PICTURES OF THE WEEK
I started working on my slide deck! Here is the first one.
Want to see the rest of the deck? Come on by:
- Monday, August 6, 2018 - 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM
- The Laundry - 3359 26th St · San Francisco
- https://www.meetup.com/Adventure-Design-Group/events/251919727/
“It’s Like Herding Cats” VS “The Mice Are Over There”
Or, why you didn’t hire sheep in the first place...
“Getting these people to do things is impossible, it’s like herding cats.” I run into this phrase frequently, managing challenging projects full of dynamic people (for both fun and profit). So, I started to take it apart for myself.
Why did we hire cats in the first place? I mean there are plenty of sheep out there who are fun, loyal and wear great sweaters! But, when we hired cats, we knew we were getting: skilled, deliberate, opinionated, sleek, curious, smart, agile. And, they don’t put a lot of effort towards things they aren’t interested in.
The other question is: why are we trying to herd them? Is there some reason things need to be controlled and everyone needs to be moving as a coordinated group? Or could things be set up so individuals could be allowed to be as autonomous as possible, but still achieve some sort of goal.
But, here we are: we hired cats. And from that, we can safely assume they were hired them for a reason: to kill mice.
And you’ve seen a cat when it is hunting, right? It is pure focus, attention, motivation and creativity. There is not a lacidascial thing about a cat when it is stalking a thing that it considers prey. The claws come out, and it is all business: going from luxurious pools of liquid fur laying in the sun, to killing machines that are able to leap miraculous heights, rocket across a landscape and decimate their quarry.
So, my current approach when I am leading a bunch of “cats” is to do the equivalent of saying “there is the barn full of mice over there, let me know when you are done” - I don’t even really need to tell them to go kill them. I just point them in the right direction, and let them do what cat’s do. Heck, at that point, I can’t stop them or even slow them down.
To put it in more practical terms, I try to figure out what the “cats” are really good at, in to, and motivated by. And then I get them to do those things. I set up the problems and tasks so that they focus on the talents at hand, and then I ask the “cats” how they want to approach the problem, getting them to provide the steps, goals, timelines and deliverables. It usually sounds something like: “You’re the expert on this, so I think we should follow your way of approaching this. How do you think we should go about it?”
How about you? How have you gone about working with cats? I’d love to know!
I went to Tahoe, and it was beautiful. Question I keep asking myself: Why don’t I go to Tahoe more?
The joys of having a car with a tape player. Feel free to request one of these the next time you are in my car.
