If I had just looked up, I might have saved myself a whole weekend and some frustration!
Wait. A mile doesn’t equal one mile?!
Do you know that a station at Mile #110 isn’t necessarily a hundred miles away from the station at Mile #10? Crazy right?! Be it from laying new track on a shorter route, or just what happens when railways were measured back in the day literally with a chain out in the middle of a forest – but a mile doesn’t always equal one mile!
When I learned this surprising news, I was working on a computer model. I immediately put my head down to integrate a new level of accuracy. I wound up keeping my head down all weekend, spurred on by my sense of how valuable the model was becoming.
Coming out of the rabbit hole
On Monday, I ran scenarios through the improved model – to find no discernible difference from before! Yikes!
My dedication and excitement shifted to annoyance, bitterness, resentment.
It was a tough way to learn a few lessons such as:
- Accuracy is not imperative in most decisions,
- Projects benefit from check-ins with colleagues, and
- Lifting my head up occasionally can keep me from going too far down a rabbit hole
What I could have done differently.
I assumed that mileage in the model needed to be fixed, that it was fully my responsibility, and it would take as long as it was going to take.
In hindsight – I could have asked for other perspectives on the scale of the issue, and I could have done some partial experiments in smaller windows of time.
Helping others through framing
Now as a manager, when I delegate assignments I try to share how long I think it will take. My hope is that if they feel their approach is going to take up their whole weekend, or they keep hitting walls, that they will have some awareness to stop, and leave it until we can regroup. I hope I can offer a framework for them to avoid the rabbit holes.
Exercise
So here’s an exercise to help strengthen your framing muscle:
- Today, pick one person you have assigned a task to.
- Consider if you gave that person your best guess for how long it might take, or if you offered an interim milestone for when you’ll regroup.
- Then make a point of reinforcing or offering that framework to them.
- Also, pick a task that is your responsibility.
- Consider how long you have assumed it will take, and at what interim milestone you’ll regroup with others.
- Then refresh this framework with a key colleague.
- Observe along the way, any shifts you feel in your motivation and the quality of your efforts.
