The Industrial AgeThe period when humans developed large complex organizations based on machines. Factories, assembly lines, plantations, and railroads were dominant during the Industrial Age. The Industrial Age organizational design was optimized to use humans to reduce variability and comply with their masters’ instructions. This fundamental structure shapes our organizational design and language today. playbook was designed to keep the team in redworkDoing, action, process, production work. Redwork benefits from reducing variability. for as long as possible. An uninterrupted assembly line turning our product day after day after day. We still default to those plays that keep the team in motion, moving forward, making “progress.”
Any stoppage of the assembly line, any pause in redworkDoing, action, process, production work. Redwork benefits from reducing variability., meant idle time and wasted resources. An aid to maintaining those long production runs was to erect barriers to interruptions and continueThe Industrial Age play of continuing redwork, or if pausing, proceeding directly on to the next project. the work, continueThe Industrial Age play of continuing redwork, or if pausing, proceeding directly on to the next project. on to the next task. Even on a production line when a unit is completed, the work continues. The task is endlessly repeated. There is no sense of completion, ever, only continueThe Industrial Age play of continuing redwork, or if pausing, proceeding directly on to the next project..
Here’s what the Industrial AgeThe period when humans developed large complex organizations based on machines. Factories, assembly lines, plantations, and railroads were dominant during the Industrial Age. The Industrial Age organizational design was optimized to use humans to reduce variability and comply with their masters’ instructions. This fundamental structure shapes our organizational design and language today. play of ContinueThe Industrial Age play of continuing redwork, or if pausing, proceeding directly on to the next project. sounds like today.
In a service organization, a team member brings the boss a mock up for a new marketing pamphlet. After looking through it, the boss’s words are: “Good, here are some edits.” ContinueThe Industrial Age play of continuing redwork, or if pausing, proceeding directly on to the next project..
At a retail company, the team works hard to develop a prototype feature for the website. After making it available to a small subset of customers, the boss asks, “When can I expect the next iteration?” ContinueThe Industrial Age play of continuing redwork, or if pausing, proceeding directly on to the next project..
An employee takes the initiative to offer a client an innovative solution to a long-standing problem. The effort makes the client happy and earns the company significant goodwill. The response from management is deafening silence. ContinueThe Industrial Age play of continuing redwork, or if pausing, proceeding directly on to the next project..
Instead of continueThe Industrial Age play of continuing redwork, or if pausing, proceeding directly on to the next project., now we want to CompleteThe play at the end of redwork where we pause to reflect on what we have accomplished, celebrate that, and invite others to tell their stories.. The completeThe play at the end of redwork where we pause to reflect on what we have accomplished, celebrate that, and invite others to tell their stories. play is the moment we exit redworkDoing, action, process, production work. Redwork benefits from reducing variability. and head back to blueworkThinking, cognitive, creative, deciding work. Bluework benefits from embracing variability.. There are 4 ways to practice the CompleteThe play at the end of redwork where we pause to reflect on what we have accomplished, celebrate that, and invite others to tell their stories. Play:
- Chunk work for frequent completes early, few completes late.
- Celebrate with, not for.
- Focus on behavior not characteristics.
- Focus on Journey not Destination.
For this post we are dicussing the first mechanism of the completeThe play at the end of redwork where we pause to reflect on what we have accomplished, celebrate that, and invite others to tell their stories. play : Chunk work for frequent competes early, few completes late.
Early in a project or new product development when there is a wide array of options in decision making, the redwork- blueworkThinking, cognitive, creative, deciding work. Bluework benefits from embracing variability. rhythm should lean more toward blueworkThinking, cognitive, creative, deciding work. Bluework benefits from embracing variability., emphasizing learning. This lean means many blueworkThinking, cognitive, creative, deciding work. Bluework benefits from embracing variability. interruptions to the redworkDoing, action, process, production work. Redwork benefits from reducing variability. with a focus on growth, learning, and improvement. As the project continues, the decision space closes down. There are fewer options. Emphasis should
now shift toward doing— and the redworkDoing, action, process, production work. Redwork benefits from reducing variability. periods can get longer and the blueworkThinking, cognitive, creative, deciding work. Bluework benefits from embracing variability. interruptions less frequent.
Imagine your work as a long set of stairs, not a moving walkway. The flat part of the stair is the tread. The tread is the moving forward part, the redworkDoing, action, process, production work. Redwork benefits from reducing variability. part, the getting things done part. The vertical part of the stair is the riser. The riser is the improving part, the blueworkThinking, cognitive, creative, deciding work. Bluework benefits from embracing variability. part, the getting-better‑at‑getting-things-done part. As the redwork- blueworkThinking, cognitive, creative, deciding work. Bluework benefits from embracing variability. rhythm shifts from blueworkThinking, cognitive, creative, deciding work. Bluework benefits from embracing variability. heavy to redworkDoing, action, process, production work. Redwork benefits from reducing variability. heavy, the treads get longer and the vertical risers less frequent.
The stairway is not uniform. It is steep at the beginning and then begins to flatten out. Following the end of the project, we then have a larger period of blueworkThinking, cognitive, creative, deciding work. Bluework benefits from embracing variability., thinking about improving the project as a whole.
The leader has a role in tuning the redwork-bluework rhythm to appropriately emphasize blueworkThinking, cognitive, creative, deciding work. Bluework benefits from embracing variability. early, redworkDoing, action, process, production work. Redwork benefits from reducing variability. later.
The cycle of completes for each project type will differ. For example, how many drafts will I completeThe play at the end of redwork where we pause to reflect on what we have accomplished, celebrate that, and invite others to tell their stories. when writing this blog post? How many times will I ask for feedback from my team members before the blog is completeThe play at the end of redwork where we pause to reflect on what we have accomplished, celebrate that, and invite others to tell their stories.? There’s not a magical number of how many times you completeThe play at the end of redwork where we pause to reflect on what we have accomplished, celebrate that, and invite others to tell their stories. a cycle for work to be it’s most effective, but as we become more skilled at our jobs we have a sense, a gut feeling, that 2 completes and reflect periods is not enough and 25 completes and reflect periods is overkill. This is where the tuning based your individual experience and knowledge comes in. The important thing to remember is to treat it like an experiment to help learning be at the forefront. Chunking the work for small completes allows us to learn more, quicker early on.
