Читать книгу The Red Pill Executive - Tony Gruebl - Страница 20

Early in Think’s history, the president of USVantage brought us in for a critical product launch, a bonded insurance offering that would make a significant addition to their portfolio. We had the president’s firm directive that this project must not fail.

Think’s team went to work, but soon ran into difficulty. We requested a schedule from Operations and got the response: “We’re agile, and we don’t work that way.”

Team leaders said, “We need to set expectations for customers.”

The response was the same: “We’re agile, and we don’t work that way. Check with someone else.”

We found ourselves moving from office to office and getting the same response. We could not implement the project.

This shop stiff armed our team, corporate operations people, the sales team, and everyone else who approached them. Finally, the problem escalated to the president.

He went ape!

Still that shop would not relent. Their culture rewarded obedience to standard practices more than project success.

Eventually, Think’s team had to withdraw. This was a cultural issue where one sector of the company had everything locked down.

That client provided tremendous learning for our team. Since then, based on what we observe in our initial contacts, we design a unique plan of action for each client. Now, we’d go after the logjam and design an approach to break it from Day 1.

In Edge of Tomorrow³¹, when Cage first came awake inside the time loop, he stayed true to his training and allowed Master Sergeant Farell to have control. That’s when he realized this approach had only one ending—a swift death on the beach. Before long, Cage’s attitude and body language changed. He spoke with authority, became pre-emptive, and assumed responsibility.

He took ownership.

His fellow squad members naturally followed him. Master Sergeant Farell felt confusion as his domineering energy collapsed, but he had no way to fight back.

In the project management world, the Operations Executive who takes ownership for a project’s success will see their numbers rise. Working in partnership with a skilled project manager is important, but this is a partnership where information flows easily back and forth, where everyone has a voice. The Operations Executive is always aware and involved in the project with the firm goal of seeing it completed well. That’s ownership.

Cage practiced for many days, both in the training bay and in the field until he could kill hundreds of Mimics without even looking. His senses and his movements became instinctive. He got better and better at the job. The result? He stayed alive longer. But one day he said to Rita, “We’ll never get off this beach.”

Cage connected with another Red Pill warrior, a bio physicist named Dr. Carter, from whom he learns that the armies of Earth have been fighting Mimics as individual soldiers when they are actually all part of a single organism: the Omega.

Killing Mimics was pointless. Only taking out the Omega would win the war.

“No matter what we do. No matter how carefully we plan, we can’t get off this beach.”

~Cage in Edge of Tomorrow¹⁰³

At this turning point in the movie, Cage realizes the beachfront battle is actually a distraction. To win the war against the aliens, Earth dwellers must shift their objective.

In our own ah-ha moment, we suddenly saw the difference between winning the battle of the Iron Triangle and winning the war against project failure. That moment rocked our world.