How to explain the importance of delivering on time?

Change in the banking business is a tricky art; finding a viable slot for your project on the schedule is seldom an easy task. This week I am hoping some readers will share some views on a challenge. Please read on and reply.

There are a lot of fixed dates on the banking calendar: SWIFT releases and year-end freezes among them. There is also the risk that people do not read plans properly. So, once you have a plan with some dates, how do you make sure that people take them seriously?

One of the benefits of working as a consultant is the opportunity to work with different clients and teams. I do some work with a great London consultancy, Elix-IRR, For a client we were noodling recently on how to explain how tight the schedule is for some work we have to do. Images are always good for this type of thing. Two variations gained some sort of traction, with different supporters. The idea is to explain to a Steering Committee and to other stakeholders that the dates are tight and we need to plan carefully.

One of the team, the very able Tom O’Toole, came up with one of the two images below. I tried the following out on my teenage son, who has no bias or reference point at all. “B” he said. So, I thought that this would be a good topic for this week’s post; ask the readers.

Hitting the Target A and B

 

 

 

 

A question for each reader:  What do you think; which of the two images best conveys the message of “We have a target to hit and do not want to miss it!”?:A, the aircraft carrier or B, the small island runway?

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