Moving from technical work to management work, project managers soon realize they have lots to learn about managing people. Managing is simply not doing more of the work they did as producers. The transition shows that they lack much of the required knowledge and many skills that effective mangers need. Worst still, behaviours and attitudes that had been assets (such as a hands-on aggressive approach and reliance on immediate feedback and reward) are now liabilities. Slowly but surely they see each unnerving revelation, and they ask themselves how they could ever succeed?

They like managerial work less than they expected. It seems who they were was the antithesis of who they need to be now and they simply do not have the competencies they need to be managers. So, as they begin to appreciate what it means to be a manager of people; their performance anxiety grows.

This is nothing new, most people making the transition from technical work to a managerial role go through these pains, but often on their own, not knowing it is a natural progression. So for many the promotion to management startles the managers into facing themselves and coming to grips with their own limitations. They have to confront unpleasant realities about themselves as they received feedback from others about how they were perceived.

This whole story is nicely summarized in the film as Columbus has to overcome his phobia of clowns and his rule of “playing it safe” in order to rescue the girl.

The Goal Obsession

In the film, set in post-apocalyptic America, there is a dwindling supply of processed food and sidekick Tallahassee is driven only by the search for Twinkie snacks. The single minded pursuit of a goal is another common trait, and in fact flaw, in project managers.

“When the project is done, that’s when we can celebrate!” is a mindset shared by many project managers. However it is short sighted and actually counter-productive. Yes, we need an end goal, but we should not focus only on that point. Instead we need to recognize people and contributions throughout the project. Celebrations only at the end are too little, too late that will likely never occur unless we do more through the project. We need to build a sense of momentum into the team by regular recognition so that when they encounter a problem on the project they have the energy to push it to one side or go around it. People left without regular recognition will become disheartened and listless (like zombies in a vegetarian store.)

As Victoria Sandvig, of Charles Schwab says:  “Ceremonies, celebrations, and rituals are not about the event. They’re about touching the hearts and souls of every employee.”  We need to celebrate achievements frequently to keep people energized. When my current project (a project restart) reached 25% complete we took the team out and gave them a newly minted 25 cent coin in a thank you card to mark the quarter way point. The gift may be trivial, but the action and recognition was very deliberate.

Anyway, go out and see Zombieland if you like gore and deadpan humour. Heck, expense it as project management training or take the team! It contains some great project analogies and can be watched on many levels, but is best viewed with you brain left at the door, but no, wait, what about those zombies!