Think (and Plan) from Right to Left
Hello Prof. Bent Flyvbjerg and Dan Gardner . My partner, Wayne Greenwood and I have been planning, consulting and training in the project?sphere for 30 years. "How Big Things Get Done" is without doubt one of the best references on projects. Period. And having the data to support it is a godsend.
I want to focus on Chapter 3 - "Think Right to Left"
You pose the question, “why are we doing this project?” My mentor and unsung hero, is Dean Kyle. He taught us to ask 2 questions at the beginning of every project.
1. What’s wrong with the current situation? It’s interesting how many ‘soft’ assignments can be eliminated with that subtlety.
2. What will be better or different when we’re finished? The ‘or different’ addresses the unpleasant fact that some project deliverables may not be especially positive to all of the stakeholders.
In 1989, Stephen Covey popularized ‘thinking with the end in mind’ in his book ‘7 Habits of Highly Effective People’. He wasn’t referring to projects, though.
However, Dean beat him to the punch. In 1969, in Port of Spain, Trinidad, using the back side of a roll of wallpaper (not pre-pasted) Dean planned out an extensive project using a modified PERT ‘chart’.?And he planned it from right to left.?In my research, this is the earliest record I’ve come across referencing the use of ‘pull’ planning.
I met Dean in 1982, but it wasn’t until 1994 that I came upon his work in project planning and that of his son, Mackenzie Kyle
With all that, here’s the discussion I want to initiate:
If “thinking from right to left is good.”
And “good projects start with questions, not answers.”
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Then thinking… and asking questions… from right to left...
to create the execution plan… is even better.
Here’s why:
There is an important distinction between ‘head first’ planning and what we call ‘end first’ planning. When I was a kid my Dad warned me, ‘don’t ever jump into unknown waters head first’. I think Dean received the same advice.
Creating an execution plan from left to right places the focus on ‘what’s next’ and essentially?looking for answers down the road to reach the project’s completion. That’s not to say we don’t ask questions. It’s the focus that’s important.
In end first, or ‘pull’ planning, there are several nuances that most people are unaware of. One of them is overcoming the habit of looking at things from beginning to end. Here's the 'secret' question we've shared with 10's of thousands:
Working from right to left, ‘what must be true in order for work to begin on this task at this moment?’
It focuses the team’s entire effort on discovering just the immediate parallel and sequential predecessors. It is especially accurate at finding the all-illusive 'cross-dependencies' between one deliverable and another. Those are the ones that cause some of the worst planning mistakes..
This could be a very interesting conversation.