Just spent a week hiking Salkantay Summit and the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu with three teenager sprogs 🥴
( ÜberHub yOuR SpOiLiNG mY aEsTheTIc sHoT !! aGaIN! 😡 )
ANYWAY. Here’s what the trip taught me about project delivery:
🦙 Scope creep starts before the kickoff meeting.
“Why aren’t we doing a beach holiday” was raised just before we left for the airport. This did not trigger a change request, because the plane was already booked and non-refundable. 💸
🦙 Executive sponsorship is not the same as executive buy-in.
I sponsored this.
I funded this.
I did not, at any point, have buy-in.
And believe me, I paid for this, in more ways than one 😅
🦙 Communication cadence/channel matters more than content.
Nobody read the itinerary I painfully printed out, folded and put in their packs😒
BUT, everybody read the WhatsApp messages that had hourly schedule Claude produced from guide briefing transcripts that had emojis. ⏰ 🥤 🦙 🍔
🦙 The most senior person in the room is not always the decision maker.
That was the fourteen-year-old, holding the portable charger.
🦙 Risk mitigation looks like bribery, and that’s fine.
Altitude sickness, fatigue and one memorable strop at 3,800 metres were all successfully de-risked with the promise of alpaca-themed merchandise at the summit.
We made it though! 💪🏻
There was a lot of drama-llama (and soooo many bad puns 🙄 )
BUT. Everyone’s still speaking to each other.
The Wonder of the World held up its end of the bargain rather better than the stakeholders did.
Would recommend.
Would not necessarily repeat without a signed statement of work.
🚍 Now on a 10hr bus journey to Lake Titicaca.
USB power.
Dad’s hot-spot.
Snacks.🍫🧁🍌
Ahhh. Peace and quiet… At least for the next 10 hours 😁
#ProjectManagerInfluencerOnHoliday
