I was at our new weekly review meeting for our projects at EMG.
WORK is essentially a continuous effort to convert moments of disharmony into moments of harmony.
How so?
DISHARMONY: “I wish we had more project managers for this program.”
HARMONY: Well, we have more people than we realize. What is the project that we are trying to staff and what are the qualifications required?
DISHARMONY: “I wish we had project managers for this program that I had worked with before.”
HARMONY: Well, if you only use people that you have used before, because you trust them, you would never expand capacity.
DIS: “I wish we had people that were local to the site so that the costs could be lower.”
HAR: Our business is built on averaging our projects out, and regardless, our cost assumptions include some travel. We use local people when we can, but traveling people is fine. Getting the right team is more important to us than getting a full local team.”
DIS: “I wish we had both.”
HAR: “We don’t. And, thatis why growth is our strategy. The more we grow the more we will have more people with more qualifications in more geographies.”
DIS: “I wish we could go next week.”
HAR: “We can’t, but we can go the week after and that meets the project timing comfortably.”
It is non-stop everyday.
It is at the highest strategic levels.
It is at the most tactical executional level.
I see it in people’s eyes. I feel it in people’s stress.
We all live wishing that the problems that we had, that we face, weren’t problems.
I was talking to a friend yesterday about the issues with his company (in a completely different space), and the tone of the conversation was so similar. Partners coming together all wishing that they could all get their way and braced for the disharmony of having to disappoint one or another.
WORK DOESN’T HAVE TO BE A CONSTANT PULL BETWEEN DISHARMONY AND HARMONY.
WORK IS THE CONSTANT RESOLUTION OF “CONFLICT” according to some.
I’d rather create a world where WORK is the constant effort of DECISION MAKING TO MOVE FORWARD ON COMMITMENTS.
It is “conflict” in that there are trade-offs in the decisions that we make… but it could be such a different tone and energy than we make it.
ON ORDER TO WORK IN HARMONY – ALL THAT WE NEED TO DO IS:
LEAD WITH NEEDS & QUESTIONS NOT ANSWERS OR WISHES. PERIOD.
HARMONY: “Who do we have available for Program X in the coming weeks?” (UNDERSTAND THE IS)
HAR: “Could we do training to get other people to be qualified?” (UNDERSTANDING THE IS and EXPANDING INTO THE WANT)
HAR: “Is everything in their schedule before that date due immediately? Could anything be moved?” (UNDERSTAND THE IS)
HAR: “Could we possibly use a team with one experienced Project Manager and one less experienced one to balance out the team.” (UNDERSTANDING THE IS).
HAR: “How will flying PM X from North Carolina affect the margin?”
IF WE LEAD WITH NEEDS & QUESTIONS THE WHOLE ENERGY CHANGES…
AND FOR WHATEVER REASON when I am really busy I TEND TO INTERNALIZE THE DISHARMONY & THE NEGATIVE ENERGY of the work…
But I OWN that!
I need to NOT internalize disharmony.
I need to know better & be wiser.
I need to realize that the ONLY person that internalizing disharmony affects is ME… and then disharmony begets disharmony and it affects others.
When someone leads with a wish… I translate it into a need or a question.
When someone follows up with another wish… I again translate it into a need or a question.
Then I introduce a SOLUTION!!! Something that WISHING DOESN’T GIVE YOU!
When people in these conversations engage with WISHING… they don’t conceive solutions because they are lost in the disharmony of the wish. They are unengaged with what we have. Overcome with what we don’t.
NOT only do the "WISHERS" fail to bring solutions... OFTEN they will SPEAK up quickly to all of the reasons why a proposed solution will not work. Because it doesn't match the SPECIFIC answer that led to their WISH. They can't see the possibility of a different solution working because they are not thinking NEED and QUESTION... they are thinking ANSWER, and if A is not A, then they cannot believe that B + C can equal A, or that D could substitute for A. They know we don't have A... and that's the only solution they are wishing for...
There are solutions EVERYWHERE, but so few people BRING them into the conversation because people anchor in on wishes.
So many things that we are "assuming" could potentially be altered... but you have to be thinking NEED!
That is what I need to look for in employees and colleagues…
That is what I have to educate and inspire in our employees and colleagues…
DON’T MAKE EVERY CONVERSATION A CONFLICT…
It not only is unnecessary, but more importantly it consumes energy, brings disharmony and prevents people from seeing solutions…
MAKE WORK THE PROCESS OF UNDERSTANDING THE SITUATIONS AND MAKING DECISIONS TO MOVE FORWARD ON COMMITMENTS.
BRING HARMONY into work…
And, then Harmony will flow more easily into life…
In the meantime, I will work harder at not carrying the weight of your disharmony!
I ain’t gonna make it mine!
Bring on harmony!
Nestor