The difference between a planned city and a city that grew organically is striking. I grew up in and around Boston. While no one is fully convinced that the roads are based on cow paths, the argument makes sense when zoomed out. Either way, I would argue that Boston’s growth happened independently of any sort of overarching plan. As a result, things don’t really fit together well. The streets are a confusing, if sometimes beautiful, mess.
Our forefathers and mothers were winging it. No complaints, as we turned out alright, but we can learn from what didn’t work as much as what worked. I’ve found that the same growth patterns can happen inside me or inside my company. If we are not deliberate about where or why we are growing, weird things can happen.
What structure does for me
Let’s take a personal example. I’ve found that I can be way more effective if I apply structure to my day or my tasks and then work on continuously improving that structure so that I can be as effective as I can while working with my natural strengths and weaknesses.
I have my daily, weekly, and quarterly personal planning routines documented, and I follow them. Each quarter, I revisit my documented routines to figure out what I should stop/start/continue. My routines look similar to what I was doing last year, but they are different, all of them slightly improved.
I thought I didn’t need to write this kind of thing down. Like the rest of us, I’m above average. I thought I could keep this basic stuff in my head. I was wrong. Without getting them on paper, even simple processes drifted and eroded over time. I unconsciously stopped doing portions of them or changed them without really thinking about them. I do want and expect them to change, but I want them to evolve, not devolve.
It’s no different in a company
My company is no different. I’ve watched us all agree to something in a meeting, only to walk out the door and literally and figuratively head in five different directions. Taking the time to write it down and put it somewhere where everyone can find it matters.
Atul Gawande gets after this very thing with his brilliant (and short) read, The Checklist Manifesto. He writes about how a good, concise checklist can help even the experts do things that they already know how to do (like surgeons washing hands before surgery), but frequently forget(!). After implementing a 5-step checklist for a particular medical procedure, Johns Hopkins Hospital saw patient infection drop from 11% to 0% in the next year.
I’m smart, educated, my Mom tells me I’m good looking, etc, but this pre-med drop out is not as smart, definitely not as educated, and probably not as good looking as that Johns Hopkins staff who was infecting 11% of their patients. So, my anecdotal life and Atul Gawande’s research lead us down the same path. It just makes sense to draw the map ahead of time: write it down, follow it, review it, and improve it on a regular basis.
Dear future self:
Write it down, follow it, review it, and improve it. I was going to write that there are no shortcuts here, but this is this shortcut to growth!
Thanks to Osman Rana and Michael Browning for their beautiful photos of Boston.