Keep a cool head at all times

Anyone that has been involved in ICT projects or programmes will be familiar with the 'headless chickens' who often frequent the arena and panic at anything and everything. Something i'm sure which is common in lots of industries.

In the current world mele, its perhaps more important than ever that people don't panic and the recent election in Germany prompted me to remember a situation some years ago, when i was delivering the final phase of a separation/integration project for a financial services firm in Frankfurt.

We had been planning and coordinating remotely and the time came with a week to go, for a team to assemble on site for the last push and to ensure things completed successfully. We were due move a large number of users out of one company office and into a new facility of the other company. When we arrived on site, myself and my counter-part identified a big problem but neither of us panicked and we both almost simultaneously tried to accept responsibility for the error, which made us laugh.

We then constructed a plan to remedy the situation, so that things could complete as scheduled. It took some negotiating on both of our parts with various people but the end result, was a successful completion on time.

Obviously, we learned lessons from that but we were able to allow the team to celebrate after completion and myself and my German counterpart parted with an appropriate man hug.

This echoes principles that my dad installed in me when i was growing up, which was to keep a cool head at all times and that worrying never solves anything.

Although, i know very little of German politics, i am sure that they will keep cool heads, they won't panic and they will work together internally and externally to get the best outcome for all.