Groundhog Day

February 2^nd is Groundhog Day here in the US. On this day, Phil the Groundhog is brought out of his box, and if he sees his shadow, we have 6 more weeks of winter. The movie “Groundhog Day” with Bill Murray, based on this event, is one of my favorites.

With the cold winter we’ve had in Kansas, I sure hope Phil doesn’t see his shadow. I’m ready for spring. I know Phil’s observations don’t really have any impact on the weather, but isn’t it fun to hope?

Do we run our projects this way? Do we hope that something will turn out right? Maybe we’ve identified a risk, but we hope it will go away without impacting the project. A book titled “Hope is Not a Method” came out a few years back. I remember my boss at the time really keying in on the message. We can’t just hope things will go well; we have to be proactive about it. We need to plan a response to those risks, at least the high ones.

So while I will be watching what happens with Phil, rather then hoping for an early spring, I’m going to take a trip to Cancun next week!