Metaphors. Professionals And Fun. Adventure Maps!

 

Some PMs give me this weird look when I start singing tunes from "The Wizard of Oz" when discussing stakeholders.

Others give me the evil eye when suggesting you turn your project into a pirate ship.

Arrr. Let them walk the plank!

Metaphors are not part of their professional arsenal. Because, it's just not that! Professional.

This are the same people that are using words like "marching orders" and "the troops". If a Project Manager has a mindset like this, war as a metaphor, his mind is thinking in friends and foes, allies and enemies. You are either with him or against him. This view of the world will make it very difficult to collaborate with this person if you disagree.

Hmmm. More "professional"?

Somewhere, sometimes, some people still think "fun" and "professional" don't mix.

Woaha.

Fun and creativity does have an amazing effect on how people work together. It’s actually a shame that fun and games are treated like an add on, a nice to have.

“The customer doesn’t pay you to have fun and be creative.”

The customer doesn’t pay for the air conditioning either.

He does pay for an awesome product or service. Happy people provide happy result. Simple as that.

Happy metaphors, means fun, means great results.

Recently I started experimenting with Adventure Mapping. This a highly playful, interactive and intuitive way of communicating complex elements in your project.

The main concept is simple: picture your project as a Big Adventure. Together with a ragtag crew you are on a quest, to save the princess, find the Spaghetti Monster, blow up a meteorite, or some other awesome thing.

Now all you need is a piece of paper or a whiteboard and draw a line towards a big shiny treasure. Together with your team you can start to fill in every detail about your Big Adventure.

The map reflects the storyline of the project. The episodes of the project life cycle. The glory days of starting the project. The period in which the project was under attack by vicious stakeholders.

How did the crew meet? Why did they join the Big Adventure?

Since I proposed this technique (and its application to Stakeholder Management and the evolution of my blog) more and more practitioners approach me with their usage of the technique and offer suggestions.

It is a easy and effective technique. I'll hope you give it a try and share you're experiences.