Sun Communicators' Group Blog

Everything's Coming Up Roses!

I can't believe that it's already Friday! 

I was out on vacation last week, so I spent the majority of this week catching up from my time off and getting  up to speed on the second most challenging project that I've been assigned to during my career at Sun.

It's because of the new, challenging assignment that I needed some inspiration.

My mind was blocked with all of the things that I need to get done and I just couldn't see the light at the end of the tunnel.  (That's not good when you are working on a communications plan for a change acceptance project!)

So, I shut off my email and phone for 20 minutes and took a walk thru my garden this morning (and took a few photos).

                      

Everything's coming up roses...and peonies, and irises and all the other late spring/early summer perennials.  (This is a pretty big deal in NH, where just a few weeks ago, this area was icy, cold and snowy!) 

Then inspiration hit me - all because of my walk in the garden and few minutes of quiet solitude.

A project like a communications plan for a complicated change acceptance project is very much like gardening!

A beautiful landscape takes time to create and will never be perfect.  But with some planning as well as flexibility and learning along the way, a pile of dirt can become a beautiful garden. 

Some plants don't like where they are and have to be moved, some gardening tools and techniques have to be adjusted for your local area (I'm in a zone 5 and would never expect a zone 6 or higher plant to survive in my garden!)  You have the perennials that  you expect to be there for a while and the annuals that are shortlived, but very important to filling in the landscape.

So, applying some of these thoughts to my project,  I'll just think of my work project as planning a garden, one that everyone will want to visit!

While it may sound cliche, this is the best advice that I can give when it comes to communications planning and writers block and the best way to clear your head:

Posted at 08:41AM Jun 15, 2007 by sandyb in Best Practices  |  Comments[3]