Hello, I am in (x company) project management training for 3 days! Three fun-filled days of nothing but corporate speak that points out how to manage projects in ways that I already know will never work!!! I am having flashbacks to Total Quality Management training (does anyone remember that? all the rage about 8 years ago).
x company has a brochure in which they lay out all of the core competencies of a project lead. it is an extensive list. my perverted brain immediately turns to satire: core deficiencies needed to survive in the corporate world - suppress all honesty - originality in thought, dress, or conduct in general is not allowed - an active imagination is a liability etc. i'm tired so this isn't coming out with the appropriate "corporate veneer". IE, the purpose of corporations is to systematically supress any veneer of atypicality (deliberate nonsense word) in its employees. The dangers of non-standard behavior cannot be overestimated. originality is not tolerated here at XYZ corporation... when i get time, i'm going to write about this. in the meantime, i wrote down a few buzz-words i heard today: grey zone, the important distinction between project and work effort, gatekeepers of knowledge, capability and maturity model etc. etc. etc. There was a detailed discussion of how you could give someone 200 billion dollars and not get the cure for cancer anyway! a bunch of non-physicians expounding on a topic on which they have no knowledge! par for the course in these things... i am very, very tempted to write a number of documents about this - project management training for what it really accomplishes, post-traumatic stress disorder brought on by boring meetings with earnest consultants making lots of money expounding upon the same old stuff, etc. etc. i love corporations! (anyone read that in the onion? wish i could work there. fortunately, i work for the government so corporate-speak is inflicted upon me only rarely. mary
