The one, two, three of getting it done.

I am the kind of person who likes to learn by doing.

I read an article or a book, I come to grips with what (1) is needed and why (2) it’s needed and then I go ahead and try to do that thing without first learning the basics of how (3) to do it.

Most of the time I fall on my face when I give it a go. Knowing two out of three isn’t bad if you ask me, but in the space where I am trying things out, it’s not good enough. Good and best practice exists. The “how-to” exists.  

I have made this mistake a number of times, just to make sure!

Having two out of three pieces of the puzzle in the areas where good or best practice doesn’t exist, then it’s a totally different ball game, in fact, it’s not even a ball game anymore. It’s something more like jumping off of a moving train, from a bridge and landing in a shot glass [to paraphrase Chief Engineering Officer Scotty from Star Trek referring to interstellar jump capability].

In the world of good and best practice though, I have seen others make the same mistakes as me. Either from the perspective of budget constraints, because we can’t afford the professionals in this Strat session, or from the perspective of time and resource constraints because we can’t afford to coddle our staff and we need to change immediately. “We’ll have to do it ourselves”.

Whatever the reason, I completely and utterly empathise.

We are in a world where doing more with less is the norm, and now we have to do it with the added layers of a pandemic and economic turbulence. Things are realer than real, they are surreal!

I am, however left with the thoughts around cost. The cost to deploy an intervention vs. the cost of not. The cost of continuing a project vs. losing all of the previous cash spent and forfeiting the value and impact it was intended to have. The cost of not having the basic skills in place vs. letting them figure it out for themselves.

For example:

I love DIY. I always want to build it and do it myself, but at the end of the day it always ends up costing me more. I don’t have the tools, it takes me longer and I sometimes have to rework things or start all over again. Often, it’s a complete failure. I haven’t learnt all of the tips and tricks to guarantee success nor have I got the experience to make it an efficient and affordable option. I do DIY for the joy of the process and not to get the job done in the best way possible.

This tension between being strapped for resources, the dire need for survival with the future full of unknowns. My goodness gracious, what a place to be!  

I wonder if there isn’t a middle ground, especially in the right here and right now. There are certain realities we have to face. The people in our organisations have to be enabled to sustain business continuity, to explore new ways to do business and new ways to keep the economy ticking.

What if the middle ground is just a conversation? A re-contracting based on current circumstances?

What if you don’t have to pull that plug on your project? What if you could equip your staff with critical skills or development that will enable them to assist you in pulling through this?

What if a renegotiation on payment terms, will help you get the wage bill sorted and still benefit from the professional services? What if we open up channels of communication with our supply chains, our contractors and our people? What if?

If, like me, you are curious and still have at least one eye on the long game, let’s have a conversation and talk about how?

I would love to hear from you!

Be safe, take care and hang in there.