The Idiots Out There

“When we spoke earlier,” I said, referring to my notes, “each of you seemed able to identify the culprits. The list included out-of-touch upper management, uncooperative coworkers, and overly demanding customers.”

“Don’t forget unreliable vendors,” Brenda added.

“While you’re at it,” said Christi, “why don’t you include the geniuses in accounting who squeeze our budget and then demand increased functionality?”

“That’s an impressive list,” I said. “It seems like the real cause of all of these problems is the ‘idiots out there.’ If only these problem people would get their act together, much of our grief would go away. Right?”

Sheepish smiles seemed to indicate we had struck a responsive chord.

“The good news about this explanation,” I continued, “is that the problem is somebody else’s fault. What’s the bad news?”

“We’re somebody else’s idiot,” said Al. That got a laugh.

“We also can’t do much about it,” Ellen added.

“That’s right—other people are not very interested in having us fix them,” I agreed.

“Especially if we treat them like idiots,” said Dave.

“So how about if we explore the opposite hypothesis— that it’s something we’re doing, or failing to do, that triggers warp speed poisoning. Of course, the bad news here is that we now own the problem. The good news is, the more squarely we can place ourselves at the root of the problem, the more power we have to change things.”

“That’s a cute slogan,” said Al, “but in practice, I don’t buy it. It’s not my fault that marketing people make impossible promises to customers with no real sense of what it takes to get a product out the door or that senior management changes priorities every fifteen minutes.”

“I agree that it’s not your fault, but what if there was some adjustment you could make in your own behavior that could prevent those things from standing in the way of your success? Would you be willing to make that change?” I asked him.

“It depends on what you want me to change,” said Al.

“I don’t want you to change anything. The real question is, Are you willing to change behaviors that decrease your effectiveness? To help answer that question, we’ll run an experiment, and you can assess for yourself in what ways, if any, your choices perpetuate the symptoms on the Warp Speed Barrier Checklist. It’s a game that will require the five of you to complete a simple project in fifteen minutes.”

Al expressed some skepticism about the value of “playing games” while fires burned all around them and wanted to know what “revelation” was going to occur in fifteen minutes that had eluded him during his professional career.

“Given how long you’ve been at this, Al, I wouldn’t be surprised if you’ve forgotten more about project management than I’ll ever know. But obviously something’s not working or we wouldn’t be having this conversation. If you’ll risk fifteen minutes of your time, I can guarantee that you will be shocked at what you discover.”

“OK,” he conceded reluctantly. “You’ve got fifteen minutes.”

Before moving on, I wanted to make sure that everyone had grasped the major points we had covered. We summarized them as follows:

1. There is a list of ten complaints that have been frustrating people in organizations for fifty years and that we have consolidated into the Warp Speed Barrier Checklist.

2. Most people blame these problems on the “idiots out there,” which leaves them innocent but helpless.

3. Therefore, we want to explore the opposite hypothesis—that there is something we are doing or something that we are failing to do that is keeping this list of barriers locked in place.

4. We make this shift in thinking because the more squarely we can place ourselves at the root of the problem, the more quickly and dramatically we can change things.

5. To test this hypothesis, we will run a series of experiments that provide immediate feedback about our real-world predicament.

6. In the past, these barriers may have been tolerated, but, at warp speed, these minor annoyances can become potentially catastrophic disruptions.

We were now going to demonstrate why and how this occurs by playing the Project Game. Only through direct experience can we really appreciate the value of the four rules for project success, and the Project Game would set the stage for our discovering what they are.