Cat Herding: The hardest (read: best) part is unseen

Intelligent, independent, unpredictable ... and so valuable!

Managing any program or project is, on the surface, all about timelines, milestones, stakeholders, plans, and budgets.  It's easy to look at the tangibles.  But what does a program manager (or indeed, anyone who leads any initiative) spend the vast majority of his or her time and energy on?  It's the cat herding: getting people onboard and keeping them onboard throughout the entire experience. 

It's Tough ... 

I mean this in the best possible way.  Why cat herding?  You can formulate a strategy to round up everyone needed for the project to succeed, but each person will have his or her own agenda and priorities - as should be.  What's tough is that you'll never know exactly what will become especially salient or present a roadblock, and when they might occur.  As far as I'm given to understand, this is not unlike the highly individualistic and unpredictable cat - and that's not a bad thing. 

Fostering a collaborative environment in any project is of paramount importance to me, because working with people to make something happen isn't about wrangling folks, getting what you want out of them, and then discarding them (or locking them up in a pen ... what does one do with cats after herding them, anyway?).  

These are people integral to the success of the initiative, and it's my job to present and remind them of the overall goal we're trying to reach.  Sure, there may be a million and one ways to get to that goal, so if I spend the time and effort getting to know everyone and what's important to each person, I can hopefully work with him or her in a way that allows their key wishes to be met as part of the main outcome.

... But Worth It

For better or for worse, all this work isn't readily quantifiable and come status check or performance review time, it doesn't show up as part of the metrics of accomplishment.  However, an astute manager will understand what it takes to get a project of many moving parts and people off the ground, much less to success.  

For me, whether this cat herding is ultimately recognized or not, I have the satisfaction of knowing that I led the project in the way I believe should be done: having done due diligence with everyone involved, taking the time to explain in a customized way when needed, to persuade and to simply show you care about each person's needs.  Whether they're all met or not, at least I'll have set expectations and there's understanding on both sides.  

It's all about cultivating strong, healthy relationships - if the project succeeds and the team falls apart, I'm not sure I would consider that success for the long term. So onward with cat herding!  If we're going to do something, let's do it right. 

The Orchestra's Strategy Execution Framework

I completed the "Converting Strategy to Action" class today! You can imagine my surprise and delight when instructor Ms. Lindig gave us our last exercise to wrap up the class began with a video clip of the Berliner Philharmoniker playing the 4th and most famous movement of Beethoven's 9th Symphony ("Ode to Joy"). Ah, bliss.

What was the exercise? Apply the Strategy Execution Framework to the Berliner Philharmoniker! Please don't be fooled by the mass of bubbles and arrows if you clicked on the link. Once Ms. Lindig took us through it, I found it to be a simple way to gain clarity on a previously indecipherable organization and articulate some sense out of where it is, and where it should be. To do this, you systematically go through Purpose, Goal, Culture, Structure, Strategy, and Portfolio (not necessarily in that order, but it's advisable to start with the first two).

The exercise showed us that the framework can be applied to any kind of organization, not just the corporate kind. The fact that this exercise was used in the class was extremely gratifying to me. My experience dancing in New York City taught me that the performing arts is, after all, a business with a bottom line. Definitions of teamwork and what constitutes success may vary from that of the office, but each ensemble, whether it be a large company like the San Francisco Ballet or the freelance rockstar duo Jacoby&Pronk, there is a raison d'etre, goals, a culture, and a structure that aligns with the strategy ... and a portfolio of programs and projects through which to develop and sustain itself.

The point is, no matter what kind of organization you are (or are in), you can use this method to plan and build a new one, or to make sense of an organization that could benefit from reevaluation. I have already drafted up a version for the organization I am in, and feel a growing sense of clarity now. Although, I must admit it was much more enjoyable to apply the framework on the Berliner Philharmoniker!

Do Do Do

Today was my second day of the "Converting Strategy to Action" class, part of the Stanford Advanced Project Management series. The concept of the "Knowing-Doing Gap" by Stanford Professors Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert I. Sutton was introduced by our engaging instructor Johann Lindig. In a nutshell, it says that despite a ton of classroom time, consulting, and research, people in business don't enact much change. You can't just sit in a classroom discussing things and then expect to be able to DO things that move a business.

Whoever built the slide introducing the concept is to be commended, since it showed an image of a ballet dancer. Dance was never brought up in the class, but yes, I thought, dance is a perfect example! You can't read books about ballet and expect to be able to just get up and show the world 32 fouettes, much less a beautifully turned out and pointed foot.

I realize I take for granted that everything in dance and in music I have to attempt to do before I can do anything. Without doing there is ... well, nothing. You can just stand there and think about how you are supposed to engage your muscles and align your hips and on and on and ... there you are, still in the same place. It's happened to me lots of times when I think about a movement excessively; I'm literally paralyzed. I can't move. I have to get over myself and just try it. It'll take many wonky tries before I even start getting it, but that's part of the process.

For the office, though, I've never thought about it quite the same way. Sure, there's no way you can know everything before you try something, but there's so much planning, analysis and re-analysis, and consensus building going on that individuals and teams are often similarly paralyzed into inaction. Talking is no substitute for action but it can be like a sedative; it makes us feel as if we've done something. Think about it this way: A dance isn't going to create itself from a lot of discussion. At the office, often it's simply a time constraint that forces us to action.

But what if we can see it as trying out a new step, or a new, difficult passage to play on a musical instrument? There's nothing until you do something. It may not be right the first time, so for this approach it's important to be in an organization that supports doing and doing again, with learnings from the first time. Google often encourages teams to "launch and iterate" and yet in some organizations we try so hard to avoid any "failures" at the first attempt due to significant resources on the line. What's the balance here?

I don't have an answer that satisfies me yet, but I do know that going back to the dance and music parallel helps ground me. I'll remind myself: Without doing, there is nothing.

Perhaps that is enough for now.