Are you getting ready to celebrate Quitter’s Day this Friday? Every year Quitter’s Day is the second Friday in January. Never heard of it? It’s the day 80% of Americans give up on their New Year’s resolutions. Why do I love Quitter’s Day so much?
Unresolved
Because I don’t believe in New Year’s resolutions. You don’t have to wait until January 1 to make positive changes in your life. When the pain of staying the same is too much, then please do something about it no matter what time of year it is. It doesn’t have to be a big change. In fact, Quitter’s Day is evidence that making big changes doesn’t work very well for a lot of us. Instead think about iterating your processes.
What’s to Love?
I was asked about my liberal use of the word iterate. I love the word so much because it is a shortcut. It is one word that encapsulates the entire process of continuous improvement. Let’s think about how you can apply iteration to your processes at work so you can make that work more painless.
It’s Science
Iteration is based on the scientific method which is a valuable tool for critical thinking. It helps you be more objective and find the real change you need to make instead of just focusing on the symptoms of the problem. For example, let’s say you are on a team of five people. You are the designated manager of a project. You are past the define and design phases and are stuck between the build and test phases. If you don’t do something, you’ll not reach the release phase by the deadline. Use the scientific method to get unstuck.
In Action
- Observe: Analyze the current workflow. Identify the gaps.
- Ask: Formulate questions about what you observed. What is happening? Where is the bottleneck? Why are you not getting the result you expect?
- Hypothesize: What are the possible explanations for what you observed? Define the variables. For example, does the team member who is building the solution keep getting interrupted?
- Design: Come up with an experiment that changes one of the variables. (Like, blocking an hour of the builder’s time and sending them off-site to concentrate uninterrupted.) Note the improvement you expect to get by changing the variable.
- Test: Conduct your experiments for each variable to test your hypothesis. Collect the data. For example, did your builder make significant progress?
- Evaluate: Use the data gathered from your experiments to draw conclusions. Did the change get you the outcome you wanted? Is it an improvement? Do you want to implement the change to the process? If not, do you need to conduct the experiment again but on a different variable?
- Share: Iteration is a cycle. The cycle hinges on feedback. With each iteration, define your “Why”. In other words, what are you trying to accomplish?
Full Disclosure
The iteration process is additional work. But the more you use it, the better you get at it and the faster you move through it saving you time, energy, attention, and money in the long run. When you make good decisions up front, you have fewer messes to clean up on the back end.
How do you use the scientific method to iterate your work processes? Please share in the comments.