transportation after our weekend fishing trips with my friend Alistair were affected by lack of commitments and transport.
I also talked about how Alistair introduced me to another person (Never) who seemed keen on fishing.
However, after two outings my new acquintant advised me that he and his wife had mutually agreed to make Saturday a family day therefore he was dropping the whole game of fishing.
I subsequently stopped going fishing and developed a mind block as a result, which was only lifted after a colleague pointed out to me that the absence of a car should not limit me from my game.
He made me realise that I had other options to get to my fishing place, as is the case with fishermen elsewhere around the world.
Allow me to talk a little bit more about Never. Despite his initial keenness on fishing, Never had very little appetite for catching bass.
So when his wife persuaded him to stop, he gladly obliged. His wife helped to free him from the “boring game”.
In most cases human beings look for an excuse for not doing something. Once a small obstacle is magnified, you latch onto it because you really have no drive to do it.
The last time I bumped into him in town, he told me that he could not afford to start a quarrel with his wife for the sake of fishing.
I actually felt guilty when he asked me whether I would look after his children if his wife divorced him.
With all due respect family comes first but one can always find ways to satisfy his needs for work/play. Indeed, obstacles took Never away from his hobby.
The following situations highlight that workmates can also create obstacles if management does not take corrective measures.
My mentor Sekuru Mhukahuru runs a project management firm. He told me about the behaviour of one of his employees, John.
Every time they go to a new site and before they design a network project he always comes up with plausible reasons why a project cannot succeed.
His eye quickly picks up impediments to a project without offering any possible strategies to overcome the identified challenges.
One famous CEO of a listed company once expressed to me his frustration atworking with his finance director.
Every time they embarked on a new project the FD would always justify that it is impossible to implement the project.
He told me that every time he would bulldoze his way and override his FD and it would turn out that it was, in fact, possible to implement the project.
“So what do you think about your FD?” I asked. “I have just decided to treat him like a clerk,” he replied.
Any organisation requires consensus and convergence of minds. However, the eternal pessimist is also necessary to keep everyone in check.
A leader therefore has to balance those views to have a successful project. They prepare answers from most hostile stakeholders beforehand because they themselves are always critical if you don’t have the answers you will have to do your homework. You get convergence of ideas.
Overcoming obstacles
Every company, whether small or big (capitalised or undercapitalised) face some obstacles.
Most obstacles are real but are not threatening to the overall project. Newton’s third law sums it when he said that for every force there is an equal and opposite reaction.
This law is sometimes referred to as the action-reaction law. For every new venture a company wants to go into there are obstacles which can either hinder or slow progress.
This compels the company to do strategic planning. Strategic planning is an attempt to implement projects in an uncontrolled environment.
One of the most important components of strategic sessions is the generation of assumptions.
Assumptions enable companies to create their controlled environment, which makes their project successful.
If their assumptions are wrong then the obstacles became huge and the chances of success are equally doomed.
Therefore, generation of key assumptions must be based on scientific studies and empirical data, which decreases the likelihood of coming up with wrong assumptions.
Using proper planning techniques reduces the impact of obstacles. The 80/20 percent rule stipulates that only 20 percent of most of identified obstacles threaten company’s survival and 80 percent of the obstacles do not have serious repercussions on the companies’ survival.
Most of the challenges we encounter are not, in fact, serious challenges.
However, most obstacles which are in the 80 percent quadrant are amplified by fear and in most cases these derail good initiatives.
This is further compounded by lack of management’s capacity to deal with their staff members’ mind block.
One method of dealing with obstacles is just clear articulation of the problem identified, which is sadly lacking in most mortal human beings.
Benefits derived from obstacles
Any achievement that is worth talking about is arrived at after overcoming obstacles.
Overcoming obstacles enables people to enjoy life. I still have to see an athlete who enjoys winning a 100-metre race if he or she is running alone.
Obstacles enable us to learn.
Indians rank among some of the most successful entrepreneurs (especially in retail and trade) in the world because of poverty-induced obstacles their ancestors encountered.
Indians came to Europe, America and Africa as manual labourers in farms, mines and railway construction.
They were willing to subject themselves to harsh conditions for as long as they could learn something from these activities.
Obstacles became part of their character building process.
The founder of the most successful fantasyland had this to say: “All the adversity I’ve had in my life, all my troubles and obstacles, have strengthened me . . .
“You may not realise it when it happens, but a kick in the teeth may be the best thing in the world for you,” by Walt Disney.
Allow me to conclude by quoting Leonard Zhakata’s lyrics: “. . . Hapana nzira isina gata, tura mafemo wakananga mberi . . . (There is no path without obstacles, you just have to focus and continue with your goal.”)
Don Williams once said: “Pressure makes diamond harder than stone.”
l The writer is a managing consultant at CLC Training International. E-mail [email protected].

You Might Also Like

Comments