Do Not Optimize the Wrong System
A chapter shifting attention from speed and efficiency toward whether the system, process or original question is still valid
Distinguishing the optimization of an old answer from the redesign of the question, and removing non-value work before accelerating
Optimization can hide the wrong question
A team spent months accelerating a paperwork process until someone asked why the process still existed. They discovered they had optimized an activity that should have been removed.
Speed matters only when the system moves in the right direction
People like making things faster, cheaper and more efficient. But speed matters only when the system is moving in the right direction; otherwise optimization only helps us reach the wrong place sooner.
Innovation often begins with removal
Innovation rarely begins with acceleration. It often begins by asking whether the activity is necessary at all, opening the possibility of removal and entirely new design.
Optimizing an old answer differs from rethinking the question
One organization may refine forms and reports for years while another removes steps that no longer create value. One optimizes the old answer; the other rethinks the original question.
Good design knows what to remove
A good designer does not only add features but removes weight. A good leader removes rules that have completed their mission. A good learner abandons beliefs that are no longer true.
Sunk cost keeps wrong systems alive
The hardest part of redesign is accepting how much has already been invested in an old method. Time and effort already spent cannot turn a wrong choice into a right one.
Look again at what you are optimizing
Ask what you are optimizing, whether you would rebuild it the same way today, and which step could be deleted rather than improved.
Progress begins when we revisit the starting point
Do not spend a lifetime perfecting a system that no longer solves the right problem. Progress begins when we reconsider the starting point and choose direction before speed.
The next step is when efficiency becomes a distraction
The next chapter explores how obsession with efficiency can distract people from purpose, value and the original problem the system was meant to solve.