The One You Can’t See
When I was much younger I went to a martial arts studio that taught Kenpo. Like many things in life, I was there for a set of lessons and took away so much more, but it took a while to figure that out. While I certainly gained focus, self discipline and self defense, what I really got out of my time with the Flores Brothers Kenpo Karate Studio was awareness.
One particular lesson that has hung with me and I find really translates to leadership is something Jesus Flores used to tell us. Lined up shoulder to shoulder he would ask the class to close our eyes and focus. “Now imagine you are confronted with an aggressor. You see them clearly in your mind, become aware of the danger. What you must be more aware of is that there are always three. The one in front of you, the one behind you and the one you cannot see.”
As my time in IT put in front of one problem after another it has become clearer to me that in facing truly complex issues there are inevitably three things you must become aware of; The issues you know about, The issues you know you don’t know about and lastly The issues you don’t know you don’t know.
So let’s really dig into what that all means and how you can use it to your advantage.
The one right in front of you
Whether what you face is of imminent physical danger or a stack of issues to solve the issues to resolve are of prioritization and awareness. I have had the honor of being asked to take over several teams during my career that were drowning in work and hopelessly behind.
In these cases, the first step has to be documenting the list. This comes in many forms; ticketing systems, spreadsheets, khan bhan boards, etc. The how here isn’t the issue (we can debate that in a later article), the value is in doing it!
So do this in the spirit of answering these questions:
- Are you focusing on the highest priority issues?
- How did you define those priorities?
- What is getting moved to the later or backlog list?
The one behind you
Otherwise known and what you know you don’t know, the todo list, projects lined up! My hope would be that with the steps above you have created what I like to call a backlog. (This article is from 2010, but short and to the point: https://www.thinkitsm.com/blog/?tag=incident-backlog.)
This is the key with what issues you are not getting to, yet they stay are on the list. You know it isn’t all being addressed, but are you sure the team is addressing the right things and can you make an informed argument about the numbers? In more than one case the issues being resolved, amount of time they sit open, what is going unresolved and what the teams month over month backlog growth rate have been the source of funding conversations.
Do not consider these measurements good or bad, but ensure you can consider them. If, for instance, the team operationally resolves issues in an average of 3 business days, that isn’t good or bad. What does it cost to drop it to 2? If you spent that, what would the value to the business be in resolve, i.e. what is the ROI?
The small things matter
In categorizing issues one element that is ever present is the size or difficulty with the impact or resolution of issues. Find a way to carve out time and resources to allow for these small irritations to be resolved, as doing so adds more value than you can imagine.
The one you can’t see
At long last we are left with what you don’t know you don’t know. My hope is you are wondering how you can possibly prepare for issues you are not even aware of or being made aware of!?
For a moment let us assume you have a tight grasp on what requests are being made of your team, whether they are of a break/fix nature or added value such as new projects. With good measurement, mostly through the living and breathing of this workload, your first step is to speak with your team about patterns; issues that come up over and over, even when they don’t directly seem to be the same. Years ago I worked for an ISP and because of that my family were users. My grandfather called me with an issue he tried to resolve through the help site we made available. On our site there were instructions that asked him to right click on “My Computer” and we showed a sample icon. So he did as asked, on the image, on our site… We added a small help text should anyone else do this that you need to find the one on your desktop and then tracked this change. More than 10% of users to this page were trying to click on this image and the change made a significant difference in calls.
To find what you don’t know you are looking for requires that you put down your assumptions, and be open to better understanding. Ask 3 questions to every 1 statement. Assume when a colleague or subordinate does not understand you that you have done a poor job explaining and ask for them to help you, instead of the other way around. Most importantly find the immense value of the question why. I have lost track of the number of times that by working alongside someone, I see them do something that seems needlessly complicated and, in my opinion, wrong. Instead of offering a correction, ask them why. There is a Very good chance their actions are because of a problem or issue you didn’t even know you didn’t know.
Go see all of my blogs: https://www.bowiesystems.com/blog/
Senior IT Project Manager at Keysight Technologies
4 年Great article! As a martial artist, and fellow Kenpoist, myself I appreciate the concept of the opponent you can see, the one behind you, and the one you don't know about. The way you connected this to practical application in my life outside the martial arts is inspired, and really helped to see a path through a difficult point in some of my projects. Great insights, and I look forward to reading more.
IT Services Consultant, President at Complete Circle Consulting, Inc.
4 年I appreciate the timeliness of your article Phil.?While there will always be things that fall into the category of “”we don’t know” what we don’t know”, we do our best to prepare for that category by managing the issues in front of us as well as planning for those in our rear view.??We may feel caught off guard when the “we don’t know” category presents itself, but often, the growth and learning and as you mentioned, “better understanding” that we experience from it, enables us to become more thoughtfully innovative in the future.?And that’s extremely necessary in technology and in the world we are experiencing today.??
IT Leader and Educator
4 年You make some excellent points, and certainly some familiar ones having worked with you for so many years. Whenever I go into a new situation and analyze all of the work, I expect there will be a certain percentage of it that people are doing simply "because we have always done it that way." Liberating people from that can pay big dividends: for example, shutting down a legacy system that has minimal value but takes a lot of time. But most importantly, "the one you cannot see" can also be expressed as "it does not matter how long you have been doing this, things always change, people change, environments are different, and there is always more to learn."
Business Development Manager & SLED Lead California - Technology Solutions Sales
4 年Great article Phil. I actually took Kenpo Karate when I was younger and it really helped across many facets of my life as well. In my job we do a lot of projects with/for customers and when solutioning something it is so important to consider the "The One You Can't See" and make the assumption that it's there every time. Thank You.