There’s an elephant in the room — I know, let’s eat it!

We have all heard the adage there is an elephant in the room. Heck, we are probably all sick of hearing about the elephant in the room, even when we try to ignore it. The elephant in the room is the biggest thing in the room that everyone wants to ignore, but someone invariably brings it up.

“elephant during daytime” by James Hammond on Unsplash

…ahem, excuse me. I want to bring up the elephant in the room…

Dude, shut up!

I really do not want to ignore elephants anymore, I think we should eat them!

And then the following adage is how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time!

I think I am going to vomit, not because of too many elephants, but because of too many euphemisms. Stop it already.

People freak out when they are presented with a massive undertaking, the large jobs, the elephant size jobs. The ones with a seemingly impossible action (note — there is no such thing as impossible) and the mountain of work looming in front of you is massive. You cannot really fathom it all. It is a mountain of elephants. When we are presented with a massive amount of new work, that is usually a surprise to us because someone else was choking on it, we choke on it too. We all need to try to stop making any effort to swallow the elephant whole. We know this is extremely difficult, so we need to eat away at the massive problem little by little, bite by bite. We are required to break down massive tasks into multiple smaller, more manageable tasks that are easily accomplished to get us to the goal. By taking this effort to divide and portion the work into smaller, more meaningful and manageable tasks, it makes it easier for people to comprehend mentally and adjust physically to the various steps required to complete particular actions.

Yet how many of us really know how to break down this massive task into smaller tasks? And once you break down the work into smaller tasks, then what? Should you feel satisfied? You have not completed anything yet, just moved forward with greater detail and planning. With that list of steps, those smaller actions in front of you, take on that first one. When you complete it, should you cheer with a trumpet, letting everyone around you know that you completed an action?

Yes, you should.

Seriously.

Be satisfied that you took that first bite. Brag and cheer about taking that first step, er, that first bite. Let the world know. You did one more thing than they did and let them know. Do not worry about the results of the action as much as the action itself. The fact you actually moved on, and you did not freeze, paralyzed by the fear of the monster in front of you. You stepped forward, tore into it and crushed your fear. Now do it again. Then cheer again. Wash, rinse, repeat.

Breaking down the steps. To use an obtuse example I tell people every time we start a new project

1. Go to Kansas

Now, what does that mean to you? You need to go to Kansas, but you don’t have enough information about how you’re going to get to Kansas, why you are going to Kansas and what are you going to do once you get to Kansas? Who should you take with you? How should you get there? How quickly do you need to get there? Kansas is the elephant — now you’re just taking the massive list and breaking it down into the smaller bite-sized pieces by asking — and answering — all these other questions.

The simplest method that you can use for any massive task or any major project or undertaking is defining Who Does What By When. But for each of those “who does what by whens” may need to be broken down in greater detail. To accomplish that use the journalist's credo: Who What When Where Why and How. Those two series of definitions with the supporting questions help clarify the various tasks that need to be completed within the action required.

So let’s go to Kansas with Who What When Where Why and How

1. Who is going to Kansas? Why Russ is!
2. What is the reason to go to Kansas? Russ needs to go collect a plane.
3. When does Russ need to go? He needs to leave by the 21st!
4. Where in Kansas does Russ need to go? He needs to go to PPF in Kansas
5. Why does Russ need to go to PPF? That is where the plane resides
6. Why does Russ even need to go? Because when he collects the plane, he can refurbish it and resell it for three times its purchase price!
7. How does Russ need to get to PPF in Kansas? He needs to take the shuttle to O’Hare, a commercial flight from O’Hare to Wichita. Rent a car and drive from Wichita to PPF.

Now that this massive, relatively vague task of going to Kansas is broken down into seven steps making it more desirable and easier to accomplish because the unknowns are now known and able to be finished with some sense of direction.

This process can be broken down into greater detail for each of those 7 subtasks, depending upon the simplicity or complexity required to accomplish each of those steps.

“people raising their drinking glasses” by rawpixel on Unsplash

You see how easy it is to eat an elephant? Pass me the salt and pepper!

Go forth and be brilliant.