The Importance of Momentum

Written by on
Gaining and keeping momentum on a project is a critical component of it's success. In the same way that a car requires a lot of energy to initially get going, projects generally require an initial burst of energy. Once this is applied though, if you can maintain your momentum a much smaller amount of energy is required to keep moving at the speed to which you initially accelerated.

Likewise, once you've lost your momentum, it takes a pretty large amount of energy just to get things moving at the same pace again. It's not just inconvenient, starting and stopping on a project quite simply wastes a lot of energy. People need reminding as to what the priorities are. Team members become engaged on other initiatives. Vendors may think you're not serious about working with them. Employees question the importance of the project. The list goes on and on. In fact, I would argue that not starting a project is much better than starting a project that constantly loses it's momentum.

When I was in college I waited tables, and the worst shift was always Sunday evenings. Service was bad, mistakes would be made in the kitchen, the host or hostess would be MIA, etc. Why? Because Sunday night was by far the slowest time of the week; we would never get any momentum going for the evening. When a customer would come in we'd be annoyed that we couldn't keep joking around in the kitchen. We'd be eager to have our "shift beer" and no one was making much money that night anyway. In contrast, on a Saturday night when we were busy, things would be humming along smoothly.

It's the same situation with projects. No one wants to work on a something that seems like it's on life support. People like working on fun, active, fast-paced projects where tasks are regularly being completed. It turns out that these are also the easiest to manage because they have a ton of momentum - they only require a little bit of energy to keep things moving quickly. You may need to steer one way or the other and slow down or speed up in different situtions, but relative to starting from a near stand-still it's a negligible amount of energy.

Momentum is very real, and losing it on your projects can have far reaching ripple affects which are almost never good.

The hidden cost of corporate politics and the benefits of confrontation

Written by on
Corporate politics and the people who engage in them account for an extraordinary amount of waste, in terms of both time and money. We've been so wired to avoid confrontation, that issues fester for weeks, months, and often times even longer. Instead of addressing problems head on, and rewarding those who demand that they be resolved, passive aggressiveness takes over and relationships become permanently tainted.

Instead of having open debate, disputes are resolved by the person who can more effectively bend the ear of an executive over lunch. Instead of making someone justify a position against available evidence to the contrary, people who bring forth the evidence are encouraged to wait for something to "blow up".

It can be a funny place, the corporate world, where one is judged not only on the basis of their performance, but also their ability to control other people's perception of their performance. It's a world where the way someone reacts to a bone-headed decision becomes more important than the original problem itself.

It seems sometimes that in the corporate world you get all the bad things from politics, and none of the good. You get the ear bending, schmoozing, jockeying for position, and behind closed doors rule making. But you don't get Freedom of Information, an appeals process, open debates, challenges to authority, or any of the other stuff that makes politics fun.

What I'm driving at here though is that all of this has a cost, and it's huge. When the corporate politicians are running around, sales aren't getting closed. Software isn't being built. Automation of manual processes isn't happening. New products aren't being introduced.

The problem is, the cost rarely affects the people playing this "game" - at least not immediately. In fact, they're often times rewarded if they play the game well. The reward might come in the form of a promotion, a raise, or maybe even just a little more credibility the next time a similar issue rolls around.

But if they're not paying the cost, then who is? The people signing their checks, that's who. It's the shareholders, or the entrepreneur, or maybe even their fellow colleagues who aren't going to get a bonus because everyone wanted to avoid getting into an argument or being perceived as a trouble maker.

Confrontation isn't comfortable, and it isn't always the answer either. Sometimes though, a little confrontation is all you need to figure out who's stopping you and your company from being its best; you would be wise to encourage it every now and then.


Moving at the speed of small

Written by on
One of the best things about being a small business is that you get to move at lightning speed relative to large organizations. This is especially true when you're working with another small company to get something done. To illustrate the point, here is a time-line of events for a project we're working on. Keep in mind part of this happened over Labor Day weekend.

Friday 9/4 - 12:50pm: Job Post is placed on the 37Signals job board.
Saturday 9/5 - 9:32am Application received from qualified developer along with sample applications.
2:00pm - Non-Disclosure Agreement sent to Contract developer
6:00pm - NDA electronically signed.
9:37pm - Basecamp Project Space shared with developer
Sunday 9/6 - Developer reviews project space. I review applications developer has built to date.
Monday 9/7 - 10:55am - Quick chat in campfire about project question(s)
Tuesday 9/8 - 8:30am - Initial proposal received from developer
10:00am - Quick call to discuss a couple points of clarification on application architecture/design. (This is our first verbal communication)
5:41pm - Contract and SOW sent to developer
Wednesday 9/9 - 4:52pm - Contract fully executed by both parties.
Monday 9/14 - Development scheduled to begin.

Calendar days from job post to contract signing: 5 (2 business days)
Calendar days from job post to work starting: 10 (4 business days)

I've seen it take longer than 10 days just to get the language for a job posting put together. It takes reminding sometimes, but those of us who run small companies shouldn't be ashamed of our size. We should use it to our advantage.

By the way, I am officially at the point where I have no clue how I would run my business without the products by 37Signals.

Make it easy for people to work with you

Written by on
When trying to find a vendor or partner for a project, I always pay special attention to the way a company communicates and engages with me during the initial rounds of communication. These first interactions give you an excellent view into what it would be like working with another party, and tell you a lot about a company.

If someone gives you a completely one sided Non Disclosure Agreement where you have to sign away any idea you ever come up with just to talk to them about a project, they're telling you that they don't care about being reasonable and fair. If you have to wait 5 days for the legal department to approve a change to one line of a contract, don't expect to be able to move very quickly once you're working on a project with them. If a proposal doesn't clearly communicate services and the cost of those services, the entire engagement will be a mess. If someone requires you to use a fax machine for anything, don't expect them to be open to new technologies.

Contract negotiations, responses to proposal requests, and initial interactions tell you what it will be like working with someone in the best of circumstances. If you're easy to work with from the start, people will be much more likely to choose to continue working with you. Why this simple concept seems to escape so many is beyond me.

Take for example what I do now with my Non-Disclosures. Any time I need someone to sign an NDA, they get a link to my website where the NDA resides which they can electronically sign if they're comfortable with it. In addition, they get a link to the same exact NDA that's available on a writeboard, a wonderfully elegant and simple product from the folks at 37Signals that provides an easy and quick way to collaborate with others.

They get this other link before they even ask for any changes to be made. Why? Because I recognize that there may be something in my NDA that inadvertently makes another party feel uncomfortable, or that they think is unfair. I don't want them to feel bad about asking for a change to it, and I want them to know from the start that I'm open to collaboration and easy to work with. Just making this usually annoying process a bit simpler helps to show others what it will be like to work with my organization on their projects.

Compare this with someone who asks you to print a PDF, mark up the changes with a pen, fax them the changes, wait a few days for legal to review at which point they re-send a new PDF, ask you to print it, sign it, and then fax it back. Who would you rather work with? Who's going to be easier to collaborate with?

Initial communications say a lot about your company. In everything you do, make it easy for people to work with you.