On "The Way"

I just got back from walking part of "The Camino" in Spain with three of my grown-up children. On our route, we stopped in a few towns. There, we would check in at an information office or store to see how to get out of town and back on the trail. When we asked where the Camino was, the answer was always, "You are on it!" We thought it was pretty amazing that we were still "on the way" without realizing it.

Were we guided? Probably - it felt like it.

It got me thinking that, with a route to follow in our projects (a project plan), we are also on the way to a destination. If we check in every now and then (often enough), we can know what we need to do to "stay the path" and achieve our goal.

Happy trails!

The Unmet Needs Committee

I was listening to CBC Radio while driving in my car last week. With the recent Fort McMurray fire in Alberta, CBC reporters were interviewing people from Slave Lake, Alberta, who had assisted those who needed help when a fire occurred there a few years ago.

When asked what they had done to help, one of the interviewees said they had formed an 'Unmet Needs Committee'.

I had not heard of this term before, but thought it was pretty clever. It turns out, an unmet needs committee is a standard procedure in the case of disaster. This committee is generally used as a last resort, where other groups or funding cannot help with the situation.

This got me to thinking - are my projects always on the lookout for unmet needs? Sometimes it is easy to overlook or ignore unmet needs - certainly not a PMI best practice!

On a final note, I would like to extend best wishes to those who escaped the Fort McMurray fire.