New adventures & old friends

Yesterday my new group all met to plan the launch activities for our new product that's due out later this year. I, with my project management background, got to facilitate and manage the meeting. I was nervous about this position since I'd be effectively running a meeting of people who have all been here a lot longer, and know a lot more than me. So instead of worrying about it and freaking myself out, I did what any good Project Manager would do. I built a plan. I had my plan, my agenda, my isle for notes, and my timer. I was good to go. It was amazing, this team functions like a well oiled machine. I think my planning/organizational skills have less to do with the amount of work we got done than this team just being full of people who work well together. Finally at the end of the meeting during my summary of action items, I whipped out a Responsibility Matrix. I expected to hear gasped throughout and comments like, "You mean we have to assign someone to these activities". But no, they all hopped up and put there names down next to tasks and that was that. In the course of 5 hours, I got to do a communication plan, a responsibility matrix, an issues log, risk analysis, and a charter. I secretly sat in my car after the meeting and was a bit stunned that I had pulled it off. I thought, "Maybe I actually know this stuff and its not just a mirage." That's a joke. Laugh. OF COURSE I KNOW THIS STUFF. I studied 120 hours and passed the PMP exam. But I also think I'm spoiled with an exceptional set of team members. In fact, if anyone's ever been in a planning meeting you are pretty much guaranteed to go over time by hours. We were done 20 minutes early. I tapped my watch just to make sure it was working.

Oh and a big lesson learned...no wifi in the room. No one had access to their email while the meeting was going on...so we got a lot more accomplished.

Now on to old friends. Each day at Microsoft is a bit surreal to me. I remember so many things about this company. Not all of them are good and pleasant memories. But of the memories I cherish the most, are those of old friends. I've met many people here. Some I talk to on regular basis, some I don't see for months/years. Today, I ran into one of those "years" persons. Her smile is what made me look twice at her. I knew I recognized that laugh and that smile. She recognized me immediately too and ran up to greet me with a big hug. She's one of those wonderful spirits that just makes you happy when you're around her. Anyhow, we talked about our new roles, and how things are now. But we had to go down memory lane a bit too. We have mutual friends that we may not see as much as planned, but we got all caught up with them and ourselves in the span of 10 minutes.

While my original departure from Microsoft wasn't exactly a pleasant one (I've learned so much since then and because of that experience), but what will never be clouded are my memories of the good times and the good people.