Last week, I pulled out the critical thing that Steve Jobs did, upon returning to an Apple computer with a sagging stock price. He went after a major systemic factor that was holding back release dates: too many priorities. If you are really going after top performance, you need to look at all factors, including the global ones.
Local or global maximum?
When standing on the top of a hill, every way you look is down. It’s the definition of a maximum. The thing is, though, you might not be standing on the highest possible hill or mountain in the area. And it’s difficult to know that. You typically won’t see mount Everest unless if you are in the Himalayas.
The same is true when you are maximizing velocity, and looking for the top of the parabola. There is a lot you can try to improve a team’s velocity. But it’s worth checking whether the team is being held back by systemic factors that you can’t see from where you are. Or is it really just a team-specific challenge.
It’s quite likely you don’t even see the potential global maximum, because of pre-existing company culture and procedures, particularly in a larger stable company. It’s worth trying to improve velocity locally, at the level of one team. But also keep in mind that you might be climbing the wrong hill. The higher one will be start with improving the context in which the team operates. A low velocity may simply be a reflection of a difficult culture and context in which the team operates.
Three Examples of Systemic Factors
Before we deep dive into improving team-specific output within each team, here are three examples of systemic factors I’ve seen at client sites that slow down team velocity:
1. Resource Thrashing
2. Too many chiefs
3. Communication overhead
Let’s start at the top, shall we?
1. Resource Thrashing
If your true priorities aren’t clear, this impacts you on many levels. Before getting to the somewhat obvious operational impact, consider the revenue impact first. Yes, revenue!
According to “Stop Chasing Too Many Priorities” by Paul Leinwand and Cesare Mainardi in the Harvard Business Review, too many operational priorities correlates with a given company’s ability to outperform its peers in terms of revenue. Having too many “#1 priorities” will reduce revenue potential. It will be harder to communicate the vision to both customers and employees, as Jobs noted above. Also harder to execute.
For example, one common trap is just to list everything you are doing as a priority. Yes, every cost and effort needs to have a goal and be justified. But this approach muddles what exactly needs to change. Because everything we are working on is a priority. It is easier to sell to existing employees and shareholders, but it doesn’t really lay the groundwork for anything to change.
Operationally, Steve Jobs focus on the 4 quadrants solved what I call the “denominator problem” from an operational standpoint: