Work, in Plain English

The plus side of committees is that everyone brings a different perspective, and different strengths, to the table. One of their infamous minuses—the bottleneck (sometimes known as pea soup or the black hole)—becomes exponentially aggravating for each person you add to the group (not to mention those that show up near the end of the project).

Here are a few tips to help you transform snags into synergy. They refer mostly to design, but have value for anyone moving a project through committee approval:

Committee Un-bottlenecking Tip#1:
Committee involvement is easier—and more productive—if the group reviews only a reasonable sampling of the project. Be on the lookout for issues that don’t really belong in the meeting room.

Recently, as we neared the end of a website design project, I realized I was unnecessarily prolonging the agony, not only for myself, but for everyone poring over the layouts. After taking a look at which pages were truly critical to business, I was able to halve the number of page templates I submitted for committee review, and free myself to put this baby to bed.

What’s a reasonable sampling? Just make sure you understand which parts of the project are critical. For example, on the current project, I know which pages are expected to generate the most revenue, and which involve external business partnerships. For those pages, I’ll need input from the individuals who intimately know the market, the numbers, and the nuances of the partnerships.

Of course, some participants may insist on seeing it all, but I wouldn’t even say, “Hey, we’re only going to show you a sampling.” That’s too tantalizing a whiff of the “forbidden” (it would be for me). Don’t bring it up.

Committee Un-bottlenecking Tip#2:
Cull again: Watch for issues that can slip in, especially as you get close to the end of the approval process. Do these really require executive involvement?

Present it as a positive: “The key issues are A, B and C. If you’re happy with these, we can call this phase done and move on to [next urgent project].” By the end of a long approval process, only the most dogged will really feel the need to “see it all”, and will understand that they’ve seen enough.

Committee Un-bottlenecking Tip#3:
Take the time to engage and empathize with the key detractors.

If there are too many hanging issues, meet directly with one key detractor at a time (maybe two), and be prepared to do some genuine listening (that’s different from caving, and even more different from manipulating). There’s a good chance they have concerns and perspectives that are easier to explain in a one-on-one meeting. Whether you fully agree or not, you’ll have a chance to find some common ground, and you’ll have an advocate at the next review. If you’re not sure how to do this, I highly recommend Marshall Rosenberg’s Nonviolent Communication, also known as compassionate communication, an approach that’s been used by families, businesses and communities to work together to meet the needs of all concerned.

I’m not against working with committees, as long as they have essentially productive intentions (mostly free of power wars), and I get to be there in the room. Do everything you can to meet all the individuals deciding the fate of your work. If you are a designer working with corporations, this, too, is design. But be smart: Tap the business wisdom being made available to you and take the time to make sure they are reviewing only necessary items.

Listen, respond, get the sign-off, and get out!

It’s easy to stay focused on the objectives of a 6-to-8 week project. For example, a current site redesign includes objectives for building revenue from specific sources and strengthening the current community. It’s those 6+ month projects that can drag the team’s attention away… to things like checking off the task list, interruptions for smaller requests, and working around vacation schedules.

At the moment, my simple solution, and promise to myself, is to review project objectives every Monday morning. I’ll be starting this coming week, and expect to scan work to date to make sure it’s still doing that fundamental job.

I’d love to hear how others keep their sights on a project’s objectives over the long haul… Comments?

The best part is the silent moments as interviewees search for words—vulnerable, human faces. I showed this to my son, and would like you to see it, too.

After I posted this note, I happened to rediscover Only Human, “a community where people share stories publicly or anonymously about mistakes they’ve made in life and their advice to others.” Not a lot of recent posts, but I wonder what would happen if they created an area for project post mortems.

To inspire great design, don’t teach design processes. A fixed set of design steps is more likely to stifle the unexpected bursts of breakthrough insight that newer designers can contribute to a project.

Instead, consider offering design challenges that help them discover and develop their own processes.

Here are some challenge ideas (always starting with acknowledgment):

1. Great layout! Do you think you can show me an alternate color palette within [tight deadline]?

2. Cool typeface! If we keep using it, we’ll need secondary and body faces that complement it. Wrap up this piece, and then let’s meet in three days with your suggestions.

3. Your banner ad generated 2.2% conversion! What do you think did it?

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So why do you manage projects, anyway? Derry Simmel cuts to the chase in his article, Cargo Cult Project Management.

I love articles like this: articles that remind us to focus, not on the trappings of project management, but on the desired outcome. As with many essential truths, this applies to more than business. Before there were hundreds of models and brands of cars, there was the desire to quickly and safely get oneself and one’s stuff from Point A to Point B. Before there was House Beautiful, there was the desire to make a shelter both safe and comfortable. Before there was project management, there was a great idea that was too big or too long to be completed alone, in a single burst of energy.

In Derry’s example, a group of otherwise intelligent human beings were missing the context of the mysterious cargo that had been briefly showered upon them, seemingly from nowhere. They were missing the culture that had evolved a world view, as well as systems and values, for creating and distributing those cargoes, just as I lack the world view, as well as the systems and values, to become a Pacific Islander.

Derry reminds us, first of all, to wait, and assess a project before acting. I would add that this would be a good time to privately interpret the purpose of a project, as well as to determine how you personally plan to contribute to its success. Then, jettison wasteful “Project Management-ese”, whether it’s processes, lingo, superfluous meetings, etc.

Once you do that, you can start building the unique processes required by that unique project, and, as he reminds us, build on what is working.

Surprise! Not only do you win a more successful project management experience, you and more team are now free to discover and initiate much more creative solutions, and (shhh…) have much more fun doing it.

This past week, I have been at both the giving and receiving ends of some very poor communication.

Dishing it out: I asked for backup support with a project, but neglected to mention a specific time the support would be needed. To make matters worse, no one had the mental bandwidth to reply with a clarifying question, so the email wasn’t answered until it was too late.

Being dished: After spending half a week on a project, all preliminaries were junked when the project owner mentioned requirements that should have been in the initial request.

We’re all busy. When we are the source of a request, it’s important that we either do the work of providing all key details, or clearly state what details are needed from the other person. When we’re the recipient of an unclear email, it’s up to us to ask for missing details, and to make sure we get them.

One tool I use is a quick checklist:

If you get the feeling a note (either that you’ve received or are about to send) is unclear, re-read it and jot down the questions that come to mind (they will). If you’re having trouble coming up with questions, give yourself a “who-what-where-when” kick-start: Does the message name all necessary names? Does it explain exactly what’s happening, or what’s needed? Do you need to know more about where or when? (Sure, you learned that years ago, but did you use it in your last memo?) Once you start a list like this, it’s surprisingly easy to know when you’re done.

And once you’ve jotted down those questions…

Are the questions for an email you’re sending? Answer what you can, and ask for help with the others.

Are the questions for an email you’ve received? Reply to the sender with a numbered or bulleted list of questions. Don’t glob the questions into a long paragraph, but break them out into easy-to-answer pieces.

And remember to be patient with yourself and others. We are all busy; Communication is one of those things that will never be perfect, and could always use a little improvement.

This article purposely leaves out the nuances of more complex communications, such as those that seek to inspire change or address organizational issues. If you’re looking beyond the simple project memo, see Ken Milloy’s thoughtfully assembled 11 Laws of Internal Communications.

Brown’s Descent
by Robert Frost

Brown lived at such a lofty farm
That everyone for miles could see
His lantern when he did his chores
In winter after half-past three.

And many must have seen him make
His wild descent from there one night,
’Cross lots, ’cross walls, ’cross everything,
Describing rings of lantern light.

Between the house and barn the gale
Got him by something he had on
And blew him out on the icy crust
That cased the world, and he was gone!

Walls were all buried, trees were few:
He saw no stay unless he stove
A hole in somewhere with his heel.
But though repeatedly he strove

And stamped and said things to himself,
And sometimes something seemed to yield,
He gained no foothold, but pursued
His journey down from field to field.

Sometimes he came with arms outspread
Like wings, revolving in the scene
Upon his longer axis, and
With no small dignity of mien.

Faster or slower as he chanced,
Sitting or standing as he chose,
According as he feared to risk
His neck, or thought to spare his clothes,

He never let the lantern drop.
And some exclaimed who saw afar
The figures he described with it,
”I wonder what those signals are

Brown makes at such an hour of night!
He’s celebrating something strange.
I wonder if he’s sold his farm,
Or been made Master of the Grange.”

He reeled, he lurched, he bobbed, he checked;
He fell and made the lantern rattle
(But saved the light from going out.)
So half-way down he fought the battle

Incredulous of his own bad luck.
And then becoming reconciled
To everything, he gave it up
And came down like a coasting child.

“Well—I—be—” that was all he said,
As standing in the river road,
He looked back up the slippery slope
(Two miles it was) to his abode.

Sometimes as an authority
On motor-cars, I’m asked if I
Should say our stock was petered out,
And this is my sincere reply:

Yankees are what they always were.
Don’t think Brown ever gave up hope
Of getting home again because
He couldn’t climb that slippery slope;

Or even thought of standing there
Until the January thaw
Should take the polish off the crust.
He bowed with grace to natural law,

And then went round it on his feet,
After the manner of our stock;
Not much concerned for those to whom,
At that particular time o’clock,

It must have looked as if the course
He steered was really straight away
From that which he was headed for—
Not much concerned for them, I say:

No more so than became a man—
And politician at odd seasons.
I’ve kept Brown standing in the cold
While I invested him with reasons;

But now he snapped his eyes three times;
Then shook his lantern, saying, “Ile’s
’Bout out!” and took the long way home
By road, a matter of several miles.

From the book, Mountain Interval, published 1916

“To love an idea is to love it a little more than one should.”

- Jean Rostand

Saw this above my gmails this afternoon:

“The whole point of getting things done is knowing what to leave undone.”

– Oswald Chambers