Cheetah Project Manager – Bigger Goals Require Smaller Steps
Michelle LaBrosse, PMP, CAC, PMI-ACP, CCPM, RYT
Taking many small steps makes it more possible to achieve really big, lofty goals – especially when the path to get there is not as obvious as these ladders make it appear.
I’m a huge fan of the BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal) as I have always figured shoot for the stars and you may just end up on the moon. HOWEVER, BHAGs come with a demoralizing element, especially when there is no clear path from how to get from here to there.
I was recently bing watching “the Politician” on Netflix. It is a parody comedy featuring high school students acting like many politicians do, but they are doing this while running for the main character’s high school class presidency. He is running for this high school office all in the hopes that this is what he needs to do to “someday” become president of the US. Of course he goes through the demoralizing slump standard with most BHAGs (not going to be the spoiler here).
Is this a more nutso BHAG than anyone else’s nutso BHAGs though? And what to do about that demoralizing slump when you realize you have no idea how the heck you’re ever going to achieve your BHAG – besides of course creating that lovely vision board of you achieving the BHAG and hope through magical thinking that some big “secret” will appear and show you the way?
Achieving any BHAG is like trying to eat an elephant – you must do it in small little bites. What works for me is a backward from perfect approach. I track back the steps that need to happen to achieve the BHAG. I stop when I get to a small step I can take to get results that will put me in position to take the next small step required.
Let me give an example. Since Covid, one of my businesses that relies on cruise ship travel, Alaska Spice Shop, has been on hold. I realized there was likely a very similar market in Maine for our products. So my team and I went to Maine to evaluate the opportunities – which we found. The new BHAG is to grow the Spice Shop business by a factor of five by expanding into Maine. It’s a go big or go home move.
I know what “perfect” looks like in this scenario – having the spice shop serving both markets since we do have customers in Alaska that will come back once the Cruise ship business returns. There are some elements to this BHAG that are huge since we want to set up a business base in Maine. We’ve been taking incremental, small steps to get there – repositioned the product line for the Maine market, set up the MaineSpiceShop.com website, found a town to base out of, then got a parcel of land on contract there to set up operations. We’ve taken each small step in succession to put us in the position to take the next small step required. We are on track to participate in the wholesale gift shop trade show there in the Spring 2022 and to be in stores there for next season.
Being a Cheetah Project Manager has set us up with the skills required to quickly respond to each next step required to achieve this BHAG. Since luck favors the prepared, being a Cheetah Project Manager helps us capitalize on those lucky breaks, also common in the pursuit of the BHAG.
Become luckier in life – become a Cheetah Project Manager!
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