Another post by Boaz Rauchwerger at BoazPower.com inspired me to think about the successes and failures that project workforce managers encounter, and how we handle them.  Boaz describes a bank he visited that had an elaborate system of security doors that forced him to stop and wait while one door closed before the next door would open. He writes:

While between the two security doors I had to stop everything for a few seconds. I had to let the door of the past, the one behind me, close completely before the door the future, the one in front of me, would open.

I think that too much of the time we drag things from our past and let them affect our future.

The entire article is posted here.

This is a valuable lesson for our lives in general, but it is particularly applicable to people who manage projects and workforces.  Every planned project has milestones and deliverables, kick-offs and post-mortems, beginnings and endings. These are the doors we all pass through to get our work done.

I often see project leaders and teams, after they have trouble on a project (and we all do), get stuck between doors. They dwell for too long on the missed opportunity, and lose sight of what is relevant here and now. They don’t let the door to the past close behind them so that they can focus on delivering the next project better.

Likewise, when successful milestones are not celebrated and shared, then the good experiences can be left behind as the doors close behind us.

I encourage project workforce managers to think of the tasks and milestones on their project plans like doors that are opening and closing.  Manage what passes through them carefully.