Categories: Career Development, Change Management, Decision Making, Employee Engagement, Leadership, Manage People, Organizational Culture, Risk Management, Stakeholder Management
Today's work environment can be challenging to say the least. While disruptive changes are continuing around you, how can you survive and thrive? One useful tactic is to keep a perspective that provides a foundation for your success and that of your team.
Consider the perspective of explorers. Explorers accept uncertainty and challenges as part of the work environment. They even lead their team through these challenges. In an explorer’s world, preparation is important but sometimes situations require creativity to progress. When you take on the perspective of an explorer, you too can succeed when the going gets tough.
An explorer shows courage in the face of uncertainty or risk. You as a project manager face the same challenges in the modern work environment. For example:
- Powerful automated tools improve operations but disrupt roles and responsibilities of those partnering in projects. You may not know who to work with, or what their goals or priorities are. Maybe the stakeholders themselves are unsure and need to define their new process.
- Marketplace disruptions change business benefits of projects and programs abruptly, causing the organization to pivot to another direction rapidly. Your team’s project efforts appear to be wasted.
With overlapping changes that keep coming, you would be justified in having difficulty generating an explorer’s courage. But there is reason to be optimistic. Your previous experience in project management has given you important transferable skills.
- You have connected activities to strategy or business needs and may even have been part of previous complex transformations.
- You have interacted with teams, stakeholders, and leaders to understand a situation and determine an appropriate approach.
- You have quickly defined and executed next steps.
- You have utilized techniques of organizational change management to execute effectively.
You can show courage by changing your outlook and displaying openness to change.
Change Your Outlook
Sure, big disruptions are anxiety-producing, but you can still be ready to pivot into a major adjustment. Leaders and stakeholders are looking for someone who is part of the solution to the disruption, not a part of the problem. Your reaction is key. With your transferable skills and preparation, you can react with confidence. As a courageous leader you display openness to change and accept barriers and disruptions as a matter of routine.
Display Openness to Change
When change occurs, be curious.
- Instead of expressing concern or dismay, ask questions like,
- “How must we change to adapt to this?”
- “What is the next step now?”
- “Who are best specialists for answering our questions?”
- “What will the sponsor need to know?”
- “What are the sponsor’s concerns now?”
- “How do we prepare for reporting?”
Make Organizational Barriers and Disruptions Routine
Explorers appear courageous when they take major barriers in stride. Explorers look over the unexpected landscape proactively with their team and determine how to move forward while others are paralyzed.
To make disruptions routine,
- Create a meeting agenda - before it is needed - specifically to address major disruptions in a positive and constructive manner.
- Focus on characterizing what is known and the potential implications.
- Use risk analysis language which will be effective later in informal and formal reporting to sponsor and other leaders.
- Prepare team in advance with meetings to discuss the need to realize the disruptive forces on the work environment and the need to be flexible. Suggest situations you see in your organization that may impact your project to make the outcome more concrete. Use examples from the marketplace, upcoming organizational changes, or new technology deployments.
- Enable your team to report on potential disruptions they see on the horizon.
- Create an organized process for closing out one effort within a disruption and starting another. Include ways to maintain team motivation and engagement.
This is what organizational leaders need in future project managers. The future holds more disruptions for organizations, and your ability to be courageous in the face of such disruptions will set you apart from the crowd.
Look for more in the next post on thinking like an explorer, covering resilience in the face of disruptions.
Posted on: February 16, 2026 08:04 AM |
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