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In This Edition of Remarkable Monday
A Family Trip Off the Rails
Imagine planning a simple weekend getaway to the mountains with your family. The goal is straightforward: spend quality time hiking and enjoying nature. But as the plans unfold, everyone adds their own ideas.
Your spouse wants to visit a nearby city, your kids insist on stopping at a theme park, and your relatives suggest a detour to visit distant cousins. Suddenly, your peaceful mountain retreat morphs into a chaotic, multi-stop journey that bears little resemblance to the original plan.
This scenario perfectly illustrates Scope Creep.
What is Scope Creep?
Scope Creep occurs when the scope of a project expands beyond its initial objectives, often in small, incremental changes. Each addition might seem harmless, but collectively, they can derail your project, leading to delays, increased costs, and diluted results. It's the project management equivalent of mission drift.
The Intersection with Missional Alignment
Missional alignment is about ensuring every action, decision, and task aligns with your core mission. It’s the compass that keeps your efforts pointed in the right direction. When Scope Creep sets in, it can pull you away from your mission, leading to scattered efforts and unfocused outcomes.
Why Every Small Thing Matters
It might seem like minor deviations are insignificant, but these small changes can accumulate, leading to substantial shifts. Here’s why every small task matters:
Consistency: Each task, no matter how small, contributes to the consistency of your mission. Consistency builds trust and reliability, which are essential for any successful venture.
Resource Allocation: Small tasks consume resources—time, money, and energy. Misaligned tasks can drain these resources, leaving less for what truly matters.
Cultural Impact: The small actions of today shape the culture of tomorrow. If your team sees that minor deviations are acceptable, it can erode the commitment to the core mission over time.
Guarding Against Scope Creep
Here are some strategies to prevent Scope Creep and maintain missional alignment:
Clear Objectives: Start with clear, well-defined objectives. Ensure everyone understands the mission and the project's scope.
Regular Check-Ins: Schedule regular check-ins to assess progress and ensure alignment with the mission. These meetings can catch Scope Creep early.
Empowered Decision-Making: Empower your team to make decisions within the boundaries of the project's scope. They should feel responsible for maintaining alignment.
Documentation: Document any changes in scope and assess their impact on the mission. This creates a record and makes it easier to manage changes.
Stakeholder Communication: Keep stakeholders informed about the project’s progress and any potential changes. Their insights can help maintain alignment.
Real-Life Examples
Consider NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. Initially planned as a straightforward project, it faced numerous challenges and changes in scope. Each additional feature and adjustment, while seemingly minor, led to significant delays and cost overruns. The mission's core objective—to capture high-resolution images of space—was compromised by these deviations.
On a smaller scale, think about a community outreach program. If the original mission was to support single mothers with job training, adding unrelated services like general healthcare might dilute resources and focus. While both objectives are noble, staying true to the original mission ensures a more significant impact.
Bringing It Home
As you lead your teams and projects, remember that every small task and decision contributes to the bigger picture. By guarding against Scope Creep and maintaining missional alignment, you ensure that your efforts are focused, resources are well-used, and your mission remains the guiding star.
Every Remarkable Monday reminds us of the importance of intentionality and focus. Let’s commit to staying true to our missions, no matter how tempting it might be to drift. Your mission matters, and every action you take toward it matters. Let’s make every moment count.
Until next week, stay remarkable!
If you are reading this far…
I hope this message finds you well. I’m sharing from my heart in hopes that you will be inspired to unearth and live out your God-given purpose. Hopefully, something I said resonated. I would love to hear from you if so. Please feel free to reach out to me on social media. FYI: I’m mostly active on Instagram these days. If you were forwarded this message, you can subscribe here to receive thoughts like this directly in your inbox. And don’t forget to check out the latest episode of my podcast, ConvoRoom with Mark Allen Patterson.
See you next week,
