To: jim
Cc: Keith
Subject: Issues of psychology which struck me at today's meeting


Jim:

Some impressions of mine concerning Rick's violent outburst and Steve's
more subdued ire at today's meeting: it seems clear to me that both of
these were engendered by both men's relative difficulty in acting as
"team players". The encouraging news is that in both cases, there was
enough team spirit and focus among the other men present to overcome
both of these potentially frustrating and explosive situations.

I see the proposal/meeting mechanism as working, Jim.  What we saw today
were some of the growing pains inherent in the inception of the process.
Rick came away with an understanding of what is needed from him vis a
vis the proposal process, and Steve's frustrated state is (in my
opinion) long overdue, and brought completely upon himself by his
attitudes.  When Steve realizes that we are in fact a team, and when all
of the factors concerning cooperation which go along with such a
realization fall into place in his mind, we will be well on our way to
achieving an optimally efficient work environment *and* meeting all of
our goals with great success.

Rick's statement of being "hassled" by your efforts to organize the
development timeline into a reasonably rational presentation were
unfounded, I thought.  I think that the general impression up until now
has been that the Milestone List is a "paper tiger" of sorts, which
neither had much thought put into it nor which served any useful
purpose.  In my mind, today's meeting goes a long way towards rectifying
that impression!

Nevertheless, we really do need a Gantt chart, Jim.  Not necessarily as
a replacement for the Milestone List, but as a means of providing
*additional* perspective on project deadlines, constraints, and resource
allocation decisions.  This will provide an UNBIASED presentation of
those issues which the Milestone List, by virtue of its setup, is weak
in or unable to provide.

Henry claims he has begun looking at MicroPlanner, which strikes me as a
highly positive step.  That's an idea which wants pushing along with all
due haste!

In sum, I thought today was a real "laundry washing" day for all of us.
Watching Rick blow up AND THEN BECOME PACIFIED, admitting that he had
been negligent in the process of reading your comments appended to the
Proposal file, were a wonder to behold, and speak promisingly for the
future of this 

Dave