Build Fast

07Mar09

Build Fast

The meeting over naming our company went a little something like this:

JP: “How about this name?”

Brian: “What about this name?”

Corey: “Reflect7”

JP & Brian: “Perfect.”

JP & Brian & Corey: “Wow! Reflect7 ties into our business and perspective in these ways…”

Name Meeting Adjourned. Meeting time: 5 minutes.

I’ll reveal the full meaning of our name in another blog. Right now I want to focus on the “7”. One of its meanings is to remind us of “7” Days. That is, act as if you only had 7 days to complete your entire project. It’s the Build Fast approach: make your decisions in a concise manner and don’t sweat the small stuff. In fact, by having this philosophy, business’s can altogether avoid the long and cumbersome meetings that end up more of a tangent, power struggle, and/or town hall forum rather than a business meeting.

Tangent Heaven:

In my last business venture, my partner and I would go to tangent heaven every once in a while. We would start out grounded and then slowly begin to entertain every thought of grandeur that entered our mind. By the end of the meeting, we were the gurus of our sector, cruising in our yachts, and expanding our clothing business to include space travel. These are the meetings where the train derails and doesn’t get back on course for a few hours. While tangent heaven is great for getting the creative juices flowing, it’s also great for wasting time. None of the ideas were ever relevant enough to implement. Some ideas were so far into the future, you would need The DeLorean just to see them. And look what happened: I sold my half of the business and all of the embellished planning proved fruitless.

But don’t stifle creativity. Some tangents can lead to great breakthroughs. I recently had the luck to book a vacation excursion with one of the creators of Naked News, an internet broadcast where anchors strip as they deliver the headlines. He recounted the origins of the idea to the excursion group…

His coworkers and he were out having drinks after work. One of his co-workers looked up at the news show and made the comment: “This newscast would be a lot better if that news anchor was taking off her clothes.” And right there a multinational, multimillion dollar idea was born.

Reflect7 has its share of fun, but we try to keep the decisions at a throw and go pace. With only three people it is much easier because there’s always a majority, if needed. This is an asset to any meeting. Leave the tangents for the bar talk. It’s the best place to go off into a tangent and it won’t affect your efficiency.

Town-Hall syndrome:

You’ve all been to one of these meetings before. It’s when you get 10 minutes of work done in an hour because a few people had to chime in on every decision. In a business meeting for a 7-day project, no one has time to care about how everyone else feels. And the chime-inners (copyright Reflect7 LLC) are more preoccupied with hitting their deadlines than showcasing their perspective. If you have a major objection, voice it. If not, onto the next the next topic. Just throw and go. This is a rush offense, the sooner you can implement the play, the sooner you can learn from it. If it was a bad decision, then you made a fast mistake; your team still has 3 downs and 2 minutes left to score. If it was a good decision, then excellent; you just made first down and you still have 2 minutes left to score.

Power Struggle:

Turf wars always make for great entertainment, but rarely make for great efficiency. Running on a 7-day deadline puts everyone’s ego in check. Their power needs become subservient to the business goal of putting out a final project in 7 days. Often, psychologists will prescribe volunteer work to those who are depressed. They do so, in part, to preoccupy their patients’ time. There’s an important message here: limiting time, limits introspection. The 7 day method puts the focus on the task, which keeps egos at bay.

Caveat: Watch out for Group Think. Don’t let the impending deadline undermine speaking up against a really bad idea. Just remember:

So if your business scope is small enough, set up some ambitious projects to have completed in seven days. Anything that takes longer, break it down into multiple 7 day projects and proceed to divide and conquer. Always make your decisions as though your project is due that week. Always build fast.

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