I’ve been invited on a trip to Ottawa and I’m looking forward to it!
It’s not a new destination. I know it well.
I know it well because I live in Ottawa. To do this trip, I am leaving town to meet people at the starting point, and then I’ll turn around and head toward my hometown.
I concede that it is inefficient.
And here’s another head scratcher: The drive to the starting point is three hours. The trip back will take five days. Yes, five days. We are getting on a river boat cruise that will meander its way through plenty of locks and stop at lots of quaint villages.
This trip has me thinking about how I have usually approached goals.
I admit that through my career I often set my sights on “the” solution. I would analyze the “best” way to get there. And once I set the goal, I would strive to reach it as efficiently as possible. I measured success as how much time and money was “saved”.
On the surface, that might seem like the “right” way to manage a major building project. It’s based on minimizing risk and sticking with what is known.
But as I think of those construction adventures, we were constantly reiterating and remapping.
- An underground discovery would cause a redesign.
- A supplier with surplus inventory would present an opportunity.
- A new grant would change priorities.
Our true measure was how much quality space we could deliver with the funds and schedule available.
If I reacted to the idea of a trip to Ottawa with only efficiency in mind, I would have declined. I’ve already reached that goal. I’m here!
There are destinations we don’t know about until we get moving.
But I reacted to the trip as an opportunity to spend time with people I care about. And I’m curious to experience a new way of getting to Ottawa; seeing what I can never see when driving 100km/hr on the highway.
A river cruise is not the cheapest or the fastest way to Ottawa. But it is perhaps the most fascinating and impactful way that’s within the budget and schedule. We may even feel that the trip is a success well before we reach the last dock.
I realize now that projects are not really about a prescribed destination. They’re about moving in the right direction and gaining new ideas and fresh perspectives along the way to reach a destination that we couldn’t have identified at the beginning.
TL:DR
- It’s shortsighted to believe you can fully prescribe a destination before starting.
- On the journey you gain new ideas and perspectives.
- Measure success not by saving time and money but by making the most of the budget and schedule available.
