Have you ever heard this quote?“There’s an inverse relationship between your level in a company and your ability to see reality.” We joke about that at times when it seems like the people above us are out of touch.
But why is it more difficult to see reality, the higher you get in an organization? Sometimes it’s just because the people higher up are focusing on longer term issues. By virtue of their scope of responsibility, they’re not in the day-to-day. But that’s not always it. I was facilitating a project management workshop at a company a couple years ago discussing this very topic. A participant said it this way: “Around here, it’s crap down at our level but it’s fertilizer up there! It’s not a problem, it’s an opportunity!”
Information gets filtered as it travels up and down and around an organization. What gets through and why can make all the difference between making good, informed decisions or barreling over a cliff with what we thought was an accurate map.
Those of us who have the privilege of leading people and delivering projects need to understand filtering and my favorite expert for how this works is Dr. Michael Roberto. Michael’s book Know What You Don’t Know: How Great Leaders Prevent Problems Before They Happen continues to be one of my highly recommended books for project managers and leaders. In this episode I talk with Michael about Chapter 2 of his book: Circumvent the Gatekeepers.
You can learn more about Michael and read his blog by visiting http://michael-roberto.blogspot.com/.
By the way, don’t miss the free Premium Episode that I’m including with this feed. Normally these extra episodes are only available for Premium Subscribers but I wanted to give you a flavor for the additional coaching you can receive with each episode when you become a Premium Subscriber. Visit http://bit.ly/PremiumSubscribe to learn more about premium subscriptions.
Thank you for joining me for this episode of The People and Projects Podcast! Have a great week!
Topics: Risk management
