I am your Project Manager not your babysitter … As Project
Managers, if we were truthful with ourselves, at times we feel we are in the
movie “Adventures in Babysitting” (ok I know I am showing my age by just
mentioning this movie) when we deal with certain project team members.

So let’s go to the movie … Our five characters are: Chris
(Project manager), Sarah (Team Member), Brad (Team Member) and Daryl (Team
Member with attitude) and Brenda (Team Member with shifting priorities). For
Brenda the project has become all about her and she runs off on her own and
ends up stranded at the bus station. Brenda needs help as she encounters a
homeless man who thinks a phone booth (ok a phone booth is something we use to
have to use to make phone calls when we were not at home) is his home. In an
attempt to kick him out, she gets her glasses stolen and while trying to find
her glasses she befriends a rat which she thinks is a dog. Ultimately she runs
out of money as her project was not properly planned or funded.

Her team members come to the rescue! They are headed into
the city (project tasks) to address Brenda’s issues and absolutely nothing goes
right for them. There are several tasks that come up during their “adventure”
(a flat tire with no money to fix it, they misplace Sarah and inadvertently get
involved in a car thief ring) that they never planned for and at times almost
completely derail their major milestone of saving Brenda at the bus station. In
the end the team pulls together, find money to get the tire repaired, locate
Sarah and get away from the car thieves and finally retrieve Brenda. Even
though they finished the project on time, it was not without several issues
that could have been planned for better and issues that could have been avoided
all together with just a little planning. As PMs we can all agree, that even
though issues come up and we have some team members
that need us to babysit them throughout the entire project, we really just love
going to the movies! Not to mention that when the final credits roll we are
happy to be a part of the whole production.

Next month at the movies…Project Manager and Raiders of the
Lost Ark.