Deliver
Empower delivery teams to create value.
The “final” step is Deliver.
But it’s not really the final step. If you’re doing this right, this never really ends - it just becomes about delivering something else – which takes you back to the start again. Or it remains about refining and constantly improving the current thing. Either way, it’s an Infinite Roadmap.
I am not a delivery person. There is an endless list of things to read that will expound on every method and way to deliver. The key thing for me is that delivery is not about the how; it’s about the what.
If you already know what you need to deliver down to very specific detail, there are ways to deliver that. If you don’t know what you need to deliver, but you know there’s something to deliver, there are ways to deliver that, too. Ultimately if you’re not delivering value, there’s no real need to do anything.
Now that I’ve written deliver in one form or another twelve times (including this one - admit it, you just counted it up, too), let’s discuss the who.
Delivery teams are usually at the end of an elaborate process of arriving at the thing they need to create/build/offer/deliver. Quite often they’ll be provided a long list of how and what needs to be done – conveniently thrown over the fence at them. In some cases, this is necessary. In most, particularly in the fuzzy worlds of people and technology, these grand specifications are not about delivering real value, they’re about justifying existence. Gateways need gatekeepers, after all.
Nod along if you’ve ever heard any of the following at work (or more importantly, you’ve thought any yourself):
“Actually, I haven’t read the specification document”
“I really don’t understand wireframes”
“Why are there so many meetings? When do I get the chance to actually do some work??”
“If we already know the plan has not factored in a bunch of critical work, why are we using this Gantt chart like it’s the Holy Truth?”
We get so caught up in the idealogical discussions on how, we forget the why and we then miss the real what. We forget the reason to deliver in the first place, and so miss the value.
Final point: the best delivery makes room for the deliverer. Regardless if it’s a team or an individual, they should be empowered to use their best skills and capabilities to build on the ideas given to them. Does it need some creative flair? Are the delivery team close enough to the customer to see something that wasn’t considered upstream? Can they tweak things to improve the outcome or increase the value? We find it easy to scale up at delivery time by using additional arms and legs and brains; we do not think enough about scaling up the humanity, and giving them the permission and remit to shine.
That’s my approach: Understand, Define, Prioritise, Experiment and Deliver. One constantly iterative way to create and deliver value in the messy world where people and hierarchies and technology interact. This approach is not just about design or innovation or ideation or even delivery – it’s about being Changeable.
Are you ready to change?
Photo by Kai Pilger on Unsplash
