Illusions of agreement

The business world is littered with dead documents that do nothing but waste

people's time. Reports no one reads, diagrams no one looks at, and specs that

never resemble the finished product. These things take forever to make but only

seconds to forget.

If you need to explain something, try getting real with it. Instead of describing

what something looks like, draw it. Instead of explaining what something sounds

like, hum it. Do everything you can to remove layers of abstraction.

The problem with abstractions (like reports and documents) is that they create

illusions of agreement. A hundred people can read the same words, but in their

heads, they're imagining a hundred different things.

That's why you want to get to something real right away. That's when you get

true understanding. It's like when we read about characters in a book--we each

picture them differently in our heads. But when we actually see people, we all

know exactly what they look like.

When the team at Alaska Airlines wanted to build a new Airport of the Future,

they didn't rely on blueprints and sketches. They got a warehouse and built

mock-ups using cardboard boxes for podiums, kiosks, and belts. The team then

built a small prototype in Anchorage to test systems with real passengers and

employees. The design that resulted from this getting-real process has

significantly reduced wait times and increased agent productivity.

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Widely admired furniture craftsman Sam Maloof felt it was impossible to

make a working drawing to show all the intricate and fine details that go into a

chair or stool. "Many times I do not know how a certain area is to be done until I

start working with a chisel, rasp, or whatever tool is needed for that particular

job," he said.

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That's the path we all should take. Get the chisel out and start making

something real. Anything else is just a distraction.