The People, Process, & Progress Podcast - There Is No Box | FF49

Episode Date: February 4, 2022

Sharing a great statement by Rear Admiral Thomas Richards, USN (Ret.) from Jocko Podcast 319 and my $.02 on how Project Managers, Incident Management Team members and First Responders can remember this when working solutions with their teams.

People like to use the term out-of-the-box thinking. If you think there is a box, you're already constrained. This is from Rear Admiral Thomas Richards, retired Navy SEAL and commander of all Naval Special Warfare Forces at one point in his career and guest on the Jocko podcast episode 319. I know I've talked about Jocko podcasts a lot. Check that episode out. But this statement in particular as a project manager and as a responder or incident management team member really stuck out to me. We understand as project managers, maybe even as public safety folks working in an office, we have constraints, kind of how much money we can spend, how much time we have for something, maybe what the scope is, but

how we use that money, how we work within the scope or lead up and say, you know what, we need to change the scope or consider, you know what, maybe it's not a good time for our people right now. Maybe we need to change this schedule. If we let the box control us, then we are constrained. And some companies are more rigid. Some methodologies are more rigid. And I think that's why I really believe in and was fortunate to get the big three from my incident management trainers of objectives, organization, and resources. And then added to those, some of my other experiences, the leader's intent and the communications piece, were these foundational five. if you can understand the leader's intent, if you can make those objectives, if you can put an org chart together that works, makes sense, if you can get the resources to fill the chart, and then you're communicating well, and it doesn't matter as much what methodology you're using, you have key components of those foundational five, or whatever you want to call it, and whatever you're going to use, I believe in those foundational five or whatever you want to call it and whatever you're

going to use. I believe in this foundational five, but the point being don't let a methodology or what's on a document that someone else made previously control how you think to get things done, how the team innovates to get things done, because as Admiral Richard says, then you're already constrained. If you already think, well, we can only do it this way, we only have this much time, think about the best possible outcome of that project, of that initiative, of that response, of that mobilization, whatever it is you're working on, and then work towards that. What's the best possible outcome for the staff that are going to use this, that are then going to take care of patients, or for the people in that town that just

got hit by a tornado that we're responding to, or for this big industrial fire that we're going to, right? The end users in mind, whether it's a public safety response, an incident management team response, a project management team response, or something you're doing with your family. But remember the words of Admiral Richards, if you think there's a box, you're already constrained. Thank you so much for listening to this Foundations Friday episode 49, for listening to the People Process Progress podcast, and reading the blog at peopleprocessprogress.com. Follow on Instagram at Hokiesquid. I hope y'all are doing well, staying active, getting up, getting after it. I had kind of a rest rehab week this week. Stay safe out there, everyone. Please wash those hands, and I wish you Godspeed.