| Don't get me wrong, the oil spill in the Gulf is one of | | | | sudden? I would now have one of the largest scope |
| the worst disasters our country has seen since | | | | additions ever. How would I proceed? Well, when you |
| hurricane Katrina (Especially since Seagrove Beach on | | | | are losing two hundred thousand gallons of oil a day |
| Highway 30-A is one of my favorite places in the | | | | you have to act fast. I would probably want to |
| world). However, I have to wonder what I would | | | | establish a command center where I could have joint |
| thinking if I was the project manager assigned to | | | | operations with various government agencies, |
| digging that well. Hopefully with such a high dollar | | | | industry partners, and volunteers (staffed around the |
| project, risk mitigation would have been at the | | | | clock). With such a complicated problem to solve I |
| forefront of my mind. I must have had the thought | | | | would immediately need to identify the world's leading |
| of "The well could explode, killing everyone, and | | | | experts and get them on my team, the human |
| creating a monumental contamination problem; thus | | | | resource plan would be very important. Another key |
| causing loss of life, costing millions--- if not billions--- | | | | aspect of planning for this situation would be an |
| and damaging our companies reputation beyond | | | | amazing communications plan. The coordination |
| belief" on my risk register. Or maybe I didn't, maybe | | | | amongst such a large team alone would be mind |
| this was one of those unknown-of-unknowns that is | | | | boggling, but the need to get information to the |
| the reason we set aside a management reserve. | | | | public about our progress would be essential. |
| Though, I seriously doubt the customary ten percent | | | | What would you do if you were the project |
| is going to cover it this time. | | | | manager in this situation? Would you rise to the |
| So hindsight is 20/20 and the point is not whether I | | | | occasion and do all that you could to help the |
| could have predicted this situation and put an | | | | situation? Would you give up, change your name, get |
| appropriate mitigation strategy in place. But what if I | | | | plastic surgery, and move to another country? Let's |
| were the person responsible for working on this | | | | hope that we never find ourselves in this type of |
| team in the Gulf and this disaster happened all of a | | | | situation. |