Week 2 of celebrity apprentice was another star studded showdown, where the teams began to move past the usual team dynamics of forming, through to storming.  Last week things were so cordial that when the women were in the boardroom, Donald was reduced to vulgarity out of frustration because they wouldn’t throw each other under the bus.  This week, we began to see some of the personality conflicts staging as the stress of the task set in. 

 This week’s task was to create a Kodak storefront experience.  The teams had to create, capture and share the most original Kodak Moment for their guests. They were judged on originality of their photo studio, the Kodak Moments brand messaging, and the overall store experience. Sinbad was chosen as RockSolid’s project manager and Maria stepped up to the plate for Tenacity.  The winner would earn $20,000 for their charity.

Sinbad struggled right away with communication problems, as he failed to articulate a clear concise plan to his team.  He neither facilitated a group developed plan (a preferred approach), or even dictated an answer.  This left several of his team members baffled and confused, wondering what they were supposed to do.   While Michael Johnson and Goldberg seemed to be able to compensate for this lack of direction, and find useful activities on their own, Bret felt he needed specific direction and asked Sinbad repeatedly about his role.  Further exacerbating this issue, when approached by Bret, Sinbad either ignored Bret, or insulted him by trivializing his concern. 

So from the start, Sinbad could have saved himself a lot of trouble by observing some of the practices seasoned project managers know which is at the beginning of a project, hold a kick off meeting and explain everyone’s roles and responsibilities.  Another important aspect of team management that was neglected by Sinbad was team member individuality.  Different strokes for different folks, to coin a very old phrase.  In other words, just because Bret needed a different style of attention than other team members didn’t make him less valuable; it was just a different style. A good manager must learn to leverage each team member for the strengths they can bring to the effort.

On the women’s team, Maria came up with a good plan for a wrestling ring theme and Cyndi Lauper surprised everyone with a suggested tag line of “Share Kodak Moments. Celebrate the champion in you”.  However, Cyndi’s favor with the team was short lived, as she quickly got on everyone’s nerves again.  Maria cleverly solved the problem by sending Cyndi away with Summer to get supplies, thus getting her out of everyone’s hair without offending her.  That had such a familiar ring for me.  On every project team isn’t there always that team member who is annoying, but has their moments of brilliance?  You need the contributions of those people and good project managers find a way to keep them engaged without driving the rest of the team insane.

Both teams had unexpected risks that they didn’t plan well for.  Rock Solid experienced a scare when they heard that they might have an entire wall bare due to a miscommunication with the printing company over a poster that was supposed to be delivered.  Tenacity experienced power outages that affected their ability to print pictures.  In addition Sharon Osbourne fell ill and was unable to participate for part of the preparation leaving the women 2 members short of the men’s team. 

In the end though, the key factor that made the difference in the decision was an inattention to Kodak’s goals of showcasing their products.  Hence the title of this article – Focus on the objective (no pun intended).  The women did a great job of displaying and explaining the products to customers while the men had them sitting on a table with no one “selling” them or demoing them at all.  In the final analysis it was about selling product and that was what Kodak wanted to see.   This is why on real projects we use tools like project charters and scope statements to capture the objectives and work that needs to be done and keep the team focused on goals.  Given that The Apprentice does not lend itself to such structure, teams could at the very least  gather at the beginning of the task to review the direction from the customer, write it down in some form (i.e. a charter), brainstorm the approach (scope), insuring that scope meets the customer’s directions, and define roles for each team member.  The women did a better job of that which led to their success.

The boardroom scene was not as nasty as some we’ve come to expect from last season, although it was a little more edgy that last week.  Sinbad and Bret pointed fingers at each other, but Sinbad accepted responsibility for his failed leadership and as expected got fired.  As he rode away in the cab, his advice to the remaining contestants was to dispense with being nice and throw your opponents under the bus.  We’ll have to see in the weeks to come.

Please join us on Twitter during the next episode to discuss the drama as it unfolds.  You can find the conversation by searching for #celebrityPM.