Sometimes in life, experiences are really a matter of perception. One day, you might see nothing but pink clouds and blue skies in a situation. The next, you might see storm clouds and leaking roofs. As managers (or, in my case, as an advocate), sometimes we are called upon to help our co-workers see through their own fog and glimpse the sunshine.
But how? I don’t know about you, but I’m no therapist. I’m a designer and a strategist so I use the tools I have.
A few weeks ago, one of my advocat-ees (we have an advocate system rather than a management system) was struggling with a project. It was actually a really cool project but it had been going for a long time. There was no end in sight. She was having trouble keeping perspective, feeling buried under it.
She needed, and asked for, an attitude adjustment.
Here’s what I did. I took three large stickies and on each one I wrote one of these questions:
a) What excited you about this project when you first started it?
b) When this project is finished, it will…
c) When this project is finished, I will…
I gave her a stack of small stickies and a sharpie. I handed one question to her at a time. I asked her to take three sheets from her sticky pad and on each, write one answer to the question. As she completed each set, I handed her a new question and posted the previous question and her answers on the wall.
Once she finished all of them—about five minutes later—we stood back and reviewed her answers. I had her talk through each set. We discussed her answers and I asked loads of questions. I pointed out things that seemed to be really important to her and asked her about things that seemed to be contradictory. Mostly, though, I just let her talk. She was able to remember the things that excited her about the project in the first place and remind herself how both she, the client, and our company would be affected by its outcome.
It didn’t change the nature of the project or its timeline but it changed the way she felt about it. When we were done, she was visibly refreshed, and ready to move forward.
