Hunch, Bunch & Crunch: a simple guide to doing new stuff

Behold: a bureaucrat’s attempt to convey how to discover new approaches and achieve goals without… *drumroll*… buzzwords!

New Stuff

Your clients’ expectations have changed. The current technology no longer functions. There are mounting economic or environmental pressures. Do more with more. Do more with less. Go mobile. Go automatic. Go faster.

Any or all of this may be happening and you are still expected to deliver value. You’d better come up with some ideas pretty quick.

Get a Hunch

Perhaps you already have a notion of what you are trying to solve for, and maybe even how. Some intuitive sense of a direction you might take. Those industry newsletters about the latest rule breakers have provided some insight.

Better yet, you’re close to your clients and their tangible desires are prompting post-lunch day dreams of what might be possible.

Or, you’re stumped. Life has been operational for a good long time in much the same fashion. Process is in place. Outsiders have been shunned and you’re not keen to end up like them… but you know that something's gotta give.

Either way, make the time to get a solid hunch. But just a hunch. You don’t want a strategy, or a plan, or any other kind of big investment of your ego (or budget).

Engage a Bunch

Take your hunch, and invite a small bunch of good brains help you gain traction.

If you’re lucky, you have a high performing team. Trust is high, conflict is productive, and accountability and results are the norm. This is your go-to bunch. A good place to start.

You might just have one confidant. That’s okay too. Start there and build your bunch.

Don’t stop there.

Reach beyond your cozy bunch, and invite in a few “others.” Ideally they have a totally different vantage point.

Don’t stop there.

Make sure you have included the benefactor. The voice of the customer should be central to your evolving hunch, if it wasn’t from the start (it should be).

Crunch

Crisp autumn leaves under your feet. Fresh snap peas in your salad. So satisfying. Just like the opportunity to test your hunch and make it crunchy.

Yet, we often suspend our satisfaction regarding new ideas. We let them rot on the hunch vine. Sometimes a hunch is suffocated by the judgement of a bunch, but still remains a decent hunch.

If your hunch is lasting, get motivated by the satisfaction of a crunch. But just a crunch. Not a bang, smash, or pop.

It should be just enough to draw attention to the value your hunch might deliver, or to the lesson you learn if it does not.

Ideally, your bunch works together with you to quickly get crunchy.

Let my 12 year old show you how

He can’t code video games (yet). But he is supremely interested in the value he could deliver if he were to be a game designer.

At the breakfast table, he shares a new idea: a game modelled after a book he’s read. He has a hunch that it might be as fun as the drama he’s experienced in that book.

He asks what we, his bunch, think about the idea and if would be interested in playing a version of it later.

We’re an encouraging bunch, and that evening we gather around the lego pile and test his crunchy prototype.

As we play, we discover the value he had in mind, and also some things he didn’t. We iterate a few times and deliver better versions. We benefit from his hunch, and we learn a few things too.

The Punch(line)

The pressure to adapt is stressful. I have a hunch that learning to adapt can also cause overwhelm, given all the models, frameworks, and buzzwords tossed about.

So, I felt compelled to share this simple way of thinking about it all. A place to get started.

My motivation comes from observing organizations that embrace long term and extensive planning, over-analysis, change requests, superfluous approvals, big budgets, special and silo-ed teams, and spin. De-motivational mush, if you ask me.

I’d rather see organizations deliver value by trusting people, being open to experimentation, and committing to continuous learning.

In other words, organizations or teams can enjoy a satisfying crunch if they are content to bunch around a hunch.

Simply,

H