This is not an article about an endangered species plundered to near extinction as trophies for big game hunters or being poached for its aphrodisiacal ivory or describing a mythical elephant’s graveyard…it’s about those metaphorical elephants that frequent rooms in political corridors of power, boardroom suites and project offices around the World.  Although these elephants are known to exist they are either not immediately recognised or conveniently avoided.

People are often blissfully ignorant of huge issues and cannot grasp the enormity of a problem as they dwell on their own blinkered experience and blind opinionated optimism, or pessimism.  Perhaps we should remember the parable of the blind men and their varying determinations regarding the elephant in their room; the trunk was identified as a thick snake, the leg as a tree trunk, the tusk as a spear, the ear as a fan, the tail as a rope and its flank became a wall.  Perception of risk is a personnel thing and so often it can be so wrong that more time is spent debating individual preferences and opinions rather than addressing the problem itself.

Risk is traditionally managed through the four “Ts” of Treat, Transfer, Tolerate, and Terminate.  However, a risk needs to be identified in order to be managed and although risk registers are produced how often are they based on a last job without the benefit of being adapted to account for lessons learned.  Failing to recognise risk is a risk in itself and if it is allowed to propagate and amalgamate, and if there is a focus on granularity, an elephant may well exist without it actually being recognised.  But how can one deal with an elephant in your room?

Recognition and Definition

The biggest problem to be addressed is recognising an elephant for what it really is, what it can become, and defining it.  People dance around the various issues with their own personnel agenda at the fore; this detracts from seeing alternative views of the selfsame topic.  Unfortunately, personal views fuel argument and, rather than recognizing a common source for the problem at hand, factions and cliques are created based on beliefs rather than the facts that make the truth, albeit distasteful.

Efforts to transfer the problem to other groups or parties may well ensue.  However, an elephant in a common room eventually becomes a common problem and everybody will need to realise that a common approach is required; transferring an elephant to somebody else is a difficult task.

Coalition and Collaboration

Recognizing and defining the elephant needs a leader to overcome personal differences, align a team and galvanize their collective efforts to deal with the looming leviathan.  Dealing with a major problem, particularly when it is a latent risk, needs focus rather than fear.  If everybody is aligned then everybody is focused.  Unfortunately focus can be easily lost when naysayers argue with the yeasayers and precious time is wasted.

If a problem is too complex or its effects are not readily visible, many people will retreat in anticipatory fear into their cocoons of comfort.  They protect their own patch rather than risk helping somebody else; particularly if there is no direct discernable benefit to them.  In doing so they fail to understand that a rogue elephant knows no bounds and just like a bull in a china shop everybody will be damaged or be covered in some BS.  Tolerating an out of control beast can be difficult to stomach.

Treatment

Once an elephant is eventually recognised and the consequences of its presence are understood then it needs to be treated; one cannot rely on the off-chance that it won’t just conveniently go away on its own volition.  Of course, it can be ignored but ignoring something will not make it go away and just like an unkempt garden it will grow wild.

Any treatment, just like treatment of a disease, takes time.  There are very few silver-bullet antidotes around but snake-oil remedies can abound.  Getting rid of an elephant is like eating it, and the only way is one bite at a time.  Analogously the more who feast on the elephant the faster it will be consumed.

Conclusions

“The elephant in the room” is a not an uncommon occurrence.  However, failing to recognise such Leviathans, ignoring their presence and failing to recognise or even deal with them in a timely manner are all but uncommon.

Skirting around the elephant and forming opposing groups rather than collaborating and cooperating are surefire ways of allowing elephants to grow.  And grow they will and feed off the indecision, apathy or even any fear of seeing or acknowledging the problem.  And, just like real elephants, they will stay where there is food.

Ignoring the elephant in the room will not make it go away and won’t terminate the risk, latent or current, associated with it.  They say that elephants never forget and if you do allow an elephant to coexist with you in splendid isolation until it finally dies without being formally recognised and properly interred it may well come back to haunt you.  This haunting could be in the form of a dispute requiring arbitration or litigation, future business failure, or loss of reputation and trust.

You ignore an elephant at your own peril as, perchance, the truth can be too difficult to handle.

Bio:

Malcolm Peart is an UK Chartered Engineer & Chartered Geologist with over thirty-five years’ international experience in multicultural environments on large multidisciplinary infrastructure projects including rail, metro, hydro, airports, tunnels, roads and bridges. Skills include project management, contract administration & procurement, and design & construction management skills as Client, Consultant, and Contractor.