Getting things done, together

If you’ve got a gnarly problem, you probably need a group of mates to work on it in order to make an impact.

So theoretically, more mates will mean more impact.

But maybe not.

Gnarly problems definitely require a few different bodies. It’s highly unlikely that a single person is going to arrive at a solution alone. At the very least, the company helps!

But particularly gnarly problems also usually require people to work together in all sorts of different configurations. Sometimes you’ll all come together to thrash out an issue. More often, you’ll divide and conquer, prototype and test, and learn and discover in smaller groups.

Therefore, you need a group where (ideally) any combination of people can function effectively, and who are also able to bring their whole selves to the big group conversation.

Thankfully, you can hit both of these with one thing: Good relationships between every person.

Simple to say, and challenging to do, yes. And if you’ll bear with me, there’s some simple maths to help explain why.

The number of relationships (i.e. connections between two different people) present in any group can one calculated using the equation R = n x (n - 1) / 2 (Where ‘R’ is the number of relationships and ‘n’ is the number of people (English explanation below*)

What this means is that if you have three people working together, you need to have three functional relationships to have both a cohesive group, and everyone can work together in smaller groups.

If you have six people, there are 15 different relationships.

Jump up to eight people, and you nearly double the number to 28.

And in a group of 10, there’s 45 different relationships.

How about an international rugby team with 23 people on the match-day squad… 253 individual relationships required for ultimate cohesiveness!

15 relationships (with a group of 6) is a manageable size , especially if you’re spending regular, frequent time together. On the other hand, 45 separate relationships (with a group of 10) is likely to require a specific environment to pull off.

This might explain why sometimes, more isn’t better, it’s just more complicated.

*To calculate the number of relationships in a group of people, multiply the total number of people in the group by one less than that total number, and then divide that result in half. (See maths has a point, if only just to save on space).

Get good tools for your good people

After you've got the right people, make sure you give them the right tools.

It's worth paying for them.

While we might bootstrap/number-8-wire the project together, high quality projects require high-quality people working with high-quality tools.

And high-quality costs money.

Doing good requires us to get better. Getting better requires us to practice. And practicing requires tools.

So get good people, develop a good design, and with the right tools, build the right project.

Work hard, work fast, work together.

We've become obsessed with being busy, and lost sight of being productive.

A building company reduced staff hours from 45 hours per week to 38 hours per week, with no change in annual pay, and didn't have a blip on the bottom line.

A well functioning team can be many hundreds of times more productive than a poorly functioning team. Whereas the most efficient worker is only going to be ten times more productive than your least efficient worker, at best.

Think about the last design team on your building project, or the workgroup you sit with, or the subcontractor who installed your plumbing. How do they rate on the "effective team" scale?

We've lost sight of the benefits of intensive work and traded it in for long hours of solo drudgery.

How much more productive could we be if we spent less time working?

How would the construction industry change if we all learnt how to work hard, fast, and together?

We might build more, better, for less.

Which sounds like a piece of the solution to our housing crisis...

The beauty of preparation and planning

There are few baseline fundamentals when it comes to making the world a better place. Here's a couple:

1. It works better when we work together.
2. You never know what is coming.

Planning and preparation are key to both of these.

Prepare together. Align your thinking. Uncover your strengths and weaknesses. Learn to communicate. Resolve conflict. Agree on principles.

And then when an unexpected decision-making moment arrives: Check in on each other, check alignment, check strength, and act decisively.

Crucial moments rarely allow time to think everything through. So have 80% of the conversation before the moment arrives. And develop the skills to nail the last 20%. 

Cover off the basics of the decision using pre-established principles, and discuss the details that arrive in the decisive moment.

* This is more about life than about property, but I suspect you could apply a similar logic to a house project.

People lie at the cross-over between software development and community development

Scrum started in the software development industry. But the underlying principles are generic.

If you want to change how property works for your people, in your neighourhood:

1. Do something. Something you can point to. Something that stands alone. Anything. Even the smallest thing.

2. Identify what actions, projects, conversations, and decisions will bring the most value to the change you want to see happen. Do those things first.

3. We don't know how long it will take, untill we start and see how long it takes us. Then we'll get faster.

4. Shift things that slow you down. Spending time this week resolving something that makes you slower will pay dividends when get more done every week for the next ten years.

5. Always pause to reflect, review and share. Share not just what has happened, but how it happened. Tell stories, learn from them, make changes, get better and making things better.

6. Don't forget the most important things: People matter. Action counts. Work together. Learn, adapt and change continuously.

7. Commit. Find others who are committed, and commit to each other. Keep everyone else in the loop, but work with people who are committed.