Planning can be helpful, planning perfection can be paralyzing. I am reading Next City’s The Future of Street Design and am amazed at the pilots that are described that bypassed red tape in favor of doing stuff (well reasoned but not belaboured stuff) and then diligently observe and adapt the scheme. The selected cases show lessons learned that lead to permanent design changes and a couple of pilots that were abandoned very early (lesson learned).
I am applying the ‘build fast, fail early, fix’ approach to some social issues and startups that I am working on. What is we took each day or each hour as a pilot? Would we experiment more? Differently? Would each 3 second moment carry more/less energy and import?
My standard disclaimer is that I am an impatient imperfectionist with a serious action bias so doing something (that makes sense in the moment) and fixing or tweaking as needed. I use that technique in most of my independent work but haven’t shared, very often, the process with colleagues when working towards some shared goals.
I am excited to try something new rather than rely on practice and approach that I already know will work in some measure but that is still unsettling and unsatisfying. Would you be willing to try a rapid-do approach to your weekend? If you give it a whirl, we would be thrilled to hear your experience.
Make This Weekend Remarkable,
B
