Posted on February 24, 2009
This week’s tale is one that was told to me. I wasn’t involved in the solution, but the story provides a great learning/teaching point about thinking all the way through a problem.
I share it with you knowing that we have architects as well as engineers in our community. Promise not to point fingers at the other side and say with a snarl, “What’d you expect?”
An architect designed a new elementary school building for a private academy. When the building was finished, all involved toured the structure and admired the wonderful use of natural light through the innovative design.
When the tour moved outside, the headmaster groaned. The beautiful building, with its innovative use of windows, was edged with beds of rocks. Not pebbles, but good solid rocks–the throwing kind. The kind little kids used to break windows and to throw at each other.
Somewhere is his thinking, the architect stopped thinking about the goals for the building. It was to house kids from the age of 5 to 12. If the architect had really thought through how the building would be used, he would have chosen a different material to put around the building.
That’s what happens when we don’t think through a problem fully.
When you are tackling an issue and think you have the solution, ask yourself five more questions about the problem. Force your thinking to go further. You will almost always find a better solution in asking those questions.
Questions to provoke your thinking:
- “If money were no object, how would we do this?” Use your response to dig into how you might achieve similar results but with less money.
- “What are we forgetting?”
- “Who else is going to use this product/service? What do they want?”
- “What are we missing?”
- “What would our competitors do?”
Have fun. And put the rock down. You know your mother told you never to throw rocks.
Posted on February 3, 2009
This call came from a client who has had to lay off some personnel, just like many folks have. The CEO, Sharon, was concerned about one of her lead project managers.
Joyce is always able to stay on top of things and make sure a job goes the way it’s supposed to go. Joyce doesn’t leave things to chance.
The problem came when a job Joyce was managing was put on hold by the client. Joyce became undone.
She had, in her typical manner, planned out the job, budgeted for it, determined what help she would need when. She even scheduled her family vacation based on her schedule and that the job would wrap up in three months.
Hitting the pause button was not in her plans.
The loss of control is showing up with Joyce micromanaging every little piece of work she can get her hands on. She is driving co-workers crazy, and Sharon is, quite frankly, concerned about Joyce’s mental state.
“How do I help her?” Sharon asked.
Planned, purposeful individuals–or control freaks as others lovingly (?) call them–are experiencing more stress from the current economic situation than others who are more flexible. Everything is in flux.
These purposeful individuals plan on doing a job, then the job gets put on hold or canceled. They are prepared to work with Sam on a project, then they find out Sam doesn’t work for the client anymore.
Their whole foundation may be cracking because of changes over which they have no control.
So, Sharon, as the CEO, needs to get Joyce grounded in a reality that she can control. Sharon can ask Joyce to focus on one task or project where change is very unlikely to occur.
Perhaps Joyce can take on a project within the firm that needs to be addressed, but it has always been shelved because of billable hours.
This is a good time for Joyce to do some QA/QC checks, review past project folders to ensure all documentation is there, create some training modules, prepare a presentation to give at a conference, etc.
The key is to give Joyce something she can completely control. As long as she has that piece of concrete control, she is better able to tolerate the fluctuating world around her.
