Sherpa Alliance

When faced with situations in which the demands for resources far exceed supply and circumstances are unfolding dynamically in unpredictable ways, we have no choice but to triage.  Here are two definitions of “triage”:

In Crisis Management:
The sorting of and allocation of treatment to patients and especially battle and disaster victims according to a system of priorities designed to maximize the number of survivors;  the sorting of patients (as in an emergency room) according to the urgency of their need for care.  Wikipedia:  Triage

In Business: 
The assigning of priority order to projects on the basis of where funds and other resources can be best used, are most needed, or are most likely to achieve success.

The increasing speed of business, pace of change and uncertainty, turbulence and volatility these days means we are typically in a constant state of triage, to manage our attention span.  As tragically illustrated by the Eastern Airlines story (the Eastern Airlines story in Divergence & Convergence) our attention span is our most limiting factor.  Managing our attention through time-management and priority-management used to work OK in slower, more predictable times, as they are good at mastering detail-complexity.  With the increasing challenge of dynamic-complexity (The Traffic of Dynamic Complexity), managing our attention has become more like an ongoing, dynamic process of Triage.

If we triage well, we can feel on top of things, in the driving seat and, despite an overwhelming number of things to do, have a sense of being in control.  If we triage poorly, we can feel buried, that dynamic complexity is in driving seat of us and we feel out of control.  Life becomes a constant white-water ride (Constant White-Water?). 

David Allen puts it well in his book, “Getting Things Done – the art of stress free productivity”, saying:

“It is possible for a person to have an overwhelming number of things to do and still function productively with a clear head and a positive sense of relaxed control.  That’s a great way to live and work, at elevated levels of effectiveness and efficiency.  It’s also becoming a critical operational style required of successful and high performance professionals.  You already know how to do everything necessary to achieve this high performance state.  If you are like most people, however, you need to apply these skills in a more timely, complete and systematic way so you can get on top of it all instead of feeling buried”.

The key is to have a system you trust to help you triage well (Being Productively Paranoid – can you trust your system?).

That’s what ourwork is about, helping you develop a system you trust to help you triage dynamic complexity better (Traction Planning for the Agility Advantage)