Teach them to yearn for vast and endless seas – Antoine de Saint-Exupery

“If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work and give orders. Instead teach them to yearn for vast and endless seas” is the full quote. It caught my eye because I manage projects and teams from the idea;  “be stubborn about your goals but flexible about your methods”.

Projects improve when the goal is set in clear, short, statements. Statements you can keep repeating and that become almost like a mantra. All involved can keep their eye on this goal and contribute towards it. In a way I learned that this does works best for all involved including the manager of the project (me) during my projects in Ethiopia and Uganda. Countries where life is not as make-able as we have made ourselves to believe it is in Europe. It means you keep working together more fluently than with a very strict project planning that has to be updated on and on. Why feel stressed about what you did not reach if you can feel content about what you did reach. But more important it enables ownership within the whole team leading to more durable results. And you allow your team to learn and grow together!