项目管理（或缺乏项目管理）
Kristina Shmarenkova 2013年5月27日
这个故事是关于项目管理的。好吧，老实说，是关于一次糟糕的项目管理的。在格里昂的第三学期，我们有一门课程叫做“客房部（Rooms Division）”。这门课程中有一项任务量非常大的作业：选择一个酒店做一个展示，准备一个案例教学，要求识别出这个案例中酒店所有的优点与缺点，从酒店地理位置到客户服务工作。我们需要进行细致入微的调研并做一个原创展示，于是我们分成几个小组，大家热火朝天地去完成这项作业。对，我们中大多数人都是这样做的。
我掉进了一个很多外行企业家都会不小心涉足的陷阱 — 选择和一帮平时大家一起喝酒玩乐的朋友一起工作。我们的国籍组成对我们的调研也很不利：两个俄罗斯人，三个阿拉伯人和一个韩国人。
我们开过好些次小组会议，每次都有绝顶聪明的想法和计划。我们有如此杰出的展示技巧，连乔布斯都会感动哭的。
好几周过去了，蒙特勒（Montreux）迎来了春天，天气特别好，但是我们甚至都还没有选定一家酒店作为我们的研究对象。其他组的人每天跑来跑去已经不堪重负；我们看到他们在每个自习室喜怒无常筋疲力尽，看到他们顶着黑眼圈，身边的打印资料堆积如山。
但是我们组完全没有冲劲和干劲；我们没有努力执行过任何一项任务以做一个出色的展示。甚至到现在当我听到有人说”拖延症“之后，我想我们当时做的这个项目就可以放在字典里做这个词的注解。当距展示开始只剩24小时的时候，我们意识到我们除了痛饮过几次畅想我们小组的成功，别的什么也没有做过。多年后当我来到中东，我才发现阿拉伯人在拖延这个习惯上面排名全世界第二，仅次于俄罗斯人。如果你足够勇敢同时和这两个国家的伙伴一起合作的话，你必须不断地给予拖延的同伴有力的督促。只有上帝知道我当时有多么不情愿地挑大梁。但我还是在20分钟内草拟了一份执行任务清单并给每个人分配好了任务。我们需要采访一些酒店管理人员，做一些电话问卷调查，审核酒店的竞争力，并且还要做一个看起来具有专业水准的幻灯片展示 … 简而言之，我们需要把这么多周积攒下来的工作负荷均摊到这几个小时之内完成。我飞快地完成了分配给我自己的那部分工作，然后剩下的时间全部在各个小组成员中跑来跑去，把同伴们做的用以展示的零碎部分糅合成一个整体，监听电话，大部分时间都在无比焦躁的状态下度过。后来我形容当时的情形为”最后期限判决周期（deadline doom cycle）“：惊慌、愤怒、讨价还价、承受，以及不断补充红牛饮料维持体力。我们在半夜的时候终于完成这个调研。那时我们已经达到了巅峰状态，我们利用那个晚上剩下的时间在会议室排练、布置桌椅，试着找到一个理想的布局。不消说，我们没有亚麻桌布，然后用了干净的床单来代替。并且由于所有的打印机都出现了用纸荒，我们一直等到早上7点55分的时候才完成讲义打印。
早上8点整，我们站在教室前面，顶着黑眼圈，心里忐忑不安，并且穿着昨天的旧衬衫。我不知道是人在绝望境地中爆发出的巨大潜能让我们的调研看起来颇具说服力，还是因为我们确实是一个优秀的小组。总之这次评审满分10分我们得了7分，一点也不差。这之后我们做了什么呢？我们睡着了。我现在甚至都不记得我们当时展示的是哪家酒店了。但是我从那次经历中确实吸取了不少教训。很抱歉这么说，但是当你和你的朋友们一起合作工作的时候通常会遇到各种问题，而走出舒适区可以帮助你们获得成功。所以我猜想就是从那天起我开始和学校的”书呆子“一起学习工作。不仅是因为比尔·盖茨告诫过我们要和他们友善相处（他说的很有道理，将来你很可能会在他们手下工作），更是因为这些人可以教会你一些自我组织和时间管理的窍门。并且，确实，在那个项目中我很明显充当了队长的角色，但是在截止期限逼近时精确的时间估计是一个比红牛饮料更好的工具。（大多数情况下都是如此！）
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Project Management (or lack of)
by Kristina Shmarenkova 27 May 2013
This story will be about project management. Well, to be honest, this one is about particularly bad project management. Back in semester 3 we had a course called “Rooms Division’. One of the much dreaded assignments was delivering a presentation on a hotel of choice, preparing a case study that identifies all the strong and weak points, from location to customer service. We had to come up with a detailed research and an original presentation, so we split up into several groups and rolled up our sleeves. Well, most of us.
I fell into the trap many amateur entrepreneurs fall into by choosing to work with a bunch of friends we enjoyed an occasional beer with. We had a queer nationality mix: two Russians, three Arabs and one Korean.
We had a few group meetings where every time we would come up with the most brilliant ideas. Our presentation skills were so outstanding, we could make Steve Jobs cry.
Weeks passed by, spring came to Montreux, the weather was stunning and we haven’t even chosen a hotel for our case study yet. Other groups were running around stressed; we saw them moody and weary in every study room, dark circles under their eyes, print-outs lying in piles around them.
But we were absolutely in no rush; we had everything it takes to deliver a great presentation effortlessly. Even now when someone says ‘procrastination’, I think that this project of ours could be placed in a dictionary as an illustration. Only 24 hours before the presentation was due, we realized that we hadn’t done anything except for having a few drinks to the success of our team. Years later, when I came to the Middle East, I realized that Arabs rank second in procrastination after Russians, and if you are brave enough to work with both at the same time, you have to be the one giving the magic kick in the pants to everyone. And god only knows how much I loathed taking the initiative back then. But in 20 minutes, I drafted a ‘to-do’ list and delegated the tasks. We had to interview several hotel managers, do a few test calls, check the hotel’s competition, and make a professional looking Power Point presentation… In a nutshell, we had to squeeze the workload of several weeks in several hours. I finished my part fairly quick and spent the rest of the day running around from one group member to another, putting presentation bits and pieces together, monitoring phone calls, and most of the time raging and kicking the furniture. Later on I described it as a “deadline doom cycle”: panic, anger, bargaining, acceptance, red bull. We have finished the research by midnight. By then we have reached the “red bull” stage. We spent the rest of the night in the conference room rehearsing and lining up the chairs and desks, trying to find an ideal room setup. Needless to say we didn’t have table linens and used clean bed sheets instead and we only finished printing out hand-outs by 7:55 due to a major paper jam that occurred in all printers simultaneously.
At 8:00 a.m. we were standing in front of the class with dark circles around our eyes, a bad conscience and yesterday’s shirts. I don’t know whether it was desperation and adrenaline rush that made our research look convincing, or maybe we really were a good team after all. But we got something like 7 out of 10. Not bad at all. What did we do after? We slept. I don’t even remember the hotel we presented. But I did learn a few lessons that day. I am sorry to say this, but working with your friends usually doesn’t cut it. Stepping out of your comfort zone does. So I guess, from that day on I have worked with school ‘nerds’. Not because Bill Gates warned us to be nice to them (he had a point though, chances are really high you’ll end up working for one) but because they can teach you a trick or two about self-organization and time management. And yes, I am being Captain Obvious here, but accurate time estimation is a better tool in meeting deadlines than red bull. (Most of the time!).
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