Oh My, I Hate My Job

Yesterday we looked at Planning.  Again we’re using the Gagliardi rubric…

Plans are for controllable environments.

Strategies are for uncontrollable environments.

Today strategies.

What defines an uncontrollable environment?  If you’re thinking it’s the opposite of yesterday…you’re right.

Time

• Do activities happen at more random intervals?
• Is there very little scheduling of activities?
• Do you not know how quickly a cause will create an effect?
• Do you not know how much time you’ll have to react?

Space

• Is your area of concern without closed and controlled boundaries and borders?
• Is the space dynamic?  Does it change unpredictably?
• Are the entrance and exit of people, tools, and information virtually uncontrolled?  Are they unpredictable? Are their effects unpredictable?

Physical Resources

• Are you consistently exploring to find new and effective tools?
• Do tools become obsolete or ineffective unexpectedly?
• Are you not 100% convinced you have the energy, power, assets and/or cash flow to perform the activities?

Human Resources

• Are relationships between people fluid?
• Is trust of higher value than predictability?
• Are educated guesses the best you can do when evaluating people’s skills?

Information

• Is information costly, often unreliable, and ever evolving?
• Is information difficult to collect and are misinterpretations easier to make in its dissemination than proper interpretations?
• Are unintended consequences of greater power and variety than intended causes?

Very rarely do anything fit all these factors perfectly.  But, if you run your project or task through these questions and it fits decently well (that’s a value statement by you) then perhaps a strategy will benefit you more than a detailed step by step plan.

If you need a quick and dirty method to test your strategy’s viability.  Check out the Strategy Muster Test.