"I wish we could just do it all right now. There are so many things that need to be done."
- Anonymous
A GREAT mentor of mine, Justin Morrison, frequently told me a little saying he liked, "How do you eat an elephant? One bit at a time." While I was mildly annoyed in hearing it repeatedly, I realize, now, that he was right (and continued telling me because I was not acting as though I heard).
Big projects usually end up with MULTIPLE errors, mostly because people fail to FOCUS on the small pieces that construct the whole. An orthopedic surgeon does not skip to screwing in a plate before they cut through the skin. Why would you assume what a client wants before you sit and speak with them?
Every project has PHASES. You just have to break examine, analyze and break it down, accordingly, into the bite-size pieces that are easily manageable and measureable for success.
2 DEGREE SUCCESS STEP:
"How DO you eat an elephant?" Think about that while you are tackling your next BIG project or task.
By spending, the time up front to do a pre-game strategy, even if just a 5-minute strategy, will help you analyze the varying pieces of the puzzle. Additionally, you may find that the pieces, when separated, are more suited for persons of varying skill sets. You can then DELEGATE (yippee!) the tasks to people with a GREATER skill set for the task and decrease your time to completion.
In the event you do not see the varying stages of a task or project, confer with someone outside of the project. Do not BOG them down with technical details, but allow them insight into the big picture goals and ask them for their inputs into what they see as a prioritization of "mini-tasks" within.
It is very difficult to effectively bake 100 cookies at a time, but it is easy to bake 10 cookies, 10 times very well. Now go eat that elephant… and some cookies!
Cheers,
Zach
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