Beyond Deadlines
Posts
Root Causes, West Coast Jobs and Fighting for Flexibility

Root Causes, West Coast Jobs and Fighting for Flexibility

The most planning knowledge per word of any newsletter available

Micah Piippo
December 04, 2023

Happy Monday!

Here is 1 Quote, 2 Planning Thoughts and 3 Interesting jobs to start your week…

1. Quote

❝

Distinguish proximate causes from root causes. Proximate causes are typically the actions (or lack of actions) that lead to problems, so they are described with verbs (I missed the train because I didn’t check the train schedule). Root causes run much deeper and they are typically described with adjectives (I didn’t check the train schedule because I am forgetful). You can only truly solve your problems by removing their root causes, and to do that, you must distinguish the symptoms from the disease.

Ray Dalio, Principles

2. Planning Thoughts

Schedules and plans are more than timelines; they're storytelling tools. You'll be able to easily communicate your project's story if you keep this in mind.
In many cases, you will have to fight to keep any flexibility in a plan. Make sure you don't show up to the critical path party with no float.