Turkey-time project management
For eleven months of the year, my dad was not a project manager. But every November, like clockwork, the yellow legal pad came out and Thanksgiving planning began. Without realizing it, he ran a full waterfall plan with a fixed deployment date—the fourth Thursday of the month.
His legal pad held everything: the menu, grocery lists, cook times, temperatures, and most importantly, the cooking schedule. He mapped out what went in which oven, for how long, and how each dish depended on the next. It was sequencing and resource management at its finest. One year, during a kitchen remodel, he even built a contingency plan using a plug-in skillet and toaster oven in the laundry room—and still delivered a perfect turkey.
Project management shows up everywhere if you look for it. Some parents seem effortlessly organized while others scramble to get kids out the door with the right gear. Not every situation requires a strict waterfall approach, but planning a holiday meal, coordinating a family trip, or preparing a product launch all rely on the same fundamentals: define the scope, sequence the work, manage dependencies, and create fallback plans.
When my family planned our trip to London, we built a backlog of ideas together, refined it, prioritized it, and arrived with a flexible plan that let us enjoy the moment without losing momentum.
Of course, some situations require a more rigorous, scientific approach—I don’t want my airplane or a medical procedure managed on a yellow legal pad. That’s exactly why Monture Partners exists: to right-size project and program management so organizations get the structure they need without unnecessary complexity. I help clients translate overwhelming calendars into clear actions and keep teams moving forward, especially when the “kitchen” gets crowded.
As Thanksgiving approaches, I hope you can find a quiet moment to reflect on what brings you joy. There is plenty happening in the world that weighs on us, but we respond to challenges more humanely—and more effectively—when we start from a place of gratitude.