Estimated reading time: 3 minutes, 43 seconds.
TODAY’S IDEA: Thrashing
— From Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? by Seth Godin
“The only purpose of starting is to finish,” writes Seth Godin in his remarkable book Linchpin. Finishing or shipping, as Godin calls it, “means hitting the publish button on your blog, showing a presentation to the sales team, answering the phone, selling the muffins, sending out your references. Shipping is the collision between your work and the outside world.”
But one of the things that makes shipping so difficult is thrashing. Thrashing is “the apparently productive brainstorming and tweaking we do for a project as it develops… sometimes thrashing is merely a tweak; other times it involves major surgery.”
Thrashing is essential; however, it’s the timing of the thrashing that can make or break a project. In the video below, Godin insists on thrashing early because that is when it’s easy and cheap. He is right. Professionals thrash early and then they get to work so as to ship with top quality and pride, respecting deadlines and other people’s time, and doing so within budget. It’s not a dream, it can be done.
The problem comes when people behave in an amateur way and do all the thrashing near the end. Godin continues, “the closer we get to shipping, the more people get involved, the more meetings we have, the more likely that CEO wants to be involved. And why not? What’s the point of getting involved early when you can’t see what’s already done and your work will probably be redone anyway? The point of getting everyone involved early is simple: thrash late and you won’t ship. Thrash late and you introduce bugs. Professional creators thrash early. The closer the project gets to completion, the fewer people see it and the fewer changes are permitted.”
Thrashing allowed at the end leads to missed deadlines, much stress, unnecessary changes, late nights, much heartache, frustration and resentment. Coordinating all the thrashing from teams of people that increasingly get larger as the deadline approaches is very difficult. “Projects stall as they trash. Nine women can’t have a baby in one month, no matter how closely they coordinate their work.”
So, what to do? Godin offers two solutions. Both will make people uncomfortable, yet they are the only way in which projects will be shipped on time and without the unnecessary heartache that too-many-cooks-in-the-kitchen brings. Here they are:
1. “Relentlessly limit the number of people allowed to thrash. That means you need formal procedures for excluding people, even well-meaning people with authority. And you need secrecy. If you have a choice between being surprised (and watching a great project ship on time) or being involved (and participating in the late launch of a mediocre project), which do you want? You must pick one or the other.”
2. “Appoint one person to run it. Not to co-run it or to lead at task force or to be on the committee. One person, a human being, runs it. [His or] her name on it. [His or] her decisions.”
In the video, Godin tells the story of how his boss loved to show up the day before with “just a little suggestion” that led to a domino effect of changes resulting in missed deadlines. Godin’s solution was to adopt a disciplined approach: thrash at the beginning and allow people to share their input and ideas early on. Then, have the thrashers sign a form stating that they have given their input and that they will not provide further input or changes after a certain deadline. This allows the people who are working on the project the necessary time for completion and shipping.
ACTION
TODAY: Think of ways in which you can apply early thrashing to your projects. How can you also instill the discipline in your team of thrashing early and shipping on time?
FUTURE: As you encounter the start of new projects, think of the optimal time and way in which thrashing should take place. Should it be a meeting? Should it be one-on-one? Should it be via a form? Think also of the time when thrashing should come to an end. Don’t veer away from the discipline of thrashing early and having a cut off point. Then take the best ideas, incorporate them into the project and get to work so that you can ship the best possible project on time and on budget.
Know someone who needs to stop thrashing at the end of a project? Please share this post with that person via email, Facebook or Twitter, thank you!