About a month ago I released a great post about the importance of doing your job, no matter what you’re involved in (Do Your Job, Jan 25, 2019). I released it to my various channels and it got a GREAT response. I had a burst of energy and extreme motivation to move into my next topic. Something I’d been trying to grasp for a few weeks around the topic of setting expectations. I even told one of my social media channels that it was coming out NEXT WEEK! It’s four weeks later and it’s half done.
How many times have you heard someone say, “I’ve been working on (that book, that album, that home project) for a few years, it’s going to be great!”, and still haven’t completed it yet? I had (and still have) my idea but, as I’ve slowly uncovered it like a well-trained archaeologist painstakingly uncovering the vertebrae of a T-Rex, I’ve found that it has very valid avenues and alleyways that need to be included in the story. These additional, unplanned pivot points need to be thoroughly uncovered in order to get the true essence of the picture I see in my head. When I think of a topic, I see a series of short movie clips that help me tease out the words that eventually go into a blog post. These short little 3-dimensional movies are the source of my creativity and the essence of my chosen career path!
It Happened Again…
You might be calling me lazy, thinking that I’m just giving excuses, but I’ve once again run into an issue that MANY successful professionals find themselves in: feeling the need to stall a release because they think the ENTIRE story must be told all at once. The secret is that progress in a positive direction trumps no direction at all. In my case, progress was bogged down by the barnacles of perfection but my battleship has not been sunk!
Being in my line of work, an outsider might think’s it’s a very logic-based role that has very little need for creativity. We start the project, then move to step 1, then to step 2, then we test some things, then move to step 3, test a little more and, VOILA, we’re done! Project complete, everyone gets paid, and on to the next one! While this sounds exactly like a well thought-out project plan, it’s far from what really happens. In reality, step 1 and 2 had external dependencies and could only really be half delivered, the testing ended up being 40% successful (on the verge of a total waste) and the stakeholders are FUMING because it’s been 4 weeks and we haven’t released a single feature.
Colored Markers and Gratuitous Arm Movements
When involved in delivering a project, every individual contributor needs tools to help them get through the messy stuff that is bound to happen. So, how do we overcome and mitigate a loss of productivity when getting bogged down by unforeseen issues? We must harness our creative mindset (with no boundaries lest you stifle the artiste within). In this mindset, all things are possible so, when you’re in a pinch and you’ve hit a snag, get your team together, unleash the muse (marker in hand) and start writing words, drawing boxes, gratuitously interchanging marker colors, line thickness and arrow size to ensure proper effect. The point is to fully flesh out the problem and come up with a creative solution around/through it.
Further, if you call yourself a project manager you must (absolutely MUST) be able to balance your logical mind with your ability to harness creativity in order to be a great storyteller. You need to be able to sit in front of a collective group of investors, stakeholders and individual contributors to explain exactly what steps are involved in your project and why it’s important. Bullet points on a blank white projected screen do not count! I’m talking about well thought out PowerPoint slides that are rich in diagrams, tables, structure, short and concise data that gets your point across. I’m talking about whiteboard and markers; sticky notes, lines and arrows; words, arm movement, standing tall at the front of the room. This kind of 2-dimensional storytelling is a HUGE part of being a successful PM and a good leader.
What’s my Point?
When you find yourself in a rut and need to see progress, iterative releases is the strategy to stick to. I’ve procrastinated and found myself in the same rut that has bogged me down many times in the past, but I’m not mad about it. If this is happening to you, I encourage you to feel the same way. I guarantee you, if you can harness the constant flow of logical analysis with an equally strong current of creative thoughtfulness, it will help in more ways than you can think of – but I can’t really talk about them right now because, you know, I’ve got to think about it…