First, semantic clarification. Formally speaking, a “dilemma” is a situation with two options where both options are bad. It’s more specific than a “pickle” or a “sticky wicket” or a “quandary” or a “damn, we’re in a tight spot!”
Anyways. As this MarketingProfs article points out, the dilemma often facing marketers is that we either (A) keep our heads down and focus on surefire work or (B) we brainstorm, innovate, and invent some new stuff — which also means that we (A) give up new opportunities in order to stay focused or (B) we take on substantial risks for the possibility of greater reward.
We’d boil down the article’s advice to these three triage rules:
1️⃣ Ask tough questions right from the start. This will separate the proverbial wheat of promising work from the chaff of crappy ideas.
2️⃣ Enthusiasm will not solve project-management problems. If the schedule is already clogged, you’re only going to make it worse by adding to it. There has to be time, space, and resources for it. Whatever “it” is.
3️⃣ Keep the top priorities in focus at all times. Scope creep is a thing. You can’t avoid it completely, but you CAN keep it from smothering a successful project… as long as you know the definition of success for that project.
0 Comments