Management Secrets of Captain Bligh: Part the First
The Mutiny on the Bounty is a seminal tale of freedom versus unreasoning tyranny. There have been at least five films, several novels, a Jules Verne short story, two Bugs Bunny cartoons, and a Simpson’s episode. All portray something of the 18th century heroics of Fletcher Christian as he’s reluctantly forced into mutiny by the capricious and villainous Captain Bligh. Floggings! Keel-haulings! Why, it’s hard to think of a more cruel and unreasonable martinet to serve under, except perhaps for your last boss. You know, the one where the whole team was one cutlass short of tying him or her to a giant silicon wafer and floating the pointy-haired tyrant down the mill race.
Which is kind of apt, really. Because once the politics and bad PR are peeled back, Captain Bligh may have not been worse than many a project manager with too few tools and too much responsibility.
History depends on whom you read, but many suggest that the real Captain Bligh was more scientific and less bound by class distinctions than most of his contemporaries. He was enlightened in protecting the health of his crew, even if they thought his obsession with fresh food and exercise was daft. He is said to have been enlightened in discipline, tongue-lashing when others would have flogged, and flogging when others would have hung. If you were flung onto that quarter deck, the only commissioned officer on a small ship with a daunting set of orders, very limited resources, and no marines to back you up — well, even you might find yourself acting remarkably like the perfidious captain. Even to asking your old shipmate, Fletcher Christian, to help out and join the project team.
On April 28, 1789, Bligh’s project failed horribly and the mutineers consigned him and the loyalist team members to a small open boat with no charts, five days of supplies, and a 4000 mile voyage to the nearest Starbucks.
But where did Bligh go wrong? How did he turn into the villain? Why do promising projects fail anyway? The usual answer is not enough tools, not enough time, or not enough budget. And that is often the truth. But maybe, sometimes, the only villain we find in the wreck is us, and misuse of our human tools seems the most probable cause.
Check on the primary sources if you would like (I’m fond of Bugs’ impersonation of Charles Laughton’s Bligh in “Buccaneer Bunny”), but my suggestion is to simply consider what you see going wrong — and right — all around you. Next installment we’ll go into detail how the human element can help your next project come safely to port, whether you’re serving as Fletcher Christian, Captain Bligh, or just another able-bodied cubicle-on-deck.