Is that a poem or a project report?

"The account team appreciated your contribution but were not happy about your poetic project report", said my manager. I was not surprised and was actually expecting that feedback! In early Feb 2017 I was sent by my organisation on a mission to Singapore to turnaround a project that was going through some challenges. The client had given an ultimatum and stakes were high.

The situation was not new to me but the project team, country, the client and their culture was new. I love new challenges and I was in love with Singapore from the minute I landed. A clean atmosphere does add a dose of energy to me and the city was sparkly clean. 2 weeks in the beautiful country opened my eyes to possibilities and advancements in all spectrum of life.

Then I wondered, what could have gone wrong in the project that needed my intervention. 2 weeks of hardwork, many brainstorming sessions, few trust building meetings with the client, late night teamwork and few team building drinks and dinner got things back in order. Well, it was not as easy as I have made it sound. Emotions were high in each of those meetings and mis-communication between different business units within our organisation added fuel to the fire!

I used to take a lot of pictures of all whiteboard drawings and of the team. Towards the end of the assignment I summarized my findings as a poem instead of the standard project report. Each stanza highlighted an issue, the cause and resolution. It also included few lines that pinpointed management gaps that could have been easy avoided. In hindsight if the teams were empowered enough and given the right kind of support, my intervention would not been needed. 

Most of the team loved my poetic project report and were highly appreciative of my leadership and the creative approach I took to break the ice and communication gap. As expected, it did not not go well with a few leaders as I had pointed out some incompetence and accountability issues. This was reflected in the project appraisal through my manager, who was actually happy that I was able to turn the project around. He did ask me to tone down my adventurism, which I did. That incident encouraged me write more and I have a collection of about 60 poems!!

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