In contemplating the New Year and plans for the future, I came across a simple process by Vicky Zhao that looks at 1) Review 2) Plan 3) Prioritise using five techniques a) Pareto b) confirmation bias c) inversion d) "one thing" e) SMART objectives. I was struck by how similar these are to an architecture process and how we can exploit two of these ideas in particular.
The first is Pareto or 80/20 analysis in the review of past performance. Simply put, Pareto analysis tries to find the things that may have consumed 20% of effort or resources, but produce 80% of the desirable results. This is a great way to identify those things we should double down on in the future. If we can spend 60% of our effort and resources on them in future, we may be able to generate 3x the desirable results!
The inversion idea in planning is to start with the end in mind. We do this routinely in architecture through developing a vision or scenarios. We can then decompose this to identify what will be required to make it a reality. We can do this for several time horizons to give us short, medium and long term goals. Think Transition Architectures.
Next we need to ensure that we are not distracted or diverted from the focus we need to progress meaningfully and continuously. The “one thing” in the planning approach encourages finding just one key thing/theme to focus on per time horizon.
Steve Jobs extolled the virtues of focus powerfully:
"People think focus means saying yes to the thing you've got to focus on. But that's not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully. I'm actually as proud of the things we haven't done as the things we have done. Innovation is saying no to 1,000 things."
Extending the architecture idea of gap analysis, we can look at:
Which things are on the 20% Pareto list? We should be saying “yes” to these and “no” to the others
What should we Stop doing? Many of the things in the 80% effort Pareto list can fall here
What should we Start doing? These would be things that support our goals and vision that are not already in our capabilities
What should we Change? This can include improvements in efficacy, quality or efficiency
Finally, we need to further decompose the goals remaining to objectives and ensure they are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time Bounded (SMART).
Happy planning. Remember Pareto and the power of saying “No”. Also keep in mind this wisdom from James Clear, author of Atomic Habits:
“Goals are good for setting a direction, but systems are best for making progress”