If you’ve read Part 1 of Understanding Projections, then you know projections are one of the most powerful, but least intuitive, constructs in Holacracy practice. Hopefully, that article made them a little easier to understand. The point of this article is to show you how to demonstrate that understanding.
1. Take responsibility for asking, tracking, and following up on the outcomes you care about.
- Request projections as often as you need. HolacracyOne co-founder Brian Robertson says, “Get involved early as a partner, not late as a judge.” Meaning, if you want to make sure something happens, don’t passively sit on the sidelines. Ask for a new projection whenever you need it. You’re not being a pest; you’re being a partner.
- Create reminders for yourself. Get good at tracking the projects you care about. Create calendar reminders like, “Trigger: Ask Haley for an updated projection on the launch of the new design.” Or whatever method will reliably remind you so you don’t have to rely on your memory. Sure, it would be great if I never had to follow up with someone once they gave me a projection. But it’s only great in the same way it would be great if I could eat candy all day and never gain weight. It’s just not a reasonable expectation to have as an adult.
- Be thoughtful in how you ask for a projection. It can be short (e.g. “Can I get your projection on that?”), or if you’re worried that the request will be misunderstood, ask them in a more nuanced way (e.g. “Can I get your rough estimate of when you expect to complete that?”). But it’s especially important you try to avoid questions like, “Can you do that by the end of next week?” because it’s not clear you’re only asking for their projection. If you want to make sure it happens, then use the levers detailed in Section 2 below. Best advice: use the word, “projection” in your request, and wait for their response before you worry about anything else.
- Be willing to change course. Someone else’s projection is just data. You use it to determine what, if anything, you need to do to get your own needs met. If something needs to happen quickly and you can’t change someone’s projection, maybe you just need to go in a different direction. For example, if I ask a role to do something they’re accountable for, but they can’t complete it within a timeframe that meets my needs, I can just do it myself. Or I can hire a contractor. Or I can ask if someone else would be willing to take individual action to do it. Or just find another solution entirely.
- Remember that you’re still free to completely doubt the person. Holacracy doesn’t require people to be trustworthy. If someone has a history of giving you wildly inaccurate projections (e.g. Breanne’s “two weeks” is actually 6 months), then you’ll obviously want to factor that into your interpretation of the data. The rules aren’t intended to magically change how people behave or suddenly make everyone around you more reliable. Instead, they give you ways to navigate whatever reality you’re faced with.
2. You don’t have to accept someone’s projection at face value — have a conversation and see if it changes.
- Ask them for more context. What if you need something done this week, but someone gives a projection of three weeks? Answer: do something! While it’s true that a projection is just data, you don’t have to accept it at face value. Ask them, non-judgmentally, what’s in their way of getting it done sooner (e.g. they’re taking time off, or waiting on funding, etc.). If there’s not an immediately obvious reason why the work couldn’t get done, maybe…
- Ask about their current prioritizations. Projections only tell you about timeframe, so if you want to know how they are evaluating what’s most important, or why they are spending their energy on something else, ask about their current prioritizations. Maybe they’re working on something critical in another circle you didn’t know about. Maybe their Lead Link has explicitly asked them to prioritize another project. Sometimes learning that new information resolves your tension. But if it doesn’t, you can…
- Try to change their prioritization. Sometimes, after you’ve gotten their reasoning, you still won’t agree with their prioritization. Since every role-filler makes their own moment-to-moment prioritizations, you can pitch them on changing their prioritization (and therefore their projection). Or, if they’re following a Lead Link prioritization, talk to the Lead Link who made it and try to get them to change the prioritization. It may take some work, but if you really care about it, it’s worth the effort.
- Offer to help. Everyone is doing the best they can with the resources they have. So if you want it done sooner, try to figure out some sort of exchange. Help them help you. Maybe you can finish their design project, so they’ll be able to focus on completing the website update you need. Or maybe you take the initiative to schedule weekly meetings to provide support and thought-partnership to their role until the project gets done. It all depends on how important their outcome is to you. You’ve only got so much time and energy for following up, and/or getting your own work done, so allocate your own time accordingly.
3. Projections give you transparency into others’ work, but it’s not the only way to get it.
- Request projects that include a baked-in notification. Instead of requesting the project like, “Website updated,” consider requesting, “Website updated and Marketing role notified.” This takes out some of the guesswork on whether or not the project has been completed. If you haven’t heard anything, you can safely assume it’s still in progress. While that still doesn’t give you an estimated completion time, it increases the likelihood you’ll get a notification even though it’s not a formal expectation.
- Use checklists, metrics, or the circle’s project board. Projections are a way to get transparency, but it’s not the only way. The preamble portion of the tactical meeting gives you an opportunity to have a role-filler proactively report on virtually anything you want. You can make a metric like, “% complete on new website design,” and give yourself a chance to identify and potentially intervene on issues even before you knew one existed. With this kind of ongoing transparency, you won’t need projections nearly as much.
- Create automated solutions. Sometimes it makes sense to ask, “Is there a way I could just see where they are with it without having to ask them each time?” You could have a shared Google Doc. Or you could get viewing access to the team’s project management tool. It may not eliminate your need for a projection request, but it will give you some immediate transparency without requiring anything from the other person. Sometimes being able to see real-time progress makes a projection request unnecessary.
4. When asked for a projection, don’t overthink it — just go with what your intuition tells you, even if the date is waaaaay off in the future.
- Ask yourself the right question. Your mind tends to answer any question it’s asked. When you’re asked for a projection, take a moment to inquire. It’s better to ask yourself when you predict or expect to complete something, rather than when you might or could complete it. A projection is never a promise, but why give someone a wildly unconsidered response when you don’t have to? Take a moment and ask yourself, “Considering my current context and priorities, when do I expect this will be completed if everything continues on its current course?” And then…
- Just go with your gut. The constitution’s rule on projections explicitly says your projection needn’t have any detailed analysis or planning, so if someone asks you for a projection, just use your intuition. And if you’re not sure about your current priorities or current applicable strategies, then take a look at them, but determining your projection shouldn’t take more than that. Trust the other person to ask you if they need anything else. For example, if you say, “My projection is 6 months,” and they think that timeframe will create a catastrophic issue for the organization, then…
- Be prepared for a conversation, but stay grounded in your own tensions. The requester may ask about your prioritizations, or for more context, but you should only answer those questions to whatever degree of specificity you think is appropriate. Don’t get unconsciously sucked into their tension. If someone says to you, “A month!? Really? It can’t possibly take that long…” you can respond with a dismissive, “Yep.” Or you can tell them, “I’m happy to answer any clarifying questions about my projection, or listen to your pitch or any relevant information you have to share. Otherwise, I trust you to figure out what you need from here.”
- Try to interpret projection requests as clarifying questions, not as judgments (even when they are). Sometimes, if someone emails you a question like, “When will you update the design?” you’ll feel judgment or a tinge of guilt. Especially if you haven’t been thinking about that project. But it’s very likely that this was purely a clarifying question. Just give the projection without caveats or mitigation. I’ve found that even when someone actually is asking with some judgment, it doesn’t help to take the bait. The definition of a projection protects you from having made any sort of binding commitment or promise, so they can’t have a legitimate reason for trying to make you feel bad. Either way, just interpret their request as a clarifying question, answer it, and move on with your day.
- Ask, “Are you requesting a projection?” People don’t always ask for a projection by literally asking for a projection. Sometimes they ask by saying, “Can you get that report to me by tomorrow?” In those instances it’s helpful to clarify what they’re asking for: e.g., “Are you looking for a projection on that?” If they are, great! Give them one. Of course, it’s not your job to translate what other people want from you — it’s their job to ask. And yet, true self-sufficient Holacracy practice is more achievable when we take responsibility for how we ask and how we respond (for more examples of how to appropriately initiate and respond, check out my communications framework).
- Remember, a projection request is never a prioritization. Prepare yourself for this because the following scenario will happen. At some point, someone in a Lead Link role, a former boss, founder, or manager will ask for a projection (e.g. “What’s your projection on this?”) and you’ll immediately feel stressed. You’ll feel stressed because you’ll unconsciously assume they’re suddenly asking you to do it, and you’ll disappoint them if you don’t. It’s an instinctual response and here is how you keep it in check. Before you stress out or let your mind run wild with judgment (e.g. “Why is she asking for this now? Doesn’t she know how overloaded I am!?”), clarify whether their request is only for a projection, or if they were intending to create a new prioritization. If it is a prioritization, then ask them directly which projects you should de-prioritize, because any official prioritization from a Lead Link (or role that has the prioritization authority) must be a relative prioritization. If they say it was only a projection request, well, now you know. You may still feel stress. And you may choose to consciously re-prioritize yourself, but if you do, base it on your sense of the importance to the organization, not because of how important you think the person is.
5. After giving a projection to someone else, you don’t have to proactively follow up, but here’s when it still makes sense to.
- You’re explicitly accountable for it. The rule on projections states: “…unless Governance says otherwise, you have no duty to track the projection, manage your work to achieve it…” (§Section 4.1.1c). Meaning, the governance takes precedence. Everything I’ve written about projections thus far only applies to the default constitutional standard. If there’s an explicit accountability on your role for “Notifying…” or “Following up…” then it’s a completely different story.
- When your role is impacted. Let’s say you have a role for researching and drafting a report, and another role reviews and publishes it. When your role finishes drafting the report you’ll probably want to let the other role know, even if you don’t have an explicit accountability. The question to ask yourself is, “Do I feel compelled to proactively follow up because my role cares/is impacted, or…am I doing it simply because I told someone I would (i.e. if they didn’t care, I wouldn’t care either)?”
- When you want to. Knowing there is no expectation that you follow up, sometimes you still do it. Maybe you finished, you’re excited to be done, and you’d like someone to share in your accomplishment. Telling someone, “Hey! I finished that thing!” isn’t solving a tension for them, it’s serving a personal need of yours: to get recognized or share in an accomplishment. Nothing wrong with that!
Conclusion
Requesting projections from others is a great way to get data so that you can put yourself in the most informed and adaptable position possible. And, if it’s really important to you that it gets done by a certain time, stay involved as a partner to make sure it happens.
If someone needs a projection from you, try not to take offense, feel stressed out, or overthink it. Respond to it as if it were just a clarifying question. And if you do notice you’re getting stressed, well, that’s just a trigger for you to clarify something. “Are you just asking for my rough estimate?” “Are you pitching me on why I should make this a higher priority?” “Are you intending to make an official prioritization as Lead Link?” Don’t try to solve their tension for them especially when you don’t even know what they’re really asking.
Holacracy Basics: Understanding Deadlines and Projections (Part 1)
Holacracy Basics: Understanding Deadlines and Projections (Part 3)
