Dude! We're Gettin' the Gang Back Together!

This weekend, my wife is dragging me has asked me to escort her to her 20th high school reunion.  All weekend long, I will be cursed regaled with mundane and boring exhilarating and adventuresome stories about growing up in her hometown.  At least there will be other spouses there... and maybe a cash bar.

Seriously, reunions are important elements of our socialization.  Sharing stories is a craft as old as the ages, and remembering all of the silly antics.of our youth can be an enjoyable walk down memory lane.

Even in a project setting, reunions are important.  The obvious reunion should occur before disbanding even takes place.  It is the lessons learned session.  Even if you are a project of one person, sit down and document all of those Homer Simpson D'OH moments that you wish you could do over, as well as those choirs-of-angels-singing-in-celebration-of-all-you-did-right moments.  My preferred method is the start-stop-continue approach:

• Start:  What didn't you do that you wished you had done?

• Stop:  What did you do that you wished you hadn't done?

• Continue:  What did you do right that you will keep doing?

While the important benefit of a lessons learned session is external reuse, the ability to have a "reunion" and share stories is important to the internal project team as well.  Stephanie Barnes refers to these "after action" meetings, and she shares the following:

Even if no one outside of the project team uses the lessons learned it’s important for the project team to do the analysis. Sometimes things are happening so quickly on the project that team members need to take a few minutes once the project is done to tie everything together. Once all the tasks are complete they can see the big picture of what actually happened and the consequences of certain actions and decisions so they can learn and do things differently next time, make new mistakes rather than repeating the same ones time and again. I know I like to make new and improved mistakes rather than the same old ones.

I also like to keep in touch with various members of project teams long after the project has completed.  There are some teams which were together for many months, and I try to keep in touch with my teammates through various forms of networking:  lunches, coffee, LinkedIn, Facebook, or Twitter.  It's helpful for me to be reminded of the project stories (the good, the bad, and the ugly) which have made me the project manager I am.

So dust off those year books status reports and get in touch with your former teammates.  Reunions can be fun... no, really!

Carpe Factum!