Thursday, February 5, 2015

Not My Problem

"It's like circling quicksand." He related when we discussed it not being my job. You can always do more, and someone will be there to always take more. 

We all want to feed the machine. After all, if the machine doesn't run, eventually there will be no income, and we won't have jobs. Yet, the quality has to be right, and you can't master it at 100 miles per hour. How we got to the moon in 1969 I may never understand. Thousands of people must have burnt out and gotten divorced. Hundreds of people probably died in accidents somewhat related to the Apollo program. 

In the heat of an intense event, perhaps mountaineering or business, there is a list of critical issues that must be solved, and a much longer list of minor issues that conspire to stop forward progress. Part of that prioritization process in business involves saying things like "not my problem" or "we have more important issues to solve right now" and neither is a cop out. In both cases your are giving the issue credibility, in one handing it to a person better qualified to make the decision, and in the other giving the issue time later to be solved while more pressing issues are solved first. In many ways the clarity of the high risk situation is addicting. There is no ambiguity. There are the pressing needs, now, and there is everything else. 

The last month has been, revealing. This experience too will provide things for me to learn for months and years to come. Going through a ground up product launch is not easy. 

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