What Three Things Won’t Change In Your Work in the Next 10 Years?
…Amazon knows their three things…
I watched a wonderful video by Tomas Bay last week in which he talked about how Amazon has identified 3 things that will not change in their business over the next 10 years.
Amazon’s customers always demand large selection of items, lower prices, and faster delivery. With 100% certainty in ten years Amazon’s customers will not demand:
- Less choice
- Higher prices
- Slower delivery
“When you identify those big ideas that are stable in time. They are usually customer needs. Figure out how to absolutely delight them.” Jeff Bezos
This made Tomas think through the things that would not change for his innovation practice over the next 10 years. He concluded that his customer are busy managers who need tools that are: useful, easy to understand, and easy to use. His weekly videos address these three tools that a busy manager needs.
This made me think through my life and work and to perform the same exercise in order to define the things that will not change in 10 years in my practice.
For my project management career:
1. people will demand better defined scope, schedule, and cost
2. reduction in risk
3. more predictable execution
The HOW I supply these things to my customers will change.
Microsoft Project or Primavera software might be replaced with a tool by another company. SAP to track costs most likely will change.
Project management work might be completely remote in 10 years. I am seeing the signs of that already. It most likely will involve tools that have AI capabilities. The data and information portions of the job will be less important and more weight will be on the knowledge and understanding of where and when to apply the tools.
What about trust? I believe that trust between team members and engineering partners will become even more important when working apart. How do you develop that on a large complex project?
…and many more…
I believe that this exercise is worth gold. It forces you to identify the things that you know will not change. Those have to be your main things that you provide with excellence. These are the musts. The HOW I provide those will change. Any additional things could be added on or subtracted from these.
There is a story about Southwest having as their motto that they will not do anything that it will increase the cost of the ticket. So if anyone brought up a suggestion, it could quickly determine if it would increase the cost. If it did, then the answer whether to pursue this new shiny thing was a HELL NO!
So maybe we should always evaluate the choices in front of us as to whether these will affect any one of the three constants for our work before we jump and pursue them.
By the way, I strongly encourage you to follow Tomas Bay on LinkedIn and on YouTube. He is a great innovative thinker that will blow your mind with his very entertaining and well produced videos. I love his work and find that it makes me think. He is a true thought leader. There are a lot of people that try to claim that title BUT very few deserve it. Tomas Bay is one of the true ones.
Why I chose Mona Lisa?
I chose the modified picture of Mona Lisa because it is a constant reminder of mastery. However, it this picture an artist has added elements to make it relevant to what is happening in the world today. I know that over time those elements will drop off and we will be back to the image that does not change.
BTW have you ever noticed that Mona Lisa does not have eyebrows?
My seven cents….(this is what I earned from Medium.com for Nov. 2020)
I got to go…my future self alarm went off
Robert Trajkovski is professional with experience in leading people and projects in Steel/ Power, Refining, Chemicals, Industrial Gasses, Software, Consulting and Academia. He has worked for both owners and engineering companies. In addition, he has instructed 73+ courses at several institutions and often offers his courses for free on LinkedIn.
