Roughly speaking, all my assignments start this way. The first objective I set for myself (even unconsciously because I’m only formulating it now, while writing) is to clean up the situation, to simplify it. Being naive and generally paid to make organizations’ projects succeed, I dedicate myself to that, and not to other things.

Trying isn’t rocket science

Naturally, what I apply to myself, I ask my client to apply (or vice versa). It seems beneficial to me, we’re not going to complicate things unnecessarily. We simply try to do things well, it’s not rocket science. But this is already a disruptive assumption. We can relate this to the Shu of ShuHaRi

What does doing things well mean?

First, in the lean tradition: putting yourself in a position to respect people (no philanthropy, let’s be cynical, it’s good for business), to seek continuous improvement, and to focus on the question “why are we doing this?”. “Putting yourself in a position” seems to be the right definition: that is, turning your mind toward these precepts, ensuring that you are in agreement with them, and that you genuinely wish to apply them. Then when opportunities arise, apply them.

Second, accompanying in the vast majority of cases a Scrum approach, you must try at minimum to properly apply its fundamentals, its “container”: roles, responsibilities, events (planning, daily, review, retrospective). With Kanban it’s even simpler: let’s establish the current state, and put ourselves in a position to improve, to question ourselves, etc.

And often no more to start (and already…).

A container

The container I’m referring to (roles, responsibilities, events) is a surprising instrument. It’s fertile ground. Inside it you are free, take advantage of that. But this container and these precepts (respect, continuous improvement, why I’m doing things -therefore the search for value-) must be respected. Doing things well means trying to respect them as best as possible. Putting yourself in a position to do things well means giving yourself the means to respect them as best as possible.

Let’s not kid ourselves

And you know very well whether you’re doing it or not. You can tell stories to others but not to yourself. Putting yourself in a position to do things well means first stopping lying to yourself.

Perfect is the enemy of good

However, in accordance with the adage that perfect is the enemy of good, putting yourself in a position to do things well doesn’t mean going to confrontation. As I say when you put yourself in a position: it’s about a movement, but this movement must be sustainable (and therefore lasting). The boundary with “too much” is moreover difficult to describe. Some details that seem trivial sometimes turn out to be too much, a radically disruptive attitude sometimes isn’t.

No regrets

If you do things well, another somewhat magical thing is that you won’t have regrets. You will have given the project, the product, the approach its chance. It may fail but you will have done what was necessary, and that’s what’s essential (in my eyes at least).

Accepting difficulties

Putting yourself in a position to do things well is particularly important for the product owner or the product manager who are at the heart of value creation: they define it and prioritize it. Putting yourself in a position to do things well for these people often means above all facing the truth and leaving your comfort zone: “we won’t have time to do everything”, or “we must admit that we’re overtaken by the market and launch into this new branch”, “we must make choices”, etc.

I generally hear from these people: “we must cut off an arm” (alluding to the famous Black Knight scene in Holy Grail), or Alexis (with whom we continue to discuss strategy) who would say: “a good strategist must know how to sacrifice his weak section”.

Doing things well therefore means first starting by accepting past failures and those to come. And then putting yourself in a position to have no regrets for future failures and successes. And nothing indicates that you won’t greatly succeed.