Tammy Erickson Associates Building Intelligent Organizations

Q&A: Spending A LOT of Time on Planning

Hi Tammy,

I’m a Gen Y’er who recently started with a large corporataion. I am the youngest one on my team. All others are Traditionalists, Boomers, and X’ers. I feel confident in my work and contributions. Furthermore, I feel I am taken seriously by most of my colleagues.

The issue I’m having is with project planning. My team spends A LOT of time planning. I recently heard you give a presentation and really connected with the idea that Y’s think the other generations spend too much time planning rather than doing. How can I share my ideas about doing things differently without threatening the way they have been doing things for so long?

Thanks,

J.

Hi J—

There are two messages that you need to help your colleagues to hear—

One is the context: why different generations tend to approach workplace tasks in different ways. Once people get past interpreting different approaches as signs that “the other guy” is perhaps not as dedicated, hard-working, or whatever other judgement might be applied, and recognize that our different formative experiences have conditioned us to approach tasks in different ways, I find it becomes easier to listen to new ideas. Could you perhaps give them something to read? Most people enjoy learning more about the generational perspectives—and ones around scheduling are particularly interesting. I write about this in Plugged In, as well as in my blogs.

Second, is experimentation: ask colleagues if they would try a new approach once. Most people are willing to try something, if they don’t feel they’re buying into a long-term commitment to a different way. Select a specific task and ask the group if they’d be up for experimenting with a different approach.

There’s a section in Plugged In that discusses presenting ideas in terms of the Return on Investment that the new approach could provide. That’s also likely to be helpful here. Presenting your proposal as a way to do something faster or at less cost, strengthens the likelihood of acceptance.

Good for you for looking for ways to do things better. I hope you have great success!

Best,

Tammy

Filed under: Workplace Strategies | Published: 05/11/09

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