Bas de Baar is a Dutch visual facilitator, creating visual tools for dialogue. He is dedicated to improve the dialogue we use to make sense of change.
As The Project Shrink, this is the riddle he tries to solve:
“If you are a Project Manager that operates for a short period of time in a foreign organization, with a global team you don’t know, in a domain you would not know, using virtual communication, high uncertainty, limited authority and part of what you do out in the open on the Internet, how do you make it all work?”
Why do I make it so complicated to read these posts? Why do I need to use other words and insist in talking metaphorically?
Basically so you will read it. And not somebody else.
If you find it interesting or intriguing, perhaps fun, you'll stick around and feel comfortable hanging out here. People that don't like it, well, they don't hang around. Simple as that.
The language, the topics, the layout are all cues. Indicators of a certain culture. A small culture for sure. Centered around this blog.
Actually, those are cues of my identity. Digital-Me. And the expression of this identity scales up to a culture. The cues work as border control. People in. Or people out.
It’s this whole labeling and group affiliation thing again.
But only now you are creating your own group and the labels that are associated with it.
If you missed the whole labeling thing:
“We radiate to the outside world our icons like Gantt Charts, two-digits precise risk assessments, large documents that seems to cover every little aspect imaginable. If you are a member of our group, you ooze control. I once told my wife that I was “unable to comply to her request”. She smacked me on the head telling me that she was not my customer. So, I assume that we also have a specific language that sets us apart from other mortals. By adopting our symbols, our rituals and speak newbie PMs try to affiliate themselves with the group called Professional Project Managers."
A couple of weeks ago I wrote about bootstrapping, the art of revealing a culture. I explained that culture is partly bootstrapped by imitation. One person starts a thing and when enough people start copying it, start doing it, it becomes part of the culture.
A culture is transferable. It can move from one group to another and change slightly.
This blog is a good example.
I am a big fan of the Fluent Self blog by Havi Brooks. I linked to her writings more than once in my postings. I really recommend it. Fantastic. Awesome.
I like it so much that after reading it intensively the last couple of years, I started to adopt some of her layout techniques, use of words and even topics.
It is hard to tell exactly which parts I copied. Or to be accurate, more or less unconsciously was adopting. But that's besides the point. It wasn't a thing planned. It was a thing that happened.
It's a culture transfer. With mutations. From blog to blog.By imitation.
And now the cool part.
I am convinced that if you read to the end of this post, you'll fit right in at Fluent Self. I am not so sure about the reverse though. :)
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.
"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."
In my own defense, if you perform interventions in host organizations, when you change things in an organization, rules might get in your way. So, sometimes you have to go around them. Which can mean getting temporary dispensation from them.
In this context "rules" meant "obstacles".
But before you can bent rules, you have to study them. Learn them. Know them.
Hints of expectations. But still obstacles to interventions.
I always thought that I had a knack for introducing the new, appropriate rule for a given problem.
You know. Freestyling. “We need people that can use any technique, any mindset, any approach at the right time.”
But I realized my real knack is studying rules. What they mean and how they affect people as part of the system.
There is a difference. Perfectly described by Penelope Trunk in respect to "thinking outside the box":
"The thing about thinking out of the box is you have to know where the box is. People think my talent is thinking out of the box. But that’s not it—my talent is finding the box, defining it."
So. I am loving rules now.
How about you?
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.
Let's say wearing party hats and chanting "Kumbaya" is a big deal in your group culture.
It took you an entire workshop to get your group to pick these cultural elements up. During your latest bootstrapping session, what is called a Gathering, they picked the hats and the song instead of wearing a dead fish as a tie.
Nice try though. With the fish.
So. You bootstrapped a culture for a temporary social system. That's an expensive word for a group that doesn't last forever.
How do you hold this new sweet tiny culture together and move it into the host organization?
Of course I will address this question metaphorically :)
"Think about it as a hospital tent set up in a field. It allows the doctors to perform surgery isolated from what happens around them. It provides focus and shelter. It’s not a fortress. The walls are thin and allow for surrounding noises to enter. It’s put up when needed and taken away when it has served its purpose."
A tent is what we need to hold our culture. Or, if you like, we fill the tent with our culture like a hot air balloon.
A tent would allow us to walk around with our party hats without people making fun of us. Did I say Party Tent? It provides a comfort zone that allows your group members to express themselves freely within the group.
The thin walls of the Party Tent allow the sound of "Kumbaya" to be heard outside the tent. To inform people you are still alive in there. To get peoples interest. Or to absolutely scare them away.
This is Border Control. Remember? Creating boundaries for yourself and the group.
You can discuss with your group how the ideal tent would look like. What kind of material? What information can get out, or what information should stay in the tent? What would you pack? How do you make sure you can get along on a small confined space for a period of time?
Suppose you have your tent ready. Party Tent. Party Hats. Guitars rocking'. You enter the host organization to put up your tent. Or. You want to embed the temporary social system into the larger more static social system.
How do you secure your tent?
When running projects with cultures different from the host organization, you have to think about the shock wave that precedes the project and the footprint it leaves behind.
The success of securing your tent is in the preparation of the land, and making sure you leave the ground clean.
Shock waves
An example: If your project requires a high level of transparency, but the host organization is all dark and secret, you have to prepare.
Before the start, the first shock waves of transparency must have hit the organization. Before the project, create sunlight, put all the dark (non-transparent) parts in the spotlight. Before doing the project, make performance information shared and accessible for everyone. Give it some time, let the dust settle so you can see where the hardcore problems occur.
Or in our case. Send one camper in advance that is providing every one with a complementary hat. If some people refuse your hat, pay attention to the reasons why.
Footprint
For example, when a project with a deviant culture is finished, project team members become just employees again. Employees of the main culture they challenged for a short period. If the project provided benefits and value for their direct colleagues the deviance will be regarded as useful. If the project leaves the acceptance of transparency and the tools to create it behind, you have left a legacy that people will remember.
So.
Fill up your tent.
Preparing the camping site.
Clean up after you leave.
Oh. Yeah. I hate camping. The real thing I mean.
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.
I really hate to step out of my comfort zone. I hate it when people encourage you to step outside.
I have heard people tell others...
“Just say no!”
“Just say what you think!”
“Be yourself!”
Okidoki.
“Uhm. How often do I have to say ‘no’? To everyone? I am not comfortable doing that.”
“Yeah right. Say what I think and get fired? No thanks!”
“I am me! Who else? Pinocio?”
Don't get me wrong. I love change. I love flow. I love experiencing new things. And I still love my comfort zone.
There is this illusion that if you jump outside your zone, you'll grow. By taking incredible risks, you reach for the stars. By taking the leap of faith, you get somewhere exotic and extraordinary.
The same leap of faith can get you in a boring, gray suburb.
Diving off a cliff might just feel like that. Stressful. Hurtful. Generally not good.
"Familiar.
Safe.
Associate.
Small Step.
Breath.
Getting comfortable in new.
Getting familiar in new.
Safe."
This zone provides you and me comfort. Hence the name.
If you feel relaxed and at ease, you'll perform better. It's about safety.
As perfectly described by Havi Brooks: "The more safety you have, the easier it is to mess around, take risks, play with being king or queen of your world."
This sounds like a paradox. By staying in your comfort zone, by operating from a safe structure, you'll feel more secure to take risks. But on your own conditions. Operating from within your own context.
"Using personal development practices you can solve this by creating a bubble for yourself. Create a zone in which you feel comfortable. Creating boundaries with the language you use, the social cues you sent out, the identity you choose to express, the room you sit in, the music you play and the songs you sing."
If the surroundings are comfortable and safe enough, we are more likely to express and embrace our identity. Which allows us to be creative. Or at least diverse.
For everyone this bubble, this cocoon is different.
I have my writing room. It's the smallest room in the house. It holds all the books I own. And two racks of laundry. That is where I write. Even if no one is at home. I will still sit in that room with all the books. That's my comfort zone for writing.
"Go to the beach. You can write at that beautiful place."
I know. But I won't. I need my piles of books. I feel safe behind those piles when I write stupid posts like this.
A project is a temporary structure within the host organization. This cocoon, yes - your project, allows you to do your thing without having too much interference from the outside world."
So. I stay within my comfort zone. I control my borders.
It's the only way I can take risks.
How does your comfort zone look like?
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.
I have wrecked my brain on how to create project cultures. Cultures are the rules how things are done within a group. Rituals, rules of engagements, language and visual clues that identify this specific group.
A culture can be awesome. It can that turn a collection of individuals into a tight and focused group. A group with a purpose. A group that feels special and a little different from the rest of the organization.
But how do you "create" a culture?
“Creating” a culture can be creepy. Having to be committed to the corporate manifesto, having a shared enemy, awkward rituals.
A fun guy for a fun group yelling that we should have fun and be fun to be with because this is a fun company. A guy with the smile of The Joker in Batman. Creepy.
The thing with cultures is that they emerge. They happen. If a group of people spents enough time together, they get a shared history, anecdotes, shared phrases. A culture.
It takes time to evolve. And that is time you don’t have in projects. Projects are very temporary and you almost have to get instant productivity.
Throw people together. And. Bam! You need culture. Now!
Culture is an expression of a shared identity. Everybody has an identity. If you want to have a “shared” one, you just have to let people reveal their identity and determine what is in common.
So. You are not creating one. You are in essence revealing one.
Bootstrapping! That is revealing a culture.
But again. How does this work?
For this, we need a proper definition of culture.
The observable traits or characteristics of an organism are called “phenotypes”. Your entire digital footprint is a phenotype. And so is the parrot on your shoulder if you associated yourself with being a pirate.
Boyd and Richerson in Culture and the Evolutionary Process (1985) define culture as “information capable of affecting individuals’ phenotypes which they acquire from other conspecifics … by teaching or imitation.”
So. Teaching and Imitation.
So. One person starts a thing and when enough people start copying it, start doing it, it becomes part of the culture.
This is a very famous movie clip about one guy that starts doing a funny dance. After a while somebody joins him. And after a couple of minutes he has a very large group following his behavior.
That's how it works.
Sing multiple stupid songs and see if one catches on.
Use several metaphors while bootstrapping your project. If you talk about your project in the context of The Wizard of Oz, some common phrases might stick among your team members. They might keep calling you Dorothy. Or refer to The Plan as The Yellow Brick Road.
The thing is: you can’t force it.
You throw stuff to the wall and see what sticks. If it catches on, awesome. If it doesn't, forget about it.
This is not really management.
It isn't pure leadership also.
I propose we call it Freestyling.
Freestyling is the Art of Bootstrapping.
Rock on!
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.
