the second 90%
A couple weeks ago I quoted one of Kevin Kelly’s bits of Excellent Advice for Living.
“Be prepared: When you have 90% of a large project completed, finishing the final details will take another 90%. Houses and films are famous for having two 90%s.”
Of course, the way this math works out, he’s telling you that ~half of the work lies in that last mile / post-production / paint-and-cabinet pulls phase. Embracing this is helpful for avoiding the planning fallacy.
Beyond films and homes, I’m thinking of applications of this idea to teams and people management. Here are a few other examples, with the familiar, visible 90% and the hidden, second 90% spelled out.
Hiring:
First 90%: writing the job description, posting the job description, interviewing, offering, negotiating, hiring
Second 90%: onboarding for the first ~month
Presentations / trainings:
First 90%: Choosing what you’re going to say and putting that in pretty slides or a crisp memo
Second 90%: Sending pre-work, practicing all the tech transitions (launching Zoom breakout rooms, eg), sending follow-up survey and email, doing live observations of folks using the material from the presentation and giving them feedback. Aka “making sure they actually learned and used the stuff and you didn’t just talk at them for 40 minutes”
Event planning:
First 90%: Drafting the run of show, choosing vendors, signing contracts
Second 90%: Relentless follow up with everyone involved in the first 90% to confirm that the actual physical object or human body is actually in the location where it is supposed to be ahead of showtime.
Random bonus one: planting trees
First 90%: Buying the trees, digging the holes, filling the holes
Second 90%: Watering the trees regularly until they are well-established. This is easy when it’s one tree in your front yard. It gets dramatically more complicated if you’re planting >5 trees anywhere else.
-eric
