Start Later If You Want to Finish Sooner

West of the city of Philadelphia is Interstate 476, affectionately called the Blue Route by locals, which links the Pennsylvania Turnpike and I-95.?With no traffic, this 19-mile drive requires 15–18 minutes to complete. During rush hour, it increases to 45–60 minutes, sometimes longer.?At the height of rush hour, the on-ramp traffic used to back up onto the surrounding roads, reducing traffic to a crawl across the region.?To help the flow of traffic, the on-ramps were widened to two lanes where traffic signals restrict the timing and number of vehicles trying to merge onto the highway, allowing them to merge with reduced braking, which would further slow traffic. It helps, but when there is too much traffic for the roads to handle, a slowdown is inevitable.?

We intuitively understand the impact of traffic when traveling and will frequently change our plans to avoid the worst of the traffic. When giving directions to others, we often pride ourselves on knowing the fastest routes and best times to travel. Then we get to work, and this intuition is often missing. Few people or companies recognize the true impact of having too many things moving at once. If you listen to the conversations of professionals, you could come away with the impression that the simultaneous juggling of many priorities is an accomplishment or a sign of importance and value. Most often this is not the case, however, as too much work in progress slows the delivery of value in the same way that too much traffic slows the delivery of travelers to their destinations.??

The reason value is reduced when too much is moving at once is that individual work capacity functions like a highway. On any road, there is a balance point where adding more traffic will result in reduced speeds, but taking away traffic will only result in less throughput while not allowing vehicles to travel any faster. This is the sweet spot where a road can move the maximum amount of traffic in the shortest period of time. This is the same sweet spot we need to find if we are to maximize individual and corporate throughput and the delivery of value.

It is not the work that we have in progress that delivers value. Uncompleted work only has the potential to deliver value. It is completed work that adds value. If we are going to increase the value that we, or our teams, bring to the organization, it will be the result of maximizing throughput and the speed at which we complete value delivering work.

We need to be more concerned with completing good things, rather than starting good things.

To start maximizing the delivery of value, we need to have a better definition of work capacity. Capacity is commonly defined as the amount of work that a person, team, department, or company can juggle at once. We would be better served with a definition that focuses on results rather than work in progress. A better definition of capacity is the maximum amount of value that is able to be delivered in a given period of time by individuals or groups. With this definition, we can begin to see that having too much work in progress will slow that work, slow the delivery of value, and lead to a reduced capacity to deliver value and results. Having too much work in progress will slow things down in the same way that having too many vehicles on a road will slow traffic and reduce overall throughput.

Illustrating the Problem

If you are given a task that requires 40 hours to complete, and are able to work uninterrupted, it will take you one week to complete the work.

If a second 40-hour task is added and work is split between the two tasks, you will only be able to devote 20 hours in a week to each task, and it will take two weeks to complete both tasks.

If a third 40-hour task is added, we could speculate that it will take three weeks to complete the work.

Finally, if a fourth 40-hour task is added, it would theoretically take four weeks to complete all of the work. This is where things begin to break down. The human mind is not able to multitask. We are only able to focus on one task at a time and must quickly transition from one task to the next. Each time our minds switch from one area of focus to another, we must ramp up our mind and recall. This context switching reduces efficiency. By the time the fourth task is added, it is highly likely that it will no longer take four weeks but slightly longer.

In this example, the delivery of all value was pushed to the end of the month. When work takes longer than a week to complete, the impacts increase exponentially. Delays could be months, quarters, or years. If these tasks are revenue generating, it could be months before revenue begins to be generated. If the activity solves a problem, the pain alleviated by having the problem solved must be endured longer. If the activity brings efficiencies, time continues to be wasted until they are delivered. Any lessons that could have been learned are not learned in time to apply to the next work package, slowing improvements. These are high prices to pay while also creating an environment that can lead to unnecessary stress and burnout for those doing the work. There is always a cost associated with delays, both to the company and to employees.

The Solution

Limit work in progress and measure success based on what is completed rather than what is being worked on. The guidelines to accomplish this are simple. Work on one thing at a time and continue working on it until it is completed or a natural pause point is reached. Pause points come in two forms. The first is when there is some type of blocker or we are waiting on something or someone else. The second is when we've reached a point where continued focus will be unproductive and stepping away will bring fresh energy or ideas. After starting a second activity, do not begin a third one unless the first two cannot be advanced.

Limiting work in progress optimally focuses the work efforts of individuals and teams while speeding up the delivery of value to the organization. This reduction in workload allows workers to stop multitasking and reduce stress. It allows room for full focus and creativity, which will often produce better outcomes and fewer errors. It also serves to increase efficiency and speed the delivery of value while reducing the costs that always come with delays.

In this optimized example, the same amount of work is completed, but value is realized earlier for all but one work activity. The workload was more manageable and likely produced better results due to the ability to focus.

The Results

Three years ago, I took over a new team. The first priority was to reduce the time it took to launch new services into the market. After studying subjects such as queueing theory, Agile, and Lean, I was convinced and put this into action with my own team. The result, in the first year, was a 66% reduction in the time it took to get new services to market. Within two years, 100% of the team reported (in CultureAmp surveys) that they had an appropriate work-life balance. Upon seeing the results, the vice president I reported to said, "I don't know how you got those results, because your team gets a #%$! load of work done."

When the team delivered earlier and more frequently, the perception of completion and value skyrocketed. Their ability to focus also led to the creation of better and more successful services. Increased, and more frequent, value was being delivered to the business without having to do more. It created a sustainable environment for individual team members, who were able to achieve more balance and reduce their stress while producing better outcomes.

Controlling work in progress is the right thing for both the organization and the individuals

This isn't just for certain types of teams or individuals; it is for everyone. The results are achievable, and the solution is simple and easy to follow, but the results can be significant. Getting started requires discipline as well as measuring the things that will reinforce these new behaviors. It requires saying, "Not yet," to important work, and this often comes with an emotional response, both within us and among those interested in the output of the work. It requires negotiating with and influencing those who believe important work needs to start immediately. Yet, if the output is important, it isn't important to start; it is important to finish and deliver the results. It is completed work that adds value. Sometimes, if we want to deliver value sooner, we may need to start later.

? 2023 Todd P Heath All Rights Reserved.

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