“Chopping up the elephant”

I’ve lost count on the number of times I’ve heard this in different business contexts. Usually it’s said with great confidence when there is a complex and time consuming problem to solve, and everyone agree that this challenge needs to be tackled one step at the time. It’s often followed by Gantt charts and timelines detailing every step, and the people in the room feel that they are finally in control of how to solve it. That soothing, but often false, sense of security and relief that any detailed plan about the future can create.

I don’t believe in this approach. At M, everything is about time to knowledge, so we rather try to build a smaller elephant to validate our assumptions, thus shortening the feedback loops and minimising the overall risk. Instead of having one third of a large elephant, we have one small elephant that can deliver some measurable value to our customers and allow us to learn.

So, the next time you hear someone talking about "chopping up the elephant", try instead to figure out a way to build a smaller elephant that can grow larger while you learn together with your customers.