Elizabeth Foughty
A useful bit of wisdom I’ve gathered from my career is that projects have ‘messy middles’ where everything seems in disarray before it all comes together. This is totally normal, and you shouldn’t freak out (I used to freak out, like a lot).
An even more powerful bit of wisdom that it took me more years to understand was to *embrace* the messy middle. The messiness is where the magic happens. It’s where you learn, where you tweak or pivot, and where you occasionally wonder whether this effort was a good idea after all. If you’re not a tiny bit uncomfortable, you’re probably not doing something worthwhile.
This part often makes me think of the Douglas Adams quote:
“I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.”
Usually, when we start an endeavor, we don’t have nearly enough information to know if we’re on the right path. You learn by doing. You may learn you need to adjust the path. In fact, if you don’t learn you need to make an adjustment you are probably doing something wrong.
The key to the messy middle is to treat your objectives broadly. Have a general vision, but allow the specific destination and tactics to change. Change tactics first, then strategy, then objectives but allow there to be change (see: Objectives, strategies, and tactics.).
You’re not failing if you’re in the thick of it and learning that things weren’t exactly as you expected them to be. You’re failing if you refuse to be open to what you’re learning. You should feel a bit like you’re being buffeted around, but instead of trying to withstand the buffeting, you allow it to turn your project into a shiny piece of sea glass that eventually makes it ashore.
In other words, embrace the magic messy middle.
Elizabeth Foughty 