Download and Read online, DOWNLOAD EBOOK, [PDF EBOOK EPUB ], Ebooks

download, Read Ebook EPUB/KINDE, Download Book Format PDF

Becoming a Project Leader: Blending Planning,

Agility, Resilience, and Collaboration to Deliver
Successful Projects 1st Edition Alexander Laufer

OR CLICK LINK
https://textbookfull.com/product/becoming-a-
project-leader-blending-planning-agility-
resilience-and-collaboration-to-deliver-
successful-projects-1st-edition-alexander-laufer/

Read with Our Free App Audiobook Free Format PFD EBook, Ebooks dowload PDF
with Andible trial, Real book, online, KINDLE , Download[PDF] and Read and Read
Read book Format PDF Ebook, Dowload online, Read book Format PDF Ebook,
[PDF] and Real ONLINE Dowload [PDF] and Real ONLINE
More products digital (pdf, epub, mobi) instant
download maybe you interests ...

Biota Grow 2C gather 2C cook Loucas

https://textbookfull.com/product/biota-grow-2c-gather-2c-cook-
loucas/

Create Your Successful Agile Project Collaborate

Measure Estimate Deliver 1st Edition Johanna Rothman

https://textbookfull.com/product/create-your-successful-agile-
project-collaborate-measure-estimate-deliver-1st-edition-johanna-
rothman/

Project Management in Practice A Guideline and Toolbox

for Successful Projects 1st Edition M. Daud Alam

https://textbookfull.com/product/project-management-in-practice-
a-guideline-and-toolbox-for-successful-projects-1st-edition-m-
daud-alam/

Successful Project Management How to Complete Projects

on Time on Budget and on Target Fourth Edition Dobson

https://textbookfull.com/product/successful-project-management-
how-to-complete-projects-on-time-on-budget-and-on-target-fourth-
edition-dobson/
Project Management A Systems Approach to Planning
Scheduling and Controlling Harold Kerzner

https://textbookfull.com/product/project-management-a-systems-
approach-to-planning-scheduling-and-controlling-harold-kerzner/

Becoming a Successful Scholar A Practical Guide to

Academic Achievement in the Medical Professions Guido
Filler

https://textbookfull.com/product/becoming-a-successful-scholar-a-
practical-guide-to-academic-achievement-in-the-medical-
professions-guido-filler/

Agility at Any Age Discover the Secret to Balance

Mobility and Confidence Alexander Technique Mary
Derbyshire

https://textbookfull.com/product/agility-at-any-age-discover-the-
secret-to-balance-mobility-and-confidence-alexander-technique-
mary-derbyshire/

Cyber Resilience of Systems and Networks Alexander Kott

https://textbookfull.com/product/cyber-resilience-of-systems-and-
networks-alexander-kott/

The Forex trading course a self study guide to becoming

a successful currency trader 2nd Edition Abe Cofnas

https://textbookfull.com/product/the-forex-trading-course-a-self-
study-guide-to-becoming-a-successful-currency-trader-2nd-edition-
abe-cofnas/
 ALEXANDER LAUFER, TERRY LITTLE,
JEFFREY RUSSELL, AND BRUCE MAAS

BECOMING
A PROJECT

LEADER
BLENDING PLANNING, AGILITY, RESILIENCE, AND
COLLABORATION TO DELIVER SUCCESSFUL PROJECTS
Becoming a Project Leader
 Alexander Laufer • Terry Little
Jeffrey Russell • Bruce Maas

Becoming a Project
Leader
Blending Planning, Agility, Resilience,
and Collaboration to Deliver Successful
Projects
Alexander Laufer Terry Little
University of Wisconsin-Madison, Defense Systems Management College
Madison, Wisconsin, USA Fairfax Station, Virginia, USA
Technion – Israel Institute of Technology Bruce Maas
Haifa, Israel School of Information
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Jeffrey Russell Madison, Wisconsin, USA
Division of Continuing Studies
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Madison, Wisconsin, USA

ISBN 978-3-319-66723-2    ISBN 978-3-319-66724-9 (eBook)

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-66724-9

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017955386

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2018

This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the
whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations,
recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or informa-
tion storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology
now known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does
not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective
laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are
believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors
give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions
that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps
and institutional affiliations.

Printed on acid-free paper

This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature

The registered company is Springer International Publishing AG
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
 Evolving
Planning

Collaborative
Teamwork

Proactive Responsive
Resilience Agility
 Foreword

I am biased. I want to write a foreword that will prompt you to read this book.
I feel that it is a good bias, for worthy reasons, but it is a bias nonetheless. You
see I consider our world a project world. The great challenges and world prob-
lems of our age—whether health care, security, education, space travel, eco-
nomics—are approached through project management. You can be fashionable
and call it another thing, but we solve our great challenges by using methods
for bringing together people from various disciplines and committing to
excellence in performance, speed, and cost.
There is another ingredient of my bias.
It was early in 1991 when I was reassigned to NASA Headquarters in
Washington, DC. I was brought to Headquarters to establish what would
become the NASA Academy of Program Project and Engineering Leadership
(APPEL). At the time, the objective was to establish a formal and systematic
initiative to ensure excellence in programs and projects. Few organizations
cared about project management as a discipline worth committing resources
for learning, development, and talent management. But NASA, immersed in
projects and still recovering from the Challenger disaster, knew it needed to
invest in such resources. I was looking to find a good book for distribution in
new courses we were designing. The problem was that most books in that
time period completely ignored the people and leadership factor in project
management. There was a notion that projects were stable, simple activities
that required defined tools for planning, scheduling, and controlling the envi-
ronment. This was a problem, as NASA projects were dynamic, changing, and
dependent on effective human interaction. As an organization, we were com-
ing off failed projects due to weaknesses in leadership, communication, and
the transfer of knowledge.

vii
viii Foreword

It was after a few years of search that I came across a book by Alexander
Laufer—Simultaneous Management: Managing Projects in a Dynamic
Environment. The book was a revelation. It acknowledged that projects were
complex undertakings placed within uncertain environments and with a
degree of wildness that demanded flexibility, leadership, and an awareness of
the human element. With an emphasis on project complexity and change,
and calls for adaptive planning, intensive communication, and engaged lead-
ership, the book (and author) became a lifelong source of inspiration for me.
The book also hooked me on the power of stories. Throughout it, stories and
vignettes were used to powerfully illustrate concepts through real practitioner
experience.
It is now 20 years later, and there is another new book that I love—Becom-
ing a Project Leader: Blending Planning, Agility, Resilience, and Collaboration to
Deliver Successful Projects. It is a collaboration of Alex, Terry, Jeff, and Bruce.
These are seasoned practitioners of complex projects, valid and evidence-based
research, and leadership. However, it is the wisdom from the book that
prompts my strongest reaction. As I mentioned earlier, we live in an age of
projects. The world needs exemplary project leaders, and we need project
leaders at all levels of an organization and across the entire team spectrum.
The challenges we face are too important not to take this seriously; we must
stack the deck in favor of excellent results.
Becoming a Project Leader offers principles that increase the probability of
project success. Leadership context is provided through the stories of people
who actually work on project missions. They are real people struggling with
complex situations that require collaborative teamwork, adaptive planning,
responsive agility, and proactive resilience. The beauty of projects is that lead-
ership unfolds through people at all places and locations. It is anything but
hierarchical. Solutions come from a broad and distributed team, and therefore
collective knowledge becomes the defining practice of success. The expertise
of a person is not useful unless it is integrated within the total project com-
munity. Consider any project: the breadth of expertise and skills covers dispa-
rate fields from engineering, science, acquisition, safety, design, systems, and
knowledge management. Success is dependent on people collaborating, shar-
ing, arguing, engaging, and integrating. Modern projects are more like orches-
tras creating beautiful collaborative sounds, as opposed to factories that
sequentially produce a part.
Such coordination requires leadership strategies for consistent success.
Becoming a Project Leader offers several principles that a smart organization
will want to employ. First, evolving planning posits a need for project plan-
ning that is adaptive and responsive. Learning-based project planning is a
 Foreword
   ix

critical concept, as project methodology has encountered problems when it

becomes focused on control at the exclusion of learning and adaptability. The
emphasis on agile and lean methodologies is a reaction against controls that
add expense with little learning. Brian Muirhead discusses the danger of for-
mal project reviews that “take an enormous amount of time for the team” and
become “a significant distraction; and even worse, a significant loss in momen-
tum.” A solution is to benefit from the learning offered from reviews through
processes that are flexible and meaningful. In this way planning adds a valued
benefit of learning and some sensitivity to the context.
The second principle is responsive agility and places communication as the
vital competency for a project leader. If you ask an experienced project man-
ager to identify the most critical competency for leading a project, most will
indicate communication. A wonderful example is given in a story about John
Hodge, the first leader for the Space Station Task Force. At the early point of
my career, I worked for Frank Hoban, a great leader who was a member of the
Space Station Task Force, and Frank would share “Hodgie” stories that focused
on an environment that was innovative, unstructured, candid, and communi-
cation intensive. Successful project managers orchestrate a unique “sound” in
which knowledge and passion reverberate without constraint throughout the
project team, promoting responsiveness, movement, energy, immediacy, and
currency of knowledge. You can hear responsive agility even faster than you
can see it.
Third, proactive resilience is about challenging the status quo, proactively
and selectively. This may be the most difficult as it requires finding the balance
between creative insubordination and blind obedience. We know of cases
where projects failed because leadership ignored known problems that
required a response different than the planned direction. We also understand
there are circumstances where trusting the planned direction has resulted in a
positive outcome. How do we handle that balance between planning and
improvisation? The authors offer stories and lessons that point to the impor-
tance of anticipation, courage, and trusting intuition. Proactive resilience also
indicates the importance of responding well and openly to mistakes, mishaps,
and failure. I think of a powerful conversation I had with Bryan O’Connor
during our time at NASA. Bryan is a leader who inspires. One particular deci-
sion of his, which required a courageous stance, prompted me to ask him
where he received his courage. He told me about being a young engineer in
the room during the ill-fated Challenger Space Shuttle mission. He commu-
nicated that there were things not said, things he sensed based on intuition
that he should have found his voice to bring up. Out of that lesson he prom-
ised to always challenge the situation through communication and honesty.
x Foreword

Collaborative teamwork is the principle that reminds us that performance

happens at the team level. This is a simple concept that is often ignored.
During the early years of the NASA Academy, we had wonderful training
courses, career development, and work assignments for individuals. Then in
the late 1990s we had a series of painful failures on Mars missions. At the time
the NASA Administrator, Dan Goldin, pointed out (in a very intensive man-
ner) that we had a mature process for individual development but nothing to
actually support project teams. In fact, many organizations prepare individu-
als well, but offer little on preparing project teams. The importance of col-
laborative teamwork is offered through many stories in Becoming a Project
Leader, and the description of successful team members by Frank Snow seems
particularly relevant. He says the best team members “remained positive and
enthusiastic even during project travails. They were very agile, willing to
change direction whenever the situation dictated. They were able to subordi-
nate their personal and functional goals to the project’s goal. They treated
others on the project with respect and were not into blaming others when
something went wrong. They were constantly learning and adapting … they
were willing to do anything to make the project successful.”
Becoming a Project Leader is a wonderful book that offers a way toward project
success. It illustrates essential principles of leadership, engagement, and learn-
ing. It uses the power of stories to create interest and understanding. You do not
have to believe me. Try an exercise. Think of a difficult project. It should be one
in which you were an active leader or practitioner. One that had challenges and
problems, but that ended successfully. Now ask yourself to tell a story about how
the project overcame the challenges to be successful. What are the lessons? What
do you believe led to success? My guess is that the concepts of this book will
explain your own successes and predict future ones. The stories will resonate and
reinforce what you know about excellence in programs and projects.
We live in a world that succeeds and fails at great challenges based on our
leadership of programs and projects. We need good project leaders, and we
need our project teams to be founded on leadership, engagement, and the
ability to learn and learn fast. We need to tell, share, and exchange stories of
practitioners. This charming and thoughtful book represents the voice of
experienced practitioners and provides a compass for success.

Former NASA Chief Knowledge Officer and Dr. Edward J. Hoffman

Director NASA Academy
Founder and CEO, Knowledge Engagement
Executive in Residence, Columbia University,
School of Professional Studies
 Praise for Becoming a Project Leader

This is the project management book we have all been waiting for. We live in an
age of projects, and the challenges we face are too important not to take seri-
ously; we need our project teams to be founded on leadership, engagement, and
the ability to learn and learn fast. Becoming a Project Leader offers several prin-
ciples that any smart organization will want to employ, principles that lead not
just to project success but to a lasting impact on the entire culture of project
work.
—Edward J. Hoffman, Former NASA Chief Knowledge Officer and Director,
NASA Academy; Founder and CEO, Knowledge Engagement

I love this book! It should be required reading. It shows by real-life examples and
explanations how good leaders overcome barriers to project success, and it
pushes managers to really think about the organic nature of project teams,
which is far more important than following any particular methodology or soft-
ware development approach. Understanding and living these basic principles of
how and why people work together to accomplish miracles is the essence of agile
leadership.
—Chuck Walrad, Standards column editor, IEEE Computer magazine Editor-­
in-­Chief, Guide to the Enterprise IT Body of Knowledge

Should you ever doubt the critical role communication plays in successful proj-
ect management, devour this book! Its solid research, apt analogies, and real-
world examples make the point all too well: More than your decision-­making,
lack of communication can kill your project.
—Dianna Booher, author of 47 books, including What MORE Can I Say? Why
Communication Fails and What to Do About It, and Creating Personal Presence:
Look, Talk, Think, and Act Like a Leader

xi
xii Praise for Becoming a Project Leader

Becoming a Project Manager delivers. It delivers practical advice. It delivers real-

life examples on every page. It delivers evidence of what works and what doesn’t.
It delivers sound principles. The decades of experience that the authors bring to
this book leaves no doubt that they know what they are writing about. And
there is no doubt that you should read and apply the lessons in this book. I
highly recommend it.
—Jim Kouzes, the Dean’s Executive Fellow of Leadership,
Leavey School of Business, Santa Clara University; and
co-author of the bestselling, The Leadership Challenge

Becoming a Project Leader speaks to the realities of managing projects in a world

of constant change. One never has perfect information or full awareness of pos-
sibilities, so the most effective project leaders enable their teams to plan prag-
matically and adjust constantly, while moving the project forward toward the
broadly defined outcome. This takes not only organizational skills, but interper-
sonal and leadership skills that get the right people on the project and build
trust among those people.
—Tracy Schroeder, Vice President, Information Services &
Technology, Boston University

Becoming a Project Leader is a must-read for experienced as well as emerging

project leaders. It combines a deep study of management and insights into how
to make management truly work. As the authors illustrate through research and
example, project managers must be individuals who can see around corners,
adapt to change, be resilient in the face of adversity, and perhaps most impor-
tantly bring out the best in their fellow teammates.
—John Baldoni, internationally acclaimed thought leader, executive coach,
and author of more than a dozen books on leadership, including MOXIE: The
Secret to Bold and Gutsy Leadership

Every leader operating in a VUCA [volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and

ambiguity] environment needs to read this book. Why? Because it combines
research with practice and exemplary models; that is the best coaching you can
get from a book. The authors place collaborative teamwork at the heart of the
model and combine planning, resilience, and agility to help you improve the
quality of your project work. Well worth the read.
—Dr. Eunice Parisi-Carew, co-founder of the Ken Blanchard
Companies and the co-author of three bestselling books: The One Minute
Manager Builds High Performing Teams, High Five!, and Leading at a Higher
Level
 Praise for Becoming a Project Leader
   xiii

Many books have focused on why projects fail, but this is the first book that
uncovers why projects succeed. The difference between projects that succeed
and projects that fail comes down to leadership: leadership that inspires indi-
viduals toward a vision, builds collaborative teams, steers complex change, and
responds to shifting targets. Based on empirical research and valuable from-the-­
field experience, this extraordinary and insightful book is a must-read, practical
guide for anyone involved in complex projects today.
—Laura McCain Patterson, Associate Vice President
and Chief Information Officer (Retired), University of Michigan

Becoming a Project Leader is the best sort of management book—combining

cases, examples, and theory in an integrated whole which makes for convincing
arguments and ease of understanding. This wide-ranging and very up-to-date
volume goes a long way in contributing to our need for more pragmatic and
innovative project management ideas.
—Laurence Prusak, Founder and Former Executive Director of the Institute
for Knowledge Management

Leadership, agility, and adaptation are key themes driving discussion and prac-
tice in today’s projects and organizations. Becoming a Project Leader addresses
these themes in a way that seamlessly combines a sound theoretical foundation
with practical examples presented as stories so that the entire book is at the same
time entertaining and educational. Practitioners will be able to relate to the
realities presented in the stories, and the way in which they are presented will
help them to make sense of their own experience, enabling them to learn on the
job, as this excellent book suggests.
—Lynn Crawford, Professor of Project Management; Director, Project
Management Program School of Civil Engineering; Faculty of Engineering
and Information Technologies, The University of Sydney

In this modern age of project-based business, project management might as well

be business management; if your projects don’t do well, how can your business
possibly do well? Authors Laufer, Little, Russell, and Maas do a great job explain-
ing how understanding a project leader’s four simple roles can greatly enhance
your ability to manage projects for your organization in that sweet spot right
between traditional and agile methods of project management.
—Chris Hallberg, President, Traction INC.

In its very contemporary analysis of project management, Becoming a Project

Leader leads to a re-appreciation of many old beliefs, some almost tribal in their
origins: the value of direct-contact human relationships, trust, courage, and
humility. The authors give significant credit to on-the-job learning and mentor-
xiv Praise for Becoming a Project Leader

ship, and they also provide invaluable insights on the traits common to excep-
tional project managers and project outcomes.
—Richard M Kunnath, Executive Chairman,
Charles Pankow Builders, Ltd.

Becoming A Project Leader is an excellent read for both experienced and new
project managers alike. While there is no substitute for the actual running of a
project, this book does a great job capturing the core aspects of a successful
project manager and conveys its insights in a clear and reader-friendly way.
—Daniel Barpal, President, Barpal Services, LLC

Becoming a Project Leader is a recipe for success in managing projects in today’s

rapidly changing work environment—in fact, it redefines management. I found
myself sometimes nodding while reading because I could recall a past personal
instance where I had luckily used one of the authors’ proposed approaches,
resulting in a successful outcome. Unfortunately, I also smacked myself in the
forehead a few times while reading other chapters. Perhaps some of my past bad
experiences could have ended better if I had had the opportunity to read
Becoming a Project Leader earlier in my career.
—Norma Jean Mattei, 2017 President, American
Society of Civil Engineers

This is a well-researched and detailed book, full of fascinating case studies that
bring the project theory to life. It goes beyond the typical project management
textbook to help equip project managers for the challenging and shifting cir-
cumstances of complex projects. The contextualized stories make it easy for
leaders to learn lessons about how best to approach their work; there are prac-
tices here that managers can deploy on even the smallest initiatives. Very help-
ful, and a refreshing read.
—Elizabeth Harrin, Director, Otobos Consultants Ltd.

This is a fabulous book that weaves its way from picking the correct project
manager to building your team. It makes a strong case for the importance of
communicating, which can be hard for us engineers, who tend to be introverts.
It also emphasizes the need to empower people. This book will become a stan-
dard for all our budding project managers to read about what works and what
does not.
—Robert E. Alger, President & Chief Executive Officer,
Lane Industries, Inc.

Successful projects, as is true of all collaborative efforts, rise and fall on leader-
ship. Becoming a Project Leader spells out the art and science of leadership,
 Praise for Becoming a Project Leader
   xv

explaining the four key methods used by top project managers to move from
project formation to project implementation. This book provides more than
just how-to information, however, for it also inspires by sharing examples of
how effective managers utilized the principles to produce results, providing the
model for others who aspire to do similarly.
—Orrin Woodward, NY Times Bestselling Author and Inc.
Magazine Top 20 Leader

The difference between Becoming a Project Leader and other books on this topic is
clear from the title. After all, project management is itself an expression of leader-
ship, and the two are interconnected and interdependent. Based on decades of
leadership and countless projects, this book is critical for those looking for con-
crete take-aways and for those looking to understand the difference leadership
makes in the practice of project management; something that is not often taught.
—John O’Brien, President and CEO of EDUCAUSE

Becoming a Project Leader is an easy read, using anecdotal short stories to punc-
tuate creative approaches to project management. Rather than present formu-
laic static rules, the authors’ refreshing tack is to encourage the project leader to
take on four key roles utilized by successful professionals. Well researched, this
book combines the best of proven practices with encouragement to innovative
thinking in order to help managers plan and execute successful projects.
—Jim Rispoli, former Assistant Secretary of Energy; Professor of Practice,
North Carolina State University

Becoming a Project Leader provides an excellent overview of the basic skill sets
required to be successful in today’s complex and matrixed organizational struc-
tures. While planning skills have traditionally been emphasized by project man-
agement leaders, it is most often the softer skills of agility, resilience, and most
importantly collaboration that enable successful project outcomes and define
outstanding project leaders. Becoming a Project Leader is an engaging and
instructive treatise on the topic and is a must-read for both experienced and
aspiring project leaders.
—John Mullen, Senior Vice President, Dell EMC, NA
Commercial Central Field Sales

Becoming a Project Leader is an excellent read that rightly stresses that most of
the leadership wisdom needed by the project manager is learned from on-the-­
job training and experience. The book presents multiple cases enabling the
reader to benefit from the rich experience of successful Project Managers and
from in-depth reflections on this experience. It is truly unique, a must-read for
all project managers.
—William W. Badger, Professor Emeritus, Arizona State University
 Preface

Becoming a Project Leader arises out of a passion for competent leadership in

action. When a team of capable, knowledgeable people led by a successful
project manager tackle a project, it seems there’s nothing they can’t accom-
plish. The authors of this book have all seen teams surmount enormous obsta-
cles, deftly handling unforeseen problems, and, ultimately, taking joy in the
work and exceeding expectations. This book comes from a desire to under-
stand how the project leader, the hub of such well-oiled machines, can orches-
trate such miracles.
There’s a certain sorcery to the successful project manager’s success. The
position requires a unique combination of judgment, interpersonal skills, and
an ability to assimilate information quickly. It’s easy to believe that such sor-
cery cannot be taught, that you either have it or you don’t. Certainly, educa-
tion in project management has more often than not missed the mark. But
through their combined 140 years of research and practice, the authors have
lived, seen, helped create, and studied exactly what it is that the best project
managers do.
Nowadays, project management is essential across all industries. It has
always been associated with manufacturing and construction—and indeed,
there’s a lot to be learned from such industries. But project management and
the shared traits of successful project managers are now crucial in Information
Technology, Education, Healthcare, Government, and Entertainment. All
startups are projects. Consequently, this is a book both for those who know
they’re in project management and those who know only that they need to
organize a lot of people (who don’t normally work together) to accomplish a
unique goal.

xvii
xviii Preface

The four authors of Becoming a Project Leader have not only studied and
reflected upon project successes but been actively involved in leading projects
themselves and consulting with managers. They come from a wide variety of
industries, including information technology, military, product development,
space projects, and construction. They’ve also all been active in educating
leaders, and so they’re well aware of the shortcomings of professional develop-
ment and leadership training; Becoming a Project Leader comes from a desire
to create a practical guide to project management.
The authors are indebted to countless people for the content of this book.
Within these pages is a collection of wisdom coming from a vast and diverse
array of wonderful people, who exhibited not just competence in their leader-
ship, not just excellence in their fields, but also a tremendous generosity of
spirit in their willingness to share their wisdom. Successful project managers
know more than they think they know. And it was the authors’ pleasure to
mine that knowledge in order to create Becoming a Project Leader.

Madison, Wisconsin, USA Alexander Laufer

Haifa, Israel

Fairfax Station, Virginia, USA Terry Little

Madison, Wisconsin, USA Jeffrey Russell

Madison, Wisconsin, USA Bruce Maas

 Acknowledgments

First and foremost, we owe our gratitude to our teachers over the years—some
of whom knew they were instructing us and some of whom had no idea.
Those we interviewed, those we worked with, those who mentored us, those
we mentored or advised, those at any level of the work whose competence
impressed us—all were our teachers. It was our job to uncover both the
explicit and the tacit knowledge of people immersed in and adept at project
work. Excellence is the best teacher. And we’re forever grateful for these excel-
lent role models. We’re grateful, too, to the many companies over the years
who have welcomed us and challenged us, including NASA, Proctor &
Gamble, the US Air Force, Motorola, Turner Construction Company, the
Boldt Group, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
We are also indebted to those who helped us put together this book. Those
who reviewed drafts gave us insightful suggestions and provided probing
questions to push us toward clearer and/or more in-depth explanation. In
addition, we got valuable feedback and encouragement from our dozens of
endorsers, whose expertise we admire and whose esteem we cherish. Barry
Carlsen, who did our illustrations, provided tremendous help with our tables
and figures, putting an artistic stamp on our concepts. Tim Storm provided
invaluable editing; not only did he polish our phrasing, often pushing us
toward more consistent and more incisive analysis and offering fluid rewrites
of passages, but he served as a sort of creative director for the entire manu-
script. And Stephen Partridge, Editorial Director, Business, Economics, and
Finance at Palgrave Macmillan, helped us make this project a reality, pushing
us toward a more engaging book.
Bruce Maas owes his gratitude to the University of Wisconsin for providing
him with opportunities to grow throughout his career. His work with a diverse

xix
xx Acknowledgments

array of students, faculty, and colleagues across the country has encouraged
him never to lose sight of the people behind the technology.
Jeffrey Russell would like to thank the taxpayers of Wisconsin, the
University of Wisconsin-Madison, and his colleagues for the opportunity to
learn and teach in the project management area, and for students who have
taught him through their questions and curiosity; he would also like to thank
the industry professionals (Boldt Company, J.H. Findorff & Sons, J.P. Cullen
& Sons, J.F. Ahern Company, Mortenson Construction, Pieper Electric,
Affiliated Engineers) who have taken time to teach, encourage, and mentor
him in the project management area.
Terry Little is indebted to the United States Department of Defense for
providing him with an enormous variety of project experience. Those he men-
tored, those he worked with, and those he led—all helped him learn that
leadership is a matter of serving and supporting others while helping achieve
a broader organizational mission.
Alexander Laufer would like to thank the many companies that opened
their doors to him and the countless practitioners who were willing to share
their expertise and insights. He has been blessed with a career that has allowed
him to travel far and wide, listening to and drawing out the stories of some
remarkable people.
Finally, we all owe our most gratitude to our families, whose support
throughout the years has enabled us to pursue our passions for project man-
agement and education. There’s no question that Alex Laufer was the captain
of this ship, and his wife Yochy is and has always been the wind in the sails.
Her support of this project and of Alex was evident to all.
 Contents

1 Leading the Project from Living Order to Geometric Order   1

2 The Planning Practice: Employ an Evolving Process  13

3 The Agility Practice: Be Responsive and Action Oriented  31

4 The Resilience Practice: Challenge the Status Quo,

Proactively Yet Selectively  55

5 Collaborative Teamwork: Cultivate and Sustain Collaboration

by Focusing on the Individual, the Team, and the Work  73

6 Becoming a Project Leader: Learn on the Job

Through Experience, Reflection, and Mentoring 109

7 Tailoring Project Decisions to Project Context 131

Index 133

xxi
 About the Authors

Alexander Laufer is the Director of the Consortium for Project Leadership at the
University of Wisconsin-Madison, an industry consultant, and Chaired Professor of
Civil Engineering at the Technion—Israel Institute of Technology. He has served as
the editor-in-chief of Academy Sharing Knowledge, the NASA Academy of Program
and Project Leadership magazine, and as a member of the advisory board of the
NASA Academy of Program and Project Leadership. He has also served as the
Director of the Center for Project Leadership at Columbia University. Laufer is the
author or co-author of six books; the two most recent ones are Mastering the Leadership
Role in Project Management: Practices that Deliver Remarkable Results (2012) and
Breaking the Code of Project Management (Macmillan, 2009). He has significant con-
sulting experience and has worked with a number of leading organizations, including
Boldt, Motorola, NASA, Parsons Brinckerhoff, Procter & Gamble, Skanska, and
Turner Construction Company.
Terry Little was the Department of Defense’s (DoD) most seasoned manager of
major programs, with more than 25 years’ experience leading major weapons acquisi-
tions. Also one of the department’s most forceful advocates for program management
innovation, Little is considered by many to be the best program manager in recent
DoD history. Currently, he consults on acquisition leadership and business develop-
ment with The Spectrum Group and with Modern Technology Solutions. An honor-
ary professor at the Defense Systems Management College, Little has presented case
studies to every program manager class at the college for the past 15 years. Little
served as Executive Director of the Missile Defense Agency—the senior civilian in an
organization of approximately 8000 employees—while also directing the $14 billion
Kinetic Energy Interceptor Program. Previously, he was the first director of the Air
Force Acquisition Center of Excellence, which enhanced all acquisition activities
through streamlining contracts, devising incentives, and overseeing contractors.
Little’s many awards include the Secretary of Defense Meritorious Civilian Service

xxiii
xxiv About the Authors

Award (received twice), the Executive Service Presidential Rank Award, and the Air
Force Stewart Award for Excellence in Program Management. He holds an MS in
Systems Analysis from the Air Force Institute of Technology and an MBA from the
University of West Florida. After graduating with distinction from Officer Training
School in 1967, he served eight years in active duty with the US Air Force.
Jeffrey S. Russell is Vice Provost for Lifelong Learning, Dean of Continuing Studies,
and Executive Director of the Consortium for Project Management at the University
of Wisconsin-Madison. In his role as vice provost and dean, he is responsible for lead-
ing the university’s programs and services for lifelong learners and nontraditional
students. Russell has earned a reputation as a leader in innovative project delivery
systems. He is a respected researcher, author, and editor. He has written more than
200 technical papers in the areas of contractor failure, prequalification, surety bonds,
constructability, automation, maintainability, warranties, and quality control/quality
assurance. In addition, he has authored and written two books: Constructor
Prequalification (1996) and Surety Bonds for Construction Contracts (2000). And he
has served as editor-in-chief of the Journal of Management in Engineering and as
founding editor-in-chief of Leadership and Management in Engineering. Russell has
been honored with over 20 national and regional awards and 9 best paper awards. His
recent awards include Distinguished Membership of the American Society of Civil
Engineers (ASCE) in 2009, being elected to the National Academy of Construction
(NAC) in 2011, and being elected as Fellow of the National Society of Professional
Engineers (NSPE) in 2011.
Bruce Maas is Emeritus Vice Provost for Information Technology and Chief
Information Officer (CIO) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a position he
has held since August 2011. Prior to that, he served for seven years as the CIO at the
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Maas has served as the director of the
EDUCAUSE Leadership Institute, the leading professional association for informa-
tion technology in higher education, and he is presently serving as the board chair.
He is also a member of the Internet2 External Relations PAG and Co-Chair of the
Internet2 Global Summit Planning Committee. In addition, he is a member of the
Board of Directors of Unizin and is serving a three-year term on the Board of
Directors of IMS Global. Maas holds an MS in Administrative Leadership from the
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee as well as bachelor degrees in Accounting and
Management Information Systems (MIS).
 List of Figures

Fig. 1.1 Geometric order is organized and predictable, like a canal;

living order is turbulent and changing, like a natural river 5
Fig. 2.1 Rather than formulate the entirety of the goal/requirements
and then fit the action perfectly to that goal (Diagram A),
effective project managers formulate objectives in an interactive
and continuous process (Diagram B).16
Fig. 2.2 Influence of planning horizon on degree of detail 19
Fig. 2.3 In the traditional review process, team members expend
their energy on the review rather than the project. In a
learning-based review, team members focus on communicating
the status of their work for the purpose of troubleshooting 24
Fig. 2.4 The project manager performs very much like a dance
choreographer whose role is to move and synchronize
the dancers—decisions—to create a harmonious dance—an
integrated plan 28
Fig. 3.1 The Trukese Navigator steers according to the information
provided by the wind, the tide, the stars, the clouds, and the
sound of the water on the side of his boat 32
Fig. 3.2 Unexpected events affecting one task can have a domino
effect on many subsequent interdependent tasks 40
Fig. 3.3 True project control comes from hands-on coaching, not
armchair coaching 44
Fig. 3.4 The project manager must have the plumber’s willingness
to crawl below the leaking sink, if needs be, to solve problems
as quickly as they emerge 50
Fig. 4.1 Responsive agility, discussed in the previous chapter, is
about responding to unexpected events; proactive resilience
is about prevention 56

xxv
xxvi List of Figures

Fig. 4.2 Successful project managers have one “paranoid” eye on

anomalies, surprises, and future problems; and the other eye
on the small data that might enable them to anticipate disruptions 62
Fig. 4.3 By embracing the behavior of both the hedgehog
and the fox, the project manager can successfully challenge
the status quo when the need arises 66
Fig. 4.4 Like entrepreneurs, successful project managers are
innovative and proactive, engaged in developing and selling
their ideas for coping with future threats; they are also resilient
and ready to cope with failures 67
Fig. 5.1 The three pillars of collaboration: the suitability of the
individuals, the collaboration of the team, and the focus
on the work and its outcomes 75
Fig. 5.2 The various parties executing the project are loosely coupled,
whereas the tasks themselves are tightly coupled 84
Fig. 5.3 Face-to-face communication is critical: 93% of received
information is contained in the tone of voice and facial
expressions89
Fig. 5.4 Like a gardener, project managers looking to get the
most from collaboration must choose the right plants for the
“job” and must pay attention to how the plants coexist with
one another 104
Fig. 5.5 The four roles of the project manager 105
Fig. 6.1 Is the trophy case yours or your mentee’s? 115
Fig. 6.2 The three key features of communities of practice:
NEED brings people together; a BOND is formed; the
interactions affect PRACTICE 119
Fig. 6.3 Project management lies somewhere between a “Technology”
and a “Craft” 120
Fig. 6.4 The successful leader’s matrix of meaningful growth 128
 List of Tables

Table 1.1 The various research methods employed in putting

together this book 3
Table 1.2 A preview of the topics covered throughout the book 8
Table 2.1 The various plans that go into a “rolling wave” approach 20
Table 4.1 Coping with different changes through planning, agility,
and resilience 68
Table 7.1 The shifting landscape of project management 132

xxvii
 1
Leading the Project from Living Order
to Geometric Order

“Thinking well is wise; planning well is wiser; doing well wisest and best of all.”
Persian Proverb

All White-Collar Work Today Is Project Work

Whereas the Industrial Revolution emphasized skill and task specialization,
the current information revolution is generating greater task complexity,
which demands the integration of a diverse set of skills. In the mid-1990s,
such demands led to the use of the project method as the predominant man-
agement strategy for structuring organizations and defining the roles and
tasks of mid-level managers [1, 2].
Projects are defined as temporary endeavors undertaken to create a unique
product or service. A project may be as simple as the plan for an off-site retreat
or as complex as the development and production of a space shuttle. In the
project method, instead of people being grouped in the traditional functional
units based on common means (skills, work processes, or knowledge), they
are grouped in cross-functional units based on the project’s goals. The project
culture, which fosters responsiveness to customers, has enabled organizations
to easily migrate from the producer-dominated market of yesterday to the
more complex customer-driven market of today.
With the growing recognition that the project method is the keystone of
modern organizations, most managers in today’s companies spend much of
their time focusing on projects. As Tom Peters stated in 1999, “All white-­collar

© The Author(s) 2018 1

A. Laufer et al., Becoming a Project Leader,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-66724-9_1
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
“Didn’t you tell me that he seemed to know whom you meant when
you described Sperrigoe as Sir Charles?” she asked. “Very well! Sir
Charles is somebody whom Jimmie knew years ago. And Jimmie
doesn’t want to meet him. Jimmie, as I have told you, is a queer man
—an eccentric person. And I don’t think he’ll come home until Sir
Charles Sperrigoe has gone away.”
“And I don’t think Sir Charles Sperrigoe will go away until he’s seen
Parslewe,” said I. “So there we are!”
“Oh, well! does it matter very much?” she asked. “Aren’t we going
out this fine morning? We’re doing no good here, staring at that
wretched thing and speculating about it. Let’s be off!”
But before we could make any move, Tibbie Muir came into the
room, looking very disapproving and sour of face, and presented
Madrasia with another card. She became voluble.
“I’ve told him, and I’ve better told him, that the master’s not at home,”
she declared, “but he’ll not take my word nor go away, and you must
just deal with him yourself, Miss Madrasia. And if there’s going to be
this coming and going at the door all day long——”
Madrasia glanced at the card and passed it over to me. It was a
printed card, and the lettering was meant to be impressive.
Mr. Augustus Weech.
Newcastle Evening Planet.
“Well?” demanded Madrasia.
“I think I should see this gentleman,” said I.
“Bring him up, Tibbie,” commanded Madrasia. “Perhaps he’ll be the
last. What can he want?” she went on, turning to me as Tibbie
grumblingly departed. “A reporter?”
“Newspaper chap of some sort, evidently,” I said. “And wanting
news! But how does he come to know where to apply for news? And
what news?”
“We’re only getting more and more fog-bound,” she remarked. “Wait
till we hear what he’s got to say; perhaps he has some news for us.
He’s here!”
A sharp-eyed, alert, knowing-looking young person entered the room
and made his bow. He was smartly dressed, evidently quite at his
ease, and full of vitality. And his first proceeding was remarkable. As
he straightened himself after doing obeisance to Madrasia his eyes
fell on the copper box, and without preface he pointed a long,
slender forefinger at it.
“That’s the identical article!” he exclaimed. “Sure!”
Then he looked round, saw me, grinned as if reassured by the sight
of a fellow man, and turned again to Madrasia.
“Mr. Parslewe’s not at home, I understand, Miss,” he said, affably.
“But you’re Miss Durham, ain’t you? I’ve heard of you. Now if I might
sit down——”
He had dropped into a chair at the side of the table before Madrasia
had had time to invite him thereto; laying his hat by his side he ran
his right hand through a rather abundant crop of fair hair—his action
seemed to signify a preliminary to business.
“I recognized that as soon as I walked in!” he said, with another frank
and almost child-like smile. “Queer business, ain’t it, about that old
box?”
“I gather that you know something about it,” observed Madrasia.
“I do, Miss, that’s why I’m here,” he answered candidly. “Yes, I know
something—so, too, I guess, does that young gentleman. I saw him
t’other day—yesterday, to be exact—coming out of Bickerdale’s
shop.”
“You did?” I exclaimed.
“I did! You came out as I was crossing over to it,” he answered. “You
made old Bickerdale jolly waxy, too, some way or other. You see
Bickerdale, he’s my father-in-law.”
Madrasia and I looked at each other. I think we both had the same
thought—that our visitor looked very juvenile to be married.
“Oh!” I said. “Indeed?”
“Yes,” he continued. “Been that for the last three years—a man of a
queer and dour temper is Bickerdale. You set his back up yesterday,
Mr.—I don’t know your name?”
“My name is Craye,” I replied.
“Mr. Craye—all right. Well, Mr. Craye and Miss Durham—or vice
versa, if I’m to be polite—it’s like this,” he proceeded gaily. “There’s a
mystery about that copper box, isn’t there? I guess Mr. Parslewe
knows there is—but your old woman says he’s away—queer old
party, that old woman, isn’t she?—a character, I should think. But if
Mr. Parslewe’s away, you ain’t! And I want to get at something—and
to get at it, I don’t mind telling what I know. Between ourselves, of
course.”
Madrasia and I exchanged another glance; then we both sat down,
one on either side of our loquacious visitor.
“What do you know, Mr. Weech?” I asked, in my friendliest tone.
“Yes,” said Madrasia. “It would be so kind of you to tell us that!”
Mr. Weech smiled, drumming his fingers on the crown of his hat.
“Well!” he said, graciously, “I’ll tell you! Of course, I came to tell Mr.
Parslewe—but you’ll do. And no doubt you’ll be able to tell me
something. Well, me first, then. As I said, I’m Bickerdale’s son-in-law.
I married his third daughter, Melissa—she’s all right. Naturally, being
in the relation I am to Bickerdale, I’m a good deal in and out of his
place—go there Sundays, with the wife and kid. Now, not so very
long ago, I was there one Sunday, and happening to go into his
workshop for a smoke—my mother-in-law having a decided
objection to tobacco in the parlour—I set eyes on that article—that
very copper box! I was a bit taken with the engraved coat-of-arms
and the queer motto underneath, and I asked Bickerdale where he’d
got it. He told me that Mr. Parslewe of Kelpieshaw had brought it to
him to be repaired—it had got slightly damaged by a fall, and needed
a coppersmith’s attention. We talked a bit about it. Bickerdale said it
had been made—beaten copper, you know—at least a hundred
years, and was a very pretty bit of work. It had got a bulge in one
side, and Bickerdale had to straighten it out—very delicate and
gentle business. But he did it, and either Mr. Parslewe fetched it
away, or it was sent to him. Anyhow, there it is!—that’s the box!”
Mr. Weech gave the copper box a tap with his finger-nail as if to
evoke a confirmation of his words, and proceeded.
“Now, a bit—can’t say now how long exactly—after the box had
come back here, I was up at Bickerdale’s one Sunday, and after
dinner Bickerdale took me into his office. ‘I say!’ he says, when we
were alone. ‘You remember that copper box that I was repairing, that
you admired?—of course you do! Well, look here, there was some
goods came the other day in an old copy of The Times,’ he says,
‘and my eye just happened to fall on this, on the front page,’ and he
pulled out an old Times and pointed to an advertisement that he’d
marked, in the personal column. I read it, and I gaped at it! This,”
continued Mr. Weech, suddenly producing a folded newspaper from
an inner pocket, “this is not the identical copy of The Times that
Bickerdale had; this is another copy of the same issue—I got it, as a
back number, for myself. Now, Miss Durham and Mr. Craye, you
read that! and you’ll be getting at a very good notion of what it is that
I want to get out of Mr. Parslewe! There, marked with red ink.”
He laid the newspaper on the table before us, and we bent over it,
reading with feelings which—so far as I was concerned—rapidly
became mixed.
“£250 Reward. To Auctioneers, Antiquarian and Second-
hand Booksellers, Buyers of Rare Books, etc.: Missing,
and Probably Stolen, from a well-known Private Library,
the following Scarce Works. 1. Hubbard’s Present State of
New England, 1677; 2. Brandt’s Ship of Fooles, 1570; 3.
Burton’s Anatomy, 1621; 4. Whole Works of Samuel
Daniel, Esquire, in Poetrie, 1623; 5. Drayton’s Polyolbion,
1622; 6. Higden’s Polycronicon, 1527; 7. Florio’s
Montaigne, 1603. Each of these copies, all extremely
scarce, contains a book-plate of which the following is a
full description. [Here followed a technical account,
heraldic in detail.] Also Missing, and probably stolen at the
same time, an Antique Box, of Beaten Copper, on the front
 of which is engraved the coat-of-arms and legend
particularised in the foregoing description. It is probable
that these properties will be offered to well-known
collectors, here or abroad. The book-plates may have
been removed. The above mentioned reward of £250 will
be paid to any person giving information which will lead to
their recovery. Such information should be given to the
undersigned.
“Sperrigoe, Chillingley, and Watson,
“Solicitors.
“3, Friars’ Pavement,
Medminster.”
I took matters into my own hands on reading this. First nudging
Madrasia’s elbow to give her warning that I was about to do
something requiring delicacy and diplomacy, I turned to Mr. Weech.
“That’s very interesting,” said I. “And—curious! Er—perhaps you’d
like a little refreshment, Mr. Weech, after your journey? A whisky-
and-soda, now?”
“Well, thank you,” he answered, readily, with a glance at the
sideboard. “It wouldn’t come amiss, Mr. Craye; I hired a push-bicycle
at Wooler, but, my word! it wasn’t half a job shoving the old thing
over your roads—some part of the way, at any rate! Cruel!”
I gave him a good stiff mixture and put a box of biscuits at the side of
his glass. Then I got Madrasia’s attention once more, and, holding
The Times in my hand, turned to the door.
“Just excuse Miss Durham and myself for a few minutes, Mr.
Weech,” I said. “We’ll not keep you long.”
Outside the parlour, and with its door safely shut on our visitor, I
looked at Madrasia, who, in her turn, looked inquiringly at me.
“Come up to the library!” I whispered. “Those books!”
“Yes!” she answered. “I thought of that!”
We stole up the stair, for all the world as if we were going to commit
some nefarious deed, and into the room wherein Parslewe kept his
various and many treasures. Within five minutes we had satisfied
ourselves, and stood looking questioningly at each other. We had
reason; the books specified in the advertisement were all there!
Every one of them!—book-plates and all.
“What next?” muttered Madrasia at last. “Of course, we mustn’t tell
him!”
She nodded at the floor, indicating the spot beneath which Mr.
Weech was sipping his drink and nibbling biscuits.
“Tell him nothing!” said I. “But, let him tell us! Come down!”
We went down again; Mr. Weech looked very comfortable.
“We should like to hear more of your very interesting story, Mr.
Weech,” I said. “You got to the point where Bickerdale showed you
this advertisement. What happened after that?”
“Why, this,” he answered, evidently more ready to talk than ever.
“Bickerdale and I consulted. He was all for writing to these lawyers at
once, denouncing Mr. Parslewe as the thief. I said, metaphorically,
you know—that he was an ass; it was much more likely that Mr.
Parslewe had been taken in by the real and actual thief. I advised
seeing Mr. Parslewe. But Bickerdale, he wrote, unbeknown to me, to
these lawyers, saying that he was sure he’d had this copper box in
his hands, and that where it was, probably the books would be. And
those lawyers sent a man—a private detective—down to investigate
——”
“Name of Pawley, eh?” I suggested.
“Never heard it, but I shouldn’t wonder if it was,” he answered. “I only
heard of him. Anyway, he came—and his principal followed him—a
big, pompous man, who was at Bickerdale’s yesterday. And that’s
where Bickerdale and I quarrelled, see?”
“Not quite,” I replied. “How, and why, did you quarrel?”
“Because Bickerdale, for some queer reason or other, suddenly shut
his mouth after that fat old party had been, and wouldn’t give me one
scrap of information,” answered Mr. Weech, with a highly injured air.
“Dead silence on his part, eh? Flat refusal! That was after I saw you
leaving him. Ab-so-lute-ly refused to tell me one word about what
was going on! Me! his son-in-law, and more than, for that’s where the
shoe pinches, a pressman!”
“Ah!” I exclaimed, seeing light at last. “I see! You want to make what
they call a story of it?”
“What else?” he answered, with a knowing wink. “What d’ye suppose
I’m here for? I don’t believe Mr. Parslewe—I’ve heard of him, many a
time—stole that blessed box—not I! But there’s romance, and
mystery, and what not about the whole thing, and I want to work it up
and make a live column, or a couple of ’em, out of it, and so I came
to the fountainhead, and Mr. Parslewe’s away, worse luck. Now, can
you tell me anything?”
We got rid of Mr. Weech by promising him faithfully that on Mr.
Parslewe’s return we would tell him all that had transpired, and
would entreat him to favour our visitor with his exclusive confidence,
and after another whisky-and-soda, during his consumption of which
he told us confidentially that he meant to Ride High, he went away,
leaving us more mystified than ever.
And we were still more mystified when, during the course of that
afternoon, a telegraph boy came all the way over the moors from
Wooler, bringing me a message. It was, of course, from Parslewe,
and, as Madrasia at once remarked, just like him.
Both of you meet me Newcastle Central Station noon to-morrow.
 VII
What the Dying Man Said
WE discussed that telegram during the greater part of the next few
hours, arguing out its meanings and significances; we became no
wiser in the process, but it seemed hopeless to endeavour to settle
down to anything else. Madrasia, I think, got some relief in making
the necessary arrangements for our departure in the morning; I think,
too, that she was further relieved at the prospect of meeting her
eccentric guardian and getting—or attempting to get—some
explanation of these curious proceedings. For that they were
curious, to the last degree, was beyond question. My own rapid
review of them, taking in everything from the first coming of Pawley
to the visit of Mr. Augustus Weech, only served to convince me that
we were becoming hopelessly entangled in a series of problems and
theories about which it was as useless as it was impossible to
speculate.
But there was more to come before the afternoon closed. First of all
came another wire from Parslewe. It was short and peremptory, like
the first, but it was more illuminating, and, in some queer way, it
cheered us up.
Bring the box with you.
Madrasia clapped her hands.
“That’s better!” she exclaimed. “That’s lots better! It means that he’s
clearing things up, or he’s going to. For heaven’s sake, don’t let’s
forget the copper box! Which of us is most to be depended upon for
remembering?”
“I, of course,” said I, “being a man.”
“We’ll debate that on some other occasion,” she retorted. “As a
woman—Lord! what’s that?”
Old Tibbie was just entering with the tea-tray; as she opened the
door, a loud, insistent knocking came on the iron-studded panels at
the foot of the stair. Tibbie groaned and almost dropped her tray, and
Madrasia turned appealingly to me.
“We’re all getting nervous,” she said. “Will you run down?”
I went down the stair, opened the great door, and found myself
confronting a fresh-coloured, pleasant-faced man who had just
dismounted from a serviceable but handsome cob and stood in the
courtyard with its bridle over his arm. He smiled at sight of me.
“Mr. Craye, I’m sure?” he said. “I’ve heard of you. Staying here with
Mr. Parslewe. Now, is Mr. Parslewe in? I mean, has he returned?”
“No!” I answered, bluntly enough.
He looked at me with a glance that was at once understanding and
confidential; there was, I thought, something very like the suspicion
of a wink in his eye.
“The fact of the case is, I’m his solicitor,” he remarked. “And——”
But just then Madrasia came flying down the stairs, and greeted the
visitor so warmly that for the fraction of a second I really felt jealous.
“Mr. Murthwaite!” she cried, catching his readily extended hand and
shaking it almost fervently. “Oh!—this is awfully good of you. We’re in
an absolute muddle here—mentally, I mean—and now you’ll clear
everything up for us! The sight of you is as good as sunshine after
storm. Come in!—old Edie shall take your horse. This gentleman is
Mr. Alvery Craye, a famous artist, and he’s nearly as much out of his
wits as I am!”
“Then I find myself in queer and possibly dangerous company!”
remarked Mr. Murthwaite, with another half wink at me. “However, I
hope you’re sane enough to give me some tea, Miss Durham?
Good!—then I’ll come in.” He handed his horse over to old Muir and
followed Madrasia up the stair, I coming behind. His tone had been
light and bantering up to then, but as soon as the three of us had
reached the parlour and I had closed the door he turned to both with
a quick, searching, earnest glance, and, unconsciously, I think,
lowered his voice. “Now look here,” he said, in the tone of a man
who wants a direct answer. “Do you young people, either of you,
know where Parslewe is? What I really mean, though, is—is he in
this house?”
“In this house!” exclaimed Madrasia. “Good heavens! Do you mean
—hidden?”
“Why not?” answered Murthwaite. “I dare say one who knows it
could hide in this old place for a month. But is he? Or anywhere
about?”
Madrasia looked at me; I looked at the two telegrams which were
lying on the table beyond the tea-tray.
“As Mr. Murthwaite is Mr. Parslewe’s solicitor,” said I, “I should show
him those wires. They are the best answer to his question.”
“Yes!” agreed Madrasia. She snatched up the telegrams, and put
them in Murthwaite’s hand; we both watched him intently while he
read. “There!” she said, as he folded them again. “What do you
think?”
“I think that Parslewe is a very strange man!” replied Murthwaite. “I
think, too, that I must have a talk to you—both—about him. Now, as
the tea is there, and you are so hospitable——”
We gathered round the table, and Madrasia began to busy herself
with the teapot and the cups. It was useless to attempt the talking of
nothings; we were all full of the occasion of Murthwaite’s visit, and he
was acute enough not to keep Madrasia and myself waiting for his
news.
“I’ll tell you, briefly, what brought me here,” he said, after his first cup.
“To-day, about noon, I had a visit from a Sir Charles Sperrigoe, who,
after introducing himself as a fellow solicitor from a distant part of the
country, told me that he had just ascertained in the town that I was
solicitor to Mr. James Parslewe of Kelpieshaw; that he had been out
to Kelpieshaw to find Mr. Parslewe, had failed to find him, and so
had come to me. He then told me a very wonderful tale, which I am
quite at liberty to tell you, and will tell to you presently. But first, I
want to hear from Mr. Craye a story which I think he can tell about
Newcastle. Sir Charles is under the impression that Mr. Craye told
something to Mr. Parslewe last night which sent him off on his
travels. I should like to hear that story, and then I’ll tell you what Sir
Charles Sperrigoe told me, under persuasion.”
“I’d better tell you the plain facts about the whole affair, from the
coming here of a man named Pawley until your own arrival just now,”
said I. “You’ll then have the entire history of the matter before you, as
far as I know it. It’s this——”
He listened carefully, sipping his tea and munching his toast, while I
told him everything. Now and then Madrasia corrected or prompted
me a little; between us we gave him all the salient facts and details,
down to the visit of Weech and the receipt of the last telegram;
Madrasia had the last word.
“And then you came, Mr. Murthwaite! And if you can tell us what it all
means, we’ll bless you!” she said. “Can you?”
But Murthwaite shook his head, decidedly.
“I can’t!” he answered. “Even now it’s as much a mystery to me as
ever, though I think I see a little gleam of light—a very, very little one.
No, I can only tell you what Sperrigoe told me this morning. If I may
have another cup of your very excellent tea, and a cigarette with it
——”
He waited during a moment’s silent reflection, then, leaning back in
his chair, and using his cigarette occasionally to point his remarks,
he began to address us pretty much as if we constituted a jury.
“The firm of which Sir Charles Sperrigoe is senior partner,” he said,
“has for many years acted as legal advisers to a very ancient family
in the Midlands, the Palkeneys of Palkeney Manor, whose coat-of-
arms you see on the now famous copper box on that sideboard,
complete with its curious legend, or motto. The Palkeneys have been
there at Palkeney ever since Tudor times—in fact, since the earliest
Tudor times. A wealthy race, I understand, but one of those which
have gradually dwindled. And to come down to quite recent times, a
few years ago, an old gentleman who was believed to be the very
last of the Palkeneys, Mr. Matthew Palkeney, was living at Palkeney
Manor. He was a very old man, nearly ninety. Once, in his early
days, he had had a younger brother, John Palkeney, but he, as a
young man, had taken his portion, a younger son’s portion, gone
away from the ancestral home, and never been heard of again—the
last that was heard of him was from South America, sixty or seventy
years ago, when he was starting into hitherto unexplored country,
where, it was believed, he lost his life. And so, in his old age,
Matthew Palkeney, as last of his race, was very lonely. And one day
he was stricken down in his last illness, and for some hours
Sperrigoe, the doctor, the housekeeper, the nurse, all gathered about
his death-bed, were considerably disturbed and puzzled by the old
man’s repetition of certain words. They were the only words he
murmured after being struck down, and he said them over and over
again before he died. I will tell you what they were. These—The
copper box—a Palkeney—a Palkeney—the copper box!”
He paused, with due appreciation of the dramatic effect, and looked
at us. Madrasia gave a little shudder.
“Creepy!” she murmured.
“Very!” agreed Murthwaite. “Well, nobody knew what the old man
meant, and it was useless to try to get him to give any explanation.
But when he was dead, the old housekeeper, after much cudgelling
of her brains, remembered that in a certain cabinet in a certain
corner of the library there was a small box of beaten copper which
she had seen Matthew Palkeney polish with his own hands in past
years. She and Sperrigoe went to look for it; it was gone! Sperrigoe
had the house searched from top to bottom for it; it was not in the
house! That copper box had been stolen—and there it is, on
Parslewe’s sideboard, here in Northumberland. That is—fact. Fact!”
He paused again, and we kept silence until it pleased him to go on.
“How did it get here?—or, rather, since nobody but Parslewe knows
that, we can only deal with this—how did Sperrigoe find out that it
was here? Mr. Craye has just told me one side of that, I can tell
another. When Sperrigoe found that the copper box had been
undoubtedly stolen, he had a thorough examination made of the
contents of the library and checked by a printed catalogue kept there
—for the library is famous. Then he found that several rare and
valuable old books had disappeared with the copper box. Then he
advertised. You know the rest. Parslewe had taken the copper box to
Bickerdale; Bickerdale saw Sperrigoe’s advertisement—and so on.
And now, when Pawley, as Sperrigoe’s advance agent, and then
Sperrigoe himself, turn up to ask a direct question as to how he
became possessed of the copper box, why does he run off?”
“Happening to know him,” said Madrasia quickly, “I can answer that.
For good and honest reasons of his own!”
“As his friend and solicitor,” remarked Murthwaite, “I say Amen to
that! But—why not have given some explanation?”
But it was time for me to step in there.
“Mr. Murthwaite!” I said. “Neither Pawley nor Sir Charles Sperrigoe
asked for any explanation! Sperrigoe, of course, never saw Mr.
Parslewe; Pawley came here as a mere spy——”
“Yes, yes!” he interrupted. “But what I really mean is, why didn’t he
give some explanation to you?”
“To me!” I exclaimed. “Why to me?”
“Because you were the only person who knew the—shall we say
immediate facts of the case?” he replied. “Evidently, although you
have only known each other a few days, he trusts you, Mr. Craye.
Why didn’t he give you a brief explanation of this seeming mystery
instead of stealing away in the night? Why?”
“As I said!” exclaimed Madrasia. “For good reasons—of his own.”
Murthwaite drummed his fingers on the table, regarding us intently.
“Don’t you see?” he said suddenly. “Don’t you realise the suspicion
he has brought on himself? Sir Charles Sperrigoe doesn’t know him.”
“I’m not so sure of that!” said I, with equal suddenness. “Anyway, I’m
quite sure he knows Sperrigoe—or knew him once. Sure of it from a
remark he made when I was telling him about Sperrigoe.”
“Eh!” exclaimed Murthwaite. “What remark?”
I told him. He rose suddenly from his chair, as if an idea had struck
him, and for a minute or two paced the room, evidently thinking.
Then he came back to the table, resumed his seat, and turned from
one to the other, pointing to the two telegrams which still lay where
he had put them down.
“Let us get to business,” he said. “Now I suppose you two young
people are going to meet Parslewe at Newcastle to-morrow morning
in response to those wires?”
“Certainly,” answered Madrasia. “And we shall take the copper box
with us.”
“Very well,” he continued. “Then I want you to do three things. First,
tell Parslewe all that I have told you as regards the Palkeney affair.
Second, tell him that on my own responsibility, and as his friend and
solicitor, I have given Sir Charles Sperrigoe an assurance—a pledge,
in fact—that he will, as quickly as possible, give Sir Charles a full
account of how box and books came into his possession, so that
their progress from Palkeney Manor to Kelpieshaw may be traced—
it’s inconceivable, of course, that Mr. Parslewe came by them in any
other than an honest way. Third, I have persuaded Sir Charles to go
home—where he awaits Mr. Parslewe’s communication.”
“Oh!” said Madrasia. “But has he gone?”
“He went south after seeing me—by the next train,” replied
Murthwaite.
“Leaving the police inspector at Wooler under the impression that my
guardian is a possible thief, eh?” suggested Madrasia.
“Nothing of the sort!” retorted Murthwaite. “Come, come, my dear
young lady!—things aren’t done in that way. All that Sperrigoe did in
that quarter was to make certain guarded inquiries as to Parslewe’s
status in the neighbourhood. The police know nothing, of course.”
There was a brief silence, broken at last by Madrasia.
“Of course, we will give my guardian your message,” she said.
“Every word! But, Mr. Murthwaite, haven’t you any idea of what all
this is about? All this fuss, mystery, running up and down country
about a copper box—that box?”
Murthwaite laughed, and turning to the sideboard took the copper
box from it.
“I’ve no more idea of the solution of the mystery than you have,” he
answered. “This article is certainly a curiosity in itself. Fine old
beaten copper, beautifully made, and beautifully engraved. But why
all this fuss about it—as you say—I can’t think. Still, when a dying
man mutters what old Matthew Palkeney did, over and over again,
eh? Naturally his man-of-law wants to get at some sort of clearing
up. My own notion is that it’s not the copper box, but what may have
been in the copper box! Not the case, but the contents—don’t you
see?”
“You think something was kept in it at Palkeney Manor?” I
suggested.
“Probably,” he assented. “That’s just about what I do think.”
“And that the original thief has stolen whatever it was?”
“Just so! The box may have passed through several hands before it
came into Parslewe’s. Parslewe no doubt picked up this thing in
some curio shop—the books, too.”
“Have the people of Palkeney Manor any idea as to how the theft
occurred?” I asked.
“None!—according to Sperrigoe. But I understand that Palkeney
Manor is a sort of show-place. That is, there are certain rooms which
are shown to the public, including the library. A shilling fee is charged
on certain mornings of the week—the proceeds are given to the local
charities. And, of course, Sperrigoe thinks that this box and the
books were stolen by some visitor only just before old Mr. Matthew
Palkeney’s death. So—there we are! All that’s wanted now is—a few
words from Parslewe.”
He then said he must go, and presently we went down the stair and
out into the courtyard with him. Old Edie brought out the cob; with his
hand on its bridle Murthwaite turned to Madrasia.
“Now just get Parslewe to come straight back and tell me all about it
so that I can write to Sperrigoe and clear up the mystery,” he said.
“Tell him all I have said, and that he must come at once.”
But Madrasia was beginning to show signs of a certain mutinous
spirit.
“We’ll tell him every word you’ve said, and all about Sperrigoe
coming here, and Weech coming, too,” she answered. “But, you
know, Mr. Murthwaite, you’re completely ignoring something, lawyer
though you are!”
“What?” he asked, with an amused laugh.
“That my guardian would never have gone away, never have wired
for Mr. Craye and myself, never asked that the copper box should be
brought to him, unless he had very good and strong reasons,” she
answered. “Do you think he’s playing at something? Rot! The whole
thing’s much more serious than you think!”
Murthwaite looked from her to me.
“That your opinion, too, Mr. Craye?” he asked.
“It is!” said I. “My absolute opinion.”
He shook hands with us, and got into his saddle. He bent down for a
last word.
“Never been so curious about a matter in my life!” he said. “But it
must end!”
Then he rode off across the moor and disappeared. And next
morning Madrasia and I journeyed to Newcastle, she carrying the
copper box, neatly tied up and sealed. Our train ran in at the very
time at which we were to meet Parslewe. But we saw no Parslewe.
We stood staring around us until a man in the livery of a hall-porter
came along, eyeing us closely, and stopped at my side.
“Beg pardon, sir—Mr. Craye, sir? Just so, sir—Mr. Parslewe’s
compliments, and will you and the young lady join him at lunch in the
hotel? This way, sir.”
 VIII
One Minute Past Midnight
WE followed Parslewe’s messenger across the platform to the hotel
in a state of mute obedience, being, as Madrasia remarked
afterwards, resigned by that time to anything that Parslewe did or
commanded. But I think hunger had something to do with our
meekness; we had breakfasted early, and had had nothing since,
and as far as I was concerned the thought of this hotel and its
excellent fare—already known to me—was by no means
unwelcome. I turned instinctively towards the coffee-room as we
entered, already anticipating its pleasures more than my meeting
with Parslewe. But our guide steered us away from it; he took us
upstairs, along corridors, down passages, finally opened a door. And
there was a private sitting-room, and a table laid for lunch, and on
the hearth, warming his coat-tails at a blazing fire, his saturnine
countenance wearing a more cynical grin than ever, Parslewe.
He greeted us as coolly and unconcernedly as if we were in his own
parlour at Kelpieshaw and had just come down to breakfast; indeed,
he scarcely did more than give us a careless good morning, his chief
concern just then seemed to be to catch the porter’s attention before
he closed the door on us.
“Hi, you!” he called. “Just tell that waiter to bring up lunch, will you?
—there’s a good fellow! Well,” he went on, regarding us speculatively
as the man went off. “I suppose you’re hungry, eh?”
“Very!” said I.
“Famishing!” declared Madrasia.
He inspected her critically, rubbed his chin, and pointed to a side
table.
“Take your things off and throw ’em on there, my dear,” he said. “You
can take ’em to your own room afterwards.”
Madrasia, in the act of divesting herself, turned on him.
“Room?” she exclaimed.
“Number 186, yours,” he answered, calmly. “Yours, Craye, is 95—
next mine. Don’t forget the numbers—however, if you do, they’ll tell
you at the office. They’re booked in your respective names.”
“Do you mean that we’ve got to stay the night here?” demanded
Madrasia.
“Precisely,” replied Parslewe, in his most laconic manner. “Two,
maybe.”
“I haven’t come prepared to stay any nights,” said Madrasia. “I
haven’t brought even a toothbrush!”
“Buy one!” he retorted. “Excellent shops in the place, my dear.”
Madrasia stared at him harder than ever.
“You’re developing a very extraordinary habit of ordering people
about, Jimmie!” she exclaimed at last. “Why all this insistence?”
“Needs must where the devil drives!” he answered with a cynical
laugh.
“Are you the devil?” she asked.
“I don’t know exactly what I am, my dear, since night before last,” he
replied, with a relapse into mildness. “But I’m hoping to know before
long. And in the meantime, let’s be comfortable—here’s food and
drink.”
Two waiters came in with hot dishes; we sat down. I don’t know if
Parslewe had expected us to be unusually hungry, but he had
certainly taken pains to order a delightful lunch and to prove to us
that he had a very nice and critical taste in champagne. And all the
time we were lunching he kept the waiters in the room, artfully, I
thought, lest Madrasia should open out on the subject uppermost in
our thoughts; true, he talked freely himself, but it was all about a play
that he had seen at the Theatre Royal on the previous evening, and
of which he was enthusiastically full.
“But you shall see it yourself to-night,” he wound up. “I’ve booked
two seats—Craye shall take you.”
“And—you?” asked Madrasia. “Won’t it bear seeing twice in
succession?”
“I’ve some business,” he answered. “I shall be out when you return;
we’ll compare notes in the morning.”
I saw that Madrasia was dying to ask him what his business was, but
the waiters were still in the room. It was not until they had served us
with coffee and gone away for good that Parslewe came to what we
certainly regarded as business. Giving me a cigar and lighting one
himself, he turned his chair towards the hearth, settled in an easy
position with one elbow on the table, and flung us a glance over his
shoulder.
“Now, then!” he said. “What’s gone on up yonder since I left? And as
you can’t both speak at once, settle between yourselves which is
going to be spokesman. But first—where is that box?”
Madrasia, the morning being cold, had come in furs; amongst them a
big muff, in the pocket of which she had carried the copper box. She
rose, extracted it from its hiding-place, and laid it on the table at
Parslewe’s side; then she pointed a finger at me.
“Let him tell,” she said. “I’ll correct him where he’s wrong.”
“Go ahead, Craye,” commanded Parslewe. “Detail!”
I told him of everything that had happened at Kelpieshaw since his
own mysterious disappearance, watching him carefully and even
narrowly as I talked. He listened silently and impassively; only once
did he interrupt me, and that was to ask for a more particular
description of Mr. Augustus Weech. He seemed to reflect a good
deal when he got that, but he let me go on to the end without further
questioning, and received the message from Murthwaite just as
phlegmatically as he had taken in everything else. In point of
absolute inscrutability and imperviousness Parslewe in that particular
mood of his could have given points to the Sphinx.
“And that’s all,” I concluded. “All!”
“All!” repeated Madrasia. “Except that I reiterate precisely what
Murthwaite said—you’ve got to go back to Wooler and see him and
tell him all about it and enable him to keep his word to Sir Charles
Sperrigoe. And that’s that!”
Parslewe’s thin lips resolved themselves into that straight, rigid line
which I had already come to know as well as I knew my own
reflection in a mirror. When he relaxed them it was to indulge in one
of his sardonic laughs, which died away into a cynical chuckle and
ended in one of his angelic smiles, cast, of course, in his ward’s
direction.
“Oh, that’s that, is it, my dear?” he said, sweetly. “Well, then, it isn’t!
I’m not going to traipse back to Wooler—till I please! I’m not going to
suit the convenience of either Charlie Sperrigoe or Jackie Murthwaite
—till I please! I reckon I know my own business as well as the next
man, and I shall just carry it out—as I please! And if you want me to
indulge in modern slang—that’s that!”
“And it all means that you know a great deal more than you’ve let
out!” exclaimed Madrasia.
He treated us to another of his sardonic bursts of laughter at that.
“I’m not aware that I’ve let out anything at all, my dear, so far!” he
retorted. “And I’ve no intention of doing so until——”
“Until you please!” said Madrasia. “Precisely! More mystery! Really,
Jimmie, for a respectable elderly gentleman——”
He laughed again, throwing up his head as if he enjoyed being
scolded, rose from his chair, and, standing on the hearth with his
hands in his pockets, looked from one to the other of us as if he
enjoyed seeing us wonder. Suddenly he drew one hand out, full of
money. There was gold in those days!—plenty of it—and Parslewe
had a fist full. He held it out to Madrasia.