When a schedule is not met, those inclined to pass out blame are quick to
point at the lowest-level workers; they reason that performance is the domain
entirely of those who perform the work. They ask plaintively, "why can't these
guys ever meet their schedules" ? the answer that the schedule might have been
wrong in the first place only befuddles them.He continues to sayThere is such a thing as a bad schedule. A bad schedule is one that sets a date that is subsequently missed. .... If the date is missed, the schedule was wrong. ... The purpose of schedule was planning, not goal-setting. Work that is not performed according to a plan invalidates the plan.
Tuesday, January 08, 2008
Accountability and Productivity
I have been reading one of my favorite books Slack, and in one of the chapters on schedules, Tom brings up a good point about accountability and productivity. He mentions that
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Good point Ventakesh,
A key phrase in your quote from Slack is "their schedules." I wonder if the schedules really were "theirs" in the first place? If the schedules are imposed then they are easy to dis-own as in "I never agreed to that."
I just witnessed an amazing event a few weeks ago at the headquarters of an agile toolmaker. At the conclusion of a two-day annual planning process involving the 22-person top leadership team, the CEO implored the team to inspect and scale back their scope and commitments for the year and each quarter to ensure they did not over-commit. He said "Because of how agile and interdependent we are internally, it is far worse for us to over-commit and miss a delivery than to under-commit and later discover some found slack."
That's some agile leadership!
I write a lot about the role of personal responsibility in agile. You can find much of it here:
http://www.christopheravery.com/blog/
And some free easy listening about personal agility here:
http://www.masteringpersonalagility.com/
Thanks for your good work.
Christopher
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