The OSS dart-board analogy

The dartboard, by contrast, is not remotely logical, but is somehow brilliant. The 20 sector sits between the dismal scores of five and one. Most players aim for the triple-20, because that’s what professionals do. However, for all but the best darts players, this is a mistake. If you are not very good at darts, your best opening approach is not to aim at triple-20 at all. Instead, aim at the south-west quadrant of the board, towards 19 and 16. You won’t get 180 that way, but nor will you score three. It’s a common mistake in darts to assume you should simply aim for the highest possible score. You should also consider the consequences if you miss.”
Rory Sutherland
on Wired.

When aggressive corporate goals and metrics are combined with brilliant solution architects, we tend to aim for triple-20 with our OSS solutions don’t we? The problem is, when it comes to delivery, we don’t tend to have the laser-sharp precision of a professional darts player do we? No matter how experienced we are, there tends to be hidden surprises – some technical, some personal (or should I say inter-personal?), some contractual, etc – that deflect our aim.

The OSS dart-board analogy asks the question about whether we should set the lofty goals of a triple-20 [yellow circle below], with high risk of dismal results if we miss (think too about the OSS stretch-goal rule); or whether we’re better to target the 19/16 corner of the board [blue circle below] that has scaled back objectives, but a corresponding reduction in risk.

OSS Dart-board Analogy

Roland Leners posed the following brilliant question, “What if we built OSS and IT systems around people’s willingness to change instead of against corporate goals and metrics? Would the corporation be worse off at the end?” in response to a recent post called, “Did we forget the OSS operating model?

There are too many facets to count on Roland’s question but I suspect that in many cases the corporate goals / metrics are akin to the triple-20 focus, whilst the team’s willingness to change aligns to the 19/16 corner. And that is bound to reduce delivery risk.

I’d love to hear your thoughts!!

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