As a consultant, I am never surprised when a client asks me - can we speed up this project? Can we work any faster? What does surprise me, however, is how many of the barriers and roadblocks to progress that exist in the environment of my client's company, process and expectations. My typical (somewhat sarcastic) answer is, "Yes, I can, but I doubt your organization will let us".
What are the barriers to working faster?
- Signoffs and approvals - often we need to educate others to get approval to do what we want to do - the more risky and rapid the work, the higher the need for approval and, generally, the longer to receive
- Funding - generally good work costs money, and money is ever tight. If you need to go through a specific process for obtaining funding, then it is often exceptionally difficult to speed up this process.
- Resources - Most organizations don't have much slack in the system - their employees are actively engaged. To do more work more quickly, we can scale up a consultative force (see funding) or free up more people, which requires negotiation and time.
- Culture and inertia - trying to speed up a project that involves doing things the firm is unfamiliar with or uncomfortable with is pushing a string uphill. The "faster" you try to move without complete buy-in, the more the organization resists.
OK, if these things are true (trust me, they are), how can we best more with all due speed? Slow down at the beginning of the project or effort and define the investment that's possible, the commitment that's available and the urgency and visibility of the problem or challenge. Something with low commitment and no urgency and little investment will never accelerate, while projects with high visibility, good scoping and high commitment can accelerate to a great extent.
Don't believe the old saw "there's just no money available". That's simply a way of saying that there's no money for your project since it was not high on the priority list. There is ALWAYS money available for good projects that meet management criteria and thresholds. You and your project need to understand how you can map to those factors, so there will be money available for you.
Covey talks about "sharpening the saw" before cutting the wood, to improve effectiveness. I recommend adequate planning and defining commitments before starting a project, to understand the appropriate speed of the project. In any project there are certain "governance" vehicles management teams and cultures use to slow or speed up a project. A consultant can ALWAYS staff up and speed up their work. I find that most clients can't do so with any alacrity.
Ultimately there are a couple of other issues that stand in the way. One is decision making. Procrastination is a huge issue - it's almost as if delaying a decision will somehow make it less painful. Another issue is the hyper-scheduled employee. Recently one of my clients demanded to convene the project team as soon as possible, and when we compared calendars the earliest meeting that was possible to achieve even a quorum of the team was six weeks out.
Yes, you can work faster, by establishing the expectations, commitment, funding and decision making up front. It is exceptionally difficult to change these once the project is underway.
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