The Project’s Goalkeeper

Since middle school on to my late 20s, I spent most of my time in the soccer field as a goalkeeper. I wasn’t too skillful with my feet, so that was the best, rational, choice for me. I wasn’t either the best at the beginning, but overtime I learned the different tactics and positions to defend with confidence the goal area.

A couple of days ago, I was ruminating on the idea that a project team follows the same dynamic as soccer team. Both have a limited number of resources (team players) and skills, a shared objective, a time limit (90 minutes in the field), sponsors (Soccer institution, sponsoring companies), risks (injuries in the field, weather conditions), and they have to deliver on a set expectation.

By comparing the roles of each soccer team player and a project team, I find that the goalkeeper and the project manager share many similar characteristics. I’ll do my best to explain why in the following paragraphs.

The goalkeeper is responsible for organizing the defense in the field. He has unique vantage point of it. He has to communicate with teammates, highlight threats, mark assignments and coordinate defensive strategies during set pieces like corners or free kicks.

Now with these responsibilities lets map them to the actual project work.

Communicating with teammates

For the communication to work effectively, the team needs to agree on a protocol. The project may have weekly stand ups, syncs and/or office hours. The key is having all relevant team members attending them. We don’t need everyone at the same time. Just think about it, would you need a forward or a mid-fielder checking on the goal keeper’s directions if your team is being attacked? Maybe not, just the defenders would be needed leaving the forwards and mid-fielders focused on the attack.

Highlighting Threats

This is a recurring topic in every project discussion, risks (a.k.a threats). You can plan playing with 4 defenders, 3 mid-fielders, 3 forwards and 1 goalkeeper, but we all know this scenario can change. Someone can get injured or expelled from the field. In a project, we have to deal with this under the name of attrition, lay-offs, PTO, sickness, you name it. There are also other external threats like another match being played at the same time as ours where if we lose, we’d be out of the tournament. In a project this could happen when we have to deliver on the expectation of cost reduction or revenue increase for the next quarter. If we don’t deliver, we lose. By highlighting risks on time, the focus can be shifted to prevent losing. I am not saying this with a mediocre mindset, quite the opposite. Calling risks on time is an opportunity to foster creativity, resourcefulness and strategic thinking. For the exemplified case of cost reduction and revenue increase, a possibility could be to focus on delivering the component with the highest monetary valuable first and the remaining deliverables next. In a soccer match, the goalkeeper may have to reinforce his defense strategy by adding maybe a mid-fielder.

Marking Assignments

When a meeting ends, everyone should know what to do. In a match, the defense needs to know who to mark on the field and how to. It could be man to man or zonal marking. Bringing this back to a project, each team member needs to have a clear understanding on what they should do next and don’t lose sight of what is important vs what is urgent. By marking assignments frequently we are ensuring everyone is engaged and focused on what matters the most.

Coordinating Defensive Strategies

This is a constant exercise. It is achieved by orchestrating all the other responsibilities : Communicating with teammates, highlighting risks and marking assignments.

Key Takeaways

• The project manager role mirrors that of a goalkeeper focusing on organization, communication, and risk management.
• Effective project communication involves establishing clear protocols (e.g., stand-ups, syncs) and ensuring relevant team members are involved as needed, similarly to how a goalkeeper communicates with defenders.
• Identifying and addressing project risks (threats) proactively allows for creative solutions and strategic thinking, just as a goalkeeper adapts defensive strategies based on game conditions.
• Clearly defined roles and responsibilities (marking assignments) are essential for team engagement and focus on critical tasks, similar to how defenders are assigned to mark specific players.