A Project Is A Tent.

I hate camping. But somehow I can’t stop thinking about tents.

A tent is the fantastic metaphor for the temporary structure that tries to maintain the resilience in your project.

Your project is A Big Adventure. You are trying to find a treasure. You are traveling through your organization with your ragtag crew to Get Things Done.

With a technique called Adventure Mapping you imagine your project as a map through unknown territory in search for The Goal. The map reflects the storyline of the project. The episodes of the project life cycle.

Your crew needs some kind of protection. If you’re on A Big Adventure you need a support structure. Projects create change. Change makes waves through the organization. And change creates stress for people.

Your project is a temporary structure within the host organization.

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.

We need tents.

The purpose of the tent is to provide a temporary comfort zone. If a system is under stress (group or person), it can only stand so much. It will search for a comfortable situation without stress.

Earlier this year I wrote about the Three Balances For Resilient Groups. In order to have a group that is able to cope with disturbances while still being able to perform its function, three balances must be taken care of.

Balance One.

The balance between homogeneity and cognitive diversity. Cultural diversity can provide different interpretations of situations. Homogeneity makes sure the group operates as one. In a resilient group you need both.

However, if you put stress on this balance, people either lean towards diversity (“not being like them”) or homogeneity (“being among your own people”).

This is just a matter of time. The balances are unstable. You can only make it last a little longer. You cannot create it forever.

Ah. You see where the “tent” comes in?

Balance Two.

The second balance is between a closed mind and an open mind. If we are putting stress on ourselves, if we put fear in your mind, if you are exhausted, we will lock into one dominant mindset. This is great for focus. An easy reference frame to make decisions against. But it also makes a bad problem solver and communicator.

Having an open mind, being able to switch context, to use other mental models or mindset helps you to be more creative in problem solving. You are looking at the same problem from multiple perspectives. It also allows you to see other peoples perspectives faster and with that improving your communication effectiveness. An “open mind” also has drawbacks like a lack of focus. Lack of opinion. Unable to make decisions.

Perhaps a tent could be a temporary structure that keeps this balance just long enough into place. Don’t you think?

Balance Three.

And that leaves us with the third and final balance: private and public information flow. If everybody has access to the right and real information, better and faster decisions would be made. So all information should be public. But throwing all our stuff into the open also has a drawback.

Transparency makes sure people’s behavior will be noted around the globe. Although with a good reputation a lot is to gain, having a bad rep puts a lot at stake. So people will play things save. When stress is on the system, when changes occur and resilience is required, transparency leads to mediated information flow and “playing-it-safe” behavior.

A tent, or a sukkah, is the metaphor for the temporary structure that tries to maintain the three balances.

The tent is primary made of group culture and identities.

It’s the personal identity, the mental perception of an individual that can determine the boundaries of an entire group. It’s the culture of a group that can enhance and nurture a persons identity.

It’s the thing you bootstrap.

Setting up your tent makes you a freestyler.

Image by edenpictures.