Return on Intention

A few decades ago, there was a Masonic lodge building in downtown Buffalo, NY that had the most beautifully ornate chairs in it. Many early members of that lodge were furniture makers and they applied their craft to decorate the room. These chairs were not only amazing to look at, but were also a grand sight to behold just by their sheer size. The furniture was built inside of the lodge and so big it couldn’t fit through the doors of the building. When the lodge moved to a new building, they had to cut a hole in the roof and get the furniture craned out.

In this age of mass production and Ikea, seeing ornate hand-made furniture really makes you appreciate the talents of man. Seeing work like this is a lot like viewing art. It’s inspiring to see what we as a race can create. Now imagine for a minute that when the lodge brothers got together in the early days they said “What we need is some furniture that can be swapped out of here into any other building quickly and easily, no matter what the building characteristics. We also need to make sure that they are very durable and inexpensive.”  If this was how it happened, the lodge room would be full of folding chairs.

There is nothing wrong with trying to create very portable and utilitarian solutions to problems, but be very careful what you are optimizing for. In the case described above, I think the best solution was the ornate hand made furniture. It make the room feel differently than it would if it was full of metal folding chairs. In this environment the way you feel when you enter is more important than the ability to move it out the door. When you are making your decisions about design and functionality, prioritize what you want to optimize for and develop your plans around it.

There is a concept in software development (at least web development) called agile that seems to be part of a larger trend. First lets talk about agile, then the trend.

In traditional web development, you sit down with a client and try and plan out a huge project. This can take months, going back and forth over what it really needs to do, how it needs to do it and so on. What you end up with a giant planning document and estimate that spells out what is going to happen. Many clients like it because it gives them a solid number they can attach to the project and budget for. It is all very rigid and if something changes a barrage of paperwork follows to ensure that the original document and budget is adjusted to reflect the changes. This is all about control and a clear map. Then there is agile.

Agile works like this, you set up a really rough plan of what you want, then the developers go and start building. Then you get back together and decide what is good or bad and go back to work. Rinse and repeat. The theory is that you can get a project developed faster because your not trying to guess how everything will work and plan it all out. You’re making it up as you go (at least the developmental details). Essentially you take all the planning time and exchange for actual development and testing of concepts. This is all about flexibility. All in all this seems to work, and get projects done in about the same budget range but usually faster, or better.

This seems to be part of a larger common theme. We used to all have to go to an office and punch a clock, but now there are a lot of telecommuters and “I don’t care when you work, just so long as it gets done on time”. A closer example for me is this years BarCamp Albuquerque. BarCamp is a volunteer run conference driven by and for a specific community. Traditional conferences are set up in advance and planned to death. They have to be. You have to get a venue, speakers, food and on and on. When the date for the conference is set the year prior, thats it. If you have something else going on, the conference is not going to change dates to accommodate you. BarCamp did.

BarCamp’s date was set two months prior to the event. It was also set on a holiday weekend. (That was my fault. I didn’t notice). After the conference was “full” in a few weeks, the “registered” attendees started to unregister in waves. Apparently they noticed it was a holiday weekend and had other plans. BarCamp moved back two weekends to accommodate, and the attendees came back. A traditional conference would not and could not do that.

It seems that being flexible is the way in which we all want to work now. We are all busy and have to juggle many different things. I hear work life balance is one of them, but I wouldn’t know about that, owning a small business . Take a minute to consider the ways you do business. Are there steps in your process that are inflexible? What would happen if you changed it? How much planning do you do? How often does it go according to plan?

I’m not suggesting that you drop everything your doing and fly by the seat of your pants. I am suggesting you take a good look at how you operate and ask a few tough questions. Like in web development, most often big up front design specifications are only done to create an airtight contract. What good is an airtight contract? It allows you to nail someone who screws you over. Think about that…. is that the right way to engage in business? Yes we need to reduce risk, and yes we need contracts, but at what level and cost? Perhaps the right approach is one based more on collaboration. A process that is based more on getting things right and taking a few risks, not trying to guess how everything will go to the letter and have enough ass-coverage to go to court. No plan ever survives contact with real people, so why do we try so hard?

So what?

I can’t tell you how to live your life or run your business, but consider:

What (illusions of) control can you give up to make your life / business better or faster?

When hiring a web developer (or other profession) have you done enough research / due diligence to make a decision based on them and their capabilities? (rephrase) – Are you hiring them for what could be (making real value for the organization and market) , or what shouldn’t be (with a plan for when they screw up)?

Just some thoughts – there is a comment section, What’s your take?