Problem Solving V — The Three Critical Gaps
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.
#Ref — The Art of Action — Stephen Bungay
Let me know what you think? I’d love your feedback. If you haven’t already then sign up for a weekly dose just like this.
Get in touch… — linktr.ee/Tomconnor
More like this….
- Kanban your work — The Kanban method is in the Agile suite of tools that can help you visualise and prioritise work.
- Design thinking and lean startup concepts to make your team more agile. — A summary of some of the reference material I have found most useful in exploring design thinking and lean start-up concepts to get to the heart of the problem you are trying to solve
- Swarm Intelligence — Can managers develop simple rules to shape the behaviour of their organizations and replace rigid command-and-control structures?
- Complex Adaptive Systems — Simple Rules, Unpredictable Outcomes — The concept of managing through a series of simple rules is an intriguing one. Could magic in our organisations occur through less rather than more control?
