Pay attention to the margins

While using colouring books as children, we were taught to colour with utmost care near the margins. It isn’t a pretty when the colour spills outside the lines.

When we implement any change, we ought to examine its influence at the margins. When we insist that we end our work day at 7 PM instead of 5 PM, how would it affect employees who have children? When you announce a new release management plan, which of your developers are most directly affected? When you cancel an existing returns policy for your product, which of your customers are the most impacted?

Colouring well inside the lines is easy and fast. It is the margins that require care and consideration.

One thought on “Pay attention to the margins

  1. While dealing with real world situations, seldom are there clear cut margins. Often, one has to define what the margins are. Recognising this ambiguity is the first step. If you look for margins without reflecting on how ambiguous most situations are, what you will find is what other people have defined in the past. The approach needs to be more nuanced to take this into account.

    Liked by 1 person

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