Maintaining momentum through the summer doldrums
by Peter Schram
Sailors fear the doldrums. Suddenly without the power of the wind, they drift without direction or momentum. At one time, ships under sail could be trapped in the doldrums for days or even weeks, some never to return.
As we near the mid-point of the traditional summer vacation period, many professional communicators may feel that their projects have hit some doldrums of their own. Strategies and initiatives that once seemed easily achievable now look at risk, as swaths of colleagues, executives and suppliers wash in and out between intermittent vacations and the occasional round of golf.
But with just over a month remaining before Labour Day (and with it, the steady gust of communications activity), maintaining momentum through the final stretch may make the difference between next year’s success, or its failure. For the professional communicator in the doldrums this week, here are a few tips to help jump start momentum on lagging projects:
Define milestones: break the projects that are most at risk into a series of achievable one-week goals that take into account people’s vacation schedules, and set clear objectives and deadlines for everyone involved. Smaller projects provide tighter control and more ability to course-correct if needed.
Make executive decisions: a sure-fire way for a project to die is to languish on the desk of a decision maker while awaiting comments or approvals. While many business decisions are – and should remain – above the communicator’s ‘pay scale’, every effort should be made to identify the low-risk decisions and move ahead based on reasonable assumptions (*Risk Manager’s note: we are not – in any way – condoning the circumvention of approval processes).
Reset expectations: in business, nobody likes surprises – especially ones that are sprung at the last minute. Over the next week, make a sober evaluation of all of your ongoing projects, be realistic about what you can accomplish, and work with your stakeholders to adjust your priorities accordingly.
Reduce complexity: while reviewing your projects, spend some time re-evaluating all of your expected outcomes and formalized processes to distinguish between those that would be ‘nice to do’, versus those that are ‘must dos’.
Get help: for many other organizational departments, the summer is a period of relative calm and inactivity. Where possible, try to make use of peers with complimentary skill sets that can step in on a short term basis to support – or supplement – your team.
Of course, there are also a number of highly-skilled freelance professional communicators (such as ourselves) with the skills, experience and motivation to counteract your project’s inertia and start moving it out of those dreaded summer doldrums.
Source: www.communicationsunlimited.ca
