Have you ever experienced a crisis situation at work where a looming deadline caused you to alter your work plans, your family activities, or your social schedule? Of course you have.
What was it about how you handled the disruption, that crisis, which helped you succeed? Did you do anything differently other than putting in more time? Did you have a more focused breakdown of the work or a more focused task delegation, considered new perspectives, stopped a circular decision-making process, or something else?
From necessity is born innovation. From crisis is born resilience. Politicians say, “Never waste a crisis.” My questions for you are, “Why wait for a crisis? Why not artificially create one?”
When I discuss the idea of “artificial crisis,” it is generally followed by uncomfortable laughing at the audacity to even suggest this. But given time to reflect on the idea, people begin to agree that they could be more innovated and resilient if they were able to focus on a problem for a period of time. A crisis will bring that focus. Would you be more interested if I told you that in the process of exercising artificial crisis, you can increase capacity at the same time?
Let me be clear, I am not asking you as a CEO to impose a management style that brings you some kind of masochistic power pleasure. I am encouraging you to inject “artificial crisis” events and milestones into your program/project plan that are designed to leverage your collective brain trust, which will accelerate value and rapidly advance a project.
Consider a project using an “airplane” build model (see blog entitled “Can Process and Mindset Improve Capability and Increase Capacity?). This project traditionally takes six weeks to reach a particular milestone. However, by using the value acceleration technique, the team can reach this milestone in a fraction of the time, assuming the right planning and the right team mindset.
You may be saying, “But I have three priority programs ongoing, and all my people are committed and focused on their responsibilities for the next six weeks. I don’t have the time to do what you are suggesting.”
If you can find a way to accelerate each of your programs by embracing this new process and mindset, would you do it?
We have all participated in a project crisis in which we worked long and hard to meet a particular deadline. How much was your program advanced at these times compared to the program planned timeline prior to the crisis? Don’t wait for the weekend or the long evenings; build this focused process into the “normal” way of doing work. By building value acceleration events into your programs/projects, you will be creating new, untapped capacity with the same workforce.
Let’s do the math. Let’s keep it simple and assume one person per project. Now compare.
Traditional Program Planned Approach – Baseline:
- 3 projects
- x6 weeks (30 workdays) to complete
- 18 project workweeks (90 workdays)
Value Acceleration Approach:
Now, build into your plan 2 workweeks for value acceleration in which your “airplane” teams spend about 3 days of focused attention on each project (no interruptions or distractions allowed including other meetings). This approach results in advancing the projects 4 weeks each (20 workdays times 3 projects equals 60 days).
- 3 projects
- x3.3 value acceleration workdays per project
- 10 total workdays (rounding up)
Assume the 10 workdays invested in value acceleration save 4 weeks of time for each project (when using the “airplane build” model, I have observed many times far greater advancements). Four workweeks (20 workdays) times 3 projects equals a savings of 60 days. This is building additional capacity with process improvements not by investing in automation or other strategies.
In full disclosure, you can’t simply schedule a value acceleration event and make it successful. It needs to be planned. Participants will need some advance reading materials. The event may need to be scheduled off-site. You will likely need to “whiteboard” approaches, ideas, and action steps. You will need ground rules and a facilitator to keep the meeting moving. You may need breakout groups to work on specific activities.
I invite you to provide your thoughts, insights, and ideas on the types of things you would have to do or plan in your line of business to maximize your value acceleration event.