Perry Mason – Project Management Hero?
by Carl Pritchard, PMP, EVP
Congratulations! You are living in heroic times. Really! Time and time again, we see project managers, team members, and even entire organizations being asked to do significantly more with significantly less. And (for the most part) we rise to that challenge. We make ourselves capable of what might otherwise seem impossible. And still, management asks for more.
At a time when it might seem like a lesson in frustration and fruitlessness to continue to contribute more and more to the cause, we have the opportunity to genuinely shine with some classic approaches, novel attitudes, and a spirit of thanksgiving. And who should we look to for guidance on attitude and spirit? My partner and I are turning to Perry Mason.
Perry Mason, for those too young to remember, was a Los Angeles lawyer (created by Erle Stanley Gardner and immortalized by CBS) who always came out on top, whose clients were always vindicated, and (this is the part I really hadn't remembered, either) who often pushed the envelope of his professional practice. Perry Mason had the amazing gift of being capable of remembering small factoids and leveraging them into significant elements of his case. While his always-surly opponents would object time and again, Perry would convince the judge to allow him just enough latitude to identify the real problem and point the finger at the true villain.
In project management, we often feel shackled by the constraints that are put on us by customers, management, and the project culture. But if we take a lesson from Perry, we may be able to loosen those bonds just enough to set our projects free. There are three basic lessons that we can take to heart:
- Watch the little stuff.
- If it's legitimate, do it.
- Keep your eyes on the true outcome.
Watching the Little Stuff
Perry Mason was the master of nuance. He was always attuned to what people were saying and how and why they were saying it. His ability to zero in on important elements of a case was uncanny, as was his ability to listen. As project managers, we need to nurture those abilities. One simple way is to adopt one of Perry's cross-examination techniques.
Is that everything that you wanted to tell us, Mr. Wimpole?
Perry would then wait. And so should we. We should leverage the natural cultural inclination for folks to want to fill the void of silence with answers. Listening is overlooked as a critical skill and it's one that affords us the ability to build better understanding of what's going on in our projects, our teams, and our lives.
Keeping track of the details we're given is equally important. Della Street (Perry's administrative assistant) is often his memory in those stories. She documents and captures myriad details. While most of us don't have the luxury of a recording secretary at our sides, we do need to find the means to capture the little stuff that we learn through good listening.
For me, the vehicle is e-mail. I am a network administrator's nightmare. I preserve e-mail. LOTS of e-mail. I'm an e-mail zealot. And when I pick up some new insight or factoid? I send myself an e-mail. That way I can find the nugget that might otherwise be lost.
Your mileage will vary. You might use files, spreadsheets, archives, databases . . . FINE! But find somewhere to document and have access to the information you garner through your new zeal for "the little stuff."
If it's Legitimate, Do IT!
This is the second aspect of Perry Mason I've found amazing. He doesn't take pause to overanalyze things before jumping in. If it pushes the case forward, he takes advantage, and does it. In one episode, he buys a Matisse painting to prove his client's innocence. In another, he purchases an apartment building. In each, the prosecutor accuses him of questionable behavior, to whit Perry pushes back with the point that what he's done is perfectly within the bounds of ethics.
I'm not suggesting we go around buying buildings, but we shouldn't be shackled by small stuff. I have a new client who is planning on a total of 20 days of work a year in a 3-year contract. That's 60 days of fully paid consulting work. Only one problem. They insist on a particular type of insurance that's about $300/year. At first, I started working with them to ask how I could avoid that expenditure and whether it was truly necessary, given the nature of the work we're doing. The more I thought about it, however, the investment was a very small contribution in order to win a much, much larger stream of work. And it would do no harm to any of my other engagements. I could have dragged out the discussions and probably won my point, but do I really want to do that with a major new client? No!! I needed to think like Perry. If I need to spend $300 to make the relationship with the client seamless, I'll do it!
While this can get out of hand, it usually doesn't. We're normally very hesitant to "jump in" on these kinds of moments for fear of making a financial mistake or a business error. But one major win quickly erases two or three mistakes. And the time saved through avoiding indecision is equally invaluable.
Keep Your Eyes on the True Outcome
Do you want to deliver a software system, or a happy customer? One thing I've thoroughly enjoyed about Perry is that he doesn't simply want his client acquitted. He wants his clients proven innocent! That's a huge difference. And it goes to the ultimate outcomes.
Take some time at your next team meeting to ask your team members what they believe the customer truly wants out of the work you're doing. Do they really want a new system, or does the customer want efficiency? Do they want a new box on the second floor, or do they want faster systems? Reaffirming the true goals is a critical part of our success. We need to make sure that we know what our customers truly hope for, and we need to be a party to that aspect of success. At one moment in the series, a judge states that he believes Perry has made a sufficient case for acquittal. Perry thanks him, but asks the court's indulgence to present one more piece of information that may clarify some of the lingering confusion in the case.
Within three minutes, the true killer is confessing from the gallery.
Perry's client walks away with both an acquittal and her innocence.
It's easy to lose sight of the vital importance of the end game when we're tasked with producing a product or service. But we can reaffirm this at every client meeting and at every team meeting by asking the simple question, "How will the world have changed when we're done here?" If we answer with, "A widget will be properly installed and running," we may have seriously missed the point. If we answer with, "The client's operations will be improved and those around us will be more comfortable in their work environment," we're probably acting a little more like Perry.
May we all be found guilty of that!
When not watching the Case of the Perjured PM, Carl Pritchard serves on the board of directors of ProjectConnections.com and served as the lead chapter author for the risk management chapter of the Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, 4th Edition. He is a principal with Pritchard Management Associates, author and internationally recognized speaker. He welcomes comments on his articles at carl@carlpritchard.com.