Don’t work faster. Deliver sooner.
There’s a magic trick hidden in plain sight in all organizations. It will allow you to deliver sooner without working harder or faster.
A simple but counterintuitive adjustment is needed.
Here it comes:
Start later.
Most good magic tricks are difficult to understand at first. It sounds like the opposite should happen, right? How can we possibly deliver sooner if we start later? What if I told you it will not only speed up your current delivery, it will also reduce the time spent on the next? This is one of those tricks where even if I told you why it works, you wouldn’t believe it. You have to be willing to try it out for yourself. You have to feel it to believe it.
So if you’re feeling crazy, here’s how to test it:
When you receive a request for work and you are already doing something, finish your current task before you commit to new to work. Do not stop work still not finished to start something new. Do not even promise to deliver it. Postpone commitment, not your current work.
Postpone commitment, not your current work.
When you do this, a magic spark will ignite somewhere else as well. The requests queued in front of you are no longer committed work. They transform into options that we may choose to do in the future. Options are fairy dust that allow us to magically choose between different futures.
One small change. Faster delivery and a more flexible future. Except for that one change, you may continue to work exactly as before.
Some magic trick.
There must be some sleight of hand. Surely it isn’t real.
Or is it?
