{"id":461,"date":"2012-06-11T16:59:58","date_gmt":"2012-06-11T23:59:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/angryweasel.com\/blog\/?p=461"},"modified":"2012-06-11T16:59:58","modified_gmt":"2012-06-11T23:59:58","slug":"the-goal-and-the-path","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/angryweasel.com\/blog\/the-goal-and-the-path\/","title":{"rendered":"The Goal and the Path"},"content":{"rendered":"

When serendipity strikes, I know it\u2019s something I should try to write about. At least three times in the last week I\u2019ve had discussions about vision, tactics, and the necessary balance needed between the two. Without vision, your daily work is just work \u2013 a grind that takes you in no particular direction at all. There\u2019s nothing wrong with this approach for many roles. For example, when I was a bicycle messenger, my entire job was to pick up stuff from point A and bring it to point B. It was different every day, and I had fun \u2013 but there was no vision. The only goal I was working toward was paying my rent. On the other hand, you can certainly have vision (e.g. \u201cto be the world\u2019s greatest tight-rope walker\u201d), but without a tactical plan to get you there, it\u2019s probably not going to happen.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s another example. During the summer, I usually have a chance to run more. Usually, I just run when I can, and run whatever distance I have time for on that day. I could do the same thing this summer and achieve all of the benefits one gets from exercise. I don\u2019t need<\/em> a vision \u2013 I can just run.<\/p>\n

This summer, I have a goal \u2013 I\u2019d like to run 10k in less than 65 minutes by the end of August (I\u2019d love to go for an even 60, but not sure I can reach that goal). I have no reason for the goal other than personal motivation, but the presence<\/em> of the goal changes my tactics. In order to reach the goal, I can\u2019t just run. The goal dictates that I need to work on pace<\/em>, and distance, <\/em>so I need a strategy for both. I know my 5k pace ~33 minutes), and know I can<\/em> run 10k (I don\u2019t have a current pace, but know it\u2019s slower than my 5k pace). <\/p>\n

When coming up with a strategy, I\u2019m fond of the Current State \/ Desired State format \u2013 e.g.:<\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/a><\/p>\n

There are a lot of details hidden in the arrow pointing from Current State to Desired State. I need to work on increasing my pace and distance, so I\u2019ll have to make sure I have longer runs every week, as well as interval training to help increase both my pace and strength. And, because I\u2019ll be running more (and in some cases harder), I\u2019ll need to take precautions to avoid injury (and at my age, do my best to avoid general aches and pains). Even with those details, aligning the tactics necessary to achieve this goal aren\u2019t that complicated. More or less, I\u2019ll still just run \u2013 I\u2019ll just have a few different variations this year that will help me achieve my goal.<\/p>\n

Of course, goals and visions on software teams are a bit more complicated. Team-wide changes require technical changes as well as people<\/em> changes. If, for example, you want to move your team to using more agile practices, you may choose to deal with tdd\/bdd frameworks and new project management, but you also have to deal with a web ov concerns and hiccups as you guide team members through change. In a situation like this, your Current State->Desired state diagram may look more like this.<\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It\u2019s ugly, but expected. I\u2019ve seen many people with \u201cvisions\u201d fail to succeed because they spent their time looking for shortcuts through the system rather than understanding that navigating<\/em> the system is the key to achieving a vision (conversely, I\u2019ve seen many others fail because they focused on navigating the system rather than their initial goals).<\/p>\n

Bottom line is that both tactics and vision are easy. The challenge facing leaders is balancing execution and the vision and showing results.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When serendipity strikes, I know it\u2019s something I should try to write about. At least three times in the last week I\u2019ve had discussions about vision, tactics, and the necessary balance needed between the two. Without vision, your daily work is just work \u2013 a grind that takes you in no particular direction at all….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-allposts"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/angryweasel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/angryweasel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/angryweasel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/angryweasel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/angryweasel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=461"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/angryweasel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/angryweasel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/angryweasel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/angryweasel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}