The Beauty of Getting it Wrong

Over the years I've worked with Agile programming methodologies that teach how it's better to fail fast and correct fast, than to fail and wait months to find out.

This past weekend, we were putting together some e-learning modules for the United Nations' Farm and Agriculture Organization (FAO). We were working in Google Docs, and both the client and other members of the consultant team all had access to our document before a single word was written. 

I sent the UN staff and other Subject Matter Experts this email when we began the document:

Hi all,

Thank you for wanting to look at our FAO docs in progress.  Tonianne and I will be writing 5.1, 2.1 and 2.2 over the next several days. I want this to be a collaborative writing process for all involved.

At the moment, I'm trying to build the document as quickly as possible - which means I may skip over or lightly cover some things that you think are important. Please, by all means, use the comment feature (Ctrl-M) in Google docs and insert comments where I need to go back and punch things up or where you think I've maybe gone crazy.

Remember, since you are watching the document be written from the very beginning, you will see the rough writing first. I ask that you guide, but not assume that what you are reading is final content.

Thank you!

We'd made it pretty far into one of the modules when on Sunday morning at 4 am I received an email from Italy.

After seeing just one day's worth of work, the project manager and e-Learning specialists in Rome knew we needed some re-direction.

The content we had created was fine, but the format was not going to fit the needs of that particular client. The PM emailed us immediately. Our day's worth of work took maybe 30 minutes to readjust to the new format. 

This averted what could have been a costly error, had we completed the entire lesson plan in the incorrect format.  We moved the content into a new document that met their needs.  Almost immediately I received this email from their e-Learning specialist:

YES!

this is exactly what I meant!

thank you

Every time I begin a new project and push for transparency in the creation of deliverables, people (okay, Tonianne) raise their eyebrows. They cannot fathom letting someone see something before "it's finished."

They believe in: You can't see it until it's finished.

I translate for them, that sentence really means: You can't see it until it's expensive.

Nothing is ever finished. Almost every professionally published book I read I find typos.

For the UN, we failed early and we saved both time and money as a result. Let people see you make the sausage. In the long run, what do you have to lose?

Photo by FAO Photos

Comments

[Patty]

This is a great post.

I have learned this point very quickly working w/ my boss when we collaborate on documents particularly before they go out to clients. I used to say to her "I'm done take a look at it", then she would come in and "fix" everything, & make suggestions for me.
I have learned to no longer say I'm done but instead I say "your turn" and in turn when she is done she will say the same back to me. We go back in forth in this manner until we get exactly what we want.
Then that process goes on to the client in the same manner. We send many 'proofs' to the clients before the final product is created because no matter how many conversations you have with your client sometimes ideas don't translate the way either you want them to or the client wants them to. Especially when you are talking about the creative process.

This has worked well for us as a collaborating team and in turn made us much more efficient & productive.