It happens: a successful project is a business bust.
Put it down to "tactical brilliance but strategic blindness"
And by "strategic blindness" we mean being oblivious, either deliberately or unwittingly, to the impact to, or needs of strategic success for the enterprise. (meaning: long-term success).
Built into that statement is this idea:
The tactical--strategic bridging difficulties could be one of mechanics at the bridge or one of attitude about even crossing over the bridge.
Root cause?
Consider this example: One of America's generals of the Gulf Wars was tactically successful but some historians--like Tom Ricks--place him in the 'circle of blame' for the "peace" that followed the major battle plan.
Why so? Largely for statements (according to Ricks), somewhat paraphrased that addressed the military--diplomatic bridge:
I'll handle everything today, and you handle everything tomorrowwhich, on its face, sounds like a clearly delineated division of effort. Everyone in their own sandbox. On the other hand, some call a sandbox a silo, meaning: no visibility.
But here's an example closer to home for PMs:
A CCTV camera installer chose to install a camera in a large hall in the ceiling (customer requirement) but failed to consider in any way how the camera in his particular choice of installation could be maintained over the operational lifecycle.
When queried, he said: 'My installation is the quickest and cheapest for you. Cameras last a long time; no maintenance required.'
In the end, under customer pressure, he devised an installation which is functionally maintainable for the enterprise.
It's the interface! Or is it?
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But, delineations are actually interfaces--or should be--and definitely not opaque boundaries (silos). And as project managers we certainly know about interfaces:
- protocols for information flow (to include requirements) across or through them;
- timing and timeliness as quality factors for the interfacing information;
- white box--black box understandings;
- temporary stubs; and so forth.
But is it a matter of interface mechanics? Certainly not so in the examples above.
Today--tomorrow
The today-tomorrow idea is the root cause of strategic blindness: a matter of tactical optimization for tactical metrics, ignoring by mindset the larger and perhaps more valuable optimization for strategic success.
You may have read or acted upon the concept of "The Theory of Constraints". ToC argues a similar idea, to wit: That there are going to be constraints (read: interfaces) in every plan, but tacticians should not be overly incentivized for their part of the plan, lest there be excesses which only have local value and may have detrimental value strategically.
ToC is all about strategic success and all about emphasizing that the mindset of tacticians along the way has to be "how can what I'm doing make the enterprise more successful in the long term?"
Hands across the interface!
There are bookshelves of advice on how to overcome silos, opaque interfaces, etc. All good, no doubt. The main message here is this (and it's a bit of take from Agile methodology):
You are not successful unless the enterprise is successful. Local metrics count little in the face of enterprise failure.
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