Archive → September, 2010
It is your Responsibility to Rock the Boat
Everyone is probably familiar with the phrases “Don’t rock the boat” and “Don’t make waves”, both used to signify situations where we are being advised to accept things as they are and stay quiet. This is fine for certain situations in our personal lives, however this has no place in New Product Development. The way I see it the water is like a sheet of glass when it comes to product execution, everyone is in a quiet state of accepting what should be unacceptable. Ownership of the difficult and high impact problems float around for months or years while functional project contributors ignore them because of a comfortable belief that the issue resides out of their control.
There is a widespread idea that having formalized project management in place removes the functional teams burden of solving execution issues. Essentially the assumption is that project management is an entity that should become aware of all the execution barriers and has the knowledge, expertise and responsibility to fix all of them. Wow, that sure places project management on a pedestal. The truth is, that kind of thinking is about as anti-Lean principled as you can get. Placing the responsibility for identification and solution of all new product execution barriers on project managements lap is simply not providing optimal results, is it?
If there is something that is impacting you or your organizations ability to efficiently contribute and you fail to take any action, the blame for the continuing issue is all yours! It is well beyond time to stop waiting for someone else to step up to the plate to solve those issues that have been plaguing your projects for months and years. How has waiting for a solution from someone else been working out for you? In this environment it is not safe to wait any longer; those that continually make a difference in the bottom line will prosper, and those that wait for someone else to make a difference will eventually fail.
So take off that shoe and bang it on the table to get some attention – Say what you really need for your success. You know, it’s the issues that are incessantly whined about at the lunch table. Identify the changes that must happen to positively impact your contributions and then help drive the solutions. Whether you are a leader or an individual contributor the time has come to stop making excuses by placing blame out side of your jurisdiction. Rock the boat and make some waves!