A team of Nine Feet Tall consultants recently took to the water for a surf lesson with our sponsored professional big wave surfer, Tom Butler.
For many of them, it was their first time on a surf board, but they were in extremely capable hands, and even came out with a few insights into how their experience and skills gained can translate to the project management consulting world.
Rehearse on dry land first
As for any project, it’s sensible to run a pilot in a low-risk environment in advance of go-live, rather than going in head first. For your first surf lesson, this means practising to paddle and then ‘pop up’ on the board on the sand a few times before you get wet.
For a project, a dry run could mean anything from a model office exercise to piloting training materials with a small number of users to gather feedback. It will be practically impossible to simulate the real thing, but by getting as close as you can to a real simulation, many issues can be identified and dealt with before go-live, saving the project’s reputation and providing a strong base on which to build in the long run.
Get ‘on board’
If you don’t get on the surfboard, you will never learn how to surf.
An excellent project manager gets all of their key stakeholders on board with the project early on. High engagement from the project team, project board and any teams or employees affected by the project will make the journey for your project much smoother!
Scan the horizon
Unless you want to be hit by a wave unexpectedly, any decent surfer knows to always keep their eyes on the horizon once they are in the water – and to never turn their back on the wave (unless they’re riding it!) How can you make adequate preparations for an abnormally tall wave if you don’t see it until the last second?
It’s easy to see how this might relate to the project world. Horizon scanning is part of any brilliant project manager’s job, if there’s a tidal wave on the horizon, it’s better to know as early as possible to allow time to make the best preparations.
Accept the inevitability of wipe outs
As a new surfer, it’s highly unlikely that you will come out of the first lesson without making a few splashes. It’s normal and expected that the waves will never be smooth when you try something new, and the same goes for projects.
All projects will hit bumps in the road, whether big or small, and an excellent project manager accepts and acknowledges this, which leads us onto some of the ways project managers avoid hitting these bumps…risk management.
Manage the risks
Excellent surfers evaluate the water conditions beforehand, learn how to evade a rip current and know how to protect themselves from loose surfboards after a wipeout. These are some of the most important things to learn in your first surf lesson.
Excellent project managers evaluate the risks to their project before project initiation (and throughout the project’s lifecycle), learn how to mitigate a risk which is fast becoming an issue and know how to protect their project from any issues which arise thanks to thorough contingency planning.
Keep your balance
Keeping your balance on the board is crucial. If you throw your weight too far to one end, you’re guaranteed to wipe out. The same is true of project management. A good project manager is balanced, and does not allow themselves to get too bogged down in the detail of specific workstreams. By trusting their workstream leads to deliver high quality outputs on time, and only intervening when necessary, the project team is more likely to feel empowered, able and engaged.
Get on your feet quickly
Once you have caught the wave of change, an excellent project manager ensures that their team and the business gets up on its feet quickly. It’s starting to sound like a pattern, but if any of your key stakeholders (who you worked so hard to get on board with the project) stay lying down, it’s likely that they – and potentially the whole project – will fall over.
Keep on paddling
When a wave knocks you over or you wipe out it’s not pleasant. The easiest way to avoid getting water up your nose and in your eyes would be to just call it a day, but you wouldn’t learn anything that way.
Projects would grind to a halt if their project managers checked out in the face of their first issue appearing on their RAID log. Excellent project managers are undeterred, breaking the issue down into more manageable chunks and working through them until the project is back on track.
Practice makes perfect
Surfing is not like riding a bicycle. There is a steep learning curve, and you need to keep working at it over time to maintain your momentum.
Excellent project managers are not born excellent, they also learn and work hard to hone their skills through their project experience and training. In every project there will be several lessons to be learned, and the best project managers reflect on these to improve their performance at every opportunity.
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