The Danger of "Quick Wins'

As I become more and more convinced that implementing next-gen/Web 2.0 is soooo much less about technology than about culture (Duh Mark, I know), then I am also becoming more and more convinced of the danger of 'quick wins.'  Changing organizational culture is hard. It takes time, will and extended effort.

I think the idea of 'quick wins' can be not only distracting but wasteful. I think that often 'quick wins' are used to cover up the lack of an over-arching strategy against which actions can be measured and be found either to support an long-range plan or not to support it or to support it in some measure. That strategy is the long pole in the tent - it is the metric that we can measure our actions against.

So 'quick wins' are fine as long as they take place within the context of a long-range plan and are executed in such a manner as to continue progress toward that vision. I guess what I am saying is that we should stop acting like changing any organization to take advantage of new technologies or ideas is hard, hard work and we need to respect that, fund like we understand that and invest in ways that indicate we see beyond the next quarter.

...course that's just my opinion; I could be wrong.

Comments

[law of attraction workbook]

You have given me the insight I needed so that I have a better understanding. Your post aided me a lot.

Thanks for your feedback!

[Tony Karrer]

I posted some thoughts on this:

http://elearningtech.blogspot.com/2008/06/quick-wins.html