Remember. Your Organization Isn't Real. Huh?

 

When you are stuck in organizational policies, structures and rituals it may be wise to look at the environment before you as a blank canvas. See the elements for what they are: artificial. They may be there for a good reason, but still, artificial. They are not a physical reality.

I wrote recently a comment on the excellent BetterProjects blog that illustrates my point:

"I look at it sometimes like this: the human system (people interacting) is like the infrastructure, and the belief systems/methods/rules of engagement/culture are kind of like an operating system which agrees on certain protocols. And yes, projects would be applications, needing both layers."

Nothing is a given. If you are stuck, look at your organization as people interacting and start from there. Write your own operating system or hack the current one.

Always remember: do no evil. I am not talking about anarchy or doing anyone or anything harm.

There are formal approaches to Stakeholder Management that involve recipe like instructions on how to plot people in grids. But sometimes people don't like to be plotted on grids. Throw preconceived ideas overboard and start with a blank sheet. And draw an adventure map for example. There is no physical rule that forces you to follow one approach.

Another example are discussions around the "plan-driven" vs "agile" debate. Should you use one over the other? Is one of them stupid?

Some Project Managers for example position “agile” as an opponent, the other extreme end of some scale. They think outside a "plan-driven" box. And vice versa. This is something that mostly works. Many people will get this “thinking outside the box”. But this is not what I mean. It is the next step of awareness that is more difficult to explain.

There is no box.
 

As Brian Clark explains:

“Just like Neo needed to understand that “there is no spoon” in the film The Matrix, you need to realize “there is no box” to step outside of. You create your own imaginary boxes simply by living life and accepting certain things as “real” when they are just as illusory as the beliefs of a paranoid delusional. The difference is, enough people agree that certain man-made concepts are “real,” so you’re viewed as “normal.” This is good for society overall, but it’s that sort of unquestioning consensus that inhibits your natural creative abilities.”

There is no plan-driven. Agile doesn’t exist.

There is just a problem that needs to be taken care of. There is just a team that must be managed. Just observe the situation and look for the cause.


And yes, you are left with aspects of humans and their emotions towards change. But than you are operating on the "infrastructure level".