elliot.my

Tag: BA

  • “Accountability sinks” – A Working Library°

    In The Unaccountability Machine, Dan Davies argues that organizations form “accountability sinks,” structures that absorb or obscure the consequences of a decision such that no one can be held directly accountable for it. Here’s an example: a higher up at a hospitality company decides to reduce the size of its cleaning staff, because it improves the numbers on a balance sheet somewhere. Later, you are trying to check into a room, but it’s not ready and the clerk can’t tell you when it will be; they can offer a voucher, but what you need is a room. There’s no one to call to complain, no way to communicate back to that distant leader that they’ve scotched your plans. The accountability is swallowed up into a void, lost forever.

    Being unable or unwilling to follow a chain of decisions and their outcome – and not hold decision makers accountable – is one of the biggest creators of bad businesses.

  • “Speed matters: Why working quickly is more important than it seems” – James Somers°

    The obvious benefit to working quickly is that you’ll finish more stuff per unit time. But there’s more to it than that. If you work quickly, the cost of doing something new will seem lower in your mind. So you’ll be inclined to do more.

    […] Time is especially valuable. So as we learn that a task is slow, an especial cost accrues to it. Whenever we think of doing the task again, we see how expensive it is, and bail.

    That’s why speed matters.

    […] The prescription must be that if there’s something you want to do a lot of and get good at—like write, or fix bugs—you should try to do it faster.

    That doesn’t mean be sloppy. But it does mean, push yourself to go faster than you think is healthy.

    […] Being fast is fun. If you’re a fast writer, you’ll constantly be playing with new ideas. You won’t be bogged down in a single dread effort. And because your to-do list gets worked off, you’ll always be thinking of more stuff to add to it.

    I have a tendency to try and perfect things and do them too well. ‘Good enough’ is something I need to say way more often.

    I’ve known that for a while. But what this article made me realise is that if I am faster – and tasks are less arduous – I might be more likely to start tasks. And struggling to start tasks is something I severely suffer from daily.

    I’m going to start right now, in fact.

    I have blog post I drafted earlier. I’m not going to perfect it. Instead I’m going to set myself a 15 minute timer and get it published.

    Update: I did it.

  • I’ve been considering writing a “Working With Me” document for some time. But I always feel like it’s a bit… much.

    I stumbled upon this persons one on GitHub and I rather like it.

    It’s simple and to the point (no pun intended). And gives a good overview without going into the weeds.

    If I ever do write my own I think I’ll follow their 👆 lead.

    Update: In fact, I’ve created a generic template for it, based on his (I hope you don’t mind Andy). The .md file is here.