Ernest Shackleton: Case study of an extreme Agile project leader

 

As part of my holiday ritual, I put aside a few books to read just for pleasure that I don't often get a chance to do when bombarded with my usual busy schedule of work and other commitments.  These books can be of any variety and often are not directly pertinent to project management or other business related topics.  But one book I did read was actually one of the most pertinent books on managing projects I've come across and was completely captivating and engaging to boot.  The book was titled "Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage" by Alfred Lansing:

One of this site's very esteemed blogger, Ty Kiisel,  wrote about it last year and very pertinently focused on the team collaboration and cooperation that pulled those men though such a treturous and perilous situation of survivial, that has to be one of the greatest, if not the greatest real life stories of survival ever told.

In August 1914, Shackleton and his crew set sail on the Endurance for the South Atlantic. In October 1915, still half a continent away from their objective, the ship was trapped, then crushed in the ice. Twelve hundred miles away from land, drifting on ice packs, Shackleton and his men survived the next five months on a diet of dogs, penguins and seals. When the ship eventually sank they were forced to escape by lifeboat. Shackleton then travelled another 850 miles in an open boat across the stormiest ocean in the world to reach help. Every single man got home safely. 

Though the story is known, Lansing's book grips you at every moment and just when you think Shackleton and his crew cleared one life ending disaster, another one crops up as they are constantly battling for their lives with decreasing odds of their survival.  The wind, the dampness, the bitter cold and the long months of darkness in the winter seem like more than any man should be able to stand. They slept in wet sleeping bags in sub-freezing temperature; ate unappetizing foods; and still managed to keep their hopes alive.

While reading the book, I had to constantly remind myself that this was not fiction but events that actually happned even when the situation and the ability of Shackleton and his crew to overcome them seemed even beyond what any fiction could come up with.

I leave it up to you to read this fantastic book for the rest of the harrowing, yet optimistic tale, but as I mentioned I came out of reading this book with some rather enlightening project management lessons in leadership, being agile, adaptive and flexible when faced with life critical situations, and knowing how to manage your teams and trust in them.

• Protecting your team - Schackleton exemplied the kind of leader who understand putting his team first. When he found his men wavering and surcoming to the elements, starving and near death, he pushed extremely hard when he had to, but also knew when to trust his team.  He also had the kind of emotional intelligence we talk about these days in that when he choose his crew, he looked deep into their pschology and charactersitics and situated them to ensure they would succeed with each other to survive. When one crew member responded best to flattery, for example, Shackleton flattered him. Another responded best when reminded of the legal agreement he had signed when becoming a crew member, and Shackleton underscored this agreement to him whenever necessary.
• Agile and adaptive tactics for maximum flexibility - Though we like to expouse how change is the new norm these days, in Shackleton's situation, unpredictable change was the absolute rule, not the exception and being agile and adaptive was a matter of life or death.  Once Shackleton realized that the Endurance was trapped in the ice, he resolved – and, despite his bitter disappointment, communicated matter-of-factly to his men – that their goal had changed from crossing Antarctica to wintering over on the ice.  Twice, he tries to trek toward the sea, his men dragging a supply-laden lifeboat across soft ice and snow. Twice, he abandons the effort after their progress falls far short of his estimates. Again and again, he sets a course that must be altered based on the change in situation - just as good leaders must do.
• Equality and cross-functionality of teams - Shackleton established a loose hierarchy among his men, which allowed them to draw strength not just from him but from one another. All of the men -- including the scientists who were part of the crew -- were expected to perform mundane chores as well as take over each other's tasks when the other was too weak or ill to do it.  Shackleton shared hardships with his men, even when his position might have allowed him not to do so.  For example, after telling his men that they needed to leave behind personal articles to lighten their load, he took out the Bible personally given to him by Queen Alexandra and placed it on the snow. Then he walked away.

And though Shackleton is not labeled a project manager, he exihibited all the characteristics of a modern project manager in that he had to secure, manage and track the funding and budget for the project to reach Antartica, secure and manage his team, define the scope and requirements needed to achive the project goals, we as well as execute and control his project.

Of course his project failed, but to get his men home safely, he led them across ice, sea and land with all the tools he could muster. This combination of a commitment to a larger purpose while utilizing flexible and imaginative methods to achieve a goal is increasingly important in our tumultuous times and is a skill us project managers and leaders could all learn from and use to ensure success in our project goals.