Mike Wold
I have a friend who unfortunately has a very negative view of life. As I was talking to him on the phone the other night it was both amazing and sad to see how many negative things he could find in the world in a short conversation – the economy, the unemployment, the terrorists, people dying, marriages breaking up, … As my mentor and founder of Fissure, Ed Tilford would say “he was looking for the bad and finding it in abundance”. As I listened to my friend and tried to give him a more positive view, it suddenly struck me how important it is for people to have a sense of hope. It also struck me how debilitating it is if this is lacking. My friend’s success is being limited by a scarcity of hope in his view.
This experience pointed out to me once again the importance of us as project leaders (or any leaders for that matter) that we instill a sense of hope in our teams. I am not talking here about painting an unrealistically positive picture of reality – that only has the effect of ruining our credibility. (And as project managers we certainly have enough opportunities to do that without yet another way!) We all know that managing a complex project is really difficult and that hardly a day goes by when there is not an unpleasant “surprise” awaiting us that will impact our cost, schedule and/or scope… What I am talking about is the idea of instilling the hope of success in our team while facing cold reality.
This is the concept that Admiral James Stockdale learned as prisoner of war for seven years in Vietnam. On September 9, 1965 Stockdale, who was then Commander of Carrier Air Wing 16 aboard the carrier USS Oriskany, was shot down over enemy territory. He was so resistant to his captors and provided so much leadership to other prisoners that he was put into solitary confinement where he was routinely tortured. In a conversation with Jim Collins, author of the popular book Good to Great, about his coping strategy during his seven years of captivity he said:
“I never lost faith on the end of the story. I never doubted not only that I would get out, but also that I would prevail in the end and turn the experience into the defining event of my life, which, in retrospect, I would not trade.”
When Collins asked who did not make it, Stockdale replied:
“Oh that’s easy, the optimists. Oh, they were the ones who said, ‘We’re going to be out by Christmas.” And Christmas would come and Christmas would go. Then they’d say ‘We’re going to be out by Easter.’ And Easter would come and Easter would go. And then Thanksgiving and then Christmas again. And they died of a broken heart.
He then added:
“This is a very important lesson. You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end – which you can never lose – with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts in your current reality, whatever they might be.”
This concept of never losing hope while never being afraid to face cold reality is now called The Stockdale Paradox.
Another man who lived through a terrible experience was Viktor Frankl, the psychiatrist who survived the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz. In his book Man’s Search for Meaning he describes one of his talks to his fellow prisoners. He, like Stockdale, took upon himself the role of leader, attempting to soothe the pain of his fellow prisoners. In his book he describes a talk he had with his fellow prisoners:
“I told my comrades (who lay motionless, although occasionally a sigh could be heard) that human life, under any circumstances, never ceases to have a meaning, and that this infinite meaning of life includes suffering and dying, privation and death. I asked the poor creatures who listened to me attentively in the darkness of the hut to face up to seriousness of our position. They must not lose hope but should keep their courage in the certainty that the hopelessness of our struggle did not detract from its dignity and meaning.”
I think this idea of facing the reality but never losing hope has a lot of value for us as we lead our teams. In spite of all the pressure as a project leader to “present the best case” and the temptation to lose hope, we owe it to our team to instill hope while constantly facing (and asking them to face) the reality of the current situation. This could be one of the most important abilities of a great project manager.
I have a friend who unfortunately has a very negative view of life. As I was talking to him on the phone the other night it was both amazing and sad to see how many negative things he could find in the world in a short conversation – the economy, the unemployment, the terrorists, people dying, marriages breaking up, … As my mentor and founder of Fissure, Ed Tilford would say “he was looking for the bad and finding it in abundance”. As I listened to my friend and tried to give him a more positive view, it suddenly struck me how important it is for people to have a sense of hope. It also struck me how debilitating it is if this is lacking. My friend’s success is being limited by a scarcity of hope in his view.
This experience pointed out to me once again the importance of us as project leaders (or any leaders for that matter) that we instill a sense of hope in our teams. I am not talking here about painting an unrealistically positive picture of reality – that only has the effect of ruining our credibility. (And as project managers we certainly have enough opportunities to do that without yet another way!) We all know that managing a complex project is really difficult and that hardly a day goes by when there is not an unpleasant “surprise” awaiting us that will impact our cost, schedule and/or scope… What I am talking about is the idea of instilling the hope of success in our team while facing cold reality.
This is the concept that Admiral James Stockdale learned as prisoner of war for seven years in Vietnam. On September 9, 1965 Stockdale, who was then Commander of Carrier Air Wing 16 aboard the carrier USS Oriskany, was shot down over enemy territory. He was so resistant to his captors and provided so much leadership to other prisoners that he was put into solitary confinement where he was routinely tortured. In a conversation with Jim Collins, author of the popular book Good to Great, about his coping strategy during his seven years of captivity he said:
“I never lost faith on the end of the story. I never doubted not only that I would get out, but also that I would prevail in the end and turn the experience into the defining event of my life, which, in retrospect, I would not trade.”
When Collins asked who did not make it, Stockdale replied:
“Oh that’s easy, the optimists. Oh, they were the ones who said, ‘We’re going to be out by Christmas.” And Christmas would come and Christmas would go. Then they’d say ‘We’re going to be out by Easter.’ And Easter would come and Easter would go. And then Thanksgiving and then Christmas again. And they died of a broken heart.
He then added:
“This is a very important lesson. You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end – which you can never lose – with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts in your current reality, whatever they might be.”
This concept of never losing hope while never being afraid to face cold reality is now called The Stockdale Paradox.
Another man who lived through a terrible experience was Viktor Frankl, the psychiatrist who survived the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz. In his book Man’s Search for Meaning he describes one of his talks to his fellow prisoners. He, like Stockdale, took upon himself the role of leader, attempting to soothe the pain of his fellow prisoners. In his book he describes a talk he had with his fellow prisoners:
“I told my comrades (who lay motionless, although occasionally a sigh could be heard) that human life, under any circumstances, never ceases to have a meaning, and that this infinite meaning of life includes suffering and dying, privation and death. I asked the poor creatures who listened to me attentively in the darkness of the hut to face up to seriousness of our position. They must not lose hope but should keep their courage in the certainty that the hopelessness of our struggle did not detract from its dignity and meaning.”
I think this idea of facing the reality but never losing hope has a lot of value for us as we lead our teams. In spite of all the pressure as a project leader to “present the best case” and the temptation to lose hope, we owe it to our team to instill hope while constantly facing (and asking them to face) the reality of the current situation. This could be one of the most important abilities of a great project manager.