How You Can Prevent the Dreaded Scope Creep from Attacking
We’ve all dealt with the unpleasant dynamic of scope creep at some point in our careers. As leaders, our job is to manage scope effectively so our teams can get their work done without running themselves ragged.
I recently had the pleasure of speaking with Kevin Eikenberry (author of From Bud to Boss) for over an hour on this topic. Today I’ll provide an excerpt of that conversation and at the end of the post I’ll provide you with a link for the actual audio file of our conversation.
So, here are a few thoughts on how leadership plays a critical role in controlling scope. It’s another excerpt from my conversation with Kevin (previously Kevin and I discussed a leader’s role in process improvement – you can read that post here).
Kevin Eikenberry: The thing I think is really important is this idea of giving people a clear scope and letting them know where they can play and where they can’t. This idea of a clear scope is so important. How have you seen leaders successfully deal with what I am sure we have all experienced, which is scope creep? How can we help teams work through that challenge?
Mike Figliuolo: I think there are two kinds of scope creep. There is the one where the team wants to expand the area on which they are going to have an impact. The second is where you have all those wonderful external parties, like senior executives and other stakeholders, trying to expand the scope of what your team works on. Let me focus on that first area.