Work Management Success: One Spade Full at a Time

 

I'm not much of a gardener.

I can think of about 100 things I'd prefer to do than spend the day weeding, mowing the lawn, or otherwise working in the yard. That being said, I do prefer yard work to a root canal, a visit to the doctor, or water-torture.

However, muling over some projects I have planned for the weekend while driving into work this morning, I was thinking about a component of work management success we seldom talk about—showing up. A couple of years ago I wanted to make the parkway strip (the three or four feet of frontage between the sidewalk and the street in front of my home) more eco-friendly. I decided that I was going to rip out the grass that required water for irrigation, gas for mowing, and fertilizer for healthy growing, and replace it with pea-gravel. I thought it would be a low-maintenance, drought-friendly alternative to the Kentucky Blue Grass that had been there for 20 years.

Over the course of the summer I cut out the sod, carted it away, trailer-load by trailer-load hauled the pea-gravel to my home, and one shovel full at a time filled the parkway. It didn't require a lot of brain power, it wasn't very glamorous, but I did have to apply some elbow grease to make it all happen. In other words, I had to show up. I couldn't sit on the couch in front of the TV and "wish" to make it happen.

Sometimes, in fact most of the time, our particular approach to project management, our project management tools, and how we "plan" to do the work is irrelevant if nobody "shows up" to do the work. What's more, I've observed that project success is usually associated with team members and managers making incremental advances in pursuit of project goals. There's seldom a flash and puff of smoke to complete a project.

I also recalled being pretty satisfied when I was done. Although I loaded the pea-gravel into the trailer and unloaded it by hand a shovel full at a time, it didn't take as long as I thought and I got better at doing it with each small load. Although there would have been a certain allure to waving a magic wand and seeing the parkway "poof" filled with the gravel, I feel a certain satisfaction in job well done and a project completed. It's really amazing how much can be accomplished by simply showing up.

What do you do to encourage your project teams to show up? I'm sure part of it is showing up yourself (even though there are times when that's a challenge too). Feel free to share your success stories or favorite tactics with us.

By the way, I have a really big project in the back yard for next summer—does anybody have a magic wand?