How to eat an elephant

How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.

So I'm planning my travel for CiviCRM Manchester at the end of November.

It's always more complex than I expect.

• Primary ccommodations with the right dates, amenities, and location

• Flights with the right dates and manageable layovers

• Secondary overnight accommodations after the post-conference sprint

• Managing my own work schedule with travel and time zones

• Deciding how much to pack

• Getting nutritious meals and a good rest during of all this moving about

• Everything at a reasonable price

There are multiple options for everything, but everything has to fit together smoothly.

Experience helps. I've done this plenty of times before.

I even have a checklist to help me make sure I'm covering all the bases.

Because the biggest help is breaking it down into small pieces.

Even the most complex travel plans are just a series of small decisions and small actions.

Here's the thing:

Complexity is a real concern for almost any significant undertaking.

Getting all the pieces to fit together requires some careful attention.

And bad assumptions in one small area will cascade into problems in other areas.

But each piece, however intertwined it might be with the others, is only a single decision, or a single task.

When you're working out your staff workflows, or your membership journeys, for future improvements to your CRM, it's all connected. And sometimes it can feel a little overwhelming.

But just as I'm teaching all my coaching clients, you can do it, and have great results, by breaking it down into small tasks, devising good checklists, checking your assumptions about each component, and implementing each part carefully.

Plan the work; then work the plan.

Eat that elephant one bite at a time.

All the best,
A.