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Narrow & Deep or Shallow & Wide—it’s a matter of perspective

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view of river from high above is wide but shallow
While your vantage point is “wide & shallow” on your project, you’re seen as “narrow & deep” when you present to an executive.

I was talking with a client about communicating to the C-Suite. They were struggling with how to retain an executive’s attention, to make sure their points are heard…and remembered.

I’ll be honest, the higher you go the shorter their attention span seems to be. It’s easy to feel frustrated when you get cut off mid-sentence, or they take the conversation in a completely different direction, and you’re left with three minutes to make a case that needed a full ten.

There are several factors at play here, including your proximity to them (direct report vs. several layers down) and their own personality. But let’s focus on the main one: vantage point.

Think about the quantity of areas and topics they’re involved in. An executive needs to see and respond to dozens of different people, topics, projects, strategies, and issues. They can cut across the company, so their vantage point is one of standing on a mountain, watching a river twist across the landscape but not seeing the bear fishing in it. Their view is “wide & shallow.”

You’re on the ground. You notice the bear but can’t see beyond the next bend in the river. Your vantage point is “narrow & deep.”

Bringing this back to business, the CEO is responsible for many areas, but their role is to gather information and make decisions, rather than do the work in all these areas personally: “wide & shallow.” And the lower down the hierarchy, the more “narrow & deep” until an individual contributor is focused on accomplishing their daily tasks, like the bear fishing in the river.

This is natural…and relative.

Think about your own project. Your role here is considered “wide & shallow.” Your job is to understand, assess, schedule, and resolve, but as a PM, you don’t do the actual “building.” Your resources are “narrow & deep,” digging into the work itself, raising issues, and preparing information.

When your team member is faced with a challenge, you, as the leader, don’t need to understand every nuance; just enough to get to the heart of the matter and make a decision. While talking with your resource, you may realize the problem they’re facing is actually the symptom of a very different issue, and you’ll start asking them questions to understand how big that one is!

So while you are “wide & shallow” on your project, you’re seen as “narrow & deep” when you present to an executive.

Given this perspective, it doesn’t make sense for your executive meetings to focus on the details. Their vision is about a thousand feet up, and miles wider.

Even understanding why the higher up you go the less likely you are to have an executive’s full attention, how do you effectively communicate with them?

First, think carefully about what outcome you’re looking for. Is it advice? Help? Money? A “Go” decision? Maybe you want to convey confidence in your team/timeline/project?

Whatever your goal, the rest of your communication (meeting, email, phone call) should support that. I know it’s nice to tell the CEO how great your team is, but if the meeting is to get a decision to purchase new testing equipment, talking about your awesome team is just an opportunity to get sidetracked. (That’s not to say you shouldn’t ever praise your team, but in this circumstance, they’d probably appreciate the equipment more!)

If you’re having a 1:1 meeting, make sure to leave time for discussion. If you have a half hour, expect the first five minutes to be “How are you doing?” questions…if your executive is on time. Then you need a few minutes to set up the discussion. Remember that while you’re living and breathing your project, it’s only one of a dozen they’re following. So start with a status or reminder of where you are in the project schedule. (“As you probably know, we just finished training everyone on the new process and we’re getting ready to roll it out next month.”)

Plan some room for detours. (“How did the training go?”) If you load up the meeting with details, it will be tougher to know what to cut out when time runs short. The risk is you’ll rush through all your data, hoping you hit on the information they need to make a good decision.

I’ve mentioned it before: The more important the communication, the more time I spend preparing for it. If I need that purchase decision, and the CEO doesn’t know too much about it already, or I only get this one shot to ask, I can take hours…or days to prepare. Because the message and the outcome are too important to risk anything other than crystal clear communication.

There Really Is Such a Thing as Over-Communication

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Information Overload!
If we’re not careful, we can overwhelm our people with information!

There once was a fantastic manager whose performance critique from their boss consisted of only one word: brevity.

No, that manager wasn’t me. But it is a true story and certainly wouldn’t be a surprise to find on my annual review.

We all understand how critical it is to communicate with our stakeholders. We want our team to feel important and included, and to have all the information so they are empowered to make good decisions. Our sponsors and other executives should have the critical information at the right time. And our end users and extended team? Let them know what’s happening so they’re “with us” all the way.

But sometimes it’s hard to know when we’re going overboard.

Do any of these sound familiar?

  • A five-minute update can regularly take twenty-five.
  • A meeting that “shouldn’t take too long” goes the entire hour…plus a few minutes.
  • There are five main slides stuffed with content in your presentation…and fourteen back-up slides.
  • You put everything they need to know in your email…and get the most basic questions in response.

I am guilty of all of these. And I can name a dozen colleagues who do it, too.

So really, if we’re making sure we’re giving people all the information; how could there be any harm in it?

To answer that, let’s look again at the above cases:

  • If you say an update will take five minutes, not only is your audience expecting five minutes, they may have re-scheduled if they knew it was going to take longer. But they’re trapped in the middle of the conversation and need to see it through.
  • The same goes for a meeting. It’s hard to leave a meeting in the middle of a conversation. And if they do leave, they take with them a sense of frustration and unfinished business. And if you tell everyone the meeting will run short, they will be expecting some of their time back, even if it’s just five minutes to grab a water before their next meeting begins.
  • A jam-packed slide deck is deadly. Each slide should contain useful information, but ask yourself: do you want your team to spend time reading a slide or listening to you? And what is in those fourteen backup slides? If your audience needs the data, should it be in the main presentation?
  • Most emails don’t need a ton of background to evoke the intended response. It’s easy to miss the main point of a long, involved email.

Our teams (core, executive, extended) trust us to be respectful of their time and to deliver what we promise. In each of the above cases, we are wasting someone else’s time. More than that, we’re setting expectations and then not living up to them. But combine both—and do it repeatedly—then we’re starting to erode their trust.

How Do We Tell We’re Over-Communicating?

The result of over-communicating can be subtle. You’ll notice people start declining your meetings or aren’t available when you ping them for a quick update. They may stop reading your emails and instead send you a DM asking about the exact the subject you emailed them yesterday.

Let’s take a final look at our cases. A bit of review is usually all you need to dial it back to where it needs to be:

  • Take a few extra minutes to craft a more succinct message in email—or preparing for that five-minute update.
  • Unless there’s a very good reason for a meeting to run over, cut it off and make sure you do a better job estimating the time needed for each topic.
  • Check your slides for the 3-5 bullet rule. More information than that and your audience can’t absorb the information. Be critical in your review: does your overall point get lost because there’s so much context?
  • Read your email before you send it. If it requires a lot of explanation, maybe a phone call or meeting would be better—that way they can ask for additional information if they need it.

The focus on communicating the right amount of information helps you and your team get the job done. And it builds that foundation of trust so when you do find a meeting running over, they know it won’t become a pattern.

You’re Not the Only On Who Storms

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Everyone belongs to a team so everyone goes through the stages of Team Development!

I often write about the stages of team development (Forming, Storming, Norming, & Performing). We should be aware when we go through each stage, and help guide our project teams through them, as well.

But what about people outside our project?

These people may not be on any formal team. Why would team development be relevant to them?

First, everyone is on a team of some sort. Think about it: A Manager has direct reports. An Individual Contributor supplies information to the team. And if you’re a Remote Worker, you may not bump into anyone in the hallway but you’re still part of the group.

Here are more. What if you all have the same objectives? That’s a team. Presenting together at a conference? Team. You get the picture. If we need to relate to someone else on a regular basis, it’s a team.

They could also be new. New to the company, their position, or department. Something in the status quo of their work-life has changed and it causes a start back at Forming.

You know the signs in yourself and in your project team. Here’s how they show up in others:

  • Forming: Lots of basic questions. Oriented towards “getting to know you,” what is happening, expectations, what’s typical, etc.
  • Storming: The questions become pokes. More “Why are you doing it that way?” and questioning decisions already made. Re-evaluating, re-vamping, re-doing.
  • Norming: They start asking the “good questions” and know where poking won’t be productive.
  • Performing: You feel comfortable going to them with questions and for their opinion.

So what? Now that we can spot these individuals, we can help them get to Performing with as little Storming as possible.

Here are a few suggestions:

  • Let the questions come. You’ve been in their position. Sometimes you need to ask the question two or three times until it sinks in. And one question leads to another.
  • Keep your cool when the pokes become a bit sharp. It doesn’t mean you need to cave. Think about whether you had the same questions. How did you resolve them?
  • Take the suggestions seriously. Remember, they have a unique perspective. You may have spent countless hours wrestling with an issue and feel you’ve covered every possible outcome, but it’s all brand new to them.
  • Encourage their discovery, however it happens. I was recently in a session with someone who was literally re-doing the work I’d just gone through. But before stopping them and pulling out my own document, I suggested we move forward with their new doc and I’d answer questions as they put the pieces together.

    I had to step back and let them take that journey. But my experience helped them get to the finish line faster. And, as we all know, figuring something out yourself helps it “stick,” and gives someone ownership of the solution.

Helping others move through their own Team Development benefits them, certainly. But it also helps you in three ways.

First, you’ve just racked up a ton of good will! Everyone appreciates help when they’re struggling to understand and get up to speed. That time and effort spent will come back to you!

Next, no matter what type of team you’re both on, that individual was selected for a reason. The faster they ramp up, the more efficient you all can be, and the sooner they will start contributing from their unique perspective.

Finally, if you help focus their questions and pokes on you, the less time they’ll spend slowing down other people who may not be as prepared. Not everyone understands Storming—it can be tough when someone questions your decisions and processes!

So for the next two weeks, pay attention to the signs of Team Development outside of your project. Ask yourself if you can lend a hand in bringing them along faster. And then do it. Watch what happens!

The Plateau

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Your team worked long and hard to achieve this milestone – they need some rest!

I recently finished creating a quiz for Project Managers. It’s called “What’s Your Project Leadership Type”. It took me months, lots of effort, some late nights, and a fair bit of revising & rethinking along the way. 

As the quiz neared completion, I was doing great – making quick decisions, easily hooking up the tech, and making huge progress every day. I was so excited when I went through it one last time and couldn’t think of any other adjustments – I was DONE!

But over the next few days, instead of building on that momentum and quickly taking the next steps to get my quiz “out there” in the market…I actually started to feel a bit adrift. I *wanted* everyone to take the quiz, and I *wanted* to start presenting the accompanying webinar on Leadership Types.

But I found my motivation was actually lower than normal.  Sleep in? Garden? Read a novel? Yes, please!

And to my frustration, I couldn’t seem to figure out exactly what the next step should be, so it was tough to hook onto some kind of action to keep me moving forward.

What in the world was going on??

That “lull” I was experiencing is actually perfectly normal. It’s the “plateau” you reach after making a big, long duration effort. Think hiking up a mountain trail. You keep climbing up with no relief until you hit that bit of level ground where the view is amazing.

This plateau is what your team feels whenever they hit a milestone.

Which milestones? Any that take effort. For example:

  • Blueprinting is done or requirements signed off
  • User Training is over
  • Data conversion is successfully completed
  • A major demo is given to the customer (or executives)

Your team worked long and hard to hit each of these milestones. They’re much more than a line item on the schedule.

Be aware that your people are going to lose a little momentum. They may slide backwards in the area of team development and start “storming” for a while. They may chat a bit more during a meeting, or seem unable to make decisions.

Don’t worry – just like when I feel the need to curl up and read a book all afternoon, your people need some time to recover.

When will they get back to “normal”? It depends on a few things:

  • How long was the heavy lifting…and how much effort did they put into reaching this milestone? 1 week of all-day testing might be draining, but if your team has been burning the midnight oil for 2 months, they’ll need longer to recover
  • How strong are they as a team? If part of the effort was dealing with each other, they may be hesitant to jump back into close quarters again (even if it’s virtual)
  • Were they able to recover from the last milestone before the current one began? My husband had a manager who used to tell the team they needed to “surge”. The team would grumble “when are we ever not surging?!”

Since they hit the last milestone out of the park, no doubt the team will eventually recover. But you have a big influence on their plateau’s duration and intensity. Remember to let them rest. And help them prepare for whatever comes next.

Where Do You Go From Here?

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When you’re at the top of your game – where do you go next?

When you’re a new PM, your immediate career goal may be to keep your head above water, or to succeed at your current project.

Mid-career, you’re looking to build relationships and grow into that “go to” PM – the one they call when the project absolutely must succeed.

Lots of my readers are already highly experienced Project Managers.

They’ve “been there and done that.” They’re seasoned – senior leaders and are well known for their ability to get the job done right. These folks are comfortable with communication to every type of stakeholder, from brand new BA to CEO to vendor resources.

So that got me thinking: for those at the pinnacle of their career…what’s next? Where do you go from here?

Seasoned PMs: this post is for you!

(What? Not a senior leader yet? No worries – you may find some nuggets in here, too!) 🙂

So what do you do with all those years of experience and wisdom?

To be fair, some PMs will be perfectly happy continuing to lead projects as they have been all along. That’s fantastic – and a huge relief to their companies, as well!

But PMs are driven to grow. We love projects, after all. And projects, by their very nature, create.

Without opportunities to grow, it’s easy to become dissatisfied and bored. The risk for the most experienced project managers is stagnation.

That’s not good for anyone!

So what can a seasoned Project Manager do to avoid this trap?

Here are a few options:

  • Mentor.
    It’s gratifying to share your skills and help others avoid the mistakes you’ve already overcome. Find a program that allows you to foster the skills inherent in younger PMs. Many large companies have formal mentoring programs, but if yours does not, that doesn’t mean you can’t unofficially mentor someone! And if you belong to PMI, your local Chapter may have a Mentoring Program you could participate in.
  • Speak.
    This isn’t for everyone, but opportunities abound to share your wisdom and knowledge! Your company may have a lunch & learn series, or you could present to a local group (i.e. Chamber of Commerce or other professional organization). You can also participate in panel discussions.
  • Bring your skills to the community.
    At one time I ran the “Between Shows Pizza Dinner” for our town’s band and chorus nights. 200 kids descending upon the cafeteria, fed, watered, and back out the door in 45 minutes. Do you think that doesn’t call from some serious project management skill? Look around and see what opportunities you have to give back.
  • Join a PM group.
    I hope you’re already in one. But this is a great way to not only use your skills but to mentor, to get to know other PMs outside the office, and help grow the profession
  • Get another role.
    Have you ever considered leaving behind the title and moving to, say, VP of Engineering or Finance Director? What about Leadership Training? You can go “back into the business”, and the skills you’ve honed over the years will serve you (and your department) very well. Leadership & communication? Check. Milestones & prioritization? Double Check.

I hope this gives you some ideas to mull over. And perhaps you’re doing a few of them already? The goal is to continue to grow, even when you’re the expert. When you share, we all benefit!

What Sets Your Virtual Meetings Apart?

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My PM mentoring program ran a virtual panel discussion recently. The topic was Lessons Learned…or Retrospectives, if you’re Agile-minded.

9 a.m. on a Saturday morning and 16 people took time out of their short weekend to hop on a call and talk project management!

You’d think the conversation would be, well, sleepy, at least. But it was an amazingly quick hour and we could have easily talked for another.

I was reflecting on what made it such a great meeting.

Yes, the panelists were knowledgeable and gave us practical advice. And yes, there was a feeling of camaraderie amongst the attendees. And, certainly, there was A LOT to talk about!

At the end of the meeting, one of the participants made a special mention of how great our Moderator, Helen, was.

This called to mind a conversation I had a few days ago with my father. He has been on a ton of Zoom calls lately. Like all of us, he’s getting a little “Zoomed out”. 

He told me in many of his meetings it’s hard to follow the flow of conversation or to know when to jump in with a comment or question. It takes extra effort to be focused and active in the discussion.

I asked him why.

He said that when you’re in person, you pick up on cues from other people’s body language. 

If you need to be heard, you can let the manager know with a simple action like raising you hand or catching their eye. And it’s easier for them to control the flow of conversation, too.

But when everyone’s virtual, it’s tougher to pick up on those cues. You need to rely more on the facilitator to guide the discussion. You can’t use eye contact to capture the manager’s attention well. And there’s no guarantee they’ll see a hand being raised on screen.

I get it!

If you don’t have someone skilled leading the meeting, it makes for a long hour.

What set apart the Lessons Learned discussion was the pacing and flow. Helen gave enough time for each panelist to answer a question and then moved people along, noting who hadn’t had a chance to participate and including them in the discussion.

She set the tempo and everyone followed. This allowed our panelists to share their advice and insight – and for all of us to take it in before we moved onto the next topic.

Whether it’s a Lessons Learned, a Team Meeting, Kick-Off Call, or any other interaction, the person in charge needs to, well, take charge. To lead.

The goal of a meeting is to make sure the objectives are met.  (Why else would you be holding the meeting, anyway?) Our role as Project Manager is to help the team achieve them.

At our best, we shift the spotlight away from us and concentrate on the needs of our team. Are they actively involved, focused, and moving together towards the goal?

We moderate. We facilitate.

We work hard to make it look easy.

Why is that important? 

Because we want the team to concentrate on reaching the objective, not worrying about how they’re going to make their point, or trying to follow everyone’s frantic grab for airtime.

The next time you’re a participant in a virtual meeting, observe how it’s facilitated. Is everyone sharing? How is the pacing? Is anyone allowed to drone on? Does it all feel rushed – or slow?

Then, during your own meeting, pay close attention to the cues your team is sending. Make adjustments if you need to. 

Remember that you have a big part in the success of the meeting, just by setting the pace and flow.