Had an interesting meeting with an accountant type yesterday who wanted to see my comms plans. "Is it in excel or MS Project?"* She innocently enquired.
"Well..." says I rapidly trying to back myself out of an Alice in Wonderland type rabbit hole. "It’s not quite that sort of plan." You see us right-brain thinkers tend to be more fly by the seat of our pants, scribble something on a napkin and a post-it note sort of gals. We like mind mapping and sticky-backed plastic. We don’t like to be constrained by neatly engineered and documented organisation that tells us exactly when to think and what to think and how to think.
While I do have a plan (or else, my employers might wonder what on earth they are paying me for); it’s much more fluid and is full of words, emotions, thoughts and ideas rather than hard data bound in chains to milestones. I like to be able to adapt at a moment’s notice, go with the flow… I’m a believer that there is no right or wrong way to make a communications plan as long as you deliver the end results – meeting and preferably exceeding expectations. I was very fortunate that my last boss was very much the same as me. He knew that while there was no gant chart or visio diagram indicating all probable lines of enquiry and procedure there would certainly be a flow of creativity and that projects would be unique and delivered on time. Now, I just have to explain this to that accountant…
* I once went on a course to learn MS Project - fortunately with a like-minded colleague. We left the training session shuddering and muttering the word Why? over and over again...
"Well..." says I rapidly trying to back myself out of an Alice in Wonderland type rabbit hole. "It’s not quite that sort of plan." You see us right-brain thinkers tend to be more fly by the seat of our pants, scribble something on a napkin and a post-it note sort of gals. We like mind mapping and sticky-backed plastic. We don’t like to be constrained by neatly engineered and documented organisation that tells us exactly when to think and what to think and how to think.
While I do have a plan (or else, my employers might wonder what on earth they are paying me for); it’s much more fluid and is full of words, emotions, thoughts and ideas rather than hard data bound in chains to milestones. I like to be able to adapt at a moment’s notice, go with the flow… I’m a believer that there is no right or wrong way to make a communications plan as long as you deliver the end results – meeting and preferably exceeding expectations. I was very fortunate that my last boss was very much the same as me. He knew that while there was no gant chart or visio diagram indicating all probable lines of enquiry and procedure there would certainly be a flow of creativity and that projects would be unique and delivered on time. Now, I just have to explain this to that accountant…
* I once went on a course to learn MS Project - fortunately with a like-minded colleague. We left the training session shuddering and muttering the word Why? over and over again...
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just cracked me up"Here book, come on book!"
ReplyDeleteI was VERY entertained..i
m including you in my fav blog list
I sure understand where you come from, but interestingly, I'm a pretty good "left brainer" at my part time job but definitely a "right brainer" when working on my writing. Have said that I sometime wonder if I have split personality after all, hahaha! :)
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