PM and the Narrative

One of the key skills in politics is the ability to control the narrative. In other words how to control the story that is being told and understood about a particular issue. Whether it be Immigration, Syria, Financial reform, Climate change, politicians and other players in these issues are always striving to frame the issue in a way that is favorable to their agenda.

A classic example is the narrative told about the defeat of the German Army in WW1. According to the Nazi's the army was never defeated. Yet the true story was that at the end of 1918 they had been handed a series of defeats by the British, French, and American armies. They were in full retreat and their leaders were asking for an armistice. But that narrative was rarely heard in Germany. It was one of the enabling myths that led to the rise of Hitler and WW2.

The same skill is essential for project managers when it comes to how their project will be viewed within the company. For if you don't portray the correct story about your project others, your opponents will describe it in their terms. They will seize on any slippage in schedule or increase in budget to portray your project, and by association you, as a failure. Office gossip can tarnish your project. Remember that in the political sphere perception is everything. Recovering the situation once the narrative turns negative is very difficult.

The only way to avoid an erroneous opinion of your project is to make sure that you are constantly out there preaching the value of your project and the success it has achieved so far. In addition make sure that your team is also sending out the same message. Loose lips sink projects, to paraphrase a famous WW2 slogan. There is always someone on every project who loves recounting the latest setback in catastrophic terms. They use adjectives with careless abandon and paint everything in lurid tones. Find these people and sit in them. Start every team meeting with a brief recital of the benefits of the project and how much progress has been achieved. It is easy to get tied up in the toils of daily problems and forget the primary purpose of the project. It our job to make sure that doesn't happen.

Every situation has a narrative. You can rest assured that if you don't write it then someone else will, to your detriment.