I think it’s a Generation X thing, this personal development / self reflection / what does it all mean? / WHY? OH WHY? – stuff. 
So without much further introduction, my biggest Project Leadership / Communication Aha Erlebnis this year.
Epiphany: Social Media Skills Improve Communication
Because of this blog I got invited this year to a convention at the other end of my globe. Yeah, I know! I keep on talking about it.
I had never met anyone of the attendees in Real Life before. Amazing situation. It’s weird when people know you from your blog.
Conversations get strange. You’ve never met a person, yet you think you know them. You associate them with the agile crowd, the lean posse, the social media gurus or any other label in existence. And presto, you have a whole set of assumptions about your conversation partner.
It’s strange, but also very powerful. You can skip the obvious stuff and dive directly into some interesting topics to discuss. You connect faster.
It also works like a filter.
People that like your stuff, connect, others don’t. Huge time and energy saver!
The epiphany I took away is this: yes, it takes a long time to get to know a person. Yes, it takes a very long time to trust a person. But what if you don’t have that time? What if you have to work with people you have never met before for a limited period? Turbo charging “getting to know the other” by digital footprint, social media and “personal branding” is a huge time and energy saver.
Creating the blog, writing the about page, it helps communication. It helps connecting.
And. You know. Communication in virtual projects and communication in social media?
Same.
Of course, your mileage may very. This should work especially well for introverts. Although I am not one. Hmmm. At least, I think. I feel another epiphany coming up.
Epiphanies From The Past
Epiphany: It’s About Humans!
During my study I performed field research at a large organization. The projects their Project Managers performed suffered from what they called “interventions”, which were changes triggered by the project environment. Being educated as a plan-driven-pro, I set out my checklist and searched for forgotten process components, only to find out after a couple of months that everything was neatly in place. From standard documents to procedures, they had it all. And still the project went from left to right.
Being the eager beaver that I was, I just kept on looking and looking for the missing ingredient but could not find a single clue to locating the feature or process that would help to solve the pressing problem. At one given moment, I had an “aha”-accident (a hit on the head), which turned out to be a life altering moment professionally. At the coffee corner, I overheard fellow project team members have a conversation about a procedure that they were not going to follow. My jaw dropped. Not following the official procedure? Not complying with company policies? If they didn’t follow procedure then all the changes implemented were going to be completed without the project manager’s knowledge – clonk. The penny dropped. It seems so simple now, but it really rocked my world at the time. They forgot to deal with the people.
Epiphany: Projects Are Performed Under Less Than Ideal Conditions
I think I dreamed one time about a project.
It had already started. Apparently. The people that were available got a new label: “team”. And the budget seemed already gone. I thought. It looked like it. Couldn’t really tell by lack of information. And oh yeah, nobody in the organization liked us.
Boohoo.
So you don’t have the authority you think you have, your information is partial (at best), you have no say in team staffing and … you have to make it work. In a short period of time.
I thought this was a real shocker. Projects are performed under less than ideal conditions.
WHAT!?
And all I had as a Project Leader were my communication skills.
ARE YOU KIDDING ME?
My thoughts exactly.
And you know what?
Most of the times, it’s enough.
Or I might have dreamed this.
Did you have any epiphanies this year?
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I understand your feelings, Bas. Meeting people electronically generates “charged” feelings. We are becoming like electrons orbiting the world. Each of us has his own orbit. Sometimes, individual orbits overlap and you have your sweet spot with the other person. With other people there is no overlap and the trust filter causes them to stay apart.
The blog brings respect for the blogger because people judge him by what he/she writes and not by his looks.
Anyways, we have never met physically, but you and I share brain products. At least this brings mental overlap.
I can’t say it any better, Ali.
Good point bringing up the role of physical appearance that play a huge rule in Real Life.
Bas, I appreciate your comment. I ask my self about the build up of networks and how they grow from simple repeating units while abiding by simple rules.The reulting self-organized network reflects the hidden types of interactions among participants in each building block. As you always emphasize trust is a major controlling guideline. Without trust there will be no interaction and no growth of the building block. Communication is another factor. As complex this subject is, it is enriching and widens our imagination.