Fix Your Broken Windows!

In his article, Tobias van Schneider talks about the Broken Window Theory, and how attending to small problems can prevent a snowball effect that can let your organization become complacent about bigger and bigger issues. Have you been in a situation where there are many things that need to be fixed, and you just can't decide where to start?

There are a host of prioritization approaches that can work for you. One that we like to use, is based on a game called Buy a Feature. Created by our friend and mentor Luke Hohmann at Conteneo, in this case, rather than using the game to choose new product features or iterations, it can be turned on its head to help decide which problems to solve first.

How do we do that? There are several "price points" that can be attached to each problem. One is just that: the price it would cost to solve the problem. However it's possible that in your case, the company's problem is time. Which can be fixed fastest. Or it might be effort - which is easiest to solve? Or how about this: assign each problem a hybrid "price" - a blended score that takes each of these things into account on a ten-scale. A good portion of the learning will come from reaching agreement with respect to the three sets of point values. Still more will come from the justifications used by your team members, customers, or other interested parties, to argue for each item.

Why do we like this serious game? First, it is very scalable - it can be played with a small team, in person, sitting around a table, with minimal equipment (although time is required to make the up-front decisions about how much time, effort, or money might be involved to implement the solution). There is also an online version that can be geared to a much broader audience - hundreds or participants, or more.

Trying to solve many problems at once is a challenge, no doubt about it. The good news is that it's not an insurmountable challenge - and I've got the tools to prove it.