The Red Pill Executive. Tony Gruebl

      FOREWORD

      When I first learned about Think Systems, I was CTO during a merger that had all the earmarks of a first-class disaster. We were two years in. The situation was becoming more and more complex, and our deadline was only three months away.

      I’m a transformational agilest, and I had tried to address the project using agile methods. I had a great team with stellar business analysts, developers, scrum masters, user experience architects, and more. However, this project had gaps, and throwing more developers or business analysts at it would only be adding resources to areas that weren’t really the problem.

      Just as an example, say I had people who could write great user stories, but those great writers had no concept of how to tailor those stories to highlight our competitive advantage. Those talented writers were actually blockers because they didn’t deliver the value we needed. By realizing the problem and opening up those blocks, the rest of the team could finally make progress.

      I needed someone to find the blocks in the merger and help us open them up.

      That’s when I called in Think. They gave us a Strategic Project Manager and two full-time PMs as well as several others. Basically, they landed on us like the Marines storming a beach. What happened after that blew me away. We finished the merger before the three-month deadline and did it with elegance.

      Seeing how they handled that dire situation, I learned how to modify my own approach to my teams. I placed less weight on certifications and more weight on the conduct of the individual. PMs who wanted to follow formulas simply for the sake of following formulas didn’t cut it anymore. Now I was looking for team members who understood what it meant to be in alignment with the company vision and mission. I wanted someone who knew the meaning of Business Value Potential and who had the courage speak out when they saw a block looming ahead.

      I wanted someone who had more than simple technical know-how. I wanted someone who understood culture, who had a sense of what makes the key players tick, and who had some personal investment in the outcome. I wanted someone who could build a strategy based on solid principles, but with the flexibility to match the specific situation so we could make real progress that mattered.

      Think changed my entire perspective on what effective project management entailed. However, at the same time I also realized that the amount of manpower and time they had invested in our company meant their process was not scalable. They’d have to train several teams filled with capable, savvy operators like Tony, Bryan, and others who were willing to work hard and long to get the job done.

      Over the years since then, I’ve seen these brilliant professionals go through a maturing process. They actually cracked the code. Not only have they scaled their process, but they’ve broken the steps down into a readable, informative, and entertaining (albeit somewhat in-your-face) book.

      Fasten your seatbelt. Things are about to get real when you dig into this stuff. These guys don’t mince words, and they don’t take prisoners. You’re gonna love ‘em.

      John Camp

      Technology Executive Advisor, former CTO of Bloomberg BNA, Lippincott Williams and Wilkins, Wolters Kluwer Health Division, and Sheshunoff Information Services, Thomson Financial Media Group