Fixating on the Path

By Vicki Wrona, PMP:

One paragraph in an article I recently read really hit me. The paragraph is:

We often lose our purpose. We plan the path to a goal, start traveling that path, and then forget the end goal and obsesses about the path. A radio talk show host worked on Saturdays. Why? “So someday I can spend more time with my family.” Yet if he stayed home on Saturdays, he could have time with his family now.

The article discusses a business book by Stever Robbins called The Get it Done Guy’s 9 Steps to Work Less and Do More. This made me think about managers and project managers. How many managers do this very thing?

They determine or are told the end goal, develop a path to get there, and then proceed to forget to focus on the goal and instead fixate on the path, treating it like a goal in itself. The object is not necessarily to get the job done in exactly the same way that the original plan laid out or to get it done YOUR way. The object is to get the end goal accomplished as a team, without undue stress, with a sense of accomplishment rather than exhaustion when the work is finished.

This often happens to new managers or those who are not as secure in their positions or with their staff. They know how they want to get to the end goal and focus on that. That’s great, but how THEY would perform the work may not be the same way that their staff would perform it. If a staff member or team member has an approach that will accomplish the end goal, it doesn’t make it wrong just because it is not YOUR way. As long as the approach accomplishes the goal you’ve outlined, it should be considered.

The same goes with PMs who have worked hard to develop a good PM Plan. They and the team are then afraid to alter or touch it. Instead they put it on a shelf and admire it, focusing on making it happen exactly as spelled out. The trouble is, things happen and change, and we have to be pliable in approaching our plan. As Patton said, planning is vital, plans are useless. It is essential that we go through the planning and understand our approach in every detail so that when we put the plan in action and things happen, we can react appropriately and in a way that still allows us to reach the goal without a lot of fire drills and extra stress.

Have you found yourself falling into this trap? What do you do to get out, or stay out, of  it?