One Bite at a Time

I don't know about you, but I think our government's approach to health care reform is asinine. Trying to change one-sixth of our economy in 1000 pages or more of government gobbledy gook that has so tight a deadline that very few of our esteemed "leaders" have read it and fewer still understand it. Our "leaders" tell us that "doing nothing is not acceptable." I would tell you that putting water on burning magnesium the worst thing you can do.

I know, I know. Water on a fire is generally good. But did you know that water has an explosive effect on burning magnesium? People who don't know what they are doing shouldn't be in a big rush to do it. As one newspaper columnist put it the other day, "our government believes that doing nothing is worse than doing it wrong. They fail to remember that haste does make waste."

I agree that we do need health care reform. My biggest objection to the current process is the apparent desire to tackle everything at once. It's like trying to swallow the elephant whole. Yet the old saying that applies here is "The only way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time."

Those of you who have studied project planning with me know that I am a big proponent of comprehensive project plans that are thorough and detailed. You know that I believe in thorough planning to eliminate as many unforeseen situations and unintended consequences (oops) as possible. You also know that I believe that project plans should be "written in pencil" and we should "carry a big eraser" so we can quickly modify the plan as our project experience unfolds. You also know that it's best to have contingency plans in place so to be prepared to handle the unexpected in a professional way.

There have been, however, situations in my career where I have been given "hot" projects that didn't lend themselves to lots of planning. Often times these projects involved taking over one sort of disaster or another; disasters that were often caused by a lack of proper planning in the first place. My approach to those "hot" projects (where doing nothing was unacceptable) was to (quickly) take one bite at a time. Find one element and nail it in. One. Use that as a basis and nail in a second. If the second doesn't fit without adjusting the first, then adjust the first and re-nail it. Next nail in the third, adjusting one and two as necessary. Keep nailing things and at some point you'll have enough solid framework to allow more thorough and comprehensive planning for further steps.

Not so different from the medical world when it has an emergency that must be dealt with now. They know they can't do everything at once. That's what triage is all about. Or the ABCDE (airway, breathing, circulation, disability,exposure) of severe multiple injury (trauma) treatment. Shouldn't our government take a more structured approach to health care as well?

About me: Dan Pelley teaches project planning as part of his "Managing for Results" program, one of five programs leading to a Certificate in Supervisory Management. He welcomes your comments on this post. Was it useful for you? You can easily respond via the comments link below.

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