The "Kobayashi Maru" at Work

Organizational Freelancer Blog #3 

July 21, 2013 

Sometimes a freelance work assignment will lead to new learning opportunities or propel your career to higher levels. Then there are some assignments that seem like the unbeatable test similar to a "Kabayshi Maru" type of moment. Sure these assignments will test you, motivate and even bring you to tears or exhaustion. These are the projects, people and environments that test your professionalism to its very core.

Some days you will walk into to work on the assignment and realize that no matter your level of expertise, you are being tested to ensure the task will not fail. A variety of issues may occur. For example, staff may not show up, stakeholders may not participate in events, software may not work or it is the wrong version or simply a general lack of support from all employee and leadership levels. These limitations will hit you at your very core and question your sanity as you continue to move a project forward. Was the issue identified as a potential risk? Or did it crop up last minute?

What do you do when you find that every tactic you take to move a project forward and troubleshoot, you are blocked from achieving success? There are the usual short-term solutions to tackle problematic tasks:

• Whine
• Stop by the bar after work and take a cab home later
• Complain to others about your plight (they will not be sympathetic because it was your idea to freelance to other departments in the first place)
• Walk away from the project and let it organically unfold to its next step. 
• Tempt fate and stick with it

While most of the suggestions above sound like a great escape route, they may not curb your focus to support a variety of freelance work projects. So what do you do? 

Try a creative approach and consider the last time you had to work on something that was hard to complete because of the number of constraints. Then do the opposite and try harder. There will always be staffing issues, problematic software and strained resources in both good and economic times. However, as an organizational freelancer your role is to look beyond the limitations and find a middle ground to success. 

Trust me; it will be challenging to stay motivated. I once had this situation and took my lunch break to walk around a local museum to brainstorm about the troubles this one public relations project was giving me. The a lack of staff support impacted project deadlines and I ended up doing everything to move the project forward for the entire team. After circling one art exhibit after another I realized something. I need to hang around and ensure the project moves forward no matter how much extra effort I had to tie into it along with my regular responsibilities. Basically, I needed to hang around and hang in there.

After all, an unbeatable test only exists to stop you in your tracks if you let it. Bottom line; leverage your creativity to propel your freelance assignment to its predetermined successful state. 

*The reference to the "Kobayashi Maru is simply a metaphor.* 

*All works are copyright protected, June 7, 2013.