Holidays are rich in tradition and the dinner is a part of that. I was looking forward to using my grandmother’s pie crust recipe this Easter. It felt special to be connected to her, even long after she has been gone.

Family recipes are part of holiday gatherings all over the world. A reliable crowd pleaser makes history. It’s not so easy to achieve: family can be very vocal in their displeasure. They will let you know if something isn’t right, especially the little kids. A favorite dish is part of the tradition, and people remember it and look forward to it

Some people guard their recipes as a secret and never share the secret. People who hoard their expertise often use it to as proof of their worth:

“No one else could do it like me”

It’s true. The individual has their unique way of doing it. The dish would come out different because each person will do the recipe with their style.

My grandmother shared her recipe freely. Of course, there are things she knew to finesse, like the temperature of the shortening, how fast to stir and the thickness of the crust, etcetera. I am getting more experience with it and learning what to watch for.

I’ve worked with people who hoarded their knowledge in a similar way. I’d be trying to figure out how to manage a project and be working out the next steps.

I’ve had guys tell me tell me that projects are done by feel, and the only way to get it right is through experience.  

Which gave them the perfect excuse to hoard their knowledge. I couldn’t call their methods “best practices” because they were held behind closed doors. No one else was allowed to practice them. Then the cherished stories of the disasters. If I were working through a disaster, these withholding PMs would nod and tell me about their worst disaster. They anticipated that I would have a disaster and seemed that is was going to happen to me.

I moved away from those people, and made a point of collecting what I learned into a book, the AV Project Manager Handbook I want everyone to know what I learned. I would hope people could take what I learned, make it better and teach me something new. That’s the tradition I like to keep.