beef, wizards, and godspeed Tweet

Preparing our late lunch/ early dinner today, I got to think of more than beef. It's the classic project management story of turning raw beef, bell pepper, mushrooms, a little oil and a little red wine into a cooked dish. Of breaking the process into tasks and going at them one at a time. Of how the spices are added in the end. Of how all gets done and served in a timely fashion. And, eventually, of how you may end up taken for a wizard by those not cooking but eating.

A client expects me to take a project from raw beef to cooked dish without any input from its organisation. In other words, the client thinks I'm an eatery and doesn't see why ordering from my menu implies being involved with my cooking. We've talked about this again and again; the client agrees with me and then goes back to its ways. While the project is pending for a few weeks and that may seem manageable, the reality of client's kitchen is that this project—and many others, for that matter—have been cooking for... years, and the only thing the client considers is changing chef after chef.

This chef knew from an early contact that it's not going to be a peace of cake. This chef hasn't given up on the client so far, yet cannot spend a lifetime cooking the same beef. When does a chef decide to tell the beef godpeed?