Early Thanksgiving

It was a good day. A Monday, but nevertheless a good day. A day of meetings where the project owners weren't around because the were either resting from or promoting their own causes to external parties. Only myself and my boss' next in command was left to chair the country meetings in the afternoon. My boss wasn't around as she had been "working like a demon" as my colleague aptly described, and was taking a well deserved break with her family. So today, the 2 of us were chairing other peoples' meetings and helping them make sure that their programs were being properly run in countries while our own work was sitting in our laptops. I could literally feel the tasks that were pending glaring at me, with crossed arms and deeply knitted brows, tapping their feet while waiting for me to start work on them. BUT - It was still a good day. Even if it is a Monday and one spent helping to keep other peoples' projects on track.

Why? Because a project I had been chasing after for ownership finally fell on my plate. It wasn't a political move, merely a practical one. If I could have followed the plans of global, and turned my eyes (and heart!) away from the faults of the project, my life would have been much cushier. But it was a project I couldn't live with if it had continued at status quo. So while my initial objective was getting our head office to fix it, it eventually turned into a tussle for ownership of the project when it was found that global's arms were tied due to resources and some political considerations.

My boss and I had worked as a team - with me pressing the project owner on deliverables required by AP within the required timeline, while my boss rallied support from "higher powers" i.e. our VP of marketing. Today, we were finally awarded ownership of the project for until global cleaned up its act...

Don't be mistaken though - all the deliverables I had used to press global to wrestle for ownership - have now become MY deliverables. If I were in my previous company with the level of control and dexterity that I had, I would have been full of confidence. I must admit that working in an MNC with its share of stakeholders and fragmented business units presented a challenge in terms of coordination & strategy. But I'm prepared. It's going to be a hectic 2006 - or what's left of it. This site project has landed on my plate at the same time that a few other major projects have, on top of my new role of program management "overseer", if you will.

I'm praying hard that my passion will give me the energy I need to pull my projects through. AND that as I revive the exercise program I need, that my health will cooperate and not keel over without permission.