Clarity through movement
Clarity through movement
Deciding when to push “go” on something is difficult. Over the past 18 months or so, a clear tool to help frame the discussion around readiness has emerged in the way that we’ve been working - a simple pair of questions:
1: Are we ready for the next step?
2: Can we continue to be ready for future steps?
Wherever possible, we separate projects and work into smaller, more manageable tasks, changes and projects; decoupling them as much as possible from one another. This allows us to move forwards with less certainty as we pre-emptively contain any issues that might occur should we run into something that we didn’t expect.
This decoupling is important because the more certainty we need, the harder it is to obtain. Let’s say that we’re 80% certain that we have everything in place for the next step in our project, but we feel that we need to be 95% certain before we can press “go”. We might imagine that the additional work to get that last 15% certainty might look something like this:
Unfortunately, that’s not the case. In almost every case I’ve come across, it actually looks something like this…
That extra 15% certainty represents more than double the effort than is required to get from 0 to 80%. It’s much more effective to break things down into simpler and safer tasks, changes and projects than it is to try and gain that additional certainty.
In an environment where a single misstep isn’t a source of pain or disruption, and even several failed steps strung together don’t jeopardise anything important, we can start to press go on things with a little less certainty.
So, back to those questions…
Are we ready for the next step?
The first question includes much of the obvious preparation work that we would all expect. For me, the important concept to highlight is that, if your answer is “no”, you have two options.
Prepare further.
Take a smaller, or different, step.
When faced with difficult terrain, or steep ground, taking smaller steps is far more effective, far safer, and far quicker than trying to take big leaps. Sometime, further preparation is crucial, but after a certain amount of preparation you start to see massive increases in effort, and diminishing returns for that effort.
Can we continue to be ready for future steps?
When climbing a mountain, I don’t need to know the exact detail of the terrain on approach to the final summit. I need to know that:
My fitness, skills and equipment are commensurate with the challenge
The weather forecast is acceptable and suitably accurate that I can set off
My high-level plan (planned camps, food and water carried, etc) is viable and gives me plenty of room for manoeuvre
I have the knowledge, tools and ability to plan the final ascent in more detail as I get closer.
The same is true for projects and change. At the start of a project, I don’t need to have pinpoint accuracy on how effective an online community would be in helping staff share ideas and experiences with a new piece of technology, I need to build in methods that help me assess how effective this idea sharing is, and have ways to adjust or rethink if necessary.
Clarity through movement
One of the many things that the agile movement got right was that, in scenarios where risk profiles allow, we gain more information and clarity, not by planning in more detail, but by doing things.
By carefully designing projects so that we can adjust course as we go, we can lower the threshold for pressing go on the next step, all whilst charting a smoother and faster course to our destination.