Can organizations have Stuff stuck in Psychic Ram?

[RichardP]

I think they can, and if so, how do we get it out?

Morning, all, I have been a big fan, and am pretty comfortable with the GTD process in its own way for myself, I have shared a few tips with those around me that seemed interested and seems to help. This morning I was taking a moment to read DA's article on finding your inside time, and the idea of psychic ram and organizations struck me as something that the team I work with has an issue with. I feel that we have alot of "STUFF" stuck in there, but may not be clear on what it all is.
Now how would you suggest someone with no power role, or authority go about getting it un-stuck?

If anyone feels that I am leaving out information that might be helpful...just ask.

Thank you

 

[kewms]

I
Now how would you suggest someone with no power role, or authority go about getting it un-stuck?

Well, how do you get un-stuck at a personal level? You brainstorm, you write down everything that you can think of regarding the issue, you make a mindmap, you look at your 20,000 ft. level.

At an organizational level, that might involve putting together a task force to really hash out the size and scope of the problem, then parceling out the pieces as appropriate. Which you can't do by fiat, since you aren't in a management position.

But you can get together and chat with others on your team who also feel things are stuck, you can network across the organization, you can approach your manager with a plan for tackling the problem.

Perhaps the first thing to do would be to get personally unstuck, which would include deciding whether the issue is important enough to you personally to invest psychic RAM and your capital within the organization.

Katherine

 

[Brent]

While managers can manage by role power, they are much more effective when they manage by influence. And all of us can influence. (You have been working on your relationships, right?)

As Katherine so rightly pointed out, the brain dump is the answer. And a multi-person brain dump doesn't require complexity.

The question is: Do others agree with you that dumping the organization's psychic RAM is worth doing? Find out. Once they do, grab a conference room and start brain dumping.

 

[dschaffner]

... the idea of psychic ram and organizations struck me as something that the team I work with has an issue with. I feel that we have alot of "STUFF" stuck in there, but may not be clear on what it all is.
Now how would you suggest someone with no power role, or authority go about getting it un-stuck?

Sometimes just pointing out an issue to the group is the first step to getting it resolved.

The next time you are working on "x" and it becomes clear that "y" is stuck in psychic RAM and blocking the group, you might say "gee, it seems like we can't resolve X until we talk about Y...

You may need to repeat this process over and over

- Don

 

[Roger]

Now how would you suggest someone with no power role, or authority go about getting it un-stuck?

I'm going to suggest something that I don't think has come up yet.

If it can be changed, there's some action that will change it. If it can't, it must be considered part of the landscape to be incorporated in strategy and tactics.​

I suggest that you consider it part of the landscape. If you don't have the authority to do anything about it, just don't do anything about it.

I've found this approach to be very liberating.

Cheers,
Roger

 

[Brent]

To play Devil's Advocate for a moment, I've found that authority is often overrated. Those without authority can still change things.

Tom Peters took a simple "survey our users" project at work, and turned it into a program for thinking about excellence and the book In Search of Excellence. He didn't technically have the authority to do so; he did it anyway.

Now, of course, one can definitely take on too much, and it's not wise to buck the system in everything. But the system's made up of people, after all, so it's not exactly a static thing.