Work, in Plain English

I am up to my ears lately because I have succeeded in attracting an abundance of dream clients: Creative, innovative, deeply thinking, open to possibility—Ayeee!!

The past two weeks have mostly been spent creating flowcharts, communicating, adjusting flowcharts and communicating some more. For once, I’ve been thankful for the boring little projects one can sweep together quickly, fold into a zip file, and Send.

Of course I love those dream clients.

That’s why I call them Dream Clients.

And as I had hoped, they’ve got me thinking. At the moment, I’m thinking about how to encourage all this creativity and innovation I’m deluged with, and still get the work done.

My key tool is what I call “mirroring”: I mirror the client’s ideas back to them, but in as organized a way as possible. Mostly, that involves a flowchart, a short list of project deliverables, and a rough list of tasks.

Unfortunately, all that accomplishes at the moment is a friendly letter thanking me for clarifying thoughts, and an inspired, stream-of-consciousness fountain of new ideas.

I’m convinced there is a way to encourage creative clients, but still finish projects and make a living. At the moment, however, there’s such an abundant flow of creative thought, I feel lifted off my feet, and the solid ground of specific, productive tasks.

Let’s trust that all is well, and let that creative flow do its thing for a bit. We’ll keep track of hours, and add emphasis (big, bold, red letters) to a note I included in a recent project estimate:

Planning, project management:
This includes charting the site, which I’ve already done, as well as correspondence, distilling meeting notes, creating and keeping to schedules, and confirming the best software resources for your requested features. Keep in mind that—particularly, but not only once we get going—changing feature requests means more time spent in this department!

Hm… should I say “more time and money”? What are the pros and cons of making that crystal clear, down-to-earth statement? It’s certainly costing me both time and money. But there is also something else I gain when I do a little flagrant, time-wasting Dreaming.

Did somebody say this is the Age of Community? How about hundreds of somebodies? (Google found more than 10,000 occurrences of that exact phrase on the web, but it’s not exactly rigorous research to stop there.)

Still, what’s a community without Elders?

Heart-labor of Richard Branson and Peter Gabriel, a awesome endeavor called, “The Elders” brings together a group of people “who have the trust of the world”, and who are able and willing to speak freely and act quickly when conflict arises.

Given form by Nelson Mandela and Graça Machel, other members include Desmond Tutu, Jimmy Carter and Mary Robinson. They plan to work both publicly and behind the scenes, answering to whatever needs emerge with all the means available to them.

The website says it like this:

Never before has such a powerful group of elders come together. Free from political, economic, or military pressures. The only agenda of The Elders is that of humanity. And their only purpose is to ease human suffering in three essential areas:

1. Offering a catalyst for the peaceful resolution of conflict.

2. Seeking new approaches to seemingly intractable global issues.

3. Sharing wisdom: Reaching out to grassroots Elders and to the next generation of leaders. Listening and helping to amplify voices for good all over the world.

Visitors to the site can send comments and elder nominations, and subscribe to updates.

Everybody needs to know about this. We need to have a party, and declare a global holiday. I bet you think I’m joking.