In knowledge work, following a defined process can sometimes be frustrating and feel slow but most often it is best for the business and best for your stress level. A counter-example to this is when a project is moved up in priority and everybody must shift their focus to the new priority and “hand carry” it over the finish line. This shifting in priorities requires employees to be disrupted and breaks other process flows leading to a cycle of continued reprioritization if there is no margin to dampen the cycle.
This makes me think of popping popcorn. Each pop is another project that is moved to the top of the priority list contributing entropy to the system.
This has an overall negative impact on a business:
- Added stress on the employees
- Additional work required for an employee to “hand carry” a project across the finish line
- Added setup time when switching tasks
- The cost to the other projects when individual items are moved up in the priority
- The added risk when non-standard processes are used
- The culture shift in a company where everybody is constantly jockeying to get their project to the top of the priority
- Erosion of trust in following the process
- Lack of root-cause problem-solving
Here are a handful of reasons this occurs:
- Management drives this behavior by reprioritizing projects while requiring root-cause problem-solving to keep this from reoccurring
- When people are taking action (even if it is not the right action) it looks and feels like they are doing something and they can say they tried and can use it as evidence that their action fixed the problem
- Lack of metrics to stick to the process
- Lack of tools to understand the impact of reprioritization (can we model this?)
- This behavior is rewarded with recognition (Does this lead us to unintentionally create problems so we look good fixing them?)
A job should not include regular hand-carrying projects to the finish-line, using workarounds, and frustrating others. Many don’t know better and think this is what work is. Your job should be adding value. Work should be smooth and calm.
Here are some ways to counter the tendency
- Create metrics for tracking when a process is not followed
- Implement a knowledge work andon cord
- Initiate a team that is responsible for solving the root cause of reprioritization
- Create tools to determine the overall impact on the system when things are prioritized