Good Management is Flexible

No Plan survives contact with the enemy.

Carl von Clausewitz (or Field Marshal von Moltke … if you prefer)

 

This is a dangerous quote that can both note we as humans don’t get things right most of the time or to simply excuse bad planning. We do not want to create rigid plans filled with single points of failure and we do not want to just write-off planning in the first place.

When we do things, we set forth a story-line. It’s just like going to a movie. We don’t know how that story is going to play out. We don’t know what twists there will be in the plot. But we DO have a good idea of some basic parameters.

For example, you are usually pretty sure that in a science fiction movie set in deep space Spongebob won’t show up. If you are building a deck by hand in your workshop, you are usually sure that the deck won’t become contaminated with eColi. If you are writing software, you can be pretty sure that you will not be delayed by a shortage of asphalt.

So, projects have parameters that we can plan around. These plans are based on assumptions. The assumptions are usually based on guesses and desires. As the project unfolds, conditions usually change.

Below I present this slideshare about our project at the World Bank last year. Many of our major assumptions about the project were wrong – yet the project was successful. Tonianne and I took more than what we needed (extra pens, different sizes of paper, etc) even though we thought we were just building a simple team Personal Kanban.

We assumed we’d build on type of visual control and ended up using others. We had a deliverable that was pretty clear as well. Even the room was different than we’d planned for. But, in the end, flexibility and an eye on project goals over the plan won out.

Personal Kanban at the World Bank - Small Team Rapid Development

View more presentations from Jim Benson.

Comments

[Chad Albrecht]

Excellent deck Jim! While I've used Kanban and Lean techniques for many things, I've never tried it on a group document writing engagement. Very interesting stuff!