People Frustrate me sometimes

[Cliff Wilson MCPF]

I'm working with a group of people on a project here in the city.
It is taking much longer than it needs to IMO.

When I ran engineering organizations I used to teach the Project Leaders what I called "the tallest tree" problem.
This relates to most problem solving and particularly to business related objectives.

It goes like this ...

If you are lost in the woods and need to get out, find a "tall enough" tree.
Looking for the "tallest tree" (the absolutely best solution) will take much longer and not get you out of the woods any quicker.

Yes, you need to look long enough to find one that is "tall enough" that getting you out of the woods doesn't get you lost in the mountains, but you are better off getting out and walking around to where you need to be (fixing small problems afterward) than spending an exorbitant amount of time looking for that "tallest tree."

Why do people keep gathering data, or refining something, when putting it into action gets a quicker return? And, you get to discover the minor tweaks that you have no way to anticipate ahead of time!
Really, How do I get people to stop "making it better" and get it out there?

 

[Wally Fay CPF]

Cliff, I don't think you give yourself enough credit.

Best way to find out where the boat leaks is to put it in the water, eh?

Friend of mine uses the "Let's do something, even if it's wrong" approach to problem solving. There's a fair share of remedial work, but things are moving forward.

 

[Gregory K. Norris CPF]

The professional management wisdom these days seems to be that fear is the barrier when managers delay making decisions while they endlessly gather data. (There is an entire industry of books and seminars growing up on the subject).

This is why committees are even slower. More managers, more data gathering, more "but what about's," more delay. When you look at it objectively, not responding to the need or problem is the absolute worst response, and that is what usually happens. A slow response is no better than no response.

This, of course is bad for business. An immediate example that comes to mind is Amazon. They planned for what they could see and determined a date when they would have enough and launch. In contrast Bookstores and the big record companies nobody can remember, kept studying the problem and went out of business.

In the meantime, Amazon kept correcting problems and learning as they went. They had a customer service plan to respond to problems. My guess is they are still fixing something multiple times a day. So what? That is how you achieve success. Science taught us this in the 8th Grade.

This is what committees need to learn. (Good luck with that). I deal with it in organizations large and small on a regular basis. Otherwise perfectly rational people make irrational non-decisions all the time.

My personal favorite is "because that is the way we have always done it." You usually hear this about something that is not working.

Heard it last night at a Master Gardeners meeting. There is always a new crop of scientists in this group who are hearing it for the first time. They are always so shocked. You can almost hear their grinding teeth. Us middle-timers just stay the course and plan on a couple of years to get simple things done.

Bottom line is change is uncomfortable. Risk is even worse. The old guard in any group is right there waiting with the pointing fingers for the first bump in the road as a sign of failure when you introduce something new. Which of course, inspires fear...and on it goes.

 

[Les Martin. MCPF]

Just complaining to my wife about this very thing. Back to "a full moon thingey."

"Continuous improvement will always beat delayed perfection"
Mark Twain (have signs printed and posted all over the back room)

"God cared enough NOT to send a committee"

When you make a decision something might go wrong and no one wants to be wrong or called out on it. In the military it is "right or wrong, do something." If you don't, people die. Harsh motivation but effective. You can't get in trouble if you don't do anything. I got a million of them and they all mean "get off the pot and DO SOMETHING!"
Our culture these days isn't really conducive to taking action and dealing with the results; however, being in business for ones self requires action or failure. Fifty/ fifty, pretty easy.
I've often felt choking could be a good motivator even though it is battery. The jail time could take the edge off my feelings and act as a vacation. At least I would be around a lot of people who take action. Not a good example, I see.

 

[Neil Zellman]

"People Frustrate me sometimes" in my mind could actually be "Some People Frustrate me Often"....:frusty:
We experience this as well, sometimes with the corporate stuff and sometimes just with retail.
We deal with the State and local government, the Military, national corporations, etc...
Analysis, Paralysis.

Sometimes, you've just gotta' throw the baby in the pool and see if it can swim. (Not a real baby, of course...:nono

 

[Wally Fay CPF]

I've told a few of you this story. A friend of mine works ITCS for a real estate management software company. The company was like an extended family. They were also very good at what they did and Intuit decided to buy them. She was a bit nervous about the change and was talking about that with one of the HR folks at Intuit. She was informed that the only way you could get fired from Intuit was to use the phrase "Because that's the way we've always done it".

A timely post to FB: "Be decisive. Right or wrong, make a decision. The Road of Life is paved with flat squirrels who couldn't make a decision". ~Unknown~

 

[Russ Wood]

I call it 'Paralysis by Analysis.'

People are afraid about making a mistake because in today's world people are so critical. People are afraid of being embarrassed. Some people like to talk all the time [to sound important?], and some people that have great suggestions and Ideas are afraid to give them, so it is an easy excuse to say "lets get more data".

I don't have a solution, but for meetings, where I am the 'facilitator', I generally start by saying.

1: 'we need to make decisions based on what we know today, not tomorrow',

2: 'we all participate, so we are going to go in order [counter-clockwise?], and everyone can give one idea or suggestion, [not two], and everyone must say something.

3: 'It is easy to get sidetracked, so if you think the person talking is getting off track, point to the ceiling. If two people point to the ceiling, whoever is talking, must stop, and we go to the next person/ issue.

4. Summarize what we need to accomplish, and the time limits. When we hit the time limit we stop.

It worked for me.

 

[David Lantrip MCPF GCF]

It's better to be done than to be perfect.