Pretend that your project is an obstacle course and you want to get the biggest obstacles over with in the beginning. Here are some strategies for being on time or early:
- You want to know what all the obstacles are as soon as possible.
- You want to deal with the biggest, hardest obstacles first.
- You want to complete every obstacle as soon as possible, rather than “on schedule.”
- If you can go around an obstacle or skip it, do that.
- Your team has to stay on the same course. You don’t want part of your team on a different course.
- Getting your team aligned about the blocks and how to deal with them using the entire team IQ is much more efficient than “working hard” or pounding away at the problem. Look for the big ideas.
- Make sure team members aren’t going over obstacles that don’t exist.
- What’s the biggest obstacle? Get that done. What’s the next biggest? Get that done. Repeat.