XII. Great project management that doesn’t exist.

OCEAN. I love ocean if the word “love” is at all applicable to this feeling. It’s probably not true love, but rather addiction, I’m captured by the energy, waves, sound and its power. The ocean is not a sea at all. Sea also may be powerful and sometime dangerous, but I always had a feeling that the sea is rather inhabited by man and the ocean is truly wild. One of my fist experiences with the ocean I got almost 15 years ago at Sri Lanka. I was on vacation and stayed in 30 kilometres south of Colombo on the shore of the ocean. I can simply observe the ocean moves and listen to its sound for hours. The waves of the inland seas are most of the time mumbling while those of the ocean are rather rumbling ready to explode. There had been a tsunami two years earlier and still a lot of destruction left. Yet people somehow “forgave” the ocean and keep living in peace with it. Ocean is a world and the people are part of this world, part of the puzzle. The place Wadduwa I stayed is not at all touristic. Very wide sandy beach and the waves are sandy and muddy brining a lot of garbage, parts of the trees, seaweed. There are few fishing villages not far from my place and every day I see the same repeating picture. I call it “fishing project”. The core of the “project” is a family that owns the boat and the nets. Late evening family is going to the sea, but not that far to throw their nets. Over the night the fish suppose to be caught by the nets. Early morning just before sunrise the family is “hiring” the whole village (literately the whole village is coming with the totality of men, women and children) to pull these big nets full of fish out of the ocean. Seems like every person in the project knows its role. Some people on the boat are taking the tale of the net out of water. Some watching the fish not to escape. Some coordinate all the efforts on the land with the drum beat. Some are pulling. Some are taking the fish and sea animals out and put into buckets sorting by size and type. And one family member is selling the fish, octopuses and squids right here to the owners of the restaurants, villagers and resellers. In one hour morning exercise is completed just with the sunrise. Immediately the head of the family distributes the money among all the people involved into the project. People got paid and leave. The beach is empty again only waves are rumbling and few boats on the sand remind me that this evening the “fishing project” will be re-run again.

More than ten years after my Sri Lanka “fishing project” experience I happened to be in Senegal, on the other side of the world (almost) in a small village Pobenguem just outside of Dakar. In the middle of the village there is elegant Basilique Notre-Dame de la Délivrance of a sandish colour and the beach is as wide as on Sri Lanka. And again I became a witness of Senegalese “fishing project” pretty much similar, the difference was only in the boats. Those in Senegal were much bigger and more colourful, painted yellow, blue, red with sophisticated ornament and the names. And one more… probably fish was bigger in size, but I’m not quite sure. The rest of the project was copy pasted from Sri Lanka… or vice versa… Sri Lanka copied Senegal. Most probably neither people on Indian ocean neither ones on Atlantic new of one another and didn’t bother themselves with copying.

You may ask me: “why do you consider this as a project?” and “so what?”. Both are very valid questions. Of course you may look at it as at the routine work, but it’s not exactly a routine. Any other day the fishing is different from the previous day. The weather is changing as well as wind, waves, current, in the end of the day fish may be there or not. So of course fishing it’s a repetitive action, but any other time it’s a mini project on its own with the very distinct beginning, the end and success criteria. What makes fishing project a successful as a project apart from the fact that Sri Lankans and Senegalese were practicing it for the last 1000 years at minimum? Probably it’s the fact that the project is not long, it lasts for few hours and has very distinct start, steps and the end. The role of every participant is crystal clear. Motivation is immediate and very material. To sum it up — fishing project is a simple linear project, all the steps are happening one by one, the amount of people involved is not big, you can always say when it’s started and finished.

In our business life we hear about project management every day and each of us is dreaming to find one day “great project manager”. Project management became “Holy Grail” in a sense everybody wants it and probably only few people saw it in practice. There are many good books about project management been written, you may reckon WBS (Work Breakdown Structure), Gantt Chart, PERT (program evaluation and review technique), CPM (Critical Path Method), Kanban, Scrum, Agile, Lean, XP (eXtreme Programming), Waterfall, PRINCE2 (PRojects INControlled Environments), PMI’s PMBOK (Project Management Institute’s Project Management Body of Knowledge)… I’m sure I didn’t exhaust the list and we can keep going. All these techniques and methodologies developed with the good intent and applicable to wider or more narrow areas of manufacturing, programming, construction or development. Here we will not study any of this techniques, we will rather reflect of what is surrounding us and discuss what make the project great and disastrous from our own experience.

For me personally project management became “my pet peeve” long time ago and with time I started to see the traces of project management almost everywhere including fishing at Sri Lanka or Senegal.

Germany is a “rail road country”. Today (2018 actually) it has more than 100km of rail roads per 1000 sq km of the territory (https://w3.unece.org/PXWeb/en/CountryRanking?IndicatorCode=47) which gives Germany a second place in the global ranking after Czechia. And in the global ranking of total length of railway lines Germany occupies solid forth place after US, Russia and Canada. Back to 1900 the total length of rail roads in Germany was already 50’000 km. So, no surprise, that one of the first big projects started by German Colonial Authority in Namibia in 1897 was a Staatsbahn (State Railway) from Swakopmund to Windhoek. By 1902 this 380 km narrow-gauge railway line was completed and operated until 1990. The work was done by 290 soldiers and 800 local workers and managed by four officers. The journey from Swakopmund to Windhoek took ten days in the period before the railroad and it was shortened by train to two days, yet the travel speed was less than 14 km/h.

I discovered this story when first time I came to Swakopmund and stayed at Swakopmund Hotel, in the old train station building. The railway station was designed by German architect Ernst Julius Wilhelm Sander (1860–1930) or simply Willi Sander as you can read in the brochure at the hotel and built in 1901. The building is unique in its combination of art nouveau, classical elements of German architecture and colonial style. It’s really impressive and triggered my imagination and thinking on how more than 100 years ago the Staatsbahn project was done. I didn’t discover too much and I left with more questions than answers. The only thing I learnt — it was an outstanding project from project management perspective. You can easily imagine 4 officers and 290 soldiers as well as 800 workers. But, you must take into account it’s not Germany, it’s Namibia and the road is crossing the hot desert. Apart from great engineering you have to bring 380 km multiplied by two = 760 km of rails… from where? From South Africa? From Europe? You need to bring wooden sleepers in the absence of forests around. How much wood would you need? And finally … locomotives. 34 steam locomotives were scheduled to be kept under steam, 20 more were in reserve. Apart from locomotives the road had 7 carriages 1st class, 2 carriages 2nd class, 5 baggage cars, 308 goods wagons, 83 water trucks and finally 50 work and inspection draisines.

I tried to understand the source of supply of locomotives. My primary suspect was South Africa of course. By the start of Staatsbahn project South Africa already had significant net of the railways. But all I discovered is that locomotives to South Africa were shipped from Europe (at least till 1911), starting with the first one which came from England in 1859. So most probably the whole supply of locomotives, carriages, cars, rails and sleepers came from Germany. The project was completed just in 5 years. Now you just need to add the absence of internet, computers and modern machinery and imagine the level of project management of some unknown (at least I don’t know who was it) German managers.

Let’s take a step back now and think what made the Staatsbahn project a success. Few things I think. First, of course, the experience with similar projects in Germany. In the end of the day, 50 thousand kilometres railways built is a great experience. Then, obviously vision, planning, reliable supply, resources, clear goals, commitment and dedication. Time management certainly. Team work. Also I’m thinking of adaptability and agility in a sense that all the conditions were very different from those people use to experience in Germany. And all components are becoming even more clear if you compare Staatsbahn project with “Martin Luther” project which happened exactly at the same time and in the same place.

When one day following my story you will come to Namibia and Swakopmund, among all the sights you will find a Martin Luther (Steam tractor) Museum. Indeed it’s black steam tractor staying lonely in 3 km from the hotel I just described on the outskirts of Swakopmund on the edge of the desert. And here is the story. Back in 1895 two years before Staatsbahn project took off First Lieutenant Edmund Troost was solving the same problem: acceleration of freight service between Swakopmund and Windhoek, for which ox wagons had been used. The logic of Edmund Troost was unbeatable. He decided that in the absence of railway the best solution will be steam-driven tractor which could replace oxen. So, the tractor was built in 1895 in Leeds, West Yorkshire and immediately shipped first to Hamburg and then to Swakopmund. However, when it came to destination point it was found that the offloading facilities could not cope with the locomotive’s weight of 14 tonnes, and the ship continued 30 km to the south to Walvis Bay, where the tractor could be offloaded. By that time Troost had some other priorities and left to Cape Town for the next four months. When he came back he discovered that the driver hired to drive the tractor, who came together with the machine left already for Europe. It took Troost 3 months! to bring tractor to Swakopmund because: firstly, it was too heavy and was sinking in sand almost every 50 metres and secondly, it required enormous quantities of water to operate. Finally upon arrival the tractor indeed transported few loads to the neighbouring farms but shortly due to incorrect handling got broken and had been left at the place you can find it today. One of the local resident one day said referring to the tractor — “Here I stand, I can do no other”, so the nick name Martin Luther forever stuck with the unlucky machine.

So, clear picture of project failure. Very limited vision with no connection to the modern developments, certainly miscommunication with the originators of Staatsbahn project or simply ignorance. Than of course we see lack of proper planning and preparation, lack of commitment (trip to Cape Town). Also, simply the scale, support and resources were incomparably smaller.

The last time I have been in Swakopmund was more than 10 years ago and since that time I always keep the memory of those two projects as a benchmark of how I shall and how I shall not run my projects.

Closer to midnight, the streets of New York filled with large black plastic bags with garbage, huge, like everything in America, blue garbage trucks appear with the inscription — “We help to keep the planet green for a hundred years” and with the help of workers in green outfit, garbage bags disappear into the bowels of machines.

Closer to midnight, the streets of New York filled with a large number of nice-looking women in short black dresses and huge, like everything in America, white and black limousines. Girls on the high heels disappear into the bowels of limousines and nightclubs, which are in numbers all around my hotel on Legsington Avenue.

I wake up early morning, slide up the window and see the street, fussy taxis (at any time of the day), the lights of offices and shops below. My room is not that high, just on the eighth floor and I hear the sounds of the police cars and the ambulances. From the lobby on he ground floor there is a door to Starbucks, so my morning starts her with the coffee and with the cup of coffer in my hand I dive into the noise of the street to join thousands of office people running to the work with the same Starbacks’s cups in their hands. The sun just came out, the sky is absolutely clear and sunlight is gleaming in the glass of skyscrapers and I imagine myself walking along a gorge flooded with light. It’s my day off and I have one-to-one meeting with New York. I go the the Park Avenue, turn right and then up to the north, watching doors. Art nouveau doors of the skyscrapers in New York is my passion. On 61st street I turn left and in a few minutes I see the Central Park. Now left again to the famous 5th Avenue and down down to 53rd street, here there is my first destination of today — MoMa with 2 exhibitions.

This time MoMa welcomed me with the performance of Marina Abramovich at the very entrance. On the floor in a quadrant outlined by a white line, two people are sitting opposite of each other under the spotlights. They don’t do anything, just looking at each other. The people around are watching. Someone sits, someone lies, someone stays. After a while, it starts to seem that everything around is a part of this performance and we are all participants. I’m moving further. Naked woman slowly raises and lowers her arms, the explanation says that she controls the flow of energy. A naked girl lies, a skeleton lies on her. The explanation says that when she breathes, the skeleton moves, as if it also breathes, and this unity symbolizes her reconciliation with death. In the aisle, a naked guy and a girl are standing close to each other, the description says that everyone who wants can go through them, but there was no one who dares, neither I. Another couple, a guy and a girl are standing and pointing fingers at each other, slowly, so that it is not noticeable, they bring their fingers closer and, in theory, should touch each other in a few hours (energy is saved, as it is written in explanation)…

In the bookstore I found a book that I did not buy a year ago! Bought it now. On the fifth floor there is an exhibition of photography, the author artist travelled a lot and now presenting his pictures at the exhibition named “20th century old and new world”. I see pictures of China and Soviet Union in the 1950s and 1970s: empty shops, babushkas in Suzdal collect water from the frozen winter river from the hole in the ice. I walked for a long time there but those babushkas with the water touched something in me…

From MoMa I go to Times Square for the Broadway musicals tickets, but the whole square is blocked by the police. Something had happened there, I didn’t understand what, but everything was blocked. I made my way to the toy store and when I was out the police left and I happily joint the queue. At three o’clock the box office opened and at half past four I already have a ticket to Chicago musical. Now I go down to Penn Station for a ticket to Philadelphia. My friend lives in Philadelphia and he invited me to visit for a day. Penn Station turned out to be an unreal underground labyrinth but I ended up buying a ticket pretty quickly in the terminal.

My final destination for today is a Brooklyn bridge. From Penn station I’m coming back to Broadway and follow the Broadway to the very south. I’m passing by Madison Square, Flatiron Building, then I’m on Union Square and can’t resist not to go quickly to my favourite Barnes & Noble and of course 10 minutes become 1 hour floating between the floors and reading the books. Right after the Union Square there is another book store — Strand Book Store, here there are second hands books. I go further down and see pointed spire of my NY favourite Grace Church. Numbers of the streets goes down to 1 and now Broadways is crossing Houston street, Prince, Spring, Broom, Grand, Canal and I’m entering Tribeca. City Hall Park and all the building around is one of my favourite spots. If you happen to be in New York one summer day and like me come to City Hall Park, please find a small coffee shop Blue Spoon Coffee on the intersection of Broadway and Chambers Street (76 Chambers Street is exact address), take my favourite Honey Lavender Latte and sit on the bench in the Park next to fountain.

From Jacob Wrey fountain to the middle of the Brooklyn bridge is exactly 1 mile or 30 min relaxed walking. There is a very convenient wooden promenade in between the traffic lines and I easily go to the middle. I love this place. Sun is going down and I see skyscrapers of Finance districts coloured red-gold from behind. I see the flow of East River and the boats and ferries. I see Brooklyn side. And I feel the vibe of the bridge, I feel the vibrations beneath me, gigantic energy and for a moment I believe the bridge is alive. I always admired the architecture and design of the bridge, its sophisticated net of steel cables and powerful yet elegant towers. Brooklyn Bridge was opened for use on May 24, 1883 and it took 14 years to build it. The construction was not a walk in the park at all. You may read the history of Brooklyn Bridge it really worths your timing. Almost all possible challenged occurred during construction including the death of main engineer in the very beginning, issues with caissons, fire, challenges of suspension towers, death of workers, issue with the quality of the cables and timing, disagreements between trustees, opposition from shipbuilders and merchants and so on and so on…

I’m staying in the middle of Brooklyn Bridge and thinking of the complexity of the whole construction and what did it take to manage this project. So, while we are on the bridge enjoying sunset let’s think of a bridges like projects. In my opinion bridges represent the ideal model of the project management. Every such a project is unique. It’s multi-functional, complex, sophisticated, piece of art. Usually the reality is different from the plan and you need to adapt and adjust on the way. Very often (always?) it takes more time than is was planned. It has the beginning and it has the very distinct finish line. It’s not a short term adventure. It has very distinct vision and mission — connecting the sides. And it’s almost always successful. I learnt many useful tips about project management simply reading the history of Brooklyn Bridge planning and construction.

Also from the Brooklyn Bridge story I learnt one very obvious but very often ignored observation. 600 workers were building the bridge and on a first day after opening, some 1.800 vehicles and 150.000 people crossed the bridge … so simple — users and builders were different people. It’s primitive idea, but one people are building and other people are using. Funny fact — nobody expected those pedestrians or car drivers to build the bridge. It was done by professionals for the users. Now, please answer to yourself openly, how many times in your professional life you have been asked by the managers to run “another great project” on top of your current activities? I even remember one manager of mine showing the picture of the plane under-construction in his presentation and saying proudly that “we build as we fly”. Of course in some cases projects and project management is an essence of the job, but in some cases not. I believe very often we tend to forget that the users of the bridge and constructors are two different groups of people and we ask pedestrians to build the bridge as they cross the river. Never works well indeed.

So far as you may noticed we are progressing and travel from very simple “fishing” project to much more sophisticated “Staatsbahn” and even more complicated “Brooklyn bridge” project. All those projects represent for me successful model of project management, where there is distinct start and the end exists, vision is clear, roles are defined, “workers” and “users” are split. You may spend some time to reflect and more and more distinct features of successful project will come out. But this chapter would be incomplete if I would avoid talking the failures and what unsuccessful project look like.

I try to estimate the amount of cities I personally been into. I’ve been in 79 countries so far, so the amount of cities should be roughly 250–300. Very often I hear the question about my favourite city. I do not have favourites, I connected with all the cities by common memories, feelings, people, cuisines. I like it all. If you ask me where I may like to live for a long term I would say all big cities in Europe than New York, Miami, Istanbul, Moscow, St. Pete, Joburg, Cape Town, Shanghai… So, I’m a “city person”, I like cultural diversity of big cities, history, vibe and energy.

Cape Town is the second largest city in South Africa. The city is dominated by the famous Table Mountain where the clouds sit. I love to stay in one of the hotels at Waterfront, open the window in the early morning and listen the sounds of seagulls and watch those cloud on Table Mountain slowly slowly sliding down. The waterfront is a former port converted into hotels, restaurants and shopping centers — everything is arranged very picturesquely on the water. Under the mountain there is distinct old town full of 19th century administrative buildings and squares, historical buildings, greenery, monuments, restaurants, and nightclubs. One of the best possible looks is a look at Cape Town at night from a height next to the place where the lift to the table mountain begins — the sea of ​​lights is under you, the port is a rare beauty. The city surrounded by the suburbs, where most of the people actually live. Villages and towns with one-story houses, gardens, estates, farms, some of them still grow grapes and make wine. From the south of Cape Town there is the Cape of Good Hope and the road to it of incredible beauty. To the north is the road to Namaqualand, a desert area that blooms in September. Once upon a time the Huguenots left Cape Town to the northeast, there are vineyards, there is Stelenbosch and Paarl, Huguenot pass and Frenschhoek. There the road to Joburg begins and goes through the mountains to the Orange River and further to the north. To the east there are townships of Guguletu and Kaolitcha — there are several million inhabitants in tin boxes, and there the road to Durban starts going by the “garden route”. My favorite place in the Cape is, perhaps, the ocean shore, which is under the “12 Apostles”. “12 Apostles” is the name of the mountain — the spur of Table mounting. The ocean here breaks against the coastal rocks (this is a rocky coast), leaving clouds of foam against the background of emerald slopes, it smells of the ocean, calmness, serenity.

Can we look at the city as the project? Why not? Let’s jump to it. What would be special about Cape Town as a project? Its started back in 17th century with the clear vision to be a fort and a “pit stop” for the ships of Dutch United East India Company (Verenigde Oost-indische Compagnie) on their way to India and back. The small fort initially was designed to supply ships with the water and food and also to do some necessary maintenance. Then things changed and Cape became a colony. Vision changed from “pit stop” to colony, thus the city started to changed following new vision. Any new phase of the history brought changes in the vision. Any other time new development didn’t start “from scratch” but was rather aiming to adapt the existing reality to the current and future needs. Very rare the city construction as a project was run by one person from the beginning to the end… simply because there is no end. So, typically every city construction is a never ending project with constantly changing vision, conditions and resources available run by the people living in the city.

Can city be successful as a project? I think “yes” and “no” at the same time. It’s a journey and at the end of the day some parts of this journey may be successful for sure, but as a whole project city always fails and starts experiencing traffic issues, pollution, crime, quality (or simply availability as it’s in the case of Cape Town) of the water and so on and so on. All (or at least majority) of the cities I know are now used differently from what they were designed for, not in line with the initial vision. Planning is abandoned and changed with time. But also, looking at the city you know and you love, you may notice one more thing — they keep been attractive and loved by the people. They are full of joy and positive energy. I wonder why? Probably because the inhabitants don’t look at the city as a project, they just live there, they live at their home, making it more continent, cozy, nicer, happier place to be. Coming back to the business, many time I saw when project failed people were still continuing to do what they believe is right thing to do and it changed everything.

In the end of this chapter I want to share another dimension of the project with you. It’s a trip as a project. Usually I plan every my trip as a project with the start and the end, agenda (those who know me, know my obsession with the agendas) and the outcome. So, here we go.

I’ll tell you how to go around the World in just six hours. In the morning I leave Joburg. The Joburg-Durban road N3 is unique — been 600 km long it descends from the plateau and passes through all climatic zones. As if you are going through different countries or even continents. In the beginning it’s cloudy all the way. Suburbs come first, then small towns. The names are remarkable and connected to the other life at the other continents. We pass Heidelberg, Villiers, turn to Frankfort, Mooibuilt, Mooiwater. The area really looks like Germany south of Frankfurt. Small hills, covered with the trees and bush, estates on the hills, valleys with the villages and high spiels of churches in towns along the roadside. The road goes down and down slowly. The landscape is smoothed out and becomes similar to the one in the vicinity of Krasnodar on the South of Russia. There are endless fields with wheat, corn, cows grazing, ostriches here and there. After one hour of drive the land begins to “wrinkle”, hills appear again, but now it looks like Toscany. The same colors with the smell of grass and some other flowers. I go further and come to the southern Italy, the hills are getting higher and now they look like ones between Rome and Naples. Farms and small towns in the distance come across. Through rare gaps in the clouds, the sun beats and plays with all the colors of green and light yellow. Suddenly a mountain rises. Absolutely flat top and vertical slopes. There are many mountains. This is Texas. Flat top mountains stand on a flat plain and the road goes downhill among them. The tops are rocky. The slopes are emerald green. The clouds are hanging so low that I think may touch it with my hand. The earth “wrinkles” are like the skin on a bag. The clouds are getting lower and it feels like there is nothing further. Another five hundred, four hundred, one hundred meters … end of the world.

Feeling doesn’t deceive. This is the edge of the plateau and a sharp descent begins. The road goes down from a height of 1690 meters to 1000 meters down. Clouds hover over the edge of the plateau. A view opens down from a kilometer height. In the distance, as far as the eye can see, an emerald plain bathed in the sun, herds of cows, horses, and on the horizon the Drakensberg Mountains. These are the Midlands. I go down, during the descent, the temperature rises from twenty to thirty degrees, tropical plants, cactuses, succulents appear. Middle lands. The sun. Summer.

I go off the main road and drive through the heart of the middle lands to the foot of the Drakensberg Mountains. Deserted. In rare villages, more and more round houses with thatched roofs come across — this is a traditional dwelling. Mountain rivers are in the crevices. Everything around is unrealistically green. Giant boulders lie on the mountain slopes as if the giants were playing and abandoning everything. The tops of the mountains are absolutely flat rocks. Dragons live here as per the legend. At night in winter, when snow falls, they warm their nests by exhaling fire and these flashes of fire can be seen far in the mountains on the peaks. Or maybe it’s just the villagers burning fires. But for some reason the mountains are called “dragon”. Making the loop I go back the the main road and keep driving to the south and in couple of hours I reach Durban with it’s tropical flavors, colors and the ocean.

What did I learn looking at different dimensions of the project as a way of thinking and approaching things? It never hurt to see the life through the glasses of project management. It’s probably absolutely necessary to build the railroad or the bridge. You can even bring project management mentality to the city and make a step change like Haussmann did in Paris in the second part of 19th century. But very often when project is way too complex, long term and conditions are volatile, may be the best way to handle it is to keep moving in the decided direction and at the same time let people do what they believe the right things to do and it may mitigate all the failures of the project management…