It’s uncomfortable, isn’t it? You’re into a project, even a well planned one, and there are new ideas flying though your head. Worse yet, there are new ideas flying through your team’s head and they all sound good on some level. Do you stick to plan? Do you risk the budget overage? What if the people you presented to hate the new idea? What if they love it and blows the budget AND the time line? Wouldn’t it be better if they all shut up?
This is the tension of being engaged. Of caring about what you deliver. But the implementation process is plagued by what I call the desperation of doing your best effort. It’s really unavoidable if you care about your project.
If you are like me, you’d rather avoid it. Plan well. Limit scope creep. Deliver on time. Work eight hours. Man, I LOVE that fantasy. What if everyone-including me-actually lived by the plan and coordinated their urgencies while effectively implementing. Smiling as they walked out at 5pm having delivered on time, on budget and in scope with no modification or interruption. Did I mention the inbox at 0? Always.
But the new ideas will always come as we learn more. Some are distractions but some are project and – dare I say it – world changing ideas. At least the world we are working in.
I’m saying if we are going to work on things we care about, if we are going to do our due diligence to delineate the best path and if we are going to choose to work with really smart people, we have to be open to new ideas, mid-project course changes and the angst that comes from juggling all the possibilities while executing. We have to be open to the desperation of doing our best.
Few ideas to help:
1. Manage it. Whether you thrive off of it or are crushed by it, you must be in control. The rush of adrenaline and overload of good intention will come at a price if you let it control you. (Some ideas? Exercise, actually take lunch and relax, or as a good friend of mine who has built and sold many businesses suggests, talk a five minute walk to refocus and pray.)
2. Justify it. Work on things that matter. Matter because of the things you work on by choosing things you feel good about bringing your full effort to the table on. (Prioritize often, remember the overall vision–or create one for your life.)
3. Choose your critics: Not all critics are created equal, choose the ones that matter. Seth Godin had a great blog on this: http://bit.ly/bKTzJ2
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