I was partying like it was 1999. Actually it was. I spent half of the first hour of 2000 stuck in an elevator. Not because of a software bug, but because 8 friends and me were in an elevator that had a capacity of four.

When we switched from 1999 to 2000 we really expected a change. There was going to be a difference. There was a reason we had to do things before January 1st. You know. The big “division by zero” scare. When computers would use 00 as the year, it would have a devastating effect. This deadline wasn’t just an arbitrary line in the sand. It was real.

At least, we thought it was.

“Oh. Grandpa. Please tell more about the old days of the previous century.” Yeah. Yeah. I’ll shut up for now.

In Projectistan (land of the projects, home of the deadline – a term coined by Jon Whitty) January 1st is a magical date. It’s not that something is really happening between the last day of December and the first day of January. Things are the same. Heck. Most people aren’t even in the office. It’s artificial time. Someone drew a line in the sand. For accounting purposes.

But somehow it has effected the natural rhythms of the inhabitants of Projectistan. The excitement of new beginnings. Big Adventures are coming! Epic Journeys are at the horizon!

Regardless of the actual starting date of the work, new years day marks an exit and an entry.

Perhaps more so in our mind and bodies than on our to-do lists.

As projects are about time and rhythms, it makes sense to me to be more conscious about our relationships with them. Conscious about entry and exit. Conscious about moving from one thing to another. Conscious about transitions.

Havi Brooks has a nice exercise to enhance your awareness about markers in time. Providing them names. The idea is that you use moons (full moons or new moons) as markers of natural time. To become aware of our more natural rhythms instead of artificial time.

But, as hamsters in our treadmills running from one reporting period to another, we might start out with calender months. And provide it with names of episodes from our Big Adventure.

That will be weird enough.

This could go like this:
January: Embarking The Beagle.
This blog is my Beagle in the journey to discover how temporary tribes operate. And this month I’m getting ready. Again

Or you might like these:
The Prologue.
Courtship.
“I Ate So Much, It’s Time For Action.”

If you had to provide a name for the coming episode in your work or personal life, what would it be?

Oh yeah. Happy New Year!

Bas de Baar helps people find ways to enjoy the diversity of human interaction in their organizations so that they can get out of their own way and achieve their goals. - Embarking The Beagle. Hello 2012. is a post from: Project Shrink.

And this:

It changed my work. Really.

Before I just had a stack of Moleskine notebooks (what else) full of seemingly unrelated notes. Words. Lots of words.

I knew there was a pattern. Somewhere.

But connecting the dots got just more difficult. Making more notes made things worse. Not better.

So. I started doodling. Making awful simplistic drawings. And I am sharing these drawings. Not to show off my skills. It is more to show you it’s ok if you can only doodle and not create picture perfect images.

This is what I found.

If you make a lot of drawings, a common visual language emerges. You use several symbols over and over again. The use of identical symbols reveal a hidden link.

After the individual images I crafted a “story”. On the topic I find most difficult. Identity. Ok. I also used text and quotes.

I created many pages to explain to myself the things I had written over the last years.

This helped me immensely in explaining this stuff. To you and to myself. Mainly that last part.

It changed my approach to almost every thing that feels complex and appears difficult.

As always. You don’t have to try this. Really.

But before you decide, I hope you have a look at this short (5mins) TED talk by Sunni Brown, author of “Gamestorming”. Doodlers, unite!

Bas de Baar helps people find ways to enjoy the diversity of human interaction in their organizations so that they can get out of their own way and achieve their goals. - Connecting The Dots With Doodling. Making Complex Things Less Complex. is a post from: Project Shrink.

“Resource” brings the association of a cog in a machine. If you want to distance emotionally from people, it helps using a word like “resource”. It makes the relationship you have with a person, well, impersonal. Which can be one way of excluding your emotions.

Although, I think some people would be proud to be called “a resource”. It means they are an integral part of the Magnificent Machine. That piece of perfection without the emotional crap. “It’s business, for crying out loud!”

They are happy with the idea of a mechanical working of their universe. Hating the idea of the “we are all like Ants”-movement.

“Ants self-organize!” “Well, let them self-organize around my bug spray!”

Bas de Baar helps people find ways to enjoy the diversity of human interaction in their organizations so that they can get out of their own way and achieve their goals. - Are You A Resource Or An Ant? is a post from: Project Shrink.

When the project is finished, what do you want to add to your resume? What additional skills have you required? What do you want your LinkedIn referrals say about you? How are you changed when the project is finished? What is the legacy you want to leave behind?

Relationship With The Project.

I talk a lot about a project being a Big Adventure, or a journey. A project is also a small episode in the personal journey of many individuals. Viewing what you do today in the context of a larger path will help you explore your relationship with the current project. Why do you do what you do? Why do you want to do things in the first place?

Relationship With Team.

It also addresses the relationships with your team members. They know a little more about your background. They see how you add to the diversity of the group. And it makes us all look more human.

From the many perspectives you can look at the project, the Map Of You will literally put you at the center. It is a tool to explore the relationship between what you do today and your personal journey (past and future).

Draw an empty map which basically looks like a bow tie. Put “NOW” in the center and “PAST” and “FUTURE” on both sides. Ask the participant to write keywords that answer questions as formulated in the first two paragraphs of this post.

This can be done as an individual exercise or as a group exercise.

Other Maps.

The Map Of You is part of a change/project management strategy focused on culture and using an “adventure travel” metaphor. For more maps and exercise, visit my list of Shrinkonian exercises.

Bas de Baar helps people find ways to enjoy the diversity of human interaction in their organizations so that they can get out of their own way and achieve their goals. - Map Of You. How What You Do Today Relates To Your Personal Journey. is a post from: Project Shrink.

I watched the dad move uncomfortably when his kid asked him The Question in a crowded Starbucks.

“Uhm. Well.”

What was there to think? You are in your thirties! I guess you get the picture by now!

Let me step in here for a moment. I know Darwinism, biology, gaming theory applied to mating strategies, and a lot of other important stuff. It is complex you know. Life is. And you need lots and lots of facts. FACTS! And models. MODELS! To explain the true working of life. And meaning. Otherwise you are doomed. DOOMED!

Apparently, this was a conversation that matters, an essential talk, between the boy and his dad. At a certain moment this conversation is important to go further in your life.

“You know when I told you about the flowers and the bees?”

“Yes.”

“Well. That’s it.”

“Oh.”

What!?

You use a simple metaphor to facilitate an essential talk!? And you are both happy with it? Dad can stick to a comfortable storyline and the kid gets enough explanation to get on with growing up?!!

WHAT?!

You are not going to tell me that in projects we also have Conversations That Matter?

You are not going to tell me that we can use metaphors for each conversation to make the talk easier?

“Yes. Actually. I am.”

Who are you? This is getting confusing.

“It doesn’t really matter. We moved from the coffee house inside your head. 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.”

And we can use metaphors to facilitate the conversations? To make them less awkward, a little fun, get the pressure of the topic, and generally guide you through the process?

“Yes. Those are your Shrinkonian exercises.”

Really? Never looked at it like that before?

“I know.”

But don’t people need to know EVERYTHING!? You know. Huge confusing models. Theories. They need certainly THEORIES. Lots. It’s complex, you know.

“Nah. If you get people moving in the right direction, they’ll find their way.”

Oh. Just need to get the essential conversations going with a nice storyline to get them rolling?

“Yeah. That’s it.”

Bas de Baar helps people find ways to enjoy the diversity of human interaction in their organizations so that they can get out of their own way and achieve their goals. - Essential Conversations. And Where Babies Come From. is a post from: Project Shrink.

So I bought “Training From the Back of the Room!” by Sharon Bowman (affiliate link) and lost myself in the content.

I had to buy the kindle version. Even though I read it on an iPad. Somehow the Apple iBook store isn’t really catching up here in The Netherlands. Or I can’t figure out how the bloody thing works.

So. The coolness, freshness, state-of-the-art-y-ness and usefulness of using a modern training set up. I think the Agile training crowd got that covered. And sure enough, the Bowman book can be a bible for that tribe.

Being a party of one – the community of project shrinks is not that large – I was thinking about flags for a project shrink. A flag for me represents a visible element of a culture that identifies that culture and the people part of the culture. And “playful, interactive and effective workshops” should definitely be a Shrink flag.

I decided it is one.

I copied it from The Agile Trainers and ran with it.

The cool thing with parties of one is you can shape it in “the group” you want to identify yourself with. You can provide it with all the neat flags you want.

A project shrink is mobile, global, nomadic and loves to travel.

Poof.

Just added a laptop and passport to the bag of flags. The Moleskin notebook was already in it.

Yes. I can do that. I just did.

“Identity is funny.” Havi Brooks reminded me: “The mind-boggling collection of internal rules about who gets to self-define as what. And why you don’t get to be a whatever-it-is. The way we silently agree to be put into one box or another.”

But luckily, she adds, “Identity is also fluid. … When we get to recognize the internal rules for what they are, we get to start deprogramming and destuckifying. … It’s messing around with choosing communities, changing metaphors, and rethinking how you approach the culture of your you-ness.”

I don’t want to get all Eckhart Tolle (affiliate link) on you. But. You don’t have to stick to your history to choose your group associations. You may. You don’t have to. Yeah, sure, The Others might look at your history and keep pointing to flags they find. Good for them.

Identity is like socks.

You can change them any time. You can go stripy. You can go plain blue. You can choose from your drawer, the socks you wear over and over and over and over again, or you can buy a new pair. Or make a pair yourself if they don’t exist yet.

I keep obsessing about socks.

And flags.

And identity.

I am mostly explaining this all to myself. Keep reminding me how thing are connected and influence what we do.

Your mindset determines how you think about the world and determines your behavior. Identity is how you perceive yourself in relationship to The Others. And the rest of the world. Identity is a mindset.

You can choose your own flags. Great.

But mostly you will copy flags from others. You need to know that certain flags exists in the first place.

I wouldn’t have found the cool training concepts if I hadn’t experienced them from The Agile Trainers. Perhaps I would have. But I needed the exposure to the concepts before I could copy them.

If you want to get people to associate with an organizational culture, you have to expose it to them in the first place.

If you are trying to reveal a culture, you should focus on making people aware of the visible traits of their current culture. The habits, the rituals, the in-groups and out-groups, the language.

This is the power behind creating a Travel Guide for your organization. You get people to focus on visible traits, rituals and habits, folklore. When they start to form a temporary tribe they are exposed to the collection of flags, or the sock drawer if you want, they can use to pick the ones they want.

When a Project Shrink combines his flags of “cool training”, mobile, global, nomadic and “loves to travel”, he’ll end up with exercises like “The Travel Guide“.

And he might stop wearing socks. It’s summer anyway.

Capish?

Bas de Baar helps people find ways to enjoy the diversity of human interaction in their organizations so that they can get out of their own way and achieve their goals. - Identity Is Like Socks. is a post from: Project Shrink.

“Every speaker in every language in the world uses them effortlessly, and the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity wants know how what we say reflects our worldviews. They call it The Metaphor Program, and it is a unique effort within the government to probe how a people’s language reveals their mindset.”

So. Metaphors reveal our mindset. Wow.

You already knew that of course. Metaphors are a central theme on The Project Shrink.

People can talk about projects as if they are conducting a war. They are using words like “marching orders” and “the troops”. If a Project Manager has a mindset like this, war as a metaphor, his mind is thinking in friends and foes, allies and enemies. You are either with him or against him. This view of the world will make it very difficult to collaborate with this person if you disagree.

In management circles a famous metaphor is that of a machine when looking at an organization (thanks Taylor!). Every employee is looked at as one of the many gears or bolt in the machinery. Talking about pure efficiency this is a powerful metaphor. However, within this mindset, it can also mean neglecting the individual character of every employee.

In The Atlantic article, an example is quoted from The Metaphor Program’s manager, Heather McCallum-Bayliss:

“Metaphors shape how people think about complex topics and can influence beliefs. A study presented participants with a report on crime in a city; they were asked how crime should be addressed in the city. The report contained statistics, including crime and murder rates, as well as one of two metaphors, CRIME AS A WILD BEAST or CRIME AS A VIRUS. The participants were influenced by the embedded metaphor… if people were given the crime-as-a-virus framing, they were more likely to suggest social reform and less likely to suggest more law enforcement or harsher punishments for criminals.”

So. Metaphors also effect reality.

If the model is powerful enough and wide spread among more people, the model will even become a reality.

This reminds me of an article I read 4 years ago. If models can have such an impact on the performance of reality, you almost have to be aware of the images that people try to fill in your head.

Sumantra Ghosal writes in “Bad Management Theories Are Destroying Good Management Practices”:

“In courses on corporate governance grounded in agency theory … we have taught our students that managers cannot be trusted to do their jobs -which, of course, is to maximize shareholder value- and that to overcome “agency problems,” managers’ interests and incentives must be aligned with those of the shareholders by, for example, making stock options a significant part of their pay… Why then do we feel surprised by the fact that executives in Enron, Global Crossing, Tyco and scores of other companies granted themselves excessive stock options…?”

So. Metaphors have a large impact on how we think and what we do.

So. Switch metaphors and we change how we think and what we do.

This is the whole concept behind Temporary Tribes. It’s an adventure travel metaphor for groups pursuing the fulfillment of a certain outcome. For crews conducting interventions in host organizations.

Sometimes we need that.

For problem solving. To avoid people answering in ways they assume is expected, you can use a metaphor for your endeavor and frame all activities in an entirely different setting. One where there are no rules about how people ought to behave.

To create a more attractive association, to be less intimidating. If the association you have with “Project Management” is putting you off, you might be missing out on something beneficial to your business or work.

Some people truly need a travel guide for their organization.

Some people would love to think about what their tent looks like.

But changing mindsets is hard.

Especially when you are saying you are going to change it.

Say to someone: “I am going to change your mindset!” and he’ll yell: “NO YOU’RE NOT!”

It’s the same as organizations changing culture by saying their are changing the culture.

“You join a new organization and you are required to sing the corporate hymn at the start of every meeting.

Or.

Someone next to you is humming a catchy tune. Cheesy. Or stupid. But catchy. He is humming this in the background once in a while.

First way is “creating” a culture. Waaaaaaaah. Yuk. Argh.

Second way is “revealing” a culture.”

If you are trying to reveal a culture, you should focus on making people aware of the visible traits of their current culture. The habits, the rituals, the in-groups and out-groups, the language.

Uhm. Yes. The metaphors used.

At least, that’s what I think.

Bas de Baar helps people find ways to enjoy the diversity of human interaction in their organizations so that they can get out of their own way and achieve their goals. - Why Metaphors Are Serious Business. is a post from: Project Shrink.

After a while I get tired. My thoughts become internally focused. I am having this internal dialog reminding myself why I thought it was a good idea to exhaust myself like this.

Everyone that exercises for more than an hour knows what comes next. Some how you get over the sense of tiredness and get into “the zone”. I don’t know how to describe this correctly, but you are feeling “one” with the environment. My focus isn’t internally, my attention isn’t directed to an individual element in the surrounding, but it seems my mind is “everywhere”.

Yeah. I know. It sounds weird.

But I get the same thing with presenting to an audience. First I am internally focused. What is my text? Do I say things correctly? What is the next slide again?

Only after becoming comfortable, trusting that I know my stuff, I can shift attention to the audience. Do they receive the information? Is something not clear? Do I need to explain more? Did they get the joke?

The next shift of awareness is focusing on the need of the audience. What are their questions? Do they feel comfortable enough to participate or express their concerns? This is all about getting in the shoes or mind of the participants. Yes, I know, this is something every presentation should be about from the start. But sometimes things get in the way, and when that happens, you’ll need to get through the other stages of attention first.

The ultimate goal is turning a presentation into a group process where the audience members work together on their stuff and concerns and where you facilitate the process. If you get good at this (and I am really, really, really working hard on this ) your attention is actually all over the room. Your mind is “everywhere”.

Again. Sounds weird.

This is actually the same point as with running. The “ultimate goal” is to get your attention “everywhere”. Open up your senses in such a way you’re emerged in the situation. But this requires energy. Energy you not always have.

“Putting more energy towards being open and mindful makes us more effective in stressful (unknown/new) situations. Stressful situations suck all our energy away leaving is with little or no energy to put towards the mindfulness.”

In his book “Theory U – The Social Technology of Presencing” Otto Scharmer explains “the field structure of attention”. Social action finds its origin in a specific source of your attention. Scharmer sees four structures for your attention:

• “I-in-me: acting from the center inside one’s (organizational) boundaries;
• I-in-it: acting from the periphery of one’s (organizational) boundaries;
• I-in-you: acting from beyond one’s (organizational) boundaries;
• I-in-now: acting from the emerging sphere across one’s open boundaries.”

The boundaries are determined by the system (the scale) you are talking about.

In my example of the presentation the boundaries are made up by the topic and the participants. First I see myself as the center (presenter) and are internally focused (I-in-me). Then I see myself as part of the system, but not the center (I-in-it). Then I shift to place myself outside the system and focus on the other participants (I-in-you) and finally I become an enabler of the process, sense needs of others and facilitate (I-in-now).

Bas de Baar helps people find ways to enjoy the diversity of human interaction in their organizations so that they can get out of their own way and achieve their goals. - Where Do You Focus Your Attention? is a post from: Project Shrink.

“We all have our own little tricks to remember things. Lets be honest, there is just too much information thrown at us to fit in our heads.

Our heads are just too small.

I write a lot about seeing projects as temporary tribes that go through some unknown country on some Big Adventure. It’s almost hard to admit, but that is basically how my brain handles the concepts of projects, change in organizations and temporary collaboration.

It’s the analogies with explorers making contact with foreign tribes, using tents, or sukkahs, as supporting structure for working in foreign environments, looking at rituals and procedures as flags that tribes carry around to identify themselves.

I am not making these things up just for entertainment. It’s how I deal with complex matters myself.”

You can read the entire post “My Head Is Too Small” at my blog on Gantthead.com.

Bas de Baar helps people find ways to enjoy the diversity of human interaction in their organizations so that they can get out of their own way and achieve their goals. - My Head Is Too Small. is a post from: Project Shrink.

“For years I thought I hated rules. But I realized, I absolutely adore them. …

… before you can bent rules, you have to study them. Learn them. Know them.

And I love studying them.

Rules provide you with a sense of expectations.

And meeting stakeholders expectations is the essence of … well … being stakeholder centered…

Study the rules. And you study the expectations.”

Click here to read the entire post.

Bas de Baar helps people find ways to enjoy the diversity of human interaction in their organizations so that they can get out of their own way and achieve their goals. - Rules Rule. is a post from: Project Shrink.