Are you too busy doing real work to bother about this new fad called “Evidence Based Management“? Are you tired of beating yourself up because you just don’t have the time, money or energy to get on this bandwagon with the other cool kids? Well, fear not. I have a simple 8 step process to put your mind at ease and help you realize why you should NOT waste time and money on Evidence Based Management.
SIMPLE, 8 STEP PROCESS
- TOTAL MONTHLY BUDGET: Calculate the total number of hours human beings (not “resources”) spend on delivering and supporting your solutions each month. Calculate the total money your organization spends on delivering and supporting your solutions each month. (cost of people, servers, licenses, marketing, sales, support, etc. etc.)
- TARGET BURN-DOWN: Now define your target burn-down – what is your budget for the number of person hours and money you are willing to burn down each month in the avoidable destruction of value for your customers, users and your business?
Note: Remember in the complex domain some waste is inevitable and unavoidable. Being in the complex domain implies that there is uncertainty and you don’t know what you don’t know. When you do complex work, failure is guaranteed. The challenge is not to avoid failure. The challenge is to minimize the amount of failure, to rapidly learn from it and to rapidly course-correct based on the learning and to avoid repeating the same failure over and over again.
- ACTUAL BURN-DOWN: Now start measuring your actual burn-down – how many person hours and how much money are you actually burning down each month in the avoidable destruction of value for your customers, users and your business?
- TARGET DELIGHT: Now answer this question…On a scale of 0 to 10, how delighted would you like to be with the amount of money and time you burn down each month in the avoidable destruction of value for your customers, users and your business?
- ACTUAL DELIGHT: Now answer this question…On a scale of 0 to 10, how delighted are you with the amount of money and time you have actually burned down each month in the avoidable destruction of value for your customers, users and your business?
- TARGETS vs. ACTUALS: Now compare your monthly burn-down targets (#2 & #4) with your monthly burn-down actuals (#3 & #5).
- TARGETS(#2 & #4) ARE MORE THAN ACTUALS(#3 & #5): If your targets are more than your actuals, YIPPEEEE!!! You don’t need no stinking Evidence Based Management!!! You don’t need to beat yourself up or feel inadequate in front of those cool kids.
Your tolerance for wasting time and money is greater than your exposure to wasting time and money. Keep doing what you’ve always been doing. You’ll keep getting what you’ve always been getting. You’re fine. You’ll be fine. It’s all good.
- TARGETS(#2 & #4) ARE LESS THAN ACTUALS(#3 & #5): If, on the other hand, your targets are less than your actuals and you have a longing to reduce the amount of money and time you burn down each month in the avoidable destruction of value for your customers, users and your business, maybe you could consider Evidence Based Management.
WHAT NEXT
OK, so if you found yourself in the second category and are curious to learn more about Evidence Based Management, what do you do next? Where do you get started…? Watch this video – How to Shift from Self-Defeating Pseudo Agility to Authentic Evidence-Based Agility
If these ideas resonate and you want help to implement them, contact us for a free consultation.
Either way, I wish you good luck!