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Time is the fire in which we burn

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I have always loved the idea of time, which is probably why I have a solid sci-fi geek streak that runs through me (but you may have already guessed that if you recognized my title!).

Really understanding and appreciating the nuances of time, isn't something I feel most people are really into. There's all kinds of authors and books who reference time and that it is just a man made creation that has infected our lives; something that stresses people out as they keep feeling like there isn't enough for all of the things they "have" to do.

If you haven't seen them yet and want to twist your mind up with time, check out The Arrival & Interstellar.


So the question ... why am I writing about time?

With all of the talk of Supply Chains in the news lately, with story after story about the stress on them, how some are failing, pressure to perform, etc, talking about time resonated with me.

Effectively managing any operation is about effectively managing (or mastering?) time.

I have found that most people leaders tend to think about time as hours (duh); but more in the sense of labour hours.

"I have a problem, I can't get enough work done, put more people to work"

Sometimes that can work or is maybe even the best option to solve a given problem, but I have rarely seen an appreciation for time.

Here's the reality for all of you leaders out there:

Time is your most fixed and finite variable

What do I mean by that?

No matter how many people may be able to work, how many contractors you can hire or cash you can throw at a problem, time will always be the one thing that you cannot change and will be bound by.

A person can only do so much work in an hour, if this person is your benchmark, then 100 people will be able to do 100 times what 1 person can in an hour; but at the end of the day, the hour is the hour.

This is an important consideration when dealing with challenges and ESPECIALLY important when firefighting (as most of the work is in a crisis mode vs COVID-19).

Decisions needs to be evaluated in what needs to be achieved by a given period of time.

"Is it realistic to think X amount of work can happen in Y number of hours"

Trucks on the road, shipping in a warehouse, emergency food preparation ... all of these things take time. Everything that needs to happen requires time. If you think you can just throw more people or resources at the problem, you have to ask yourself is it realistic that that much activity can happen in that space with that many people IN THAT AMOUNT OF TIME.

This is why I am a huge fan of Activity Based Modelling. It really is about making sure your decisions and actions are feasible over the desired period of time. You might have the best plan, it may be a work of art, but if the math says that it will take 30 hours to achieve that's pretty hard to if your constraint is a 24 hour day.

If anyone out there has learned to invent time ... speak up :)


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