This week’s focus: One of the biggest drains on many organisations’ time and energy are ‘quick win’ projects. These projects often emerge at the end of strategic ‘away days’ when a slew of ideas are reviewed on two dimensions: (1) their overall impact on value; and (2) the ease of implementation.
Unfortunately, few ideas are ever easy and big, and so you end up choosing between big, hard projects or small, easy projects. More often than not, the latter win out. The barriers to the bigger prizes just seem too massive, especially at the end of a long and tiring workshop.
But the pursuit of ‘quick wins’ is mistaken for three fundamental reasons: (1) their impact on performance barely ever registers; (2) they consume far more effort than originally envisaged and, (3) most critically, they prevent you from getting on with much more important and valuable projects.
Where are you wasting time pursuing needless ‘quick win’ projects, when you should be focusing your efforts on initiatives that could make a real difference?
Off the record: Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right by Bob Dylan
I ain’t saying you treated me unkind
You could have done better, but I don’t mind
You just kinda wasted my precious time
But don’t think twice, it’s all right
© Stuart Cross 2016. All rights reserved.