Yeah, People Aren’t Going To Do That.
Why 70% of goals fail to happen.
Too many excellent goals fail because execution relies on people (aka fallible humans) to:
work harder than they’re working now
remember all of the things that they’ve never remembered before
The most important planning step is to plan for how we’ll make it:
easy for people to do what we want
automate
remove barriers
share information + wins
incentivize + remind
clear ownership + decision making responsibility
hard for people do what we don’t want
See: guide from 1944 CIA Field Guide for sabotaging Nazi organizations:
For organizations and Conferences
Insist on doing everything through “channels.” Never permit short-cuts to be taken to expedite decisions
Make “speeches.” Talk as frequently as possible and at great length.
When possible, refer all matters to committees for “further study." Make the committees as large as possible.
Bring up irrelevant issues as frequently as possible
Haggle over precise wordings of communications, minutes, and resolutions
Re-open matters that were closed at the last meeting
Advocate “caution” and avoid haste which might result in difficulties later
Worry about propriety of any decision. Raise questions about jurisdiction and conflict with other policy
