Engines & Business

This week's newsletter and LinkedIn Live is special. I picked this topic and our special guest Jack J. McCauley is the only person I know that I could have this conversation with = Going to be awesome!

Engines & Business are Similar

The comparison between the 2 is the unique portion of this topic and most of the people I know who excel in 1 tend to lack in the other. For me, Engines and Business both function the same and in my experience, a working solution in 1 tends to naturally inspire a solution in the other. Example:

Navigating system variance.

30mins is not enough time to deep-dive this so I’m diving into it right away = Variance. Things never work exactly as planned, environments are never 100% stable, and Entropy is real. Perfect is an imperfect idea and its real to say, most haven’t caught on. There is a learning curve to learning you don’t know.

Project Charters are bad

I’m interested to hear Jack’s feedback on this claim. I’m not a fan of project charters and I still frequently use project charters. My working alternative is simple and awesome (control lines like a carborator = scoping from high level goals, not its low level execution) but understanding why its needed in the 1st place is complex and confusing.

Most don’t get it

Specifically = Change Management. Change management in project charters is about the worst way to adapt a project over time and fast-tracking to my primary point, engine carburetors are better at it than standard change management systems.

Example: Decision-making context is chronologically dependent = changes a moment after the moment = change managers are not making decisions in the same context as the original charter = changes are not aligned with the original logic = changes are never aligned with the original project goal = starts to skew toward 'Fail' on day 1.

Example: People naturally care more on day 1 than day 50 = the most common project change management strategy in the world.. sucks ??

Carbonators and many other mechanical portions of vehicle engines have the common, natural, ‘you can’t escape it’ variance of real life already worked into its design. With vacuum-operated carbs, all sorts of goofy things could change and they still work. Your engine still starts. Your car will still make it home safely. Example: Rain, Cold, and Air Speed.. etc.

Project Charters are outdated the moment they’re signed = Because real life doesn’t work like that. Perfect plans just feel good to think about = its not real.

Ego, ignorance (unknown unknown), and a skew toward comfort = reality doesn't work like that.