It's no secret that I'm still horse crazy after all these years.  Fortunately, one of my best friends is my horse Jenn.  We've been together for over 10 years and I have learned so much from her.  Many lessons come from Natural Horsemanship concepts (think The Horse Whisperer) - Jenn and I have been lucky to learn these from one of the best whisperers around.  It's uncanny how the major lessons apply to my life in general and project management in particular.  Here's what I've learned:

 Make it easier to do the right thing than it is to do the wrong thingalt

 Sometimes there are carrots and sticks (literally with horses), but overall it's better to be consistent about just making the decision easier.  In the horse world, that might be 'I didn't ask you to canter, but since you've started now you're going to have to do it for a while'.  In the professional world that might be 'you didn’t deliver on schedule, now I'm going to nag at you every single morning - in a nice way.'

 The more I listen the more she tells me

 

When Jenn realized I was trying to understand what she was 'saying' to me she got much more persistent, trying different ways to get messages across.  At this point she's pretty adept at expressing herself clearly - and she expects *everyone* to be listening to her.  (Oddly enough, people do.)

 With people, this concept is absolutely true.  If I’m really listening, people are much more willing to tell me things.  Really listening means:

  • I'm processing what they say, not figuring out what I'm going to say next
  • When they need a few moments to formulate a thought I don't try to fill the space with words
  • I reflect what they say to be sure I understood, in a way that makes it easy to correct any misunderstand I have
  • I take appropriate action on the information they provide me.  (Sometimes that means no action at all)

 

 

She will mirror my mood.  If I'm afraid, she'll be afraid.  If I'm angry she'll be angry or upset.  If I'm sad she'll be sad.

Horses are empathetic.  Not only are they empathetic, but they are prey animals - meaning that if Jenn senses panic in me she'll assume there's really something to panic about, and it's hard to get her brain back in gear after that.

Many people are also empathetic, but even if they're not they will respond to my mood in kind.   If I'm abrupt with them, they're going to be short or cranky with me.  The panic reaction is largely the same as with horses - if I panic, the people around me will panic and we'll have a hard time reining it in.

 

It's all about the connection.

If I just show up, ride, and put my horse away we have no connection.  This is why most riding schools don't have horses saddled up ready to go for students - they expect the student to find the horse, get it out, check it over, groom it, and tack up before they can begin to ride.  I check in with Jenn when I get to the barn and try to understand how she's feeling that day.  How she's feeling is going to guide how I interact with her, no matter what my original plan was.  I need to spend at least one day a week doing in-hand ground work with her - working on our communication, convincing her that I'm a worthy leader.  (Horses are hard-wired to have a leader.  If you're not the leader, they will have to be.  This does not always work out well for humans.)

With people, I need to put in the time.  If someone has a sick child at home, they need to be able to tell me and I need to respond appropriately and make any project adjustments.  If someone is missing a skill they need to perform a task, I need to understand that and get them what they need.  And I do need to convince people that I'm a worthy leader.  While we humans aren't hard-wired to ensure there's a leader present, we have no problem ignoring a 'leader' we think isn't worth following.

 

So there you have it.  Natural horsemanship applied to project management.  (Natural project management?)  Simple lessons that work consistently with people as well as they work with horses.