What would happen if your project raised the Pirate Flag?
What would happen if you let the external auditor “walk the plank”?
What would happen if every night you raid the cafeteria and stole all the snacks?
My guess is, you’ll get fired.
But it will also clearly differentiate your project team from the larger organization. If the entire company is a conservative, slow moving, bureaucratic monster turtle, and you need a team that moves fast and doesn’t comply to the dominant culture, you should raise the Pirate Flag.
Image by Arcane Canticle.
Metaphors are a powerful tool. They provide us with a simplified version of reality which make it possible for us to have a clue about what happens if we press button A or button B, take the blue or the red pill. If an entire team thrives on the same metaphor, it simplifies communication. Without saying anything they all fill in the blanks the same way.
Havi Brooks provides a fun example of how this works. She doesn’t like running a business team:
“I figured out what I don’t like about having a ‘team’.
It has all these little associated bits under the surface that just bug me. Sports analogies, for one.
Also it just kind of smacks of corporate horribleness. You know, those awful, embarrassing team-building exercises that you read about in business books.”
And, you guessed it, she then turns her entire team into a crew of Pirates!
Back to your project. Did you know that if you parade long enough in funny pants through the hallways, you will actually start behaving like a pirate?
Metaphors create reality.
People can talk about projects as if they are conducting a war. They are using words like “marching orders” and “the troops”. If a Project Manager has a mindset like this, war as a metaphor, his mind is thinking in friends and foes, allies and enemies. You are either with him or against him. This view of the world will make it very difficult to collaborate with this person if you disagree.
But! Metaphors create also group identity.
Your team will become proud of their way of doing things. They will become proud of the fact that they are different. And they have a flag to show for it.
Are you ready to set sail, Captain?
I have raised the Jolly Roger on various projects before. I was never fired for it. Resented by other teams? yes. Did I speed past others in the process. you bet. Did the team have fun? of course. Things to be aware of.. rocking the boat (or pillaging it) will not make a lot of friends in the dominant culture. Then again, when did a pirate care about that?
Cap’n John
Sounds a lot like Seth Godin’s tribe idea in many ways. I want to try this on one of my next projects. I ran my team in a similar fashion (we were the most fun group because of the culture I fostered, and perhaps causally the most productive) but no pirates. Do you guys actually say for ‘arr’ and ‘matey’? Don’t people find that a little corny?
@Diwant: “Do you guys actually say for ‘arr’ and ‘matey’? Don’t people find that a little corny?”
- Just do what works for you. If you are bored developing an accounting system, call it Starship Enterprise for all i care
I doesn’t have to be so extreme though.
- I’m a 38 year old Project Manager in a suit that talks to other managers in suits holding up A FLIPCAM and post it on YouTube … So you’ll be amazed what people find socially acceptable (or corny
) these days 
Interesting metaphor. Successful leaders are those who challenge status quo and this “mental-model” is surely one way we can do so. I have always found it difficult to follow a set “acceptable” way of doing something. Everyone has their own style – good or bad, as long as the objectives are met… that all that should matter to an organization. Trust the key – Sr. management trusting the PM, PM and his/her team trusting each other, etc.