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| They started "Trust me, Iwill get itright," Isaid, and so it became with whom I had a running joke. Every time the Marshall group worried clashed was checking to wonder out loud, out loud about being quoted accurately, Ihad into the same hotel at "Is Harvey going io to look them in the eye and say, "Trust the same time. I am a me." Probably the last word anyone said at person of relatively get it right?" that meeting was, "Well, I guess we will small stature, i.e. have to trust Harvey then." short. This person was easily a foot taller, or at least "Don't worry, he'll get it right," the other he seemed to be a foot taller, and easily a hundred people on the Lewis team reassured them. pounds heavier. He heard my name at the check-in After the meeting Iwent back to my office counter, and he turned to me and, huffing and to try to pull it all together and to honor the puffing, or at least that's my memory of it, put his "trust me" promises Ihad made. hand on my shoulder and said, "You're that guy At the next meeting with the same contin- messing around with the ACDs." gent from Marshall, the head of their delegation, "ttello," Isaid, meekly. "Yes, that's me." Ithink Iwas the project manager, started things off by saying, expecting him to put his hand on my head and squash "In honor of Harvey's trustworthiness, we want to me down into the floor. We chatted for a half-minute present him with this small token of our appreci- maybe, and then we each went our separate ways. ation." She stood up and held up an oversized tee A couple of weeks later, we had the meeting where shirt with "Trust Me" printed on tile front. Iwore I was going to roll out my plan to a group of senior the tee shirt for the rest of the day, which got quite managers. Iworried that this guy was going to be sitting a laugh, and Iwould like to think the Marshall-Lewis around the table and, since he hadn't succeeded in relationship took a turn for the better. crushing me the last time we met, he was going to lose Ihave to give alot of credit to that project manager no time in getting to it now. for bringing in the tee shirt. In the heat of difficult and The night before the meeting I recalled the "Trust sometimes painful negotiations, a little bit of comedy can Me" tee shirt, and how we were able to defuse tensions go a long way towards saying, "let's see if we can't with a little bit of humor. Next morning, just hours remember that we're all on this project together." Ithink, before the meeting, I went out and got a red tee shirt as a result, we did trust each other a little more. It also with bold black letters on the front that said, "Yeah, I'm gave me confidence in my ability to deal with other the guy messing around with the ACDs." Before organizations, and that was something Icertainly needed showing my first slide, Iheld up this tee shirt in front of as time went on. all the senior managers. Everyone laughed and for me it created a comfort zone to get into my presentation and A different time, a different style speak with confidence. A couple of years later, Iwas again working on Space Whenever I do public speaking, I always aim to Station ACDs. I put together a proposal that some make people smile. I've always found it easy to crack people liked and some people didn't. During a series jokes and be funny, i never imagined it would pay off so of meetings, I remember at times feeling as though I importantly in my professional life. • was the only one on my side of the table. There was one senior manager who felt that I was sticking my LESSONS nose in places it didn't belong. He liked the status quo • Smiles and laughter reduce stress. They also renew and made no secret of his distaste for what 1 was energy and trust in ourselves and others. trying to do. • A characteristic of any good project manager is his or Still a relatively junior engineer at the time, I her willingness to challenge the conventional way of began to question my own convictions about what 1 doing things. Use whatever tools you have available, was proposing. Did 1 have what it takes to see this including asense of humor. through to the end? This all came to a head one night when 1 was checking into a hotel in the QUESTION Washington, D.C., area for a meeting at NASA Do you have examples of how you learaed fiom experier_ce, Headquarters. Lo and behold the senior manager especially examples that challenged thestatus quo? ASK 10 FOR PRACTITIONERS BY PRACTITIONERS 11