Nice metaphors. I like the idea of boulders to initiatives and stones to epics. I also like the image of dropping a boulder into a body of water - there surely are going to be waves. Trying to develop on your metaphor - what if the org tries to move the wrong boulder or that it’s moving the boulder to the wrong location e.g. Miami County Ohio instead of Miami FL. An initiative can go wrong in a myriad of ways and because it’s so massive the repercussions will be felt regardless of where it goes wrong. The other thing I’m picking up is that if an org is picking up a large boulder and everyone feels its weight it probably is a red flag by itself as you should not be picking up a boulder or a mound as is… there must be some tangible proximate objective in sight….
Thanks, Vlad - I appreciate the thoughtful response. Ideally a company will foster a culture of data-driven decisions and dissenting perspectives to avoid such situations. Working backwards from a customer problem (i.e., solving Miami Florida's eroding shoreline) can help ensure the the initiative is aligned. Beginning initiatives with an MVP to "test the waters" is usually smart before investing further (i.e., send a pebble to the right Miami before extracting a full boulder). Have you found any other practices to help mitigate that risk?
Nice metaphors. I like the idea of boulders to initiatives and stones to epics. I also like the image of dropping a boulder into a body of water - there surely are going to be waves. Trying to develop on your metaphor - what if the org tries to move the wrong boulder or that it’s moving the boulder to the wrong location e.g. Miami County Ohio instead of Miami FL. An initiative can go wrong in a myriad of ways and because it’s so massive the repercussions will be felt regardless of where it goes wrong. The other thing I’m picking up is that if an org is picking up a large boulder and everyone feels its weight it probably is a red flag by itself as you should not be picking up a boulder or a mound as is… there must be some tangible proximate objective in sight….
Thanks, Vlad - I appreciate the thoughtful response. Ideally a company will foster a culture of data-driven decisions and dissenting perspectives to avoid such situations. Working backwards from a customer problem (i.e., solving Miami Florida's eroding shoreline) can help ensure the the initiative is aligned. Beginning initiatives with an MVP to "test the waters" is usually smart before investing further (i.e., send a pebble to the right Miami before extracting a full boulder). Have you found any other practices to help mitigate that risk?