Intranet Journal
The online resource for intranet professionals

Are the Silent Saboteurs Impacting Your Project?

4/8/2004

We all know about the ever-present challenges intranet projects face: tight to unreasonable timelines, constantly changing technologies, funding issues, and personnel changes. When a project goes awry or the staff is burned out and unmotivated, these are the reasons we cite as the cause. However, disorganization and the renunciation of truth can often be the real silent saboteurs of your efforts.

Recently I've had the opportunity to witness these forces at work firsthand. Being reassigned to a new project team has given me the opportunity to see a new set of activities with a fresh perspective. After all, once we're steeped in our surroundings and stories, we can't see the forest or the trees. I'm utterly amazed at how a group of talented and intelligent individuals cannot see the cumulative negative impact of their seemingly innocuous actions and mode of operation.

For example, what makes people believe that piling more on the team's proverbial plate while promising more and more to customers is not a recipe for disaster? Even if project dates get met and the customers are happy, the ongoing impact on people is significant. I see people dragging their bodies around looking sleep deprived, burned out, and for some, on the verge of "the big snap." Yet, as a group, everyone just laughs off the situation, since acknowledging the truth would certainly not be welcome.

Another case in point is the daily calendar. When your calendar is booked from time slot to time slot with no breaks in it, that is a recipe for a breakdown. Not only can you not get any work done, your body and mind simply cannot push along full speed ahead and be attentive in this kind of environment. Remember the commercials with the fried eggs where it said "This is your brain on drugs?" Our brains and bodies react much the same to the constant onslaught of pressure and multitasking.

There truly is value in working smarter instead of harder, but from the way people behave, you'd think they never heard of such a thing. The leadership and life principles people like Stephen Covey and Robin Sharma have brought into our worlds truly work, but only if people are willing to acknowledge the truth and have the courage to take action.

Time is our greatest and most valuable possession as individuals and as a working group. It is the one commodity no one can beg, borrow, steal, or buy. Why then, do we dishonor it by our actions? For instance, everytime someone ignores time integrity by starting meetings late, allowing meetings to run over, or juggling schedules at the last minute on an ongoing basis, energy is lost. This is energy that could be put to better use in many ways both personally and professionally.

What does this all mean? It means that time spent stepping back from the thick of things is time well spent. If you can create an environment that is nourishing so people can sustain their energy and interest, you will not only achieve more with your projects but also have a more enjoyable time doing it.

Ten Tips for Taming the Silent Saboteurs

1. Create Space: Create space in your schedule to breathe. This is good for your mind, your body, and your productivity.

2. Get Organized: Eliminate clutter in both your physical and mental space. The office with papers piled everywhere and an occupant who says "I know exactly where everything is" is simply a cover up for the huge energy drain the clutter creates and the stress this person feels.

3. Acknowledge and Tell the Truth: While the truth is not always welcome in the corporate circles we inhabit, telling the truth even if only to yourself is critical to your self-care and your ability to deliver.

4. Honor Time: Respect your time and the time of others. Start and end meetings on time and keep conversations productive and on track.

5. Set Reasonable Expectations (of yourself and others): I'm sorry but you just cannot get blood from a stone no matter how hard you try or how badly your customers want something.

6. Take a Break: Even automated manufacturing production lines take a break — it is called preventative maintenance and scheduled downtime. You deserve at least as much. Remember, if you're stuck or frustrated with a problem you're working on, solutions flow easier during and after taking a break. Just think of all the good ideas you generate when you take a walk or while you're in the shower.

7. Under-promise and over-deliver: Our workplace is rampant with over promising and under-delivering. This is not very appealing. Imagine how much better it would feel to under-promise and then deliver more (faster, cheaper, more stuff).

8. Maintain Boundaries: Create and maintain strong boundaries between your personal time and your work time. Be clear on what you are willing and not willing to do so you can confidently address the demands placed upon you. Remember that we will all die with things on our to-do list, so it is up to you to define how you want your days to look.

9. Add Value: Genuinely do your best in all you do. Performance is a reflection of attitude. If you follow these rules and you attack the right tasks, value will follow.

10. Teach Others How to Treat You: With every interaction we have, we treat others how to "be" with us. That means, if you don't like the way others are treating you, it is because you have either taught them to behave that way or it is their normal mode of operation and you need to educate them on how to interact with you.