Who Cares?
In my experience, the most successful projects are inclusive...that is, they make sure that all of the right people participate in the right communications at the right time.
A couple of weeks ago, I had the task of hiring someone to hem several pairs of dress slacks. This simple project ultimately went well, but reached a moment of complete standstill, just because I wasn't applying this truth about being inclusive to my own life.
Okay, let me back up a bit. I'm neither tall nor particularly talented with needle and thread. My five-foot-four (and-three-quarter) inch frame just isn't quite long enough for at least a half dozen of my slacks. And my abilities as a seamstress are...well...lacking.
Up until a few months ago, my response strategy to this challenging combination was to simply wear high enough heels that I never had to hem my slacks.
But I've recently enjoyed several consecutive months of being able to work without donning a suit or even anything more formal than a nice pair of jeans. And my feet, having basked for days on end in the joy of not being squashed into 4-inch heels, have rejoiced. So when I realized I needed to dress more professionally for an extended period, I casually tossed my tootsies into my toe-torturing shoes. Not a good idea. My out-of-practice feet rebelled, and I knew I had to find another solution.
So, I selected the slacks that required the most significant length reductions, and made arrangements to bring them to a gal named Julie in town who could make (pardon the pun) short work of my hemming needs.
It was a night that my husband was ordinarily at work and my younger daughter at gymnastics. My older daughter is interested enough in new experiences that I knew she'd enjoy coming with me to the appointment, and so I just made the arrangements.
I made an appointment to arrive, slacks in hand, for a quick fitting, after which time Julie would hem the slacks and call me to pick them up when they were done.
Seems easy enough, right? Just me and Julie. Only two of us were really impacted, right? I needed to travel to her shop for the fitting, and she needed to know when I was coming and for what purpose, right?
My daughter Anja, I expected to come with me...no biggie, she likes adventures, likes to hang out with me (at least for now), and didn't really have a choice in the matter anyway, since she's too young to stay home alone.
My husband would be working...he usually takes advantage of gymnastic nights to drop off the younger daughter, then get some extra work done, since he works very near the gymnastics center, and pick her up after class. Why would he care? He could just follow his usual routine.
So...I didn't say anything specific to anybody, besides Julie
Turns out that wasn't such a good idea.
What I should have done was be more inclusive about the whole "project."
Since we live several miles outside of town, we try to limit our number of trips into town, and my going in to town was, in his mind, eliminating my husband's trip in to work (since I could just take Sophie to gymnastics on the way), and he expressed frustration about not getting that time in his classroom.
By making plans for my 6-year old without preparing her for the fact that our usual "Tuesday-night together time" was going to be spent half in the car, half with some lady she didn't know, I was setting us up for an unnecessary battle, and she expressed frustration about not getting "Mom time" in exactly the way she had expected.
It turns out that we all went in to town, dropped Sophie off at gymnastics and dropped my husband off to work while Anja and I buzzed over to the shop for a quick fitting and had time to enjoy each other's company for a few minutes before picking up first my husband and then Sophie.
But the few minutes before we all piled in to the car together were tense...unnecessarily tense...because I hadn't been inclusive enough in my communications. Thinking that neither my husband nor my daughter were all that impacted by my little "project" was short-sighted at best, selfishly unreasonable at worst.
So what's the application to "real" projects? Simply that we need to stop and think about who should participate in our communications.
- Will someone benefit from the project you're doing or the way you're doing it? Then they should be included in communications.
- Will someone be adversely impacted by your project in any way? Then they should be included in communications.
- Will someone's work, tasks, processes, plans, or expectations be affected or changed by your project in any way? Then they, too, should be included in communications.
Now, I'm not saying that everyone needs to participate in communications in exactly the same way, but I am saying that everyone impacted needs to be included.
Involving people too little or too late can lead to unnecessary frustration, and can mar an otherwise successful project with an unpleasant impression.
The whole purpose behind tools like stakeholder analysis and understanding business context is to help us make sure we're being properly inclusive. To make sure that the right people are participating in the right communications at the right time.
Have you stopped to think about everyone who may be impacted by your project? How are you including them in your communications?
