Inspiring confidence with the Foothills Model

Confidence and change go hand in hand. Your colleagues seek confidence when you say you’re leading them to a better place. Customers will walk if they feel let down.

Best to bring everyone along, one step at a time. It’s all well and good to hatch plans in the boardroom or on the whiteboard. But no plan survives its first brush with reality. That’s why step one is to figure out what part of that plan is most risky—the biggest leap, something that’s never been done before in present company.

Taking on these challenges early is the only way you stand a chance of overcoming them—and moving on to the less risky work in your plan. Leaving the difficult stuff till later because, well, it’s difficult, will simply park anxiety on your Gantt chart. It places any investment you make in jeopardy.

What specific challenges does version 1 of your new product have to solve to attract interest in the market? Which capabilities can be postponed to version 3 (the classic milestone for a “mature product”)?

If that new marketing system shows great promise, where is the biggest optimism in those projections? How quickly can you turn that optimism into pragmatism?

There’s no better way to earn your colleagues’ confidence than to recognize, attack and overcome the big challenges early—or reassess the goals if that’s not possible.

Teams don’t form when you call the kickoff meeting—they form when everyone’s played a part in achieving something difficult. The earlier this happens, the stronger the team.

And the better the outcome.

Build your own foothills model

Pick a big assignment—past, present or future. List the outcomes required, and order them in priority. Base your priority on value delivered, early market wins, removal of risk, low investment/ high return. You choose.

Now create a small project to fully deliver each outcome in the order you came up with. Don’t start on the next outcome until you’re done with each.

Compare your new plan with the old one. What do you notice?

Check out Chapters Five and Six of Trusting Technology for more the Foothills Model and other planning ideas

Trusting Technology is a book about forming ideas, exploring opportunities with customers and colleagues, and building your future together. Order your copy here.