Being Stuck – One Plan vs Many
If you’ve ever implemented software – you are likely very familiar with Murphy’s Law – what can go wrong, will go wrong.
When faced with Murphy’s Law in an implementation, it’s very easy to get lodged into one way of thinking while the solution may be obvious to someone else. See the below video.
If this has happened to you and you want to do some thinking ahead of time, here’s a thought exercise to free yourself from certain constraints and open your thinking before you get stuck.
- What if you had twice the budget to complete your project? Go.
- Ok, how about half the team? Go.
- Or how about if everyone on the team rejected the implementation outright? Go
- What if you had one more or one less week to launch? Go
- Or what if you had twice the time but had a weekly Executive Presentation to prove progress? Go
If you can start thinking through these scenarios before they may happen, you’ll find yourself ahead of Murphy’s Law. Still, the most critical person in your project may be the first human to contract Dutch Elm’s Disease.
Murphy’s Law will always happen, but perhaps you’ll be more flexible when it does show up.
References and Resources
Adam Morgan and Mark Barden – A Beautiful Constraint: How To Transform Your Limitations Into Advantages
Supporting Music
Life on Mars by David Bowie (at Glastonbury 2000)
Originally Posted June 4, 2018