I read a book once, "Don't Sweat the Small Stuff... And It's All Small Stuff" by Richard Carlson (Ph.D.) and he had a saying- you don't have the catch the ball when it's thrown to you. Similarly, I've heard it said you don't have to put out all the fires. Obviously this doesn't apply to real fires. It's a metaphor. Projects are like fires (that's a simile).
With forest fires, Department of Forestry actually does controlled burns to prevent widespread disaster during a real burn. And sometimes the fire gets too large to control, or they know the fire will run out of fuel, and let it go.
Sometimes "fires" need to be let go, and just monitored. Multiple problems can make a fire spiral out of control. The key in all this is to look back at where it went wrong. Learn from decisions made, assumptions made, or if preparation just wasn't there.
Make adjustments to the project plan, considering what needs to be applied from last time. Continual process improvement, just like in manufacturing.
No comments:
Post a Comment