As I work with various customers, partners and fellow employees I am constantly reminded that language is often open to interpretation. We talk and think we are making sense but occasionally we aren’t being understood. As one old nun used to put it, ‘The problem isn’t in the speaking, it’s in the listening.’ As much as I hate to admit it, she was right. I was usually only half-listening and that combined with the attention span of a gnat usually got me into trouble. I can honestly say I see the same thing happening in many meetings I participate in and I’m not the only culprit (this time).
Simply by its own nature, mobility is complicated and has lots of complex detail. Many times we have to evolve the details of a project as we go. What we thought at the beginning may change due a number of influences. Assumptions are fine as long as they are challenged and validated. It helps to have a base understanding but you have to take the Ronald Reagan approach; trust but verify.
Recently I spent some time working with a group of folks that came from some very diverse areas of a business. They all had full time jobs and were loaned to a project to help get a kick start and flesh out the core requirements. This is a great start for any project. It helps to get a cross-functional team engaged and puts them in the position of change agents within the organization. Having people from different walks of the corporate life really helps create a groundswell of support and buzz for your mobility project. The challenge with a group like this is keeping them focused.
We had several discussions about the realm of the possible. We talked about various possible paths to take and the pros and cons of each path. The team looked at the various challenges and benefits of each suggestion and weighed each against the overall project scope and goals. This was a great example of the power of ‘team thinking.’ The team was looking at the detail while maintaining healthy skepticism and never lost sight of the overall goal. All seemed right with the world. Until everybody went back to their day jobs.
During the workshop there were a few signs that details were being missed. A participant asking to review a topic that the team thought was settled hour’s earlier, individuals asking others to repeat themselves when it didn’t seem necessary. Small things, really. But, taken in total, these little tidbits added up to some strange outcomes. The ultimate issue was some missing pieces in the base understanding of the overall project and approach with a handful of participants. This is not good.
The goal of a workshop is to assemble a team of folks who can think and act with the company and employee’s best interest in mind. Folks who can balance each group’s needs and wants with the reality of budgets, timelines and technological limitations. People who can clearly see the bigger picture and won’t lose sight of the little people… As long as they are paying attention.
I am a big fan of multitasking. I do it all the time (right now is a great example). The challenge is that in a workshop this multitasking mindset can cause a loss of detail and limit consensus among the members. It also leads to different recollections of decisions, features and capabilities on a multitude of topics. All of this spells delay and potential disaster for your mobility project.
My advice to you is as follows. Tell participants to be here now (an old TQM expression). In grade school terms it means pay attention! Stay engaged. Gain agreement with the entire team before moving on to another topic. It’s ok to have dissent as long as the chosen path is agreed to. This is a game of give and take and nobody wins all the time. This is not to say that several days later somebody can say, ‘I never agreed to that.’ Big picture focus usually helps to get past minor haggling on specific topics. If it’s a major challenge it has to be resolved if compromise isn’t an option (security and data access are usually the two biggies).
Once you have your process in place turn the team on each other (not in a dog eat dog way). Get them to help manage the process. Peer pressure works really well when one person is doing e-mail and constantly asks the group to repeat themselves. If a chronic offender arises in the ranks, call for a break and drag them aside and help them get with the program (giving them the assignment of timekeeper or documentation will fix this in a heartbeat).
I know there are always exceptions since everybody is very busy but if the goal is to agree to a path and move forward you won’t have time to do this process over and over again. And for God’s sake, write down the details and circulate the rough drafts as early as possible.
If it aint written down it don’t exist! Words to live by.
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Tags: Brian Philbin, Business Mobility, Business Process, Mobile Futures Today, Mobility - General, Process Redesign
