Shipulski On Design

Archive for January, 2023

It’s difficult to describe what an innovative company looks like, and there’s no singular recipe or direction that is right for all companies.  Here are some From: To: pairings that I hope will help you in your migration toward innovation.  You’re heading in the right direction as your company generates Tos and fewer Froms.

From:  No one is asking for that technology.

To:       What does this new technology stand for?

From:  How will the company benefit?

To:       How will the customer benefit?

From:  What’s the smallest improvement that will make a difference?

To:       How can we make the most significant difference?

From:  When will you be done?

To:       What will you learn?

From:  This might not work.

To:       How might this work?

From:  Start, Start, Continue.

To:       Stop, Start, Continue.

From: We’ve tried that before and it didn’t work.

To:      What’s changed since last time?

From:  What does perfect look like?

To:       How is the work done today and which elements can we improve?

From:  Defend and Defend the core.

To:       Extend and Defend the core.

From:  Define the idealized future state.

To:       Start with the work.

From:  That won’t work!

To:       Hey, watch this!

It’s easy to say yes to a project, and it’s difficult to say no.

When I say no to a great project, it preserves the opportunity to say yes to a magical one.

When in doubt, I say no to a project.

When I say no to a project, people notice.

When I say no to a project, I can give you a good reason.  And that reason shapes the selection of the next candidate projects.

When I say no to a project, but I can’t give you a good reason, I’m not doing my job.

When I say no to a project, it’s usually because there’s nothing in it for the customer.

When a project solves a problem for the company, it brings no top-line growth.  Just say no.

If the company benefits from the project, that benefit comes at the expense of the customer. Just say no.

If the customer doesn’t benefit, I say no to the project.

When I say no to a project, people know it’s because I care about the customer.

If there’s disagreement around how the customer will benefit, it’s because the customer benefit is insignificant. I say no and choose a project where the customer benefit is massive.

If you want to judge me, judge me on the projects I say no to.

If you want to help someone grow, use the work.  Put them on mission-critical work that gives them the opportunity to demonstrate next-level skills.  And the work must fit the person – it can’t be too difficult or too easy.  It must be just right.   And don’t create new work. Instead, for the company’s most important projects, identify the critical path work that is vital to the projects’ success and assign them to the work.

Rule 1: A personal development plan must be made from real work.

People don’t develop skills when they talk about the work, they develop skills when they do the work.  But if the work isn’t new, they don’t develop new skills.  And if the work is too difficult, they don’t develop new skills.  The role of the leader is to define work that stretches the individual without pulling them apart.  To do this, the leader must select the work appropriately and pay attention as the work proceeds.  When the going gets rough, the leader shows them how it’s done and then lets them do the work in a supervised way.  The leader does it right when it can be done independently after the work is done with supervision.

Rule 2: A personal development plan is only as good as the leader’s involvement.

There’s great pressure to create personal development plans for everyone.  It’s a good idea in principle, but in practice, it’s not effective.  Good personal development plans are resource intensive.  Even before the work starts, the planning and coordination require significant resources.  And once the plan is up and running, the company’s best talent is applied to the best (and most important) work and the best leaders must stay close to the work for the duration.  The level of commitment is significant to design and manage a good personal development plan and this limits the number of development plans that can be done well.

Rule 3: Fewer personal development plans create more personal development.

Just before it’s possible, it’s impossible.

An instant before you know how to do it, you don’t.

After searching for the answer for a year, you may find it in the next instant.

If you stop searching, that’s the only way to guarantee you won’t find it.

When people say it won’t work, their opinion is valid only if nothing has changed since the last time, including the people and their approach.

If you know it won’t work, change the approach, the specification, or the scope.

If you think it won’t work, that’s another way of saying “it might work “.

If you think it might work, that’s another way of saying “it might not work”.

When there’s a difference of opinion, that’s objective evidence the work is new.

If everyone sees it the same way, you’re not trying hard enough.

When you can’t predict the project’s completion date, that’s objective evidence that the work is new.

If you know when the project will be done, the novelty has been wrestled out of the project or there was none at the start.

When you don’t start with the most challenging element of the project, you cause your company to spend a lot of money on a potentially nonviable project.

Until the novel elements of a project are demonstrated, there is no real progress.

“Jumping Backwards – Cape Verde, Sal Rei” by Espen Faugstad is licensed under CC BY 2.0.