Third grade was such a magical time growing up. We were now seasoned students having survived the trauma of first grade and the growing pains of second grade. By the beginning of third grade we are ready for new adventures. From multiplication tables to cursive writing it felt as though we were reaching our strides of expanding our mental selves. To this day, I can remember more from third grade than any other year during my education. Bear with me during this journey of self-reflection; I promise there is a point to this walk down memory lane.
After lunch every day, the children would reassemble in the classroom. Miss Quick would slide her chair from behind the desk to the center of the room and we assembled at her feet; it was story time. We had graduated from the early childhood picture books and now listened intently as the teacher would read from “chapter books” leaving each of us to create a mental tapestry of the words spoken aloud.
I remember one fall afternoon Miss Quick read to us from Where the Red Fern Grows a novel by local celebrity Wilson Rawls. It was the story of a young boy and his adventures with two hunting dogs “Big Dan” and “Little Ann”. In the story the young boy Billy wanted to trap raccoons but at this point in the book did not have hunting dogs. Billy’s grandfather shows him how to make a raccoon trap to catch the animals without the use of dogs.
The trap is predicated by the fact that raccoons are attracted to shiny objects. Placing something shiny in the trap, a raccoon will reach in to get the object. Once it grabs the object it will not let go. The trap is constructed so the raccoon can get its paw into the trap but once it grabs the object its paw is too large to get out of the trap. The raccoon is left with a dilemma. It can let go of the shiny object thereby removing its hand from the trap or it can hold onto the item and be caught. The raccoon chooses to grasp onto the object sealing its fate that it will be caught.
If we are not careful, we too fall into the same trap. We are presented with ideas, technologies, processes, and opportunities that are new and unique. They represent something new and different and in many cases are being hyped as the next greatest thing that will rid our lives of the troubles we currently find ourselves in. Listening to the hype we are mesmerized and focus only on the new shiny object ignoring the logic of whether this thing will actually work for us.
The key is recognizing when we are presented a shiny object and how we react. We can be like the raccoon and grasp onto it and not let go. Riding the new idea or technology, recommending continual investment of time and/or money. Telling ourselves that this shiny object is different and is the missing piece the organization has been lacking. By the time we realize the shiny object was just a distraction it’s too late and we’re trapped.
We owe it to ourselves and to our stakeholders to be able to identify when something new is actually a game changer and when it is a distraction or shiny object. This is many times easier said than done.
It requires a repeatable process and a review mechanism that gathers the necessary information to assess whether the object comes with a corresponding trap that we cannot escape. To work effectively, the object review needs to remove passion and hype from the equation and base the decision of whether to grab the item on empirical evidence.
This can be done with a simple process of technology and/or architectural review. A review board made up of varying disciplines looks at these engagements and asks the question of what business objective or need the shiny object fulfills. It also, more importantly, asks whether the business has a capability that already exists and why that solution cannot be used.
The most important aspect of the above sentence revolves around the concept of a multi-discipline review board. It is important that this board have representation across the breadth of the organization. Missing a voice or a stakeholder potentially introduces bias into the decision. The goal of the review board is not to shoot down all new ideas or extinguish the flames of innovation. Instead it should be designed to logically identify those new methods or technologies that are valuable and not let the organization get trapped by the shiny objects that are not applicable for the current business ecosystem.
A shiny object is not without value. It helps the organization to question the status quo and brings new ideas to the table to keep things fresh. The review board helps to identify value but also evaluate risk to minimize the number of traps we may face if we choose to embrace the object. It provides guardrails to keep things moving forward while minimizing distractions and churn.
The rules around a review board will vary dramatically depending on the organization and the culture. The key tenets that every organization needs to include are objectives, decision criteria, represented groups, and documented decisions complete with identified alternatives and why the decision is what it is.
The review board will evolve over time as the organization and the representatives get more comfortable with their roles. Having those documented decisions and the reasoning behind them help to understand what went into the decision. It may be that a shiny object is not appropriate today but may be tomorrow as understanding, maturity, and business objectives change. Likewise, decisions need to have some sort of shelf life meaning that they are revisited at certain trigger points to understand if the parameters of the decision are still valid. The trigger points may be date driven or when significant changes occur in the organization, customer base, or environment.
With proper rigor the review board and its membership will be able to reduce the shiny object syndrome. It will never fully eliminate it as there is potential risk that you may implement something that didn’t do what you thought or miss something that would have helped had it been implemented. But even in those examples, having the documented decision tree of why you did or didn’t implement something will give the data points that will help the review board to evolve and increase accuracy.
0 Comments