Welcome to messy but essential. I'm Rod Stillwell. And this is the podcast about the people side of project leadership. It's where we help you improve your soft skills to reduce hard costs. In today's episode, we're going to be talking about the importance of having and communicating a vision, both project oriented and personal for that matter. Joining me today is my brother Dale, who's my business partner and comes with extensive project
experience around the world. And Ela is our engineer and producer.
Hey Rod
Welcome. Before we go too far, I want to start as we normally do with these podcasts with a little bit about safety. And thinking in terms of the challenges that many of us are going to experience, as we gradually move away from, well Let's hope we do move away from a pandemic, world in to what we thought we were used to. And the reason this is important is because ultimately, what we were used to will never come back.
Now that's not to say that we won't be meeting together, we won't be hugging friends and relatives, etc, etc. But it is to say that we've moved on as a world, we have been through a common experience. And that's changed us fundamentally at some level. So from a safety perspective, it's not just being safe about our health and wearing a mask, all of that is
of course important. But it's also safety, from the perspective of recognizing that there will be some things you will get back to doing that you may not have done for a while. I can give us an example for me, you know, even traveling since the beginning of COVID, it's now been over a year. or so, I haven't been on an airplane, I haven't been in an airport. Well, as I understand it from watching the news, the those places, and those planes etc, have changed significantly in
the last year. So it will be a new thing for me when I do end up traveling again. And it will as a result, cause me to think differently, and hopefully behave differently. So when I talk about safety in that, you know, in that arena, it's really to say, as we now embark on something that's new and different, our you know, we'll be a little bit more alert, perhaps, but the common and familiar won't be there for us to count on; it's going to be
very different. And that puts us puts us at risk, either emotionally safety wise, or physically safety wise, because it's new and different, even though it's something we thought we knew all about in the past. So I just want to kind of keep that in mind. Because, you know, whatever it is that we're going to transition into, it's going to be different than what we're used to.
So Dale, we want to jump in and look at the whole concept of vision in the sense of communicating at some level, what we have in mind, or what the customer has in mind in terms of a project, or what the overall business case might be. Ultimately, what we want to talk about today is communicating that big picture so that people can get in line and support, engage, be truly involved in making that vision a reality.
And I want to just push it back to you in the sense of Have you worked on projects or been part of things where there wasn't a vision? There wasn't a clarity around what the real purpose was? And how did that feel? And how did you react to that?
Well, yeah, definitely. You know, I think there's a natural kind of process because a project has, you know, task lists and has a, you know, a set of responsibilities assigned. It has all of this structure around the work that needs to be done. There's a kind of a natural instinct that Well, we've got
all that covered, right. I mean, if we just walked through the project plan, and we all execute the tasks in the project plan, what we will end up with, at the end, will, you know, meet the business days meet the needs of the sponsors and all the rest of that type of stuff. And I think, you know, while that's natural, and it's probably technically true in most cases, especially on larger projects, there's a
gray area there. And not knowing what the vision is often leads you to making narrow decisions that don't further that, you know, that may get your task accomplished that may you know, meet your deadlines that may do whatever But don't necessarily hit the bigger picture don't necessarily deliver against the
bigger picture. So I think that's to me, where where it comes into play a lot on those projects is ensuring that when things need to be, you know, adjusted when people need to make some decisions, that they have a framework in which to do that, that's different than just a task list. You know, I think there's also a motivation component to that as well,
right? It's certainly, there's, there's some people for whom simply having a task list in front of them, and they can tick off the tasks as they work through their day is great. And you know, the power of having accomplished those specific tasks is motivation enough for the day. But I think there's other people on the project who want some other sense of accomplishments. And I think that that can be missing, if you don't have a bigger picture of
I think that's very valid. And even though we all have what's going on. different levels of need, for the big picture, understanding, there's enough evidence out there to suggest that, at some level, in order to truly be motivated and engaged, we need to understand a bigger purpose. And in fact, in many cases, we need to be part of something
bigger than us. And, of course, if you're working on a project, that's more than just you, well, You know, if I think of Daniel Pink's indication of by definition, it's bigger than you. But in terms of, you know, the contribution that we're making in terms of understanding how this project may, in fact, change the world, change your world and change the world around you, or change the world for a small community or a large organization or whatever.
identification in his books on motivation, you know, he talks about how we need mastery, autonomy, and purpose. So without that sense of purpose, without knowing really, where we're headed, we can we end up being a little less engaged, we're not clear on how our skills are truly going to be applied. And in fact, in many cases, because we aren't as familiar with the bigger picture, we may not be bringing
all of our skills to bear. But if we actually understood the overall vision and where this is headed, we might say, Oh, I have a skill set that this isn't specifically what you brought me on the project for. But given what I now understand, here's a part of my skill set that I can bring to bear that's just comes with me, it's part of, you know, part of the package. But it becomes a value added,
well, I, I think technical projects, especially, you know, you can end up with purpose that is specific to the domain or the skills that you're representing, right? So often, you know, you're in the process of implementing something specific, whether it's, you know, a new engineering model, or it's, it's a piece of technical equipment,
or whatever. And the people who worked on those projects can often be so invested in that particular technology or that particular thing, that to them, the purpose is, is very clear, it's to put that thing in place and make it work. And that's a great sense of purpose and a great sense of accomplishment when that happens. But most times, our projects are larger than just that. Right? Most times there's a bigger purpose behind the entire project that, you know, we used to use the
term outcome. There's a bigger outcome that you want to declare success. And even if all the technical components work, that doesn't necessarily mean that the project was successful.
Yeah, absolutely. In fact, you know, again, I think when we look at how even our let's say, define project fits into the overall scale of things fits into, you know, how it plugs into different components, or different parts of our bigger success. So it might be that we're, we're doing something that's very constrained, very clearly identifiable, there's a beginning and an end. And we'll know when we've delivered it.
But understanding how that component contributes to the greater success of the overall business, or the greater success of the industry or whatever.
Yep
You know, I think of, I mean, I don't know how many hundreds of 1000s of mini projects that would have been in order to land on the moon. But I think of the vision that John Kennedy had, John F. Kennedy had as President of the United States at the time, if we go back to 1969. And I use these examples, and there may be a lot of people on this podcast, Dale who weren't born in 1969, went
around in 1969. And you know, LSR engineers, certainly one of them and We don't probably talk a lot in history and so on about what happened on July 20, in 1969. But often when I'm working with groups, I'll ask that question. And I'll ask them, what was the vision that helped them achieve that moon landing, which we need to recognize was quite an accomplishment for us. And many people are very quick to point out a portion of that
vision. In other words, they will say things like, "I think like it was within 10 years, we're going to land on the moon", and others would be "no, no, it was why within a decade will have landed", well, that's kind of 10 years, right? And then somebody will say, "Well, wait, it was, by the end of the decade, we will have landed a man on the moon. Yes, that's it." And they will be partially right. As a vision, landing a man on the moon, that was huge, but the vision wasn't complete.
Because if you didn't have the second part of Kennedy's vision, you were in trouble. And the second part was, "and brought him home safely." There wasn't a huge lineup of people to stay on the moon until we figured out how to get you off the moon. So when we talk about a vision, it's really helping people to see not only how this fits in, in what we, you know, in the bigger picture of life, but how it impacts me, I don't want to sign up for this vision, if I don't understand how it's
expected to end. And obviously, in the case of NASA, we do know that, you know, the challenge wasn't landing things on the moon in 1962, when Kennedy made his statement, we were able to send stuff to the moon, we just couldn't get it off the moon.
Now, saying, you've got basically at the time, eight years in front of you, by the end of the decade, we not only have to be able to land a man on the moon, but we've got to be able to figure out a way to have him leave the surface of the moon leave the moon's gravity and get back safely to Earth. Otherwise, we're not going
yeah,
we're not not doing that
absolutely was working was, you know, was a huge difference between the American success and the Russian failure, right was the I mean, the Russians landed at a probe on the moon the same day, the Americans set foot on the moon for the first time. But they couldn't get their rocket design, working, to allow them to send enough equipment and people to be able to do the whole thing. You know, arguably, they may have had a better design. But they couldn't get it working reliably enough to make
that happen. And so they had to opt for a non manned landing as their kind of attempt to declare success. You know, in that process, so So yeah, absolutely huge, huge difference in terms of outcome.
And it started with a vision It started with, but the vision. So when we talk about vision, and you know, those books, and we will have in the show notes, if you want to have a look at those on the website, you will see a list of possible references and books and so on that you could go to, to learn a little bit more about visioning and vision casting and, you know, writing a vision script, and there's a lot of information
out there about vision. But what I want to really get across today is that without a vision, we perish without a sense of where we're headed. We lose motivation, we lose excitement, we're just not engaged in that process. So let's talk a little bit then about, you know, how we relate a personal vision to a bigger project vision. So let's say, let's use an example of, you know, a project that intends to deliver a tangible, touchable
product at the end. Alright, so that could be a new product that's going to be for sale, or it could be a building a structure, a mine, a bridge, a tunnel, whatever it might be, like, there's something that's going to be actually there. So you'll literally be able to see this physical thing when we're done. Right. So that's the end, we've described, you know, let's say the vision around what that's going to look like, etc,
has been described. Now, how do we relate that to as a project lead your personal vision for the project?
Yeah, I mean, I think there's going to be a lot of things that are going to be mixed up in that right and obviously you you would want to ensure that your personal vision was not in conflict with the the main vision for the project. I mean, that's a and certainly, you know, you would hope that the people on the team, you know, felt the same way because I have been on product gets where there were competing visions for various components of the project and that never
went out. But, you know, you may have some nuances that you, as a project manager are bringing to, you know, your vision for that project that are different than then the project as a whole, you know, you may have be this mate, you may be a seasoned project manager who's been doing this for a very long time. And there's one particular thing that you've always found has been a problem and projects like
this. And, you know, part of your personal vision is to ensure that that thing doesn't happen this time, you know, this time our communication is going to be, you know, the best it's ever been. Now, that might be in support of the overall vision, you know, it's probably never a bad thing, if the communication on the project is better. But it may not be the primary vision of
the project itself. But if you, as the project manager, have this personal vision to see, you know, communication be paramount on this project, you know, that can tie in to the success of the project. And you may still be motivated by that and get a lot out of that, even if it's not directly stated in the in the vision of the project itself.
Yea, I think that's really important for us to recognize that the, that personal vision is around some typically around some component of the project that you want to see, Excel or exceed your expectations that we have, it's not a goal, it's not a target. It's, it's really, you know, a vision, I've heard it described as a dream with a plan. So when we talk about that personal vision is I I've worked on projects in the past, where communication to use your example, sucked, quite frankly,
it was just a bismal. You know, I often these days will tell project leaders, when you think you've communicated enough, you're about halfway there. It's a huge amount of work to communicate. So if you have a sense of this is what I want to
contribute to this project. My vision, for my role in, in leadership in this project, is to use the example again, communicate more and make sure that everybody throughout the duration of the project, everybody is on board with where we're headed, knows what our status is, knows what's expected of them, knows how they relate to other people, their roles and responsibilities, all those good things, if that's your vision, and you keep it to yourself, you chances of achieving it are
probably significantly less. Alright. So the other thing with a vision is we have to articulate it, we have to share it, we have to get it out there and allow people to contribute to achieving our vision, I bring us back to Kennedy's vision of landing a man on the moon and bringing him
home safely. By declaring that and I'm sure there were people at NASA who went what has he committed us to, because at the time, we didn't quite know, you know, eight years earlier, we didn't really know how we were going to get the, you know,
Make it all happen, ye
So we were able to launch things and have them, you know, lob them and have them land on the surface. That was pretty easy. They didn't necessarily land in tact they didn't miss. And you know, but so you can imagine, I'm sure there were some moments and and lots of conversations around what is he committed us to Is he crazy? How did he who who inspired this, etc. But interestingly, they did it and they did it six months earlier than then the timeframe if you wish that they've been
given. But I come back to the individuals who had a vision for how they were going to contribute to it. And by Kennedy sharing that vision out loud with the world, it allowed people who otherwise may not have been anywhere newly involved in it, to input into it, to get excited about it, to share with neighbors about it, to feel some level of pride
about it. And in some cases to offer services that then would have got you know, would be picked up by NASA or the military or whoever else was involved in the various components because they knew the bigger vision.
So one of the things that that for me is really important in a project is that as we have a project vision, which is often you know, articulated through the charter and a number of other things which we will cover in another podcast but it's that linking that bigger project vision with your individual vision as a leader and how you are going to bring your whole game your whole self in maybe even bigger than yourself to the project and my expense This has been that, you know, when you
envision something big and something in, you know, great, you showed up differently. Now, I need to step back then to say, it's also important to understand why that vision is important, why we have that vision. Because when stuff gets tough, it's very easy to put our vision aside in favor of just, you know, getting stuff done. But if we can remember that our vision is way bigger than getting stuff done, and remind ourselves have the why behind it. Why was that important to
us? You know, I follow a number of authors, and one of them who's written a large number of books, somebody asked him so. So you know, of all of the books you've written, which one is the best book that you've written? And he said, Well, the one I'm writing now, because why would I want to write another book that's less than anything I've
already done in the past. And so when we talk about a vision, I would like to think that our visions are getting bigger and bolder and better and, and using more and more of our talent and skills. And that, I guess, is really the encouraging piece, when I look at projects and visions, is, as a project leader, you need to bring, we each need to bring our whole game to the table, we need to really be there totally. And the minute we kind of step back and go, this one's not all that
important. I think we're sunk, I think we're, we're not going to achieve what we set out to do.
Yea, I think that's valid
So let's let's wrap up in a sense of kind of where that vision can take us. And how, you know, what's the first step in articulating and sharing that vision. And again, I don't want to get into, you know, long details, we do have some notes in the show notes that will help you in this. But you know, from your perspective, you've just been assigned a project to lead? What's the first thing you do to help get that vision rolling in your head?
Well, I think a lot of that is, you know, we'll start with interviews with the sponsors, with the main shareholders, you know, those types of people, because ultimately, they're the ones who decide what that outcome needs to look like, you know, they're not going to have all the technical details, they're not going to have all the house, you're going to accomplish it.
But they should be the ones that it's not always easy to get this from them, but they should be the ones who are in the best position to articulate the why. The Why are we doing this? And ultimately, what do we want to be different? What do we want success to look like? And that's often not technical, that's often you know, very different from what the project team that's working on the details of implementing and making this happen. See, but there, they can
clearly give you that. And then from that, you can then I think craft the vision. And that vision should be part of your conversation and your your sign off from your shareholders, they should be signing off on the vision for the project as well, as you know, the other details.
Hmm, I really like that. Because it brings it full circle it it links your vision, to the project to those who say the sponsors, the shareholders and so on. And at the same time creates a certain level of accountability for delivering on that, but clearly starting with
why we're about this. And then I would add to that, and and with this, the importance then of communicating that vision, getting it out there, and not once, not twice, but it's the type of thing you constantly have a new arm ready to talk about at any time. So that we mobilize people, we engage people, we motivate people, to stick with our vision. And to be part of achieving something great. It doesn't matter how small your project is or how insignificant some people may
feel it is. If we can bring greatness to every project, through having a clear vision which we communicate, we're going to end up with success. And when we don't have a vision when we're not clear, you know, that timeline gets extended, the budget gets blown out. The quality may not be there. All Because ultimately, we didn't spend the time to craft a vision communicated effectively and have everyone else help hold us accountable to delivering that. Any fine thoughts before we wrap up?
You know, we talked about that, that communication and we used to, we used to use the term elevator speech as being so you know, if you're stuck in an elevator with someone, and you've got, you know, two and a half minutes of floors, and they asked you what the purpose of the project is or what you're working on, you know, being able to use to articulate that vision. In that couple of minutes you have, I think, is the type of communication you want to be able to do on a regular basis.
I would certainly agree. and have it short succinct enough that people can embrace it. I used to spend before COVID, of course, a lot of time on airplanes. And I used to say, Can you describe it in you know, a short enough way that the passenger beside you isn't asking for a blanket so that they can go to sleep while you're describing what you would be gone and what your vision is, you know, can you get it out so that they then want to ask more
questions. Dale, I really appreciate your insights today and sharing your experience with us. Ela, thanks so much for helping to engineer this and and get it out for us. For those of you out there who are still struggling with how do you create a vision etc. Please consult the show notes. In the meantime, be visionary, get out there and be part of making projects super successes.