Sometimes, no matter how prepared you may think that you are at doing what you do so well, you can still be surprised. Such was the case in doing a highly distilled one-day Project Management seminar for a company that does interiors and retrofits for private business jets. My expectation was that I would be talking a group of project managers that worked on Learjets, Dassault Falcons or maybe a GIII or GIV. Such was not the case.
Within thirty minutes of starting the program, I knew that I was going to have to abandon the norm and dig deep and give a program that was atypical. There were seven project managers and the COO. The company did do retrofits and interiors for private business jets. There were six or seven in the hangers. The smallest was a Boeing BBJ (737), a 767 for a head of state, and a private 747 for a Middle Eastern Prince that had changed the spiral staircase to one modeled after “Tara” in Gone With the Wind. I went through them all except for the 767 that was roped off, with armed guards. The interiors ranged from $10m to $50m not counting avionics and engines. The PM’s all drove to work on tricked motorbikes, they slammed espresso’s all day and were obviously adrenaline junkies. I learned all sorts of things that I didn’t know before. Some Middle Eastern heads of state travel with a “live donor”, as in available for heart transplant if needed. I learned that the insulation making the plane ultra quiet and the speed of delivery were the two most important drivers. The day for me was exhilarating. I had to dig deeper than I ever have on a project management program. Never stop learning. You don’t know what might come up next. Soon I will share they most important points I gave to that great group of PM’s.
