"Purple is Good" - revisited and repurposed

I would like to provide a fresh perspective on one of my past posts, Purple is Good.

As a recap, an executive presented at an all-hands employee meeting. His PowerPoint presentation showed a dashboard of KPIs (Key Performance Indicators). It was a grid of colored squares with the obvious green for "good", yellow for "needs help" and red for "in trouble". There were also some purple squares. The employees looked confused since they weren't familiar with what this chart meant. Thinking he would help with their confusion, he said:

"Purple is good!"

I think of this and laugh anytime I hear someone trying to influence others with a point that the intended audience doesn't understand.

A Fresh Perspective

I consider myself more of a bottom feeder in my organization, so from this perspective, I intend this to be helpful and constructive.

A Thought Experiment

You are given the opportunity to present your ideas or solutions to someone you consider powerful. An executive, the mayor, governor, president. You have two weeks to prepare. How much of your time and energy will be used to prepare? How much of your free time will you think about this? The day of the presentation comes and you walk in. How much will this problem be of concern to the person in charge?

Anecdotal Evidence

My friend was in a meeting with an executive who said the following:

"For you, this is the most important topic. After this meeting, I have another meeting with the most important topic. And I have fifty meetings a week like this."

My Thoughts on Presenting to Executives

Many times your problem needs a solution that is more than just a phone call or an email. Your problem needs a carefully thought out and crafted strategy.  Your problem needs a champion, someone who is not being pulled in many directions, constantly distracted by other problems. That champion is you.

My Recent Experience

I'm responsible for a small project that has proven to be worthwhile to the company. We've had funding challenges, so I arranged meetings with executives, thinking that was the solution. I was received well, but left empty-handed. The response was that projects like this are hard to fund, even if they provide a lot of internal value.

Last month, our funding was cut to basically zero. I scrambled to find other work for my small team. I felt compelled to take full responsibility for funding my project. I already had a "Stakeholder" map (I use the FreeMind mind-mapping software). It was a map of the organization down to the users of our product. I called one person that seemed to have purse strings. My lead-in line: "I'm trying to develop a stable funding strategy for my project. Can you help educate me?" I started identifying people to talk to, contacting them, taking notes.

This was a completely new role for me as a bottom feeder. I had to adopt a new mindset. I had to abandon ego. I had to accept indifference, neglect, and rejection. I was encouraged by finding supporters and new opportunities.

On my map was a friend who rose through the ranks. His comment I found frank and helpful.

"You'll have more luck working bottom-up than top-down."

I never had someone say that to me before, but it agreed with what I was finding. The people closer to the bottom understood the value of my product and were bidding on new opportunities. Line items were added to larger proposals.

Conclusion 

I've heard the phrase "Sounds like a problem with management" in a lot of contexts recently. If there is a problem with management, then maybe we can be the solution. Executives don't need help with the purple squares. They need help with the red and yellow squares. I had the unique opportunity to interview with an executive years ago. I asked him: "What keeps you up at night?" I still remember his three answers. My project is a reaction to one of his issues. I don't think he even remembers the conversation. Still, it's one of the reasons I feel passionate about my project. 

Maybe you don't work in a large organization. Still, there's plenty of opportunity for each of us to make a difference.