The answer lies in learning how to manage chaos. Last week Promotional Consultant Today looked at making course corrections and tapping into the wisdom of your team. Today we'll explore tips for controlling the chaos.
Maintain A Strategic Vantage Point: When you are down in the trenches all you can see is what is in front of you, behind you, and the walls of the trench. It is impossible to steer your team to success from this vantage point.
On the island of Santorini in Greece, up on the highest cliff marble viewing benches were carved into the side of the mountain. From there the citizens of Santorini could see in all directions. They could see any threats that might be approaching from land or sea. They could see someone who might need help. They could tell how life was proceeding in the village.
In order to steer your team toward success you must have a strategic vantage point. This means you can't be in the trenches.
Many times leaders and project managers get lost in the details of a specific issue or requirement and lose their direction. When this happens they can't steer their team, nor can they see the impending crisis.
Two-Headed Cows Don't Know Where To Go: Have you ever driven past a pasture of cows grazing on a hill? Have you ever noticed that they all face the same direction? They are a herd. They move as one unit. What would happen if there was a two-headed cow leading the herd? It would see two different paths and have two different ideas for how to proceed.
How would it ever decide on what direction to go? While this analogy may see absurd, many teams with two or more leaders are being led in many directions at the same time. The same happens with projects with no discernable leader. There is no one in charge, no one who is the visionary, no one who has the authority to resolve the problems.
Impending chaos is only part of the problem. This lack of leadership also creates entropy, meaning that instead of synergy you are actually losing momentum and wasting resources.
Sue Dyer is the creator of the Scorecard Program, a monthly measurement system that allows project leaders to assure that project risks and issues are identified before they become problems and disputes. Author of the award winning book, Partner Your Project, she is president of OrgMetrics, a consulting firm specializing in non-adversarial approaches to preventing and resolving disputes.