Border Control. How Culture, Conversations And Structure Can Protect You And Your Project.

This is an important post. So I will keep it short. Not putting it into a lengthy narrative like yesterday Although. It worked for the “The Celestine Prophecy“ (Anyone remember that book? It was a bestseller back in the early 90s.) For those who wonder: this post describes the other Two Insights from The Project Prophecy.

Here we are. This is the environment we work in.

People don’t know each other. There is a short period to create the desired outcome. Interaction is largely digital. Stress is put onto the tribe, so resilience is required.

We need a mix of cognitive diversity for problem solving and homogeneity for operating as one. The members need to be able to operate with multiple mental models without reducing their own convictions.

The stuff we talked about yesterday, and many times before that.

What can tribe leader do to get this working? Or. As I formulated this problem in May 2009: How does a Project Leader run a successful project when he has partial information, partial influence and partial capability?

The answer is: border control.

Let me explain.

This is about making sure that you’re comfortable under every circumstance. It’s easy to be Your Great Self when there is no stress. But what happens when stress is put onto you?

Using personal development practices you can solve this by creating a bubble for yourself. Creating boundaries with the language you use, the social cues you sent out, the identity you choose to express.

This is Border Control.

And this scales up to projects.

A project is a temporary structure within the host organization. This cocoon, yes – your project, allows you to do your thing without having too much interference from the outside world. Read: stakeholders, managers, men in black.

It is not about isolation. Key is tranquility. A chilling atmosphere. You need to let information from the stakeholders in. They have changes. They bring gifts of incredible awesomeness. They have power. The power to run you over like a big yellow truck.

There are two borders:

• You and the project.
• The project and the organization.

Of course this will shift only the question to: how do you create borders that ensure the right balance in mind and team?

Border control takes place in three areas:

Cultural: the manifestation of identity and culture works as border. It’s the personal identity, the mental perception of an individual and it’s public manifestation that can determine the boundaries of an entire group. A team. An organization. It’s the culture of a group that can enhance and nurture a persons identity.

Conversational: in projects we have a couple essential conversations. About the goals, the roles, what people have done before, the trip itself, the way interaction with the stakeholders is done, how we know how far we are. Stuff like that. Just having these conversations help shape the culture and members connect (or disconnect) to the culture.

Structural: how we set up our project has a big impact on the culture, the information streams and roles that people take. Big difference in border control if you are located in one room or spread all over the globe. The structural impact of your approach (strategy, organization and feedback loops) is described in this post: Project Potion: The Recipe.

The cultural, conversational and structural aspects interact.

Does this make any sense to you?