11.3A Good Man in a Storm

How easy do you think it is to identify people who respond to challenges?

In addition to acting as a cheerleader, what other important roles does Tom West suggest a project manager play?

page 405 SNAPSHOT FROM PRACTICE 11.3 A Good Man in a Storm Once upon a time, back in 1976. Data General (DG) Corporation needed to come up quickly with a fast, reasonably priced, 32-bit mini-computer to compete with Digital Equipment Corporation's VAX. Data General CEO Edson de Castro launched the Fountainhead project and gave it the best people and ample resources to complete the 32-bit initiative. As a back-up to the Fountainhead project, DG created the Eagle project within the Eclipse group under the leadership of Tom West. Work on both projects began in 1978 In 1980 Data General announced its new computer, featuring simplicity, power, and low cost. This computer was not the Fountainhead from the well-funded "best DG group but the Eagle from Tom West's underfunded Eclipse team. Tracy Kidder saw all this happen and told the story in the Soul of a New Machine, which won a Pulitzer Prize in 1982. This book, which Kidder thought might be of interest to a handful of computer scientists, has become a project management classic. In the beginning of his book, Kidder introduces the book's protagonist, Tom West, by telling the story of him sailing a yacht across rough seas off the coast of New England. Kidder's title for the prologue was "A Good Man in a Storm." Twenty years after Kidder's book was published, Tom West was interviewed by Lawrence Peters for the Academy of Management Executive. The following are some excerpts that capture West's views on managing innovative projects. On selecting team members: You explain to a guy what the challenge was, and then see if his eyes light up. On motivating team members: Challenge was everything. People, especially creative technical people who really want to make a difference will do whatever is possible or whatever necessary. I've done this more than once, and I've repeated over and over seems to work On the importance of having a vision: You've got to find a rallying cry. You need to have something that can be described very simply and has that sort of ring of truth to an engineer that says yes that's the thing to be doing right now." Otherwise you're going to be rolling rocks up hill all the time. On the role of being a project manager: You have to act as a cheerleader. You have to act as the instructor. You have to constantly bring to mind what the purpose is and what's moving the ball towards the goal post, and what's running sideways, and you have to take up a lot of battles for them. I mean you really don't want your design engineer arguing with the guy in the drafting shop about why he ought to do it the designer's way. I can do that, and I can pull rank too, and sometimes I did just that Tracy Kidder, The Soul of a New Machine (New York: Avon Books, 1981): Lawrence H. Peters, "A Good Man in a Storm: An Interview with Tom West," Academy of Management Executive vol. 16, no. 4 (2002). pp. 42-43