It's All Connected
“It's the energy between all things, a tension, a balance, that binds the universe together." - Luke Skywalker, as Played by Mark Hamill, The Last Jedi
In a prior life, I worked with this guy who had the uncanny ability to see how processes were interconnected. We were working together at a rather large company, and he was tasked to map out the processes of all of our different divisions. After that time, he would be charged with streamlining the processes one by one until the whole company had been overhauled.
In less than a year, he had managed to map out the process flows for most of the large scale processes. The most amazing part was that, in addition to mapping it out, he was able to talk fluently about everything that he had learned during this process. He would go on at length about minute details in meetings and it was quite fascinating to hear. He was so detail orientated that he would discover parts of the process that the process owners didn’t even realize existed. But of course there was a catch, otherwise why would I have written this article…
His superpower turned out to be the root of his biggest weakness. Prior to his time at our large company, he had done this same process at several smaller companies. In each of those situations, he was successful. When it came to our larger company, he found himself struggling with how to move forward with the data he had gathered.
There were hundreds of processes that affected one another. Every time he would try and find a place to start revamping a portion, he would stop because of how many other processes would also have to change. For months he was paralyzed by all of the data he had collected and didn’t know how to move forward.
What happened next? He went on a quest for more data, spending several more months gathering information for his mapping process. Of course, more data showed more connections, which meant it was even harder for him to move forward. Eventually, so many of the original processes had evolved over the time it took to gather all the data that the entire project was cancelled.
While the project was a massive failure, I honestly don’t believe that most of it was his fault. Instead I think that some common misconceptions many companies have about how to handle projects and implement changes failed the project. Let’s analyze what went wrong.
Too Much Data- Having too much data can give you what is called analysis paralysis. While of course you need to have enough data to drive good decisions, it is a balancing act. And it’s not just about having too much data. The fact of the matter is that having too many choices can lead to that same paralysis.
Too Broad of a Scope- The project started off by targeting the entire company. Sometimes projects need to be that large in scope. For instance, a new HR system, or a new core operating system. The issue here was that this single project was not only trying to map out the interconnected processes. At the same time it was also analyzing all of the disconnected systems. The goal was to not only improve the processes but to also find ways to connect these disparate systems. Either of those ideas would be a large scale project. Combining them was a large part of the failure.
Single Point of Failure- In the end, after all those processes had been mapped, the decision on where to start the overhaul was given to one person. When it comes to a major decision like this one, I’m always of the opinion that a team should work through the details and make a recommendation of how to move forward. I think that a good diversity of opinions and skills is a great way to fight analysis paralysis.
Lack of What’s in it For Them- There were a couple of instances on this project where the guy in charge did attempt to move forward. A couple of times he started having conversations with specific divisions to see if they would volunteer to be the first ones to use the data he had gathered and start an overhaul of their areas. When he pitched the idea to these divisions, he focused on how all of the work they would do would benefit the company as a whole. What he never covered was how it would directly impact their teams in a positive way. I think the single most important thing you can do when pitching someone an idea is to show them what’s in it for them. Why should they care? How will it improve their life? How will it help them achieve their goals? Those are all questions that I think need to be considered before pitching an idea.
In the end, I think my biggest personal takeaway from this lesson was that the guy was right. Everything is interconnected now-a-days, even in ways we don’t yet realize. I think his need to understand that interconnectedness was valiant. We just have to make sure we aren’t letting that journey of discovery guide us down so many rabbit trails that we can’t even remember where we started.
-Jason