A JUGGLING ACT

There is a very fine line between changing priorities to enhance product delivery, and constantly shifting priorities - up to and including brand new product ideas. The reality is that the world evolves because there are people in this world who are “idea” people, and those who are “operational” or “logistical” people. We need both of these skill sets to keep the world evolving and developing.

Of course, these two aren’t always mutually exclusive. But for this discussion, let’s take the case of when the visionaries and the operations experts are two different sets of people.

So what do you do when the idea person or visionary is constantly coming up with new ideas that supplant the old ones? How do you handle it when the ideas just keep getting piled onto the workload, and it starts to look like a circus act of juggling plates?

THREE IDEA VISION BOARD

I use a technique called the Three Idea Vision Board to manage these situations. It’s quite simple, but not as easy to execute if you have an overly forceful visionary. It will take an equally strong operations manager to keep the balance. I encourage actually having a physical board that can be seen by everyone - not hidden away in the executive's office. If it’s a remote office, then that board needs to be virtually available front and center - on the home page or logon page of the corporate intranet. This vision board is as important as any mission statement or annual goals. It shows everyone where the executives expect the company to be heading.

Think of it as the Work In Progress (WIP) limit for visions.

The Three Idea Vision Board is exactly what it sounds like. There can only be three priority visions or ideas that are being worked on at any one time. Think of it as the Work In Progress (WIP) limit for visions. The visionary or executive team gets to create those three visions and put them in rank order on the left side of the board. There will never be a #4, 5, 6, etc. There will only ever be three. 

I encourage drawing a box around these items so everyone can see them clearly. If one of the priorities is completed or not going in the desired direction, then a new item may be put on the list of three. That is a decision for the key personnel to make, with input from the product teams on how the implementation of the idea is going.

WHAT ABOUT THE OTHER IDEAS?

But what about all of the other great ideas? Those are captured as well. They go in random order on the right side of the board. In fact, I encourage them to be written in different directions, randomly placed, etc. The reason for this is to make a clear visual distinction between which ideas are in focus, and which ones are more distant.

Now, you might ask - “But how is this different from an experimental backlog?” The critical difference is that these items are not experimental. These are visions or ideas that the key decision makers expect to be worked on. They are not experiments. However, as a team takes on a product vision, they may have an experimental backlog in addition to their work backlog, to generate innovation on this particular idea.

When Agility for All works with leadership teams to reshape the culture of their company, this Three Idea Vision Board is one of the potential strategies that we explore in more detail; to help curtail constant churn and keep everyone focused on the company’s goals.

Learn more about the work that we do and the programs that we offer. Set up a call to start planning how you want to change the culture of your organization.

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About the Author:

INDRA A. BOOKS

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