Leadership and Project Management learnings from my visit to North American National Parks (2nd of a series).

I had the amazing opportunity to travel to North America for a holiday with my wife. The experience in Yosemite National Park in California and in Banff National Park and Jasper National Park in Alberta, Canada was so captivating that I started taking notes on my phone during the trip.

In my previous post I talked about Leadership and Project Management insights from visiting two World Heritage sites in Australia and here I talk about newer learnings from my recent experience.

1)       Practice Makes Perfect – I used my trips to Kings Park and Botanic Gardens and Rottnest Island, WA as a dry run for the North American trip. The trip allowed me to figure out and refine the gear I needed for the long travel - from phone attachments, to 360 degree camera settings, backpack, shoes, correct chargers, extreme weather clothing and gear attachments. I was very glad that we had everything we needed during the trip. The trip wouldn’t have been as smooth sailing and convenient if I hadn’t had the dry run from the previous trips and my wife wouldn’t have said “I’m glad you thought of everything for the trip”.

In the same way, project delivery won’t be as smooth as we planned them to be if we haven’t had the chance to test our design. There will always be something needed to be tweaked or even redesigned because site conditions did not match our assumptions.

2)       Properly Equipped - I have a bad habit of bringing stuff along, in case, I will need them. Except for very short trips to the supermarket, I always bring my emergency pouch with me which contains various stuff from emergency meds to spare contact lenses, forensic ruler, colour card, measuring tape, magnifying lens, disinfectant, compact shopping bag, motion sickness band, etc. I don’t have my Swiss Army Knife in the pouch anymore so I don’t have to worry if I forget to remove and have it with me on a flight. I also bring with me a handkerchief for when my wife needs it. Maybe it’s in my nature of always being ready in case something happens which was enhanced by a tragic event – where I brought heavy duty shoelaces and camping ground sheet even though I knew we wouldn’t need it on a short day hike. I didn’t know my “spare” shoelaces and groundsheet will become makeshift stretchers to carry down victims from a waterfall accident that day tragic day.

I was taking closeup shots of Seals at La Jolla Cove in California and I didn’t have to worry about the tide coming in because I had waterproof shoes. I didn’t even notice that I was already standing on water because I was so engrossed with filming the seal pups. The same thing happened when I did the tour of the Athabasca Glacier when I stepped on the melting ice, some people were screaming because they could feel the icy water seeping through their shoes, but my feet were dry the whole time.

In the same way, we need to be properly equipped when we deliver our projects. Aside from the minimum PPE requirements, having the correct gear in the field makes a big difference. They not only make the work easier for you they also allow you to collect the correct data in the field.

3)       Flexibility and Adaptability – the holiday worked for us because we planned ahead and was flexible with our transportation mode, for example. We considered driving conditions, convenience and safety when deciding if we were to book a car service, rent a car, take a cab, book an Uber, take a shuttle, book a tour, take a hop-on hop-off bus, take a tram or walk. The flexibility made the trip more enjoyable and convenient. Not sticking to a set mode of transport made the trip more enjoyable and hassle free.

In the same way, we need to have some flexibility and adaptability in our projects. Not everything we assume will be correct, not everything we planned for will be implementable and not everything we design can be created the way we want it. When I work on masterplanning and urban design projects I typically have some form of nature-based design, including new concepts not commonly practiced yet. I would go to my landscape architect colleagues and have them draw my concepts in pretty and non-abstract images for my engineer colleagues to visualize and confirm if the design is doable or even possible. Indeed, some of my designs were not possible but some of those that were not possible then are also doable now.

4)       Rest and Recreation – while we refer to holidays as rest and recreation we often forget about the rest part. Most of the time we try to pack our daily itinerary with so much activities that we actually exhaust ourselves at the end of the day or night. This time we actually enjoyed the holiday because we were flexible with our activities. Aside from booked tours or activities, we didn’t try to squeeze in too many activities in between. We would sleep in most days, booked a massage and even took afternoon naps (much like the Sea Lions below) in between since sunset wasn’t until 10pm in Canada anyway.

In the same way, we all need a break from our jobs. We need to focus on non-work activities to recharge and for me, the creative juices start flowing when I don’t have to worry about proposals, meetings, report reviews, utilization, gross margins, timecard or expenses approvals. During my holiday I was in awe of nature and was inspired to improve my “design offerings” for my projects.

5)       Changing Direction Depending on the Situation

Going with the flow – we did not hire a car in San Francisco, so I was able to observe the driving conditions closely before driving in San Diego. Aside from driving on the other side of the road I noticed that the use of indicators (turn signals) was not common as well as staying within the speed limit. A local friend told us that it was common to be at least 20mph over the posted limit otherwise you will cause traffic and even get pulled over for being too slow on the freeway.

Speed dispersion is an important risk factor in driving accidents. Notwithstanding legal limits, drivers can become impatient with slow moving vehicles and will try to overtake where they think they can. Impatient drivers take high risk maneuvers and cause accidents especially around similar impatient drivers.  After a day of driving in San Diego I was able to adjust my speed but was still very cautious with drivers who don’t indicate before changing lanes.

Against the flow – aside from driving on the other side of the road, one of the adjustments I made in the USA was shifting from Metric to English system. I used to live and study in Florida, so pounds and miles was not easy to forget but one thing I did for convenience was retain my phone driving directions in Metric units. The driving was smoother because I am used to estimating distances in metres rather than miles. I missed less turns and avoided risky driving maneuvres when I used metric units.

In the same way, project delivery may be seamless if you just go with how everyone is doing things. However, sometimes it takes some going against the flow for the creative juices to start flowing and innovation giving life to a once simple and boring project.

6)       Open to Learning – an important thing about traveling is learning and learning is best done by observing and listening. If I want to get the most information from the experience, I will not volunteer the fact that I know something about the place or activity, if I don’t have to. When diving, I won’t tell them I’m a marine biologist so I can hear then freely talk about stuff and not be held back that there’s a professional with them in the tour.

I didn’t need to volunteer to the tour guide at Yosemite National Park that I used to be a rock climber and I was just fascinated from the information he shared about how the Half Dome was the basis for the North Face logo and how climbing El Capitan is a dream of every serious climber. He didn’t know that I used to be one of those, and my rock climbing books in Uni were about conquering El Capitan. I learned a lot on how Yosemite played a big role in establishing the US National Parks System or the fact that rock climbing was invented by bored hippies or that the photo of this article (below) is sought after because this was the desktop wallpaper of Mac OS Yosemite. I also didn’t to volunteer the information that I am an ecologist, so I got to hear his take on the ecology of the Giant Seqouia trees before our hike to the land of the giants.

In the same way, we can learn a lot from local communities about our project site if we are willing to listen instead of coming in as an expert. I’ve done some focused group discussions in remote villages in Asia were I we had to tell the residents that we are not experts, but we are just there to listen and learn from them. You will be amazed with the body of knowledge they possess which science now thinks are revolutionary but were simply passed on from generation to generation by local tradition.        

7)       Conservation Costs – aside from the breathtaking views and wildlife, another thing Banff is known for is its wildlife crossings. Banff has the most wildlife crossing (44 along Trans-Canada Highway) and longest wildlife enclosure in the world (82km of highway fencing). Some of the wildlife crossings were built over 20 years ago and some of the newer ones cost up to $4M per structure.

Wildlife protection may seem costly but that’s a fraction of the $3.1B tourism revenue per year that people like me bring in to experience “the wild”. More details and photos in this previous post on Nature Positive.

I must admit, we bought a lot of Patagonia clothing during our holiday both from the US and from Canada. Sure they were so much more expensive that other outdoor apparel brands but we were buying into a lifestyle. The quality, the recycling, the second life, the repairs, the advocacy and actual sales profit going into nature conservation. Here’s a link to find out more of Patagonia’s solid effort to fighting the environmental crisis and defending nature.

In the same way, that not all products are created equal, not all consultants of the same quality. In this post from 3 years ago, I talked about the Venn diagram of Good, Fast, and Cheap service. The centre of which is what every client wants but the reality is the consultant can only supply two of those. Recently, I declined an invite for a very good technical project but had a very tight and fixed timeline and is very price sensitive. I figured I can’t deliver this project without compromising on quality so I would have to give this a pass.  

8)       Personal Branding – one thing I noticed on our holiday was how Starbucks was everywhere. In our San Francisco hotel, I just had to choose to walk left or right, and a Starbucks will be at either corner. I even managed to grab coffee and brekky at 5am before our Yosemite tour pickup. They were at the airport, at the deli, at the hotel, at the bank and at Yosemite National Park!

Our Airbnb in San Diego was a 3-minute walk to the supermarket where a Starbucks had a stall. I know that no matter how small or remote the location is, I am assured that the quality will be the same because it’s a trusted name.

In the same way, if you built your brand on quality and integrity, your colleagues and client will expect that of you, no matter the circumstances. Because they know you will not tarnish your personal brand…