The love of planning

I love planning. I adore how my calendar already has bookings until November. With the exception of April, I can tell you what I am doing almost every week and weekend until the 2009 holiday season. Sick, right? Nah, I love it.

And even more so, I love complex planning. For work, I have been culling together a team in pursuit of a large contract I was alerted to back in August. This past fall, I gathered multiple team members from my federal practice segment and hosted a strategy meeting. Since the new fiscal year, I followup with potential teaming partners on a monthly basis, and I am glued to all federal programming intel coming from the beltway—esp. in light of the new administration’s economic stimulus plans and evaluation of DoD and DHS components’ budgets. I have lived, breathed, and dreamt about this pursuit. And today, a final piece of the puzzle was delivered to me, wrapped in a bow. I finished my three day stint in Anchorage on a high note. I hosted a meeting with a big wig at another firm. My boss and my new office manager decided to tag along (no pressure, pshaaawww). The big wig and his marketing coordinator, whom I had met before but for a different pursuit, greeted me warmly, and I felt comfortable immediately. I was there to sell a partnership and slip tidbits to persuade them that URS (me) had the intel and know-how to approach and win this valuable and crucial work.

Hook, line, sink ‘er. I got ‘em. I got them so well that my new office manager high-fived me as soon as the elevator doors closed. . Yes, I did the happy dance in response. I was ecstatic and charged with closing the deal asap. Even on the flight home to Kodiak, I opened the laptop and drafted the follow-up email with the information they requested.

A shout out to Flo: forget project management. Focus on honing your subject matter expertise and continue charming the socks off of anyone in your path.