By
Alexander Laufer and Jeffrey Russell
In the previous
blog we focused on project planning, demonstrating how a well-known
planning tool can be used effectively and ineffectively to maintain project
progress. However, at times planning tools have nothing to offer and
improvisation is required. Brian Muirhead, who was responsible for the
development and launch of NASA’s Mars Pathfinder flight system, argues that,
“Everybody understands the need for a plan… But in a world of Faster, Better,
Cheaper, improvising should be seen as an inseparable part of planning, the
other half of a complete process. In the fast-paced, rapidly changing world in
which we now live and do business, the ability to improvise has risen to the
top of the priority list of managerial skills.”1
Following are two examples of improvisations introduced in
the midst of projects. The first story is told by Kenneth Szalai from NASA, who
served as the chief engineer and software manager for the first digital
fly-by-wire aircraft:
“A systems engineer called and told me that the
preflight self-test had failed…. While troubleshooting, I froze and my heart
sank. The problem was far worse than some self-test tolerance setting. I
discovered that a half-dozen instructions did not match the program listing!…
the flight computer had contaminated instructions. We did not have the means to
automatically check the computer memory against the accurate printed listing… I
laughed to myself and thought: How long would it take to manually check the
computer memory dump against the listing? Let’s see, there are 25,000 memory
locations, if we had five teams of engineers, and they could read aloud and
verify one memory location every 10 seconds, five teams could verify 30 memory
locations in a minute. That would take about 14 hours.… We finished by Friday
afternoon, and did not find any other errors. I guess sometimes pioneering work
needs solutions rather than elegance.… We flew on Wednesday, as Carl had asked." 2
Facing enormous time pressure, Kenneth came up with a
spontaneous improvisation that provided a simple, albeit inelegant, solution to
the problem.
In the next case, Leslie Shepherd shares a story about a
renovation project for the U.S. Federal Government. Because the buildings were
occupied, the project manager was required to work around the tenants and the
existing site conditions, and to do it quickly.
The roof of a fully occupied office building was being
renovated, which required covering it with roofing tar. The fumes from the tar
were being pulled in by the building’s fresh air intakes, making it impossible
to work. The building manager could have shut down the air intake system for a
few hours at a time, but not for the entire day. After considering his options,
the building manager decided to take a non-traditional approach to solving the
problem.
My solution may not have been elegant, but it was
effective. We hired someone to stand on the roof next to the air intakes and
sniff for tar fumes. The building manager trained the new worker how to turn
the air intake fans on and off. He started work the very next day, turning the
fans on or off depending on his olfactory reflexes. That was his only job and
the additional salary for this “Official Sniffer” was far less than the lost
hours resulting from interrupted work that had to be covered by the tenants.
The building manager received no more complaints about the tar fumes for the
entire duration of the roofing project.3
Leslie, like Kenneth in the first story, was under great
time pressure. His improvisation is characterized by spontaneity and
creativity, demonstrating that high-tech is neither the only nor always the
best way to solve a problem. In today’s dynamic environment, where living order
often dominates, organizations and individuals should enhance their willingness
to forgo planning in favor of acting in real time.4
Improvisation is a fundamental organizational skill that
allows you to work creatively and quickly in today’s ever-changing world. As
the noted author Isaac Asimov has noted, “To succeed, planning alone is
insufficient. One must improvise as well.”
1.
Muirhead, B. and Simon, W. 1999. High Velocity Leadership: The
Mars Pathfinder Approach to Faster, Better, Cheaper. New York, NY:
Harper Business, 193.
2.
Szalai, K. Fly Safe, But Fly, 2004. NASA
Ask Magazine 19, (August): 12-15. http://appel.nasa.gov/ask/about/overview/index.html
3.
Shepherd, L.L. Simple Solutions Surpass
Sophistication, 2000. In A. Laufer and E.J. Hoffman, Project Management Success
Stories, 82-5. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons.
4.
Weick, K. E.
1998. Introductory essay—Improvisation as a mindset for organizational
analysis. Organization Science, 9(5), 543-555.
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