Crisis

The most effective way to get attention, especially in the public sector, is to allow a situation to deteriorate until a disaster is imminent. The crisis forces action, and the result often exceeds what could have been achieved in slow steps.

You see this with buildings on college campuses. The University could ask for $100,000 per year to slowly preserve and modernize an old building over ten years, but that's a tough thing to squeeze into a budget or fundraise for. But if you do the bare minimum of maintainance for five years, eventually a crisis will arise (leaky roof, dead boiler, etc.). Suddenly the question is raised- fix or tear down?

Often the answer isn't just fix, but fundraise and fix. Bring in architects to propose new uses, historians to explain the building's value, and crank up a fundraising campaign.

Suddenly you have support for The Big Plan and $5 Million in donations to make it go, rather than begging for $500,000 over five years to continue the status quo.

I'm not suggesting that this is smart management, because it causes unnecessary stress and is more expensive in the long run. But it is a savvy use of human nature to achieve what might otherwise be unrealistic goals.

Peter

Plans

My judgment of leadership skills is often driven by performance when things fall apart.

Being well-prepared is fairly easy, and when things work success is usually achieved. But sometimes things just go bad- someone screws up, something stops working, a delivery is missed, etc. What happens next is what matters.

Some leaders freeze up. They just can't develop a plan on the fly, even in a just-get-through-the-next-moment way. This goes back to their original planning, as Plan A was dependent on everything working in the right way the first time. It's foolhardy to think that way, because something always goes wrong. It just does- accept it and develop plans that mitigate the damage that occurs.

This does not mean you must think through every possible option out twenty steps like some kind of multi-dimensional chess. That is bad leadership of another kind.

But when that moment happens you must rely on experience of what worked in the past and a quick judgment of your present options. Pick one. Observe how it plays out. React to it by making another step. Maybe you steer the whole thing back to Plan A, maybe not. But improvise a plan and roll with it. It will probably be fine.

If you and your team are really good, the folks paying the bill won't know anything went wrong.

Peter

Hurdles

I'm not the first to write this, but the biggest hurdles we have to clear personally and professional are usually self-erected.

Since your brain put them there, your brain can just as easily push them aside.

There. Now you have no excuses. Go.

Peter

The Capacity of Systems

New York recently received a near-record snowfall. It took several days to clear out, and I suspect much of the criticism directed towards the city is due to the public's underestimating the capabilities of systems.

Every system is designed for a "normal" job- a restaurant can serve 50 people an hour, a stretch of highway can allow 20 cars per minute, etc. Send 200 people or 100 cars at the same systems and they essentially freeze up.

New York could build a snow removal system capable of moving 20 inches of snow in 24 hours- but it would be so expensive New Yorkers would refuse to pay for it. They are willing to pay for a 6 inch system, and since that is a typical snowfall, it works most of the time. Residents are also conditioned to what "normal" feels like. When the response is longer than "normal", even though the demand is much larger than "normal", frustration sets in.

In the case of a 20 inch snowfall, the work isn't simply a linear increase (normal times 3) but probably exponential (normal squared or cubed).

Systems have their limits, which are usually budget-driven.

Peter

Bulldog

I can see the value of a "Content Strategist" role in organizations, but the part of Scott Kubie's description that resonated with me is "Bulldog"; as in, someone who stays on people to get all the bits done on schedule.

Perhaps the image of a bulldog is a bit menacing, but tenacity is a handy skill in a project manager (to use a much less sexy job description- "Content Strategist" is so shiny and new!). There is a balance to be made between "just get something out the door" and "wait until everything is perfect", and having all of the parts be pretty good, or at least present.

In our new App World, users are accustomed to steady improvement of products, so go for incremental processes rather than all-or-nothing. Things get shipped.

Bring out some of your inner bulldog.

Peter

Tutorials

If you do anything with Final Cut or the Adobe Suite of products, you must follow Richard Harrington.

His tutorials are top-notch.

Disclaimer: He's a coworker of mine from the 90's. I still admire his work.

Peter

Distractions

A side project has pulled me away from both this blog and all social media for the last three weeks. Something had to give.

But to make social media- and marketing in general- work, you have to be consistent. Blogging once a day, yes. Once a month, no.

So do as I say, not as I do.

Peter