"Project management" (I'd probably argue "People management", too) is kind of like playing with cornstarch in water. If you work with a gentle touch, you can ge

"Project management" (I'd probably argue "People management", too) is kind of like playing with cornstarch in water. If you work with a gentle touch, you can get it to do what you want. If you apply too much pressure the whole thing seizes up - turning to stone. Crises don't happen often but when they do, it's good to remind yourself if the project/team/thing you're working on is cornstarch and not to over-control. In general, this phenomenon is why I think the "Project Manager" as commonly defined isn't implemented correctly. PM (in large companies) isn't about control (PMs have no real ability to control anything) but about communication and coordination. In smaller teams/companies, the role is usually distributed amongst others, or centralized in the CTO etc. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RmamKIkpxs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RmamKIkpxs - Non-Newtonian fluids are fun!)