Sherpa Alliance

In the face of a complex systemic problem requiring a systemic solution, it can feel like a daunting mountain to climb.  If we are not careful, we tend to focus on the peak and the big fix solution which that represents, working backwards from that future with no clear path of how on earth we will ever achieve it.  It feels like too big a mountain to climb, especially when it is just one peak in the mountain range of other systemic problems requiring systemic solutions.  If we aren’t careful, our breakthrough journey comes to a grinding halt, darkness falls and we just can’t see a path for moving forwards.  But we must be willing to get going in the dark and let the sun rise on the path (Getting Going in the Dark).

How do we do that?  Take a 3 Days, 3 Weeks, 3 Months approach to planning forwards from the present.

• 3 Days
  • What simple steps could we take to be experiencing the benefits of some early breakthrough progress within 3 days from now?
    • Key Question:  How do we make tomorrow a little bit better than today, and how do we make next week a little bit better than this week?
  • In parallel with taking these steps, and figuring things out along the way, what plan can we have formulated for continuing breakthrough progress over the next 3 weeks?
  • Who else do we need to enrol and engage in this next phase?
• 3 Weeks
  • Taking the steps in our 3 Week Plan formulated above, with agile adjustments as necessary
    • Key Question:  How do we make next month progressively better than this month?
  • In parallel with taking these steps, and figuring things out along the way, what plan can we have formulated for continuing breakthrough progress out to the 3 month point?
  • Who else do we need to enrol and engage in this next phase?
• 3 Months
  • Taking the steps in our 3 Month Plan formulated above, with agile adjustments as necessary
    • Key Question:  How do we make next quarter progressively better than this quarter?
  • In parallel with taking these steps, and figuring things out along the way, what plan can we have formulated for continuing breakthrough progress over subsequent phases (to the 6, 9, 12, 18 month and 3 year point, as appropriate?)
  • Who else do we need to enrol and engage in these subsequent phases

This 3 Days, 3 Weeks, 3 Months approach is the thin-end-of-the-wedge of architecting a breakthrough journey.  Think of breakthrough journeys as being wedge-shaped.  It is all too easy to get consumed by the thick-end-of-the-wedge, big-fix solution, planning backwards from that future.  Meanwhile, we can be spinning our wheels and that wheel$pin can be costing us a fortune (Growing Cash-Flow by Reducing Wheel$pin & Increasing Tra¢tion, for cents on the dollar).   Not only that, but if we try to implement a thick-end-of-the-wedge, big-fix solution, we are prone to failure as we haven’t progressively liberated enough time and space to do it properly (which is why, for instance, most enterprise-scale software implementations are much more painful and costly than ever imagined, or fail completely).  If we aren’t careful, we have another problem on our hands not a solution to our original problem. 

The 3 Days, 3 Weeks, 3 Months approach progressively liberates the time and space to reinvest in planning and implementing subsequent phases of the journey, which is much more prone to success.  As things progress, we can then begin combining thick-end-of-the-wedge and thin-end-of-the-wedge approaches, planning backwards from the future and planning forwards from the present.  That is how we can best architect the wedge shape of a breakthrough journey, as an "and" proposition of both.  As and when we approach a phase in which it is appropriate to implement a bigger-fix solution, we have liberated the time and space to do it properly and for that to be the next step function in the breakthrough journey. 

This 3 Days, 3 Weeks, 3 Months approach works best when blended with other tools and techniques:

• Hitting Singles
• Are You Tickling or Tackling Issues?
• Compound Interest & The 1% Solution to Productivity Problems

Try it today on one of your biggest problems, opportunites or challenges, for which you are experiencing wheel$pin and is seemingly intractable - you could be in traction by the end of the week (i.e. 3 days)  and be well on your way with a progressive breakthrough trajectory over the next 3 weeks, 3 months and beyond.  Get going in the dark and let the sun rise on the path (Getting Going in the Dark).