Ian M Rountree

Project Manager, Copywriter, Digital Marketer

CAUTION – Crisis Management Specialist

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Be aware:

Any tasks given that are past their due dates will be returned inordinately quickly, at a higher than expected quality.

Be warned:

Any tasks given without a sense of urgency, threat, or liability will be forgotten and summarily dismissed until their due date is perilously close.

Do you know anyone like this? I’m sure you do. We all do. Some of us are Crisis Specialists – it’s a really bad habit to have. Being constantly inn the grip of reaction is a poor way to get things done – for most of us.

Most people think of “proactivity” the way they do other personality traits, as a quality. You have it or you don’t. I (and most emotional intelligence tools) disagree with that kind of formulaic typing. I see proactivity as a sliding scale, with four points on it something like this:

  • Strategic
  • Proactive
  • Reactive
  • Reflexive

A few people are consistently strategic – they have a plan, they always have a plan, and if something doesn’t fit into it – well, there’s a new plan just waiting in the back of their minds. These are the Leaders of the world.

Some people are blessed with a sense of permanent proactivity – they like to get things done, and they like them done as soon as possible, so they can move on to more fun things. I call these the Smart Slackers.

Other people, however, are stuck being reactive rather than proactive. They phone it in until they can’t avoid the work any more, and mostly end up failing because of [enter your own reason here]. Them? They’re the Real Slackers.

Everyone else – that dread one percent – they’re Crisis Management Specialists. There’s nothing inherently wrong with being a Crisis Management Specialist, you see them get work done all the time. Firefighters, Police – we assume these jobs are in the CMS category, and sometimes they are. In their case, it’s not a bad thing.

But in your business, it probably is. Marketers, SEO, bloggers – being purely reactive, living without a plan, waiting for the next opportunity to play hero by demonstrating extraordinary timeliness… these are not Superhero traits for these jobs.

It’s better if you realize that falling behind is nothing more than falling behind, and find a way to get ahead instead. Otherwise, you’ll always be managing crises, and are far less likely to manage success.

On Realizing Too Late

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I’ve often been accused of having a carriage wit.

The first time I was told this, it took me a while to get it – which is the very soul of irony – but it’s correct. Carriage wit is the kind of humour that occurs to you “on the carriage ride home,” rather than in the moment. As I very rarely manage to come up with sharp retorts to jokes, especially when I’m trying, I’ve learned to compensate by way of attitude.

A lack of response – whether actual or perceived – is one of the few surefire ways to destroy a conversation. Any response, even a bad one, is often better than dead air. We all experience the dead air problem sometimes, some of us more than others. One of the first steps to avoiding them is recognising first how they arise.

You can bet you’re headed to an opportunity for dead space if you…

… Notice that you’re focusing on an outcome without knowing the mechanics needed to get there. Outcomes are great – but if the outcome is “crossing the ocean” and you haven’t decided you need a boat, there’s a problem.

… Find out that your audience has a deeper expertise than you do. This happens all the time; we make declarations and get shot down.

… Continually change focus to the new hotness, instead of sticking with what’s known to work. Adding new tools to your shed doesn’t have to mean kicking the old ones out.

… Think the highway to success is the destination itself. Because that’s just silly.

… Mistake the wall you’re closing in on for your original goal. Few things are quite so disastrous as failing to change course when obstacles loom.

So how can we avoid these pitfalls? Well, I’m sure there are those of you with deeper experience on this, as well as those with a history of course correction. I’ll gladly invite your input, as we can all learn from each other.

However, I’ve found that…

… Learning to operate with the assumption that you’re missing information can be beneficial. Just don’t let it become a function of lower confidence.

… Learning to ask questions – even the ones we think are silly – is essential.

… And, following up any perceived loose ends is a surefire way to keep them from unravelling.

So many problems are better dealt with up front. By the time something’s become an obvious issue, the effort needed to recover from it is so much larger – and the stakes so much higher – than they ever could be as an awkward request for confirmation.

Image by Don O’Brien.

The Things to Come

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I’ve been on blogging vacation since early December – I needed to be. 2010 was a massively different year than I expected it to be. Very little of it went to plan – and I’ve come to realize that’s partly because there was very little planning over the course of the year. That goes for work, my home life – and even for this blog.

In the last year, I’ve recognised a tendency towards reactivity, rather than pro-activity in the way I do things – and I’m not convinced that’s a good thing.

Much of 2011 will be written in advance, and to a plan. I spent the last week of December, in the quiet after the rush of the holidays, planning out a number of things I wanted to discuss on this blog, and setting a number of benchmarks for some of the projects I’m working on. So, in the spirit of disclosure and specificity, here’s what to expect during the coming year:

  • I’ve got a list of 12 themes – one per month – exploring both challenges and opportunities I’ve run up against over the past two years.
  • I’ll be making at least 3 posts per week, for the entire year, Video Saturdays and non-scheduled posts not counted.
  • I’ll be contributing no less than 1 guest post per month to projects not my own – it may be more, depending on how the year goes. I’d like it to be more.

There are more, of course – plans lacking detail are never a good idea. However, I don’t want to bore you with the details, and it’d spoil some of the fun.

So – the annual question becomes – while I’ve got some plans… What do you want to see here? How can I help you do better work in 2011?

Image by Gabriel S. Delgado C.

My Three Words for 2011

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While my exposure to this idea begins with Chris Brogan, a number of people I respect have been marking the new year with three words – succinctly expressing the core themes that they intend to use to drive the coming twelve months.

Last year, I didn’t plan at all. I drove through everything I encountered, trying to do the best work I could – well, guess what; I missed opportunities, failed a number of times to do things that mattered to me, and overall had a “not to plan” year.

I intend 2011 to be very different. In the past few days, I’ve been planning what’s going to happen in my world over the next year. I have a number of things on the go, and a few milestones to hit – I’ll be talking about them throughout the year.

I’ve been struggling, however, with how to express these plans in a succinct manner – so, here are my three words for 2011.

Themes, Platforms and Seekers

Themes – Much of the non-reflexive writing I’ll be doing in 2011 revolved around a set of themes I’ve already decided on. Everything from posts here, to planned guest posts elsewhere, and other projects. I plan to tie everything together, use every venue and opportunity I have to tell a story based on the plan I’ve outlined. I’ve already been asked if this will make my writing rigid – and I don’t think it will. I think it will prevent me from being reflexive (which is even further down the scale from ‘proactive’ than ‘reactive’ is).

Platforms – Part of my work this year is examining how to build platforms – for personal work, and in other circumstances. The difference between a home base (such as a blog), and a platform is vast, and complicated. Part of this year will look at the work of building platforms online.

Seekers – We’re all looking for something. Some of us find what we’re seeking by building it  – some of us join in the work of others and derive value as we deliver value to them. All communities work with common destinations in mind, but how do we discover that our destinations are common after all? I’ll be looking at Seekers for a long portion of this year – covering almost half of the themes I’ve decided on.

There you have it. You may have made some resolutions, or made a plan. But have you chosen how to express that plan yet?

What are your three words for 2011?