Why do we have runaway WIP?

One question that comes up regularly is: “Why do managers accept on too much Work In Progress?” – or “Why is it so hard to reduce WIP?”

Once you understand how more work-in-progress means less work-done it is a plague that you struggle to overcome. And for some reason it is always other people who allow too much WIP. Over this last weekend I had some insights…

You see, last week I realised I was had too much WIP myself. As I wondered across Hampstead Heath on Sunday I found myself wondering “Why have I allowed myself to take on too much WIP?” I came up with some answers for myself which I think might apply more generally. They may even go a little way to answering that “Why do we have too much WIP” question.

As individuals and organisations we are repeatedly optimistic. We confuse “what we want to do” with “what we can do” or “what we have capacity to do.” Indeed, one can argue that if we were not optimistic, if we did not try and do too much and do things beyond our ability we would never learn and grow. Perhaps taking on too much and then discarding some is the natural state of affairs. In which case, we need to acknowledge that we sometimes need to cull work.

Can’t decide

Ultimately its a question of not being able to prioritise and decide. But first one has to realise that there is a problem and a decision needs to be made. In my own case I “should” be able to just make that decision. In a work environment there may be multiple people who have influence over what is done and not-done. It may well be unclear who can decide to say No and do less.

Saying Yes is easy: saying No is hard, to oneself and to other people. And once you have said Yes there is an element of commitment. Even saying to oneself “I’m not going to do this” can be hard, telling others is hard even before they object.

Postponing a decision makes it go away, for a while at least. But it still takes up cognitive space, part of our brain knows it will still need to be made. Unfortunately postponing a decision can also mean something fails: it delivers too late, or it deprives something else of resources and that fails.

In the IT/digital world people are accustomed to failure. Sometimes it feels like the expectation is for failure, at least one organisation I’ve worked with didn’t know how to manage success. Their processes and procedures were set up in the expectation that work would go wrong. When a project was proceeding well obstacles appeared.

It can be more acceptable to be seen to fail while trying two rather than succeed with one, and fail another by not trying. Consequently, knowing that saying Yes to two different pieces of work will increase WIP, slow delivery and increase the risk for both, but you still say Yes. Failure will probably happen but it is more acceptable than saying No in the first place.

Just too interesting

Personally, I’m just interested in too many things. Half of my WIP is because I like switching between things. I want to too much. And I need to switch between things, my brain gets bored in one venture so need to switch to something else. I know I should “do one, do it to completion and move on” but that requires discipline.

This applies directly to companies. They want it all, everything looks good, each piece of work has its own supports who will be upset if it doesn’t happen so lobby for it. Again it is more acceptable to fail at many things than focus, succeed at one while postponing the others.

While I’m waiting

If you understand WIP you probably understand queuing theory. While we know that we should work with queuing theory and reduce WIP there are somethings which still entail queues. For example, you need to speak to someone, perhaps for market research. It takes time to book them and it takes time before you speak with them. What do you do in the meantime? Surely you could do something value adding while you wait?

Its bad enough when I do this to myself, in organisations the opportunities are unlimited – especially when you need to interface to people and teams outside your immediate area.

Making many bets

Perhaps a variation on “can’t decide”. One of the reason I have several projects on the go is because I don’t know which one is the “right” one to pursue, I don’t know which one(s) will pay off. Therefore I invest a little in each one. I make many small bets.

If I could decide, if I could throw all my efforts into one it has a better chance of success. But I don’t know. Nor is it clear how to decide which one to back. Unless I work on it I won’t know.

I’m sure that this sometimes plays out explicitly in companies. I’m sure some will decide to make small bets on three or four projects and see what happens. However, I think more often than not this is done without such explicit logic. It happens by accident.

So now I have a better understanding of how excessive WIP comes to be. The question I have now is: how to I change this?