Balancing building a better future version and delivering what is needed now is one of the few distinguishing characteristics of all the successful projects and organizations I know. Those teams stroke an equilibrium between creating small wins here and now and building upon them time and time again to great lasting success.
This is not an “or” but an “and” question. With this I mean that the question is not whether the short or the long term is more important but how to balance both. There is no thriving long term without surviving now, and any short term win achievable by scrambling uphill now will not last very long and will not grow to a stable success unless we invest adequately in the future now.
If we find a way to find, or search for, that equilibrium consistently we will have one of the few keys to more successful projects. I know it is not an easy feat but it is so important that I can see myself failing at it for some time. There is a lead I am currently following to see where it takes me. It is basically a recipe for the search that goes something like this:
- Find the critical few things that if done now will
- guarantee your next immediate win,
- make very likely you will get a second and third next wins, and
- increase your chance of massive success (total-world-domination level).
- Put all your focus on achieving those things identified and nothing else.
- Rinse and repeat until massive success.
I don’t know if this approach will work. It is still a half baked hypothesis but I am “seriously playing” with it. What do you think I should do to make it better? Have you experimented with any other ideas to find the right balance between delivering now and improving for the future?
The Adaptive Executive 