Facilitation is not always cooperation

Sometimes I do things because I want to help other people by giving them access to resources that I have searched out on my own. There are lots of people like me. Lots of them blog about struggles so that others don’t have to.

I am not saying that I want to partner with everyone that has similar goals. I am not saying I want to ’share’ resources. I’m giving you information but I am not going to do the actual work with you or for you. Maybe I will; but facilitation isn’t always cooperation. If I have resources you need, and you have some I need, we might find a way to work together but I have my own needs right now.

Someday, I hope to be able to be more benevolent. I would love to be in a position to open my doors to other small businesses and freelancers so that they can have workspace; but I don’t have doors to open right now.

I was chided by a friend recently because I was looking out for my organization’s immediate interests and not waiting for the ability to make our larger goals happen. I told him that I had found my project some affordable rental space that was smaller than what I wanted but would serve to give us a good starting point; and that in this search for space I found a lot of interesting options where building owners were offering inexpensive leases to creatives willing to work in smaller communal spaces. I wanted to find a way to circumvent the endless Realtor searches by gathering the owners and potential tenants together to figure out the best options for everyone.

He stated that I was “just like everyone else who thinks the answer is in co-ops” and that I was “incapable of organizing” such a solution. He wasn’t listening. I said I was wanting to pair building owners looking for tenants with creative people looking for cheap rental space. Where is the coop in that? Individual leases for individual spaces in a large building. These aren’t subleasing arrangements; so they are not dependent on all of the renters chipping in together (which could lead to myriad problems). The owners are looking for tenants not buyers.

Either way, how is my desire to facilitate contrary to reason?

I don’t have the financial ability to be a building owner right now or even a large magnanimous renter who allows squatting business to office out of my space for free. What I do have is a list of owners that I have compiled and a long list of friends looking for small rental space in a bad economy.

So, even though I still like my friend and all, he can stuff it.

Finding the dream one step at a time

A friend of mine tweeted something this week that grabbed my attention:

“What could we do without the burden of money?”

What could I do? The same things I am doing now, but a hell of a lot quicker.

See, my goals are my goals no matter how close I am to reaching them and you will not convince me that I can’t do them just because I am short on funds. This is gonna happen. I am willing to start with the smallest thing and make it grow.

I know who to ask for assistance; but more importantly, I know when to ask for assistance so as to use it to it’s greatest effect. Asking for $25,000 to get off the ground would be ridiculous at this point. I would not make prudent use of the funds and I would get the things that were available within that price range; instead of getting the things I really wanted and needed. Why get things simply to have to upgrade them later?

Additionally, I am not ready to manage the full scope of my dream scenario. Don’t give it to me yet.

I know that people will say that I am perhaps too far-sighted in this thinking or that I am making this comment based on personal failings, not smart business. Maybe I am. But here is the thing: I am not alone.

And it is in not standing alone that my strength comes. I have people in my networks that can help with little things so that A) they cost less and B) they are done right. I use the resources I have available at hand more often than those I have to seek out. Why pass up the $5 donation to chase the $5000 one that might take a lot of time, or never, come.

Someday, I hope to be able to help lots of young adults and friends to follow their dreams. This is my dream and my chance to set an example that smart work is better than easy work.

Bully

Facilitate greatness and you achieve it yourself

I do nothing. I have said it before. I will say it again. I do nothing.

It makes it very hard to value your contributions when you are a project or resource manager. You can say that you are responsible for every outcome or you can say you are responsible for none. The best way to  look at it, in my opinion, is that any result could have been achieved without you; but all results are better with you.

By that measure, we project/resource managers are “better makers.”

What I want to see whenever I start something is that it gets done and that people feel good about the work as they do it. Now I don’t mean work is easy; because some things are very difficult no matter how you slice it. What I do mean is that, as you are doing the task, you know why you are doing it and how it contributes to the final goal. That is satisfaction in my book.

Things like work breakdown schedules are useful for illustrating value to a team. But what do you show someone when you aren’t working on a specific project or when the work is an individual effort? This differs from goal setting and is more similar to motivational visioning.

Sometimes you will be a living pyramid scheme of pay-it-forward. Someone may have an idea that is long term or geared toward assisting others; so it won’t have a visible end or outcome. That kind of thing is hard to quantify so just qualify it. Helping someone recognize when they have succeeded is almost as good as helping someone succeed.

Putting in the work up front to set an example of how something can be achieved, can also drop a barrier for others to want to get off their ass and jump in the game. You are showing them that your efforts have resulted in something positive. Go ahead and find something you want to see done and find a way to make it happen; or listen to someone who is dreaming out loud and decide to say “let’s just do that.”  

So literally open the door. Say to your immediate world that there are ways to get things done and you will provide the space, the knowledge, the guidance, or the funds to assist. Hopefully, they will trust you based on the previous example of your success.

As you facilitate other people’s progress, you will find that you “do” less and less and feel more and more satisfaction of having been a part of many good things done better.

Bully