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PUSHING THE ROCK AND SWEEPING AS YOU GO

As we grow our impact in organizations we serve, generally we will give up the
luxury of focusing on one thing for extended periods. Before I was confronted
with this discovery, my conversations would go something like this:

"Should I work on tactical project X or strategic opportunity Y?"

"Yes."

"Wait, what? Which one?"


Competition and the pace of change push businesses to address both the immediate
needs as well as preparing for the future. In tech, I generally don’t see
separate teams organized to tackle each. They’d end up being too siloed, leading
to waste or misalignment. Instead, I’ve observed employees being challenged to
adopt a more holistic view of the business. And how their work aligns with a
broader team/org and company vision.

Want to be involved in more visible projects, increase your impact, or get
promoted? You’ll need to become increasingly comfortable managing the tension
between the immediate/tactical and longer-range/strategic.

I suspect most of us gravitate towards one end of the tactical/strategic
spectrum, making this especially tricky to put into practice. If nothing else,
you’ll improve just by taking a step back every now and then to consider where
you’re investing your time. Having a picture/metaphor has helped me. Folks who
have worked with me before have almost certainly heard me say,

> You have to push the rock and sweep as you go


PUSHING THE ROCK

Imagine pushing a boulder up a hill. It’s bigger than you and headwinds
challenge your progress. Success doesn’t come easily nor quickly. And it takes
whole teams to push together. Making progress also requires you all to push the
same rock in the same direction. Due to the nature of most larger initiatives,
they’ll go backwards if you stop investing. They roll back down the hill so at
the very least you have to maintain a certain level of effort just to avoid
regressing.

Examples vary depending on your level within an organization. But generally,
“pushing the rock” refers to work that requires at least 5x the effort, calendar
time, or people.


SWEEPING AS YOU GO

There are always messages to return, meetings to attend, problems to resolve,
and what can feel like the grind-y work you do. It’s tempting to demean this
work or think that perhaps when you get promoted far enough you can focus purely
on the fancy and most visible work.

The biases in modern countries can lead some to think that literal floor
sweeping is less important than other work. It’s critical we work to recognize
these biases and avoid letting them influence us subconsciously. We can embrace
the criticality of work regardless of its visibility or prestige. If you’ll
allow me to extend the metaphor just a bit more, when we don’t “sweep” as we
push the rock up the hill, we run the risk of making the journey even harder. We
move less effectively as we are distracted or trip on the impediments at our
feet. Trash, debris, and goo get in our way whether they be distractions,
unecessary meetings, wasteful processes, or overcommitments.


BOTH/AND

As you move forward together with others, picture yourself with one hand on the
rock. Leaning into it with your shoulder. At the same time…you’re bent down with
a small hand broom sweeping the path at your feet. Junk you encounter isn’t
avoided as, “someone else’s job.” In the software world:

 * Look for distractions. Are software reliability issues, bugs, or support
   requests bogging a team down? That’s a sign that more sweeping is needed. In
   many ways, my post on the (hierarchy of software
   needs)[/2018/11/26/hierarchy-of-software-needs/] was addressing both the
   problem and the solution to this kind of situation.
 * Consider your perspective. Take a look at how far into the future you’re
   thinking and planning. If all your time is spent working on the software
   tickets for the current sprint and you’re not thinking about the overall
   project trajectory, you’ll likely benefit from a bit more time spent pushing
   the rock.


HOW?

In practical terms, some techniques have helped me more than others to put this
into practice:

 * Timebox. Limit the time in meetings or hours in a week given to the area that
   comes more easily to you or your team.
 * Alternate. While I suggest that we have to do both, that doesn’t mean
   literally at the same time. Spending periods (days, hours, or weeks) focused
   in one area can provide the necessary focus to make progress. But put a clear
   boundary so you don’t get lost. As an extreme example, observers have
   suggested that Apple’s major OS releases often have an annual “fix” and then
   “innovate” cadence, focusing on one and then the other.
 * Dedicate time. Set aside a certain number of hours each week for the area you
   struggle to invest in. Or add a standing agenda item to a team meeting or
   review. Perhaps 4 hours on a Friday morning to think strategically or squash
   bugs is all you need. This is one of my favorite approaches as it makes our
   meeting agenda reflect our priorities…we’re sweeping and pushing the rock.
 * Ruthlessly Prioritize. Think really hard about which efforts you’re investing
   in actually result in meaningful outcomes for the business. Be cautious of
   work that feels good to do, but doesn’t deliver broader value. And get input
   from others. Many times, I’ve found that asking partners and leaders provides
   perspective and context I didn’t have that helped me choose more wisely.

Good luck! This is a life-long journey and I’m still working to refine my
effectiveness both in executing this well and mentoring others to do the same.

Published February 03, 2022


OTHER POSTS



2022 February 3Pushing the rock and sweeping as you go

2018 November 26Hierarchy of Software Needs

2012 December 26Simple progressive feature rollout November 30Finding someone
else's class names in your app February 8Microgems

2010 June 12Plan for 30 days of Code Complete 11Peer Pressure Learning
experiment May 1630 technologies in 30 days April 18Determining employee
compensation March 8Take your workspace seriously January 20Can you be friends
with your clients? I think so. 19When building web apps, utilize proper indexing
4Client stats for 2009

2009 October 27Samantha Joy Harvey joins our family 19Presenting at the
Screaming Monkeys Web Guild meetup 16Finding my ideal clients 15Find your ideal
clients then take amazing care of them 12Balancing work and family life when
you're the boss 6Learning from the masters of business and user experience
September 23Rev up your Pragmatic Programmer PDF books July 20Screencast: Simple
version control with Git


LEGACY POSTS »


CONTACT ME

 * LinkedIn » http://linkedin.com/in/timharvey
 * Twitter » @tihm
 * GitHub » http://github.com/tjh

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