When someone says - "we have this much better process," or "you should do XYZ this way instead of the way you're doing it now." Stop, think, and ask some questions:
- What are they selling. Maybe a product. Possible a philosophy. Maybe a political position. maybe themselves.
- How can you know what they're suggesting actually works in your domain? What domain does it work in? Work domains doesn't it work in?
- How can you tell it will actually work in your domain, if that's a domain they claim it will work in?
A phrase from the track and field domain for relay teams is to:
Watch the baton, not the runners.
This means never confuse effort with results. Never confuse a self-proclaimed expert with a practitioner. The more credentials behind their name, the higher the probability they is either the world's expert on a topic, or poser. Both use degrees, certifications, and credentials to impress you.
Instead ask - what value to they bring to the conversation? Always determine the unit of measure of this value and the results of the processes. Make sure this unit is measure is meaningful to you or your customers. Without a unit of measure for the claimed beneficial outcome, there is no way to confirm there is actually any beneficial outcome to the suggestion.
This is an all-too common approach. As project managers we need to poke deeper at every claim of improvement. Ranging from tools to processes. So when someone says try my "magic beans," or "I've got this very clever spread sheet that short cuts all the work you have to do in your ERP system." The first responses should be:
- What's the evidence you gathered showing is provides improvement in your domain?
- Is this evidence statistically meaningful?
- Have you thought about how the benefits would be transferred from your domain into my domain?
- What evidence should I look for the see that your improvement is actually happening in my domain?
