Is the silver bullet the only answer your manager or organization wants to hear from you?
Is there wasted productivity and leadership misses along the way because of an overwhelming need to have a home run?
Is your management behind closed doors deciding how to cut costs and resources; yet their mantra is “we are going to beat our competition, not matter how long it takes!”
The organization may be close….just a few more milestones to hit. As we are pushing to find that perfect solution, our competition beats us to the punch.
Ouch. If only we had were satisfied with incremental change, instead of demanding step change improvement or in some cases the silver bullet.
Here are some key discussion points to consider if your organization is trying to work on a silver bullet answer:
- Is this the project of du’jour? Is there a commitment to riding out the project bumps and alternatively, shelving the next great idea until this one is done?
- Expect a higher level of involvement with human resources – as commitment and urgency increases, the number of people and talent for the project goes up exponentially. The scarcer the talent, the more you pay for it. The impact extends beyond the immediate team. The rest of the organization must make the project a top priority to expedite decisions; often at the expense of their own goals. To punish other parts of the organization for declining productivity may reinforce the wrong behaviors.
- Initial project cost estimates are rarely accurate; assume an overrun. Optimism rides high during the first half of the project, for good reason. No one wants to return to the money well too soon. Project suicide occurs if there is not enough traction with the company or management team before requesting more resources. If you don’t have the funds to throw at the project; don’t start it.
- Avoid falling into the trap of moving to action too soon; it may be the source of delays in the long run. Give the project the “think time” it needs with careful consideration for mapping out alternatives and reaching a solid conclusion. The main objective is not marking things off your to do list – that only gives a false sense of accomplishment. Getting to the finish line with the least amount of reworks is the answer.
- Redefining a project is common as teams gain new insights into the first few phases. It may be the customer applications or needs change, production or material requirements shift or the cost-benefit analysis bears different results. Being flexible to assess the goal and its path is essential to meeting the challenge at hand. If you are wedded to one idea and solution, chances are your blinders are on.
- Have a realistic project time line. Placing pressure on a team to find the finish line will stifle creativity. Alternatively, managing the prima donnas or individuals who get stuck in the product and design phase of inventing presents a different set of challenges. Defining the trade-off of speed to market with the silver bullet answer requires skill and little luck.
Lynn – great topic. In Good to Great, Collins refers to these folks as foxes. Thinking they are agile and cleverly jumping from one shiny new idea to the next. While the hedgehogs ignore most of the bling, stayed focused, and create momentum and value.
If there’s any “silver bullet,” it’s to create focus, work only on the areas that are limiting your throughput, and say not to all the rest (sounds like the hedgehog doesn’t it?). Goldratt’s theory of constraints offer a great map for doing this. But since that’s not easy most companies don’t do it.