PIONEERS AND SETTLERS: PART 3

If you missed Part 1 and Part 2, here's a short explanation:

I'm working on a project where the team is comprised of Pioneers and Settlers. The Pioneers want to rush ahead to the big exciting thing that they can see over the horizon while the Settlers are contenting themselves with their surroundings.

Last time I explained the two myths of Pioneers and Settlers: respectively that the good is the enemy of the best and that good is good enough. You can see the tension already.

I was thinking about how either personality type could explode the myth believed by the other, so that Pioneers value the importance of patiently building something without racing off, and Settlers are encouraged to dream about what might be possible.

The next thing to do is to start building some railroads of trust. This is really important because we're about to set the Pioneers off at doing what they do best, and we're about to release the Settlers to start building things behind them. While they're busy, the only thing that will link them is the railroad. And you've got to build it.

Building a Railroad

There are three things you need. You need to:

1. Know where you're going

2. Lay some tracks

3. Keep the train moving

Or alternatively, you need to plan, build and communicate.

Planning is really important, and it's probably the hardest part of managing the tension between Settlers and Pioneers. However, you have got to figure out and agree where you're going. The Pioneers will be natural at the where and the why, the Settlers are awesome at asking how and when. Between you you've got everything you need but you all need to agree it. One thing that helps is asking what success looks like? How will you test it? What's the objective and how do you know you've reached it? If you can figure out what 'done' looks like and you've written it down and agreed it, the Settlers will be empowered to do what they've signed up for and the Pioneers will be ready to head out west. But you've got to know where you're going to lay your tracks.

In some ways, laying the tracks is the easy part. All you have to do is make sure that they're straight and that the train won't topple off them when it steams along. This is all about building good links between where you are and where you're going. How will you communicate? What meetings do you need to happen where and when to make sure you're still heading in the agreed direction? Have things changed since you planned? It's always worth reviewing where you've come from (Settlers excel at this) and reviewing where you're headed (Pioneers, at this).

Once the tracks are laid, all you've got to do is keep the train moving. That's all about good communication. When the infrastructure is there, communication can't be too frequent. It's a whole subject all on its own, that. Communication is a pain point for most of us. However, Settlers need good communication to figure out how to support the Pioneers. Pioneers need good communication to figure out what they can contribute to the building of community.

These three things help you build the railroad of trust between Pioneers and Settlers. Everyone knows the plan, everyone builds the tracks and everyone keeps the train moving between them.

So, all of that was where my lunchtime walk took me the other day. As the sky grew heavy with rain and the summer breeze rustled the full green leaves, I was thinking about how the West was won, how all of us can work together and how we can manage that natural tension between Pioneers and Settlers.

There's no doubt that I'm a Settler. Sometimes though, I wish I were more of a Pioneer, saddling up and getting ready to ride off into the sunset. However, I'm quite confident that even if I did that, I wouldn't want to do it alone.

And really, that's what this kind of teamwork has always been about.