6 Steps to Thrash and Overcome Resistance
Here’s how I make stuff.
I’ve used this technique to launch multi-million-dollar software projects, write books, plan vacations, work in teams, work solo, and write a blog. All are projects that ship on time.
1) The first step is to write down a due date. Post it on the wall. It’s real. You will ship on this date, done or not.
2) The next step is to use index cards, Post-it notes, Moleskin notebooks, fortune cookies, whatever you can embrace. Write down every singly notion, plan, idea, sketch, contact. This is when you go fishing. Get as much help as you like. Invite as many people in as you can. This is their big chance.
This is where the thrashing and dreaming begin. It’s very hard to get the people you work with to pay attention at this moment. Since the deadline is so far away, their lizard brains are asleep and there’s no fear or selfish motivation available.
3) People focus on emergencies, not urgency’s, and getting yourself (and them) to stop working on tomorrow’s deadline and pitch in now isn’t easy. A big part of the work, then, is to get yourself and your team, to step up and dream. On a regular basis, collate the cards and read them aloud to the team. This process will inevitably lead to more cards.
4) Put the cards into a database.
The record can include words, images, sketches, and links to other cards. The idea is that this is your thrashing playground. Let the team play along. Rearrange. Draw. Sketch. Make sure everyone understands that this is the very lat chance they have to make the project better.
Then one person (that would be you) goes through the database and builds a complete description of the project. If it’s a book, then you’ve got a forty-page outline. If it’s a Web site, then you have every single screen and feature. If it’s a conference, then you have an agenda, a menu, a list of venues, and so on. It’s the blueprint.
5) Take this blueprint NOT to everyone, but to the few people who have sign-off control, the people with money, your boss. They can approve it, cancel the project, or suggest a few compromises.
Then say, “If I deliver what you approved, on a budget and on time, will you ship it?”
Don’t proceed until you get a yes. Iterate if you must, but don’t get started simply because you’re in a hurry. Do not accept, “Well, I’ll know it when I see it.” Not allowed.
6) Once you get your yes, go away and build your project, thrash-free. Ship on time, because that’s what a linchpin does.
-Seth Godin, “Linchpin”
http://www.amazon.com/Linchpin-Are-Indispensable-Seth-Godin/dp/1591843162
