Project manager

1990 to 1995

Team work: I needed accounting to show me what they did whenever a transaction occurred that affected the cost of doing business. They released members of the accounting staff to help (which is why I had to assure them that this wasn’t an exercise in job-replacement). We met every morning and, with the help of an Operations Expert, simulated the activities of doing business, everything from purchasing and receiving to shipping and delivery. After each transaction, we’d stop and they’d describe what they did at that point. I stood at a white board and drew what that would look like in terms of T-accounts. I actually saw a light go on in the room. Many of them had never seen double-entry bookkeeping before and they were intrigued. Everyone except for the Operations Expert. To her, this looked nothing like the kind of operations she was used to dealing with. It was going over her head and I wasn’t slowing down to explain (big mistake). One day, during a conference call with Engineering, the Operations Expert stormed out of the room, went straight to management and demanded that I be removed from the team. When the Attorney caught wind of this, she quickly halted the project to get to the bottom of it. Apparently the Operations Expert thought my role was to trouble-shoot computer programs ..not invent them. So, the Attorney allowed the project to continue, but disbanded the team. Fortunately, I had enough information from accounting to get programming started. A few days later the members of the accounting staff appeared at my door thanking me and promising to be available whenever I needed help. I was moved. Now I felt confident this project was going to succeed.