Conversations: Forecast & Choices - Project World Collectable Card #11

 

Card number 11 in my series of 16 Project World Collectable Cards is titled "Essential Conversations: Forecast & Choices". It covers two of the essential conversations you have in projects: the talk about expectations of the future and the one about decisions. 

Signpost Maps. Talking About Decisions During Your Big Adventure.

One of the essential conversations within projects is The Talk About Decisions. This is where you sit down with your sponsor and say: “Listen, son. We need to make decisions. Choices. Have to make them. Hear me?!” Or something more appropriate.

Before you grasp for your “10 Dimensional Decision Grid From Techno Heaven“, take a short moment and look around you. Those friendly people, with those fresh, creative and social faces, do you honestly believe they share your Excel enthusiasm?

Answer “yes”? Then knock yourself out!
Answer “no”? Use the Signpost Map.

Every project road has forks in them. Points where you can go left or right. Points where you have to go left or right.

Some things you have to decide early on, some things can be decided almost at the end of the journey. It is important to focus the attention of team members and stakeholders on these decisive moments. Not just on the content of the actual decision. But more on the fact that these forks in the road are coming and cannot be ignored.

Hurricane Maps. Talking About Uncertainty On Your Big Adventure.

When the path of hurricanes is forecasted, maps are used that show us the areas that might be hit. The further away in the future, the larger the potential area is. The weather forecasts get more uncertain if we go from one day, three day to weekly forecasts.

I love those hurricane maps. Not the hurricanes. The maps.

For me the opportunity of a "Hurricane Map" is to facilitate a discussion with people that are not necessarily into the Project Management profession and language as, well, PMs are. This adds to the notion of being on a Big Adventure, traveling through unknown territory, with a rag tag crew.

Location of this card on the overall map:

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.