Spinning Plates:  A Management Technique for Busy People 
Things They Forgot To Tell Me in Business School
 
We have likely all seen a plate-spinning act at the circus or on a TV variety show, the old fashioned thing where a performer takes liberal advantage of the gyroscopic effect to spin an astonishing number of plates and/or other household objects on the end of poles, usually while engaged in some additional amazing contortion or juggling trick. The gyroscopic effect is the tendency of a rotating body to maintain a stable axis of rotation. Gyroscopes of all sorts that retain their spin axis direction irrespective of the orientation of their frames are widely used to maintain equilibrium and determine the direction in everything from portable phones to nuclear submarines.
 
What we don’t necessarily appreciate is the degree to which the behaviors and forces that make for successful plate spinning have their analogue in project management. Of course not, why would we? While we are inundated daily with tools and productivity software to assist with project management tasks, much less often are we introduced to simple approaches to project management, high-level coping mechanisms, and mindsets for people with more responsibilities than time.
 
What is plate spinning in project management? Plate spinning is an approach ideally suited to department-level management where you have a defined portfolio of different projects, activities, and responsibilities. Simply put, you spend a good portion of your time moving from project to project (plate to plate) giving each one a carefully calculated little spin to maintain its state of equilibrium until the next time you come around. Like gardening but mechanistic. Projects have their own equivalents to the gyroscopic forces, things that give them a tendency to retain their alignment (think scope of work, schedule, deliverables, contract language, instructions, habits, etc) but even when running smoothly they all need regular specific attention and imparted energy to continue doing so.
 
You can spin plates at a measured pace, ideally leaving ample time for deep dives into start-up, close-out, or problem projects, take long afternoons off, or madly leap from one to another forestalling disaster full-time - it really is a project management approach for all seasons. What it brings to even the most chaotic environments is a manner in which to segment your limited time that retains a view of the whole while still addressing the needs of the individual, and keeps you from being swallowed up by events.
 
I am not alone in having once worked in a position, in this instance in government, defined by the inheritance of a large set of activities, or “files”, all of which existed long before my arrival and all of which would continue to exist long after my departure. My role as temporary custodian of these files was simply to move them down the road, ensuring to the best of my ability that none lost so much momentum as to suffer a critical breakdown. And, if one was inevitably going to crash, which does happen, then my role was to ensure that it didn’t take its neighbors with it.
 
Success, as measured by the absence of failure, or the absence of even greater failure. While it wasn’t my gig for the long haul, it was a valuable introduction to the world of project portfolio management. And before anyone huffs and says “well that’s government for you”, this early taste of plate spinning within the protective confines of the civil service remained after a move into a rough and tumble corner of the consulting industry - construction - through periods of boom, crash, and recovery. While pace and style are different between the government and the private sector, the mindset, skills, and overall utility of the plate spinning approach remain the same.
 
Promoting an approach so measured, careful, and seemingly uninspired runs directly against the grain of popular interventionist super-hero management theory today, intent as it is on self-promotion. Spinning plates is an anti-hero, favoring such unfashionable traits as constancy, a light touch, and an innate understanding of the type and amount of input required to keep the plate spinning “by itself”, as well as the ability to give it just the right spin and no more. The simple fact of moving methodically from one thing to another pays for itself in the reduction of terrible surprises alone, another hugely important indicator of success that rarely makes a list of KPIs, USPs, or other performance acronyms.
 
Spinning Plates: A Management Technique for Busy People.
 
;)