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Hi everyone. Welcome to the 5 Minutes podcast. Today, I would like to talk about why we started so many projects, but we struggle deeply to finish them. Why? There is always a perception that our workload is just increasing and increasing in an endless way. I remember, and I decided to record this podcast because recently, I was in Istanbul at the Surp conference, and one of the speakers, together with me on the panel, said one thing that was just perfect and amazing. He said that projects sometimes are like war. Quite easy to start but very hard to finish. And I want to discuss with you today three aspects that I believe are at the roots of this nightmare of projects that are unable to come to a conclusion. The first, we do much more than we are able to do. And this is a, I would say, a perception. This is anxiety. This is organizational anxiety, which is when you believe that starting several different things gives you a perception that you are progressing and that you are doing something. And what happens? We start 25 different things, and we are unable to finish them, and then we start more. So our working progress just increases. Let me give you an example that is very personal and that we do all the time. How many times you thought, okay, I'm reading that book and then you take a look, how many pages did you read? Oh, I have already read one out of 600, or I'm doing an online course, and it's a free online course.
Okay. How many lectures? Oh, I finished the first one. How many are there? Oh, 300. You know what happens. It's when you start thinking, but you do not progress toward the end. And then this creates a massive anxiety. And Antonio Nieto, a great friend and my colleague on AI, said that probably if you cut 50% of your projects, nobody will even notice. And some people are saying at this time of the year, the books you didn't read just give them up, you know, just just throw them away and take them out of your sight because you will not read them. Don't be naive about thinking you will read them because it's just impossible for you to find time to do all the things you want to do. So this is the first reason, and this applies not only to people. This applies also to companies. Companies do the same. Companies start doing 300 different things, and then they are unable to get things done. And then they spend their whole corporate life doing and handling work in progress. The second aspect is that we always plan and think in perfect conditions. It's like thinking in normal temperature and pressure conditions.
And what do I mean by that? It's when we plan the project thinking, oh, the supplier will deliver on time. This will be done perfectly. I'm scheduling half a day to do that, and I will do it in half a day. What happens in reality? You sit to do something and the phone rings. Something is broken. You need to fix something. And then instead of spending half a day, you spend two days. And it's always like that. This is entropy. This is the chaotic nature of life. And what happens? We do not predict that. We always predict very close to the perfect conditions. So what happens at the end? We are just unable to cope with the complexity because we thought that, oh, I will do that online course. And then you think, oh, I will do this by this weekend, and then you don't. Because what happens during the weekend? You have the pressure of your family to stay with you. Your stove is broken. Then, there is a problem with the toilet flush that you need to fix. Then your car had a flat tire, and then your weekend is over, and the course is still there. Because we never plan in real conditions, we always plan in perfect conditions. And the third one is that we are unable to understand the real meaning of change. What happens? And this is even more today.
If I compare my professional life 30 years ago and now, it's different because everybody talks now. We need to embrace change. And yes, yes, I love embracing change. I think it's such an important concept. But what happens is that sometimes we start a project, and the level of change that you have in that project does not make that project the same project. It changes completely. It's like you, for example; let's suppose you are building a residential building. Okay? And then suddenly you say, oh, let's do just a small change. Let's transform this residential building into a hospital. You know, this does not change what you are doing. It's much better that you kill the home project and start a new project called the hospital because change is when you see a better way to deliver that specific outcome or that specific result. But what I see today is that people try to keep the same name of the project, and then they try to create everything new. It changes the DNA. Imagine, okay, that parts of our body could be replaced. Okay, just as a metaphor. So you lose an arm so I can implant a new arm. That's great. But what is happening many times is that you lose your head, and then let me implant a new head and let it be Ricardo. I will not imagine that this would be possible.
That, you know, a brain from someone else could be implanted. It does not mean that Ricardo will be the same. It's a different human being, and it's a different project. So, because we do not care too much about this tree, we carry most of our work in a nightmare of trying to get things done while new things are just piling up because we are anxious to do so. Every time you have more books to read, and you read the first page, and you stop to alternate to another book to read the first page, it doesn't make any sense. It's much better that you just do not start new projects until you have the time, money, mindset, and willingness to finish them. Remember, many times, we can get benefits from the deliverables of our project, but most of the time, the real deliverables and the real results will come at the end when you receive your certificate, when you receive your credential, or when you're building is able for people to live in when they school is receiving students when the software is available for the public to use. Think always about that. Let's reduce work in progress. And one of the ways of reducing work in progress is to do less new work. Think about that, and see you next week with another 5 Minutes Podcast.
