Outcomes

There is nothing wrong with designing a workflow with multiple fail points if the fail points help create products with high margins.

But don't act surprised when the fail points eventually fail. They will. That's why they are called fail points.

You have two choices:

A: Tolerate the high failure rate and enjoy the high margins.
B: Lower the failure rate and accept lower margins.

You can't have both. They are usually diametrically opposed.

Peter

Ruts

Being creatures of habit can limit our ability to think creatively.

If you are a part of a standing, regular meeting, try sitting in a different seat, preferably one normally occupied by someone else. Enjoy the awkwardness when that person enters.

If its your meeting, insist that everyone sit in a different chair each time. Don't let anyone get to comfortable with the status quo, in either the meeting or the office in general.

The status quo is your enemy.

Peter

Self-Identification

The US government is proposing a streamlined fuel economy sticker for new cars which would include a big graphic grade of each specific model: A, B, C and D.

Auto marketers could easily use this grade in their ads, conveying so much information in a tiny visual space. Picture a Prius "wrapped" with an "A" sticker. place it in the corner of every print and TV ad. You get my drift.

There would also be a market for window stickers of the grade your car gets, mostly "A" stickers, the automotive equivalent of "My Kid is an Honor Student".

You could also do a brisk trade in "D" stickers for those who are proud of how much fuel they use. You know the type.

Two self-selecting groups of car buyers, easily labeled by letters.

Time to make some stickers.

Peter

Initiative

Everyone has had to work on a project that was a bad idea from the start. But since the Bad Idea was championed by Someone Important, the group had to spend time and money to prove it was a bad idea.

Perhaps there was a kernel of a good idea within it that could be sorted from he ashes of failure, but that's an expensive way to get to the Good Idea.

On the other end of the spectrum is the Good Idea that you are afraid to try because it hasn't "Gone Through Channels" or "Been Reviewed by the Idea Committee".

Do it anyway. Be your own champion. Even if it doesn't work out, you will be setting yourself apart as someone who is willing to take the right kind of risks, and they are the people who get promoted.



Peter

Foundations

The city recently repaved a section of street near my office. The revealing part of the process was what lies below the asphalt- century-old brick pavers, still solid and even. The asphalt above eventually fails due to weather and traffic, but the base remains solid, easily reused for another generation.

A good friend works in IT at a large insurance company, and he jokes that I could have lifetime employment if I was willing to work in the sub-basement writing COBOL. Despite decades of improvements in computers and the languages that run them, much of the guts of this company still operates in the language from the 60's. The decision was made long ago that it was cheaper to keep a half-dozen COBOL staff around to maintain the base system than to try to port the entire, now massive, system to something more modern.

Windows 7 still has bits of DOS under the hood.

My office life displays relics of earlier processes. I still have paper forms for some things. Some things are more convenient on physical paper than online. I still shoot video on tape because I find it much easier to archive than other formats.

But some of the systems I use need to go because the base isn't solid anymore. Nobody delivers a hand-drawn piece of artwork as a rough draft, or a script scribbled on a legal pad.

Metaphorically, we still structure many of our workflows for old methods. Do we still need seven layers of approval? Do we all need to meet in the same space for 40 hours a week? Would 20 be enough? 5? do our old titles still matter? Do we need titles? Is a formal chain of command still necessary?

Are you standing on pavers? or something else?

Peter

Backups

Have you backed up all of your current projects? Probably.

Do you save projects once they are completed? Odds are that your archiving routine is spotty or incomplete.

Right now I am rebuilding a project from six months ago because I didn't save a copy of the deliverables in a high quality format.  I am getting off easy, though, because I still have all of the elements lying around- but this is forcing me to reconsider how I have been doing things in the past, and form new habits moving forward.

Could you easily recreate a project from your past if asked? I suspect the cost of a robust archive is recouped in only a few "Hey- do you still have this?" requests.

Back to my rebuild.

Peter

Lowered Expectations

Sometimes a company can impress you despite your first impression.

I buy shoes at this place. They have nice staff. They know what they are doing. They are considered experts locally. Their service is super.

But their website is like a flashback to 1994. Or rather, they built the website in '94 and have never done a redesign to bring it up to modern technological or aesthetic standards.

While a business that still rings up sales on an old cash register (Cha-Ching!) can appear quaint and nostalgic, an outdated website suggests cluelessness.

It lowered my expectations as a first time customer.

While the 'retro' website may be an in-joke for regular shoppers, how many potential sales are chased away?

Peter