p.2 Technological "Maestro"

• Technological maestros are successful project managers with vision and certain personal attributes
• The concept was invented by Arthur Squires, author of The Tender Ship (1986)

p.5 A maestro carries, in his or her head, a comprehensive mental model of the situation he or she is managing.

p.6 The model includes:

• The key dependencies, the interrelations between the things managed
• Part of the model is technical
• Another part of the model is social
• The model provides an effective "map" of how things operate

p.8-10 James B. Eads (1812-1887)

• Brilliant engineer and designer
• Designer of St. Louis Bridge
• Built ironclad warships for Lincoln during the civil war using innovative designs
• Used levees to create deeper channels in Mississippi delta to provide access to New Orleans
• Had walked miles on the bottom of the river in a diving bell, raising wrecked steamboats and their cargoes
• He understood how the Mississippi worked, because he had felt its forces first-hand
• All of this contributed to his mental model of the Mississippi, whose forces he used (or countered) in building his bridges, levees, and ships.
• Could play three chess games in his head at the same time
• Often could guess the answer to mathematical problems before doing the calculations

p.11 Maestros foresee dangers

• They use "requisite imagination" to help them see what might go wrong.

p.12 Requisite Imagination

• "Requisite imagination" has been defined as the "fine art of imagining what might go wrong"
• This is important for engineering design, and of course, to operations as well.

p.16-17 The Golden Gate Bridge Project

• Joseph Strauss was the architect of the Golden Gate Bridge
• The first thing Strauss did was to make all the workmen wear "hard hats" -- this was not standard practice at the time.
• he gave the workers glasses that would help them to see through fog.
• he stretched a hemp net under the bridge from shore to shore, to catch any workers that fell

p.26 Maestros see the invisible

• Maestros need to know what is going on --- not only what is visible, but also what is hidden.
• That the leader "didn't know" or "couldn't see" is not an excuse, but a serious fault.
• Maestros are supposed to "dig deep."