Mastering the Leadership Role in Project Management: Practices that Deliver Remarkable Results

5. A Successful Downsizing: Developing a Culture of Trust and Responsibility

by Alexander Laufer, Dan Ward, and Alistair Cockburn

My Engineering Staff Shrunk from 80 to 12

Judy Stokley recalls the challenges she faced when she took over as program director of the Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM) at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida:

“Talk about a difficult start. The program was rife with problems when I arrived, not the least of which was the mandated drawdown plan that had not been met. The Air Force had issued a mandate to draw down the workforce, and everyone on the program knew about it—civil servants, military personnel, and support contractors. A lot of these people had been on the program for the full 20 years it had existed, ...