
Steve Blank: Relentless – The Difference Between Motion And Action - wyday
http://steveblank.com/2009/11/09/relentless-%e2%80%93-the-difference-between-motion-and-action/
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edw519
This reminds me of my hero of project management, Tom DeMarco.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_DeMarco>

His approach was that every task is either 100% complete or 0% complete.

No task is ever "80%" complete. If you really think that it is, then break it
down into smaller tasks, 80% of which are 100% complete and 20% of which are
0% complete. This way it becomes much clearer what is complete and what
remains to be done.

I have never allowed anyone to report anything as n% complete for values other
than 0 or 100. As soon as someone does, that's a pretty good sign that they
may be confusing motion with action.

Remember OP's discussion with Jim...

    
    
      Me: Jim, how are we doing with getting Ansys ported?
      Jim: Great, I have a bunch of calls into them.
      Me: How are we doing on the Nastran port?
      Jim: Wonderful, they said they’ll get back to me next month.
      Me: How about Dyna 3D?
      Jim: It’s going great, we’re on their list.
    

Now imagine how much different that conversation would be if each question
started with, "Which tasks are complete and which tasks are incomplete?"

~~~
zaidf
There is something very sexy about this.

Yet, I can think of situations where this is counterproductive. Take sales.
Any company that has a sales cycle can create predictive models after a
certain amount of time. They can make predictions like 80% of sales close
after point x. So if a sales dept has 100 sales at point x, they can predict
about 80 will close. If this model has proven to be mostly accurate over a
period of time, it can bring a heathy sense of stability and consistency in
the company.

I couldn't tell where Steve stands with this exactly but isn't a linear sales
process what allows sales-focused companies to be able to scale? I know in the
case Steve described it was not the way to go because the sales cycle hadn't
been proven and needed to be developed. But once developed, you don't want to
be reinventing the wheel each time a new sales guy joins the team right?

~~~
nl
That's a prediction, not an outcome. Predictions are useful, but they aren't
the same as outcomes at all.

(This is a different thing to the Motion/Action discussion, too)

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staunch
1) As a child the most important thing is effort, not results. If you try
really hard your teacher/parent will reward you, even if the results are crap.

2) If you watch "business people" on TV they're involved in phone calls,
meetings, and deal making. No boring or hard stuff that involves solo work for
hours on end.

Put together those two ideas and you get people who think their _entire_ job
is to make an _effort_ by doing what "business people" do all day.

This is why someone could feel entirely satisfied with themselves, even if
they haven't produced a single meaningful result through all their effort.

~~~
duh
"deal making" is pretty damn important, I don't know why you think it's some
intermediary step like making a phone call or sitting in a meeting.

~~~
iamwil
Until the deal is done, it doesn't amount to much.

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duh
You're certainly right - did you notice how Steve Blank never actually
explained how to bridge the gap between "schedule meetings with people" and
"get the deal done"?

"Scheduling meetings" is required, it just can't be used as a metric for
progress. Don't get fooled into believing all these problems can be solved by
sitting down and writing code for 10 hours.

~~~
wyday
_notice how Steve Blank never actually explained how to bridge the gap between
"schedule meetings with people" and "get the deal done"?_

He does in his book. But a blog post has to have a limited scope or it becomes
a rambling mess.

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shimon
The specific delusion that motion is action is but one instance of what I'll
call "value generation bias".

Most people have a pretty poor sense of whether they are generating value, and
therefore seek to reassure themselves that their time is well spent by taking
pride in whatever accomplishments they can track and their peers can
recognize. We need this validation in order to feel that we have a purpose,
and are serving that purpose.

Successful entrepreneurs are characterized by a merciless drive to remove bias
from their understanding of value generation. They do so by working in
enterprises that inherently provide this feedback -- like startups that die if
they're not generating enough value -- or by soliciting feedback from
trustworthy sources like customers, advisors, or numeric measurements.

If you are the kind of person who places little faith in value assessments
made without clear reference to a worthy goal -- grades, job titles, signs of
social status -- and you actively seek out information that challenges your
own value judgments in order to reduce your own bias, you are probably moving
in the right direction.

~~~
messel
That's a terribly honest and critical viewpoint. I love it.

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generalk
I find I make this mistake constantly: I've contacted someone, I've put the
ball into their hands, but the goal is still as far away as it was when I
started. It's an easy trap to fall into, at least for me, because clients have
as much to do as we do to get various projects completed. Now that I've seen
the issue, however, I can watch for it and take action where appropriate.

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cedsav
I noticed that when I use the expression "the ball is in their hand", I don't
really care about the outcome. I'm just happy I don't have to deal with it
right now.

It's funny how accurate the expression is, now that I think about it. Handing
over the ball is a sure way to prevent you from scoring.

~~~
donaq
OTOH, sometimes you get an alley-oop or an assist.

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coffeemug
As a manager, how do I know I'm not making an opposite mistake - confusing
action with motion? In other words, how do I know I'm not too hard on
somebody? The guy is making dozens of calls, sending hundreds of e-mails, and
going to dozens of meetings to get people to write software for my machine
with no customer base, but I don't see any concrete results. How do I know
it's not _my_ fault for asking him to do an impossible task?

~~~
sunir
Two approaches:

1\. It could be an impossible task, but if the company depends on it, then
what are you going to do? You can't hang on to someone who isn't delivering
the results you need because you don't have infinite time and money. If they
are filling a seat that someone better could potentially fill, you and the
rest of your employees would be better served finding that better someone and
survive.

2\. Some tasks are impossible, but most are just hard. Embrace this definition
of insanity: doing the same thing twice and expecting different results. If
your report is making no headway, quickly as a team accept that, learn from
it, and then spend the time to generate new approaches and test those out.

Both approaches are correct. You fire or double down depending on how aligned
your report is to positive action. If they are defensive, unwilling, or
incapable of learning and experimenting, they are roadblocks. If they are also
concerned about their lack of progress, generating ideas, and resourceful, go
the distance with them.

Note: it's legitimate for your report to claim that given the resources they
have, they cannot meet the target. They can demand from you more resources to
meet your goal, or demand you adjust your goal to meet their perception of
reality. Then the process works in reverse. Are _you_ defensive, unwilling, or
incapable of learning? Or are you concerned about how well resourced you are,
resourceful, and willing to go to bat for your report?

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wallflower
It's easy to confuse activity (non business results-producing tasks) with
productivity (direct business results-producing tasks). An entrepreneur is one
who attacks that difference with zeal.

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notaddicted
You could swap the words motion and action in this article, and it wouldn't
change the meaning.

i.e. why not: action: just doing something, whatever motion: making forward
progress towards a goal. _movement_

The words only server as placeholders -- they might as well be X and Y. Break
out a dictionary once in a while.

~~~
wyday
There's no need to be hostile. It's a famous Hemingway quote. See the first
line of the post.

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misterbwong
Very simple, yet insightful article. This is something everyone should look
out for-not just entrepreneurs. When it comes down to it, we're measured by
our results not by our efforts.

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davidw
The key point:

> My brain was wired to focus on the end-point and work backwards, removing
> each obstacle in my path or going around them all while keeping the goal in
> sight.

Which is a really good one.

