Keep your blockers close but Impediments closer

Hey people , 

In this raging pandemic of uncertainty we are all struck. I've lately come across this concept of blockers and impediments. Sorting them can prolly declutter our mind and work to an extent I guess. Let's talk .

You have set a goal. You know where this is headed because you’ve been here before. You don’t like the direction, so back to the drawing board you go.

You are built on a reputation of being consistent, timely, trustworthy, and reliable. If timelines are often delayed, then what is the point of having deadlines for project deliverables or progress check-ins with teams and departments? How will this blocker affect subsequent project timelines and regulation?

Basic

The Difference Between A Project Blocker and Impediment is blocked Work Can’t Get Done Until The Blocker Is Removed.Impediments can be predictable; therefore, hopefully, avoidable or manageable. 

Whatever the cause, they all have the potentially risky effect: a delay or full stop . 

Challenge 

Project Impediments Slow Your Progress Down 

 or trips it up. This could be too many interruptions, too much work in progress, missing information, or a lack of proper communication and thorough briefs.  

Why me?

Many blockers are out of your control—but for every issue out of your control, there may be a solution in your control. Likewise, impediments are most often in your control, so long as you get to the root cause of why it’s happening (and keeps coming up).

Types of blockers and impediments.

1. People Blockers

Blockers come in all shapes and sizes—and can include people too. 

People may want to protect their ideas, projects, teams, departments, or even their  turf and could block your way forward consciously or not. They may also want to keep the status quo as-is or limit the amount of extra work and resources that your project may take up for them and their team. Some people resist change. On the opposite spectrum, they may get involved for status reasons, but there are such things as too many cooks in the kitchen. 

2. Dependencies And Feedback Loops

Goals that depend on many people, other teams, departments, organizations, and third parties may have more (or different) blockers than smaller agile teams. Find out which tasks need longer feedback loops with more stakeholders. 

Also ,which tasks are dependent on others getting done before they can be completed? Which tasks are independent of other steps?

3. Task Management :

Task management issues are impediments that slow your progress but don’t stop it altogether. This is only the case if they aren’t high-priority, foundational, or dependency tasks.

Task management issues can arise if a team member or whole team has too much work in progress, is doing too much multitasking, task switching or changing priorities often. 

The solution here is to focus on unblocking the workload, rather than creating more work. For individual team members, this could mean that they have to recognize their own blockers—such as task switching—or be held accountable by someone. Task management tools are key to helping team members and projects stay on track, on task, and on time. 

4. Time Management

Time management issues can escalate into full-scale goal blockers. A few classic examples of time management issues are too many meetings and distractions or a lack of ability to focus because of burnout and too much going on. Not leaving enough time to review or for feedback loops and tests are other impediments and potential blockers. 

This is a management issue and one that, if caught early enough, can be prevented and avoided by adjusting timelines, outsourcing tasks, or removing unnecessary deliverables.

Solution 

Most likely, you come up against the same goal blockers and impediments time and again, so start by finding, naming, and tracking them. 

 

Time: How much time did the blocker delay progress for? Did it put a complete stop to the goal altogether?  

Control: Which blockers and impediments are in your control? Which are not? 

How much control will you still have over the goals progress if this comes up again?

Fix: Is the blocker or impediment fixable?

If so, how simple or complex will it be to fix it? Who’s needed?

Cost: How costly is the blocker to fix? How costly is it to delay? What are the unforeseen costs of this blocker beyond monetarily?

From there, decide which blockers and impediments must be eliminated, avoided, managed, or ignored in order to move your goal forward successfully. 

This article is like a me giving a peoptalk to myself to move out of procastination.

So far so much!