Chapter 6: Sociolytic Mindscaping
Living the Dream
So, how many times has this happened? The project is launched to much fanfare.
The new management superheroes are unveiled. Shortly after the champagne corks
are popped, the project management plan is rolled out, the architects of which
need to find a new career path before reality sets in. The project team is left
to pick up the pieces.
Embracing those implicated in the project positively requires that you both
set the motivators for success and communicate a readily comprehensive and thus
simplistic way forward. This is where the dichotomy sets in - the cognitive dissonance
in simultaneously clinging to fact and fiction.
Death of the Dream
Where the sponsor elects to undermanage the initiative as with, for example,
a Level 2 application in a Level 3 reality, or a Level 2 in a Level 4,
this amounts to relinquishing control to the law of entropy. The project team
is left with a dilemma — embrace reality for what it is, with all its uncertainty
and intricacies — external determinacies, dynamic complexities and the like
- or simplify the implementation to a more readily manageable construct.
There is something to be said for simplification. A scenario that encompasses
a diverse number of individuals and accountability centres can easily lose focus
without some reduction of the issue to a more readily embraceable proposition.
That said, we realize that, in an under-targeted mismatch, the obligation conveyed
to the various parties does not rationally compare to the greater challenge they
face. This response may not be logical, realistic or fair. The end may justify
the means - for a while - provided there is greater plan developed for bridging
to reality.
With mismatching, as reality unfolds, the various parties engaged will be left to their own devices to find their way of the box you have put them in. Extensive and prolonged mismatching will lead to cynicism, a loss of integrity, and disenfranchisement of the various players. As one would do in a Level 2 environment, holding the team's "feet to the fire" on the simple plan will only exacerbate a bad situation.
The problem with reality is that it will not go away. The earlier gained enthusiasm
for change, and the illusion of success generated in the formative stages of the
project, will cede to reality as the dream fades away.
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Performance
