As humans, we don’t always know what we’re doing.
Have you ever encountered a Bouncing Betty or Bouncing Bob on a project?
You know the type.
They jump from one thing to the other.
Which leads them to become easily distracted, shifting to another thing without knowing what to do with those tasks either. This is how projects get messy.
Slow Down to Figure Out Why
I can easily recognize a bouncer. They appear frustrated and tell me they are juggling too many tasks. And their written communications, such as emails or messaging, are all over the board.
Sometimes this happens when there are too many projects on the go, or when you don’t have the right people in the right seats.
I see this a lot when managers get assigned projects, but may not have the project management skills to push through, or to get things done properly.
I immediately work with them to slow down and figure out what they started doing and why they’re doing it.
When we lead projects where we’re constantly jumping to the next ‘something’, they won’t be successful. If I led projects this way, I wouldn’t have become a skilled project manager.
I instead would have become known as someone who is all over the place, aka Bouncing Barb, and no one would have confidence that I could lead their project to the finish line because I couldn’t figure out where that finish line was.
Sort Through the ‘Somethings’
Being an exceptional project manager means sorting through a lot of ‘somethings’. And these are frequently messy and unclear, and need some dedicated brain cells to figure it out.
Failing to address the ‘somethings’ early on can lead to firefighting, which I’ve discussed in my previous Project on Fire article.
And once the first big ‘something’ has been sorted, the next ones have a tendency to be sorted out much easier.
Bouncing Root Cause
I’m all about figuring out the root cause of a problem. Many times we bounce because we have too much on our plates and can’t focus, or there are unclear expectations. Or we may just be a serial bouncer, constantly being indecisive in both our work and personal lives.
Do you think you have a Bouncing Betty or Bob on your team?
If so, please reach out. We can help.
With 20+ years project management experience, Barbara Kephart has led projects across industries like medical software, clinical trials, and cybersecurity. With experience teaching technical project management and stakeholder engagement, Barbara is dedicated to helping companies pivot, prioritize, and complete projects with Chief Project Officer-level expertise, project professionals, practical training, and hands-on management—without the executive-level price tag.