A Much Better Version Of Three Blind Men And The Elephant.

 

I always enjoy the David Copperfield solution to problems: if you cannot move the mountain, just change the angle of the camera. I spent many hours sitting in front of the television wondering how he made the mountain, plane and the world in general disappear. And so fast! I know!

Yes, he changed the angle of the camera. But in such a cool way, you didn't notice it.

I am starting to realize that this Project Leadership stuff is about playing with the camera.

Let me explain this by creating a new version of the famous story about the "Three Blind Men And The Elephant". The original goes roughly like this:

Three blind men that are describing an elephant by just touching the animal. The first one feels its trunk and thinks it is some kind of rubber hose. The second one is standing at the side of the elephant and imagines some kind of massive wall. The third and final man is located near the tail of the elephant. He figures its a rope. The moral of this story is that while everyone is “looking” at the same thing, they don't see the proper whole. So, leaders must have an overarching view of the problems, not be blind men.

My version would go something like this:

If you have an elephant and one of your stakeholders needs a rope, just turn the butt of the elephant towards him and let him see the tail. If another stakeholder wants a wall, just direct the elephant to its side and let him marvel at the beautiful gray wall. And if a team member has a strong desire to become a fireman, let him stand close to the trunk of the elephant.

I know. It's a little bit offbeat. But you get the idea.

In "Managing Sensitive Projects" the authors explain the concept of "lateral projects". Your single project can have many "lateral projects" for different people. You  formulate the project or end result in such a way that it appeals to a specific group of people. Perhaps you have to focus differently or to include some stuff to make it interesting.

If your project has a life changing goal, one that makes your existence worthwhile, one that makes you feel powered up like an energizer bunny, it’s almost difficult to be get people not motivated. An awesome project goal makes things easier, but this also works for, uhm, lets say, normal projects.

Lateral project! Emphasize or add something to appeal. Work the camera.

Somewhere between the Millennium-bug and Euro-conversion projects, I worked with a small team creating interfaces between information systems. A lot of interfaces. Basically, the same work over and over again. It’s hard to stay motivated.

At this time XML was just discovered by tech marketers. So, there was this way cool new tech, that everyone was talking about, and there we were, building interface after interface with our old school stuff.

Aha!

What if we could use the new shiny stuff to build our programs? Functionality would be the same, costs identical, but the development team could learn and use new technology. They would be excited to be involved in something “state-of-the-art”. Instant motivation.

Working the camera. This is an important mechanism to align project interests with individual interests.

You can't change the elephant. You don't have time for that. Or the authority. But you can put the the elephant in a dress if that would make someone happy.

Essentially it is about perception and presentation. Remember? Nothing is real.
 

Bas de Baar is a writer who draws about people in transition. He loves to make visual maps and travel guides for the collaborators of our brave new world.