A tragic airplane crash

Scene 1

Just imagine, you are Richard Fork and the captain of a passenger plane. The owner of the airline is onboard of today´s flight. You have received the order to land on an airfield that is in a war zone. Even though your CEO (and owner of the airline) orders you to land, based on safety considerations, you decide to change your flight route to an alternate airport that is in a war-free area. Three weeks later you find a letter of termination on your desk.

Scene 2

Now imagine, you are Peter Bond and also the captain of a passenger plan. You are ordered to land on an airport in an area of very difficult weather. Your CEO (owner of the airline) orders you to land. You know that your colleague, Richard Fork, has been fired. Even though you are fully aware of the very difficult conditions at the destination airport, you decide to make a landing attempt. Consequently, the airplane crashes and all people on board lose their lives.

Project realities

Many project managers have a very analytical approach to their projects and plan the project diligently together with their project team. Once planning is finished, risk management is being performed during project execution. Project managers are comparable with pilots. Both professions have responsibilities and perform their work diligently. Even though the project has been planned very carefully, top management makes a very bad decision right over the project manager´s head. What would you decide if you were the project manager? Would you accept being fired or rather risk a very tragic ending for your team? Please give us an honest answer!

An assortment of your evaluation:

... If I were that pilot I would land the plane in a safer place, full well knowing that I might be fired.
My reasoning behind this is that I (as pilot) have made a vow for the safety of my passenges. Regardless of why the CEO says to me to land, for which he has his reasons, I still need to look myself in the mirror. There are worse things then being fired for the in my eyes right reasons, then responsible for the harming/death of others for reasons beyond my understanding.

... It is a matter of principle and your own project management judgment. I would like to linked it to how the Muslim sees the world in general where we are the vicegerent in this world where all our intention and action shall be accountable for in the hereafter. Taking calculated risk is part of the PM jobs and responsibility, we planned and we execute to the best of our ability and knowledge plus technology know how. The rest lets due course takes into action.

... an you compare project managers with airline pilots? I have read the newsletter, and so did a couple of my colleagues. We had a lot of discussions about the question, if a project manager could be compared with an airline pilot. As far as I am concerned - yes, you can. I was project manager of a major development project in the aerospace industry (name and country withheld). One day, my secretary found a document on the copy machine that obviously was forgotten by our project administrator. It was a bank statement from his personal account, stating the transfer of major amounts - directly from our project budget to his account. I couldn't believe what I saw. Unfortunately, quite recently, a very comparable event had happened in another company, which was published everywhere. A large amount of money from a landmark project was embezzled by a leading administrative executive using it to finance his new home. After attempts to cover up by company officials, the project manager decided to 'blow the whistle' and to inform the authorities, causing a major scandal. In the end, the CEO and a number of leading executives were fired and the company underwent a major restructuring, because other irregularities were discovered as well. After some time, the project manager was mobbed and finally removed from the project (in my opinion, clearly for made-up reasons) and finally left the company. Unfortunately, even when being right, whistle blowers are very unpopular. After consulting with a number of people I summoned the administrator to a formal face-to-face meeting telling him that he was fired from my project and that I would report him to our steering board. Immediately after that I got a call from my line-boss, who was furious. He told me very clearly that I was not to report this to anyone nor to the board in particular (in clear violation of my duties within the project organization). So the administrative guy obviously had complained about me. The division had serious financial trouble for quite some time. Now it became obvious that they tried to use our project budget to recover financial losses from the previous fiscal period. Even though I realized my situation, I decided to file a long and detailed report. I personally handed it over to the president of the board. After a number of meetings he told me that the board had decided to report their findings to the CEOs of all consortium companies. The administrator was removed immediately, soon after my line-boss resigned from his position by 'his own wish'. I also learned that the CEO of my company was not amused because of the damaged reputation of our company within the consortium. Apparently, I was not supposed to 'piss in our own nest', even though I never got any official word. Well, I was able finish my project. It became very successful. We met every single objective, well within time and budget. Me and my team, we even won a major national price competing with other industrial projects. Shortly after the project, my new line-boss called me to a personal meeting and told me that my time as project manager as well as head of a department were over. He made me a job offer to work as his 'executive office manager', a position well known as a 'dead zone'. Never had an office manager in our division ever gotten any major responsibilities other than administrative duties. After leaving the company I got a very attractive offer by an American company. Today, I am living and working in the United States. Looking back, I don't regret my decision.