary skills to their projects
is the key to turning around this struggling team. I think that “trade deals” is the way to do this.
Brandon is great at cutting edge tech, trying new methods and project software, Jennifer prefers to
use her tried and tested software (she is, by the way, a spreadsheet genius!)

Brandon can be a little abrasive, he ‘rubs’ people up the wrong way – often without realising.
Jennifer has EQ in abundance and years of experience have taught her that diplomacy in negotiation
is usually more effective than stamping your feet.

The tendency so far has been to split the team into likeminded sub-teams for completion of project
tasks, so the young, abrasive, go-getters head in one direction and the more mature, experienced go
in the other. I’ve suggested that they work together more.

This is where the “trade deal” comes into it.
Put the Brandons and the Jennifers on the same team and, alongside the obvious completion of
tasks, there should be a direct instruction that they learn from each other. A “trade deal” – mutual
mentorship!

In two future blogs, I’d like to drill down on the Brandon and Jennifer dynamic. Airbnb’s Chip
Conley’s thought leadership on the concept of ‘modern elders’ has much to teach more experienced
project team members and leaders blessed with this resource on their team. I also think that there is
a lot that can be done to allow more junior members of the team be heard. So watch out for those
blogs!

“Mutual mentorship is the future.”

Perhaps the most famous evangelist of “Mutual mentorship” across generations is Airbnb’s, Chip
Conley. His Tedtalk and his lecture for ‘Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders’ (Stanford’s Speaker Series)
are inspirational insights into this way of thinking. Conley had been hired to help mentor Airbnb
cofounder Brian Chesky, but quickly discovered that he had a lot to learn himself. He is the first to
admit that he wasn’t the most tech-savvy new hire when he was headhunted by Airbnb at 52 years
old, he didn’t even know what Uber was! However, he set out to see if his “wise eyes” could learn
something from his new colleagues’ “fresh eyes.”