🦉 10x curiosity — Issue #46 — Friction and The Three Critical Gaps
Thinking…
Taking the project management theme one step further and examining why the agile styles of project management are so powerful. What agile techniques all have in common is an acknowledgement that whilst you can have a general direction you would like to head or outcome you are aiming for, there are so many unknowns between where you currently are sitting and where you want to go, that planning extensively is at best a waste of time, or worse possibly setting you up for significant losses. In his book “The Art of Action” Stephen Bungay explains why this is. In the execution of any project, you make plans which lead to actions, which lead to outcomes. You then iterated on these outcomes with a new series of plans (see figure below). There is, what Bungay calls, “friction” at each of these stages, introducing unpredictable elements that threaten the best laid plans. Friction is a result of three critical gaps:
- Knowledge Gap — The difference between what we would like to know and what we actually know
- Alignment Gap — The difference between what we want people to do and what they actually do
- Effects Gap — the difference between what we expect our actions to achieve and what they actually achieve
Understanding that friction is ever present highlights why small iterative steps in problem solving or project management are critical to success. At any point you could be running into issues related to the three gaps, course corrections can be easily made.
Inherent in the iterative agile approaches are systems or tools that force you to continually confront where your project could be falling apart. Stating your hypothesis and expected outcomes in the Lean startup methodology exposes issues with the effects gap; the knowledge gap can be examined through tools highlighted in rapid learnings framework and many design thinking tools help you establish issues relating to the alignment gap.
More to keep you interested….
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A light hearted look at what can go wrong with your projects. #3 is particularly funny
Visualizing the Uncertainty in Data — flowingdata.com
A graphical look at different ways to present uncertainty in your data.
With ingestible pill, you can track fart development in real time on your phone — arstechnica.com
First human trials reveal gut gas chambers and blustery effects of diet.
Be like Bill Gates and Warren Buffett: If you’re not spending 5 hours per week learning, you’re being irresponsible — qz.com
“In my whole life, I have known no wise people (over a broad subject matter area) who didn’t read all the time — none. Zero.” — Charlie Munger, Self-made billionaire & Warren Buffett’s longtime business partner Why did the busiest person in the world, former president Barack Obama, read an hour a day while in office?
Ian’s Shoelace Site — Introduction — www.fieggen.com
This is quirky! Whether you want to learn to lace shoes, tie shoelaces, stop shoelaces from coming undone, calculate shoelace lengths or even repair aglets, Ian’s Shoelace Site has the answer.
