The other day I was talking to a friend about the pandemic (some topics are evergreen), and we were marvelling how, up until then, so many organisations were adamant that they would never entertain remote working. And then, of course, they had to. And, against all their previous protestations, it was fine.

This reminded me of so many past projects where stakeholders where adamant that certain features were essential and then, as the deadline approached faster than expected, suddenly those features are dropped out of necessity. And against all previous protestations, things worked out fine. I’ve written about that before using the analogy of lightening the delivery balloon to give the project the lift it needs.

What’s curious about organisations’ forced move to remote working is that for so many of them not only was it possible, it’s actually turned out better. Employees prefer it. Organisations that are sticking to it are attracting people from organisations that aren’t. They find they can cast their recruitment net wider. If someone needs to see a doctor or dentist they don’t need to take an entire half day off. What was once unthinkable has turned out to be a benefit for so many.

Similarly for projects and prioritisation. If we think the unthinkable we might find we can achieve a better outcome than originally planned. If we want an example we need only look to the pandemic and remote working.

Photo by crises_crs