It's not in the budget; We don't have enough... [money, time, staff]; It just doesn't work that way.
Try flipping that script to "How can we get it done?"
You might be surprised with the results.
My father once told me about a project team he assembled with the advice to find the oldest and respected people, then balance it with the youngest and scrappiest people. The "old-timers" know what cannot be done and why, but the young-bloods lack such preconceptions and will deliver solutions, from a oblique approach. His track record proved the point, but that was how black project problems were solved long ago.
Finding oblique solutions calls for a different (not really new) approach to the problem and it's not for everyone. For those who embrace this challenge, consider it with the mind of a hacker, a scoundrel, rogue, anarchist, or the outcast. Make it more interesting and name the effort: Problem Red Team, Contrarian Club, Junkyard Inventors, or whatever makes it feel a little devious, cunning, or just keep it boring and take the fun out of it.
What are the fundamentals to this paradigm? Here are few key points:
- It can be done.
- Don't believe it. Know it.
- Somewhere someone has already your problem
- Puzzles are playtime
- Just like an investigation. The hypothesis states the problem but the experiments are what makes it interesting
- If there was no solution then the worst outcome is a failure to innovate
- Imagine a little bit
- What if I could magically just do _____ or ______?
- What stops me from doing that?
- See it, draw it, and be messy
- Describe it, write a narrative, and leave space for changes
- Ask
- What if?
- Why do we accept this as true?
- Why can't we just...."
- Take a child's point of view. What's the simplest path to the solution?
- Alter the inputs to the process
- What is essential to the process.
- The bare minimums
- The root elements
- What don't we need
- What happens when we begin eliminating _____ or ______?
- Are there substitutes for any of the inputs?
- Why aren't they used
- Can they be used, and with what limitations
- Mock it up
- Simple, uncomplicated, inefficient, and ugly form factor and materials first
- It took hundreds of light bulbs to get to a working incandescent bulb. Dyson had thousands of experimental models before he found a working solution to his vacuum's cyclone problem
- Soda cans, cardboard, paper clips, tape, glue, and the get it done - right now
- Work those budget numbers: shift here, borrow there
- Test it
- Proof of concept is essential. Does it work, can it work?
- If it cannot work, then start over - new assumptions, different math
- When there is no solution, then your solution is the best available!
- If it can work, then it's not such a bad idea.
- It may be ugly, inelegant, but it's a solution where none existed. That's a creation!
- Don't stop! This is just the beginning. Now make it better!
- How?
- Cheaper
- Faster deployment
- Ease of use - Soldier-proof it
- Ease of deployment
- Ease of end-user training
- More robust capabilities
- Piggyback it onto other solutions, infrastructure, or department programs (other departments - pass this off)
- When can it start being deployed, put into action, or shaped into current processes
- What is the life cycle for the tech, process, or budgetary change?
- Can it, does it need to, be able to perpetuate and for how long?
- What resources are required to get it going?
- Is it worth the effort?
- Is it worth improving or will it be obsolete to soon?
- Now document the savings, efficiency, or process improvement that has been created.
- Is there a savings? How much, for how long, and does it renew?
- What would make this better (or obsolete)?
- Where might it be found
- When might it be found if it doesn't currently exist
- Plan for that
If you made it this far, congratulations. I'll be posting some simple real-world examples of this and the benefit derived from the effort.
Good luck!
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