Our youngest son wraps up his high school career and like many families across the country, we are holding an open house for friends and neighbors to celebrate the event. And like many husbands in similar situations across the country, I’m in charge of finishing up those chores that I put off all winter while I was writing Leadership and the Project Manager or teaching or delivering workshops or talking about performance excellence to industry groups. Today’s chore is to paint the kitchen ceiling. Like almost every job in life and in business, a successful outcome is a function of detailed preparation, a good plan and painstaking attention to the issues that potentially will impact the outcome. The patching, sanding, masking, cutting-in and thorough application of paint are all critical to the final outcome. Oh, and don’t forget the drop cloths to catch collateral spatter.