The danger of holding out for perfect optimisation

The problem is that this will almost never happen and in holding out, they miss out on the opportunities that are right there in front of them, staring them in the face.

These businesses forget that every little bit matters and that in today's market environment no business can really afford to leave any stone unturned. The dangers are:

Lost benefit and never realising your goals

Failing to take action on the immediate opportunities available can result in you missing out on those benefits forever. Often in executing some of the smaller projects, the sum of them could result in the total big saving which was needed.

Keeping all your eggs in one basket is high risk

If the one big project fails, the failure and loss is also big and you are no closer to your goal. With smaller projects your risk is much lower. Your risk adverse employees may intentionally avoid highlighting big project opportunities for fear of the ramifications if they fail.

Demotivating your employees

Employees may feel excluded or not good enough if their smaller projects are continuously shot down.

Change management difficulties

A big project often entails big changes that could be difficult to adapt to. With smaller projects it is easier to adapt to changes and frequent smaller changes also makes it easier overall for people to become used to change as the status quo and be more agile and flexible in future.

Loss of momentum

With a big project that takes long to implement, the team can easily lose momentum. Immediate operational concerns normally take priority. The result is that team members never seem to find the time to make these big tasks fit into their daily schedules and it becomes easy to believe that "we will never get it done" as the end remains too far out of sight. With a smaller project, that is quick to implement, it is easier to find the time. The benefits can be seen sooner, we can celebrate the achievement and this pleasant reward can spur team members on to do more of the same.

Sometimes we have no other choice than to sign up for a big project. Big projects do have their place, but as can clearly be seen above, dismissing all smaller projects all together is dangerous for business. If you are regularly working on smaller projects and they have become a standard part of your business operations, even your big projects will become easier to complete successfully.