Up to Your Elbows in Alligators

Photo_031806_001Over the past couple of weeks, we have been discussing change management, some of Project X’s philosophies in Jim and Harvey sayings.

Today on the ski hill they had "Skinnanigans" a very fun day and Thomas, Jen and I got to meet a 3 ft little alligator. 

It got me to thinking about how often we feel overwhelmed in situations and need to find new ways of getting through those tough times.  This is where having a good network of people around you helps you have some external support on top of some definiteness of purpose to help you fight off the alligators.

Funny though, after today and talking to the wildlife guy, alligators are a fairly docile animal as long as you leave them alone when they are hungry.

So the moral of the story, is keep the alligators well fed.

  1. Jim Reply

    The expression I have often used is “when you are up to your knees in aligators, it is hard to remember you are there to drain the swamp.” We must be careful to not to forget what the strategy or goal of the project is when troubles arise. Often some of the players, even ourselves, turn into alligators as we lose our nerve on the using the new system. So as Steve says, keep them well fed. Often their egos need to be fed. Sometimes their boss, the project sponsor, needs to remind them how important the project is to him/her and that their success depends on the projects success. As Jean Luc would say to the crew, “Make it so!”

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