202408060133 Caution and perfectionism hurt progress

Being overly cautious or too much of a perfectionist will undoubtedly limit progress and potentially even destroy the ultimate outcome of a project as a whole. Being overly cautious can manifest in different ways:

• Having meetings about meetings. This shows that there are issues with how the organization runs that need to be addressed pre- or post-hoc in order for something to actually get done.
• Meetings to discuss how we should do something in order to get consensus before getting things done. This shows that contributors do not have the authority, responsibility, or capability to do things individually and have to justify, wait, and ask others to do their job.
• A lack of desire from contributors to be associated with a particular project or task. This shows that risk and reward are not appropriately balanced in your organization. If people don't want to be a part of a risky project, then they know that they don't have the authority or latitude to address the project correctly or perhaps know that they won't be rewarded for working hard and taking a risk on something that could hurt them.
• Requiring large chains of approval and sign-off. If many people need to see something in order for it to be approved, then the contributors and the teams responsible for making something don't really have the authority or empowerment to do the job they were asked to do (202407081040 If you can't cancel the project you're not the product owner). If people who are not intricately involved in the project day-to-day get more say than as a potential source of feedback, they are in the way of that project's success and the team will revert to caution and perfectionism in order to avoid re-work and disapprovals.

In a similar vein, caution — or more accurately a lack of risk taking — can be the result of not having true ownership of the project and its outcomes. In a corporate world, the workers don’t have “skin in the game” (Taleb etc. #thread) and therefore don’t — and shouldn’t — really care to do anything faster, better, or more correctly.

We have a few options for avoiding this, but they all boil down to having more ownership. Make it so that the project's success will directly and proportionately benefit you. True ownership is the best way to get someone to do their best work. True ownership is the only way to be totally engaged and productive. Give people the 202407010952 Freedom and Responsibility to build something great and reward them for it. Remember that 202407081040 If you can't cancel the project you're not the product owner.

Continuing this line of reasoning a bit, consider the quality and value or "passion projects" or "labors of love". Often these are doubly invested in by their creators because they don't have the power to show their potential in other ways — they're an escape valve. But no matter why they exist, they're great because the creator cares, owns the outcome, and doesn't need to be cautious.