Estimated reading time: 2 minutes, 40 seconds.
TODAY’S IDEA: Illusions of agreement
— From REWORK: Change the way you work forever by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson
Raise your hand if you’ve ever been involved in putting together a report that is still sitting on a shelf somewhere accumulating dust… Oh, geez, both of my hands are raised!
Fried and Hansson in their excellent book Rework, say, “The business world is littered with dead documents that do nothing but waste people’s time. Reports no one reads, diagrams no one looks at, and specs that never resemble the finished product. These things take forever to make but only seconds to forget.” So true.
What they suggest is removing layers of abstraction and “getting real.” But what does this mean?
“Instead of describing what something looks like, draw it. Instead of explaining what something sounds like, hum it. […] The problem with abstractions (like reports and documents) is that they create illusions of agreement. A hundred people can read the same words, but in their heads, they’re imagining a hundred different things.” That’s why this famous cartoon about a tree swing is so funny and so on point!
It is similar to when you and your friends read a book: you all have different ideas of what the characters look like in your heads. And when you all go see the movie, you know exactly what each character looks like. “That’s when you get true understanding” and only then, everyone is on the same page.
The authors go on to cite the case of Alaska Airlines building up the Airport of the Future. “They didn’t rely on blueprints and sketches, they got a warehouse and built mockups using cardboard boxes… The team then built a small prototype in Anchorage to test systems with real passengers and employees.” The result was a success, as it increased efficiency by decreasing wait times and passenger frustration.
But this doesn’t apply just to large projects. The book quotes renowned furniture craftsman Sam Maloof who “felt is was impossible to make a working drawing to show all the intricate and fine details that go into a chair or stool.” He would simply get out the appropriate tool for that job and start working on it.
What project are you working on now where you could take out your proverbial chisel? Let’s avoid the illusions of agreement and have something real that we can indeed agree on!
ACTION
TODAY: Take some time to think about the many projects you are working on. Which ones are being handled under illusions of agreement? Don’t feel bad, it’s natural to work that way as we’ve all been conditioned to think it’s the best way. But now that you now the benefits of getting real you can speed up your goal by avoiding the distractions that come with abstractions. (Ha! I’m a poet and don’t know it…)
FUTURE: Keep in mind the distractions and the time spent on illusions of agreement. Share this info with your team and clients. For each project that you start, big or small, get in the habit of asking yourself and those involved, How can we make this real? That will push you to find better ways to accomplish your goals.
Know someone who needs to get real? Please share this post via email, Facebook or Twitter, thank you!