Fight the fight
If a plan’s assumptions are wrong and the plan breaks down, people still understand the end goal.
Welcome
At the end of my intern period, I teamed up with two other interns to present the project. We had our project completed on time, prepared a presentation, rehearsed several times individually and as a group. It is important to collect feedback at the end of the presentation and submit the results. As our project was really about collecting data and presenting reports visually, we wanted to do the feedback collection through our site while other decided to collect hard copies and sites like survey monkey. Due to corporate firewall restrictions, Some were not able to access our feedback page. We tried to solve the access issue person by person while the time was running out. One of my group members decided to print the feedback request and saved the day.
Over these many years, there had been numerous instances, sometimes every day, we needed to alter the course to achieve the outcome. But, That was the first time I realized, I should not be fighting the plan rather fight the fight. I remember reading these following lines somewhere. unfortunately, I do not have the reference…
“No Plan survives the first attack: To effectively lead in incredibly dynamic situations, everyone needs to know the intent of the mission. That way, If a plan’s assumptions are wrong and the plan breaks down, people still understand the end goal.”
Expect the unexpected
Uncertainties during the lifecycle of software development is inevitable. A simple repetitive task with meticulous planning can easily fail. I remember in traditional project management, We dedicate fair amount of resources to identify, analyze, embrace/mitigate/control risks. There is always buffers added incase we needed to alter course. No wonder, PMBOK treats risk management as one of six main processes. Agile is no different. The inherent nature of incremental or iterative approach to development decreases the risk largely. There is always a question of whether agile approaches are more conservative ie focus on controlling risk than exploiting it. Nonetheless, What makes the you stand out different is
- How well and quickly you can adapt and respond to failures?
- How well you conduct yourself aftermath of the situation?
Conclusion
More often, We face with volatile, complex, uncertain, and ambigous(VUCA) situations at work. Identifying the VUCA element, finding the right solution and having a clear plan is vital to one’s success. Accepting and bracing change and taking diversions require one not to be afraid of penalties. Organizations and leaders play a vital role in fostering the culture of treating failures as opportunities. They need to equip people to fail fast - fail safe. When people are no longer penalized for failures, innovation takes a huge stride.