we all need more slack
September 1, 2024•369 words
When talking about slack, I am not talking about:
- the app for teams that distracts and prevents people from working
- anything to do with slackers (a term for lazy people)
The term slack I am referring to is from Tom DeMarco's book Slack published in 2001. This book was ahead of it's time and has never been more relevant than now. DeMarco describes a visualization for slack as a 3X3 tile board filled with 9 tiles. If there are 9 tiles present, no tiles can be moved (100% efficiency). With one tile missing (an 11% inefficiency), tiles can move. The 8/9 tile board has slack.
When stress is the problem, slack is the solution. — Tom DeMarco
We can apply this slack concept at the individual level as well as the organizational level.
For the individual level, slack could be one morning a week blocked off on your calendar. Slack block. It is your empty tile #9. Whatever comes up during the week that you did not plan for can be taken care of during your slack block. Things always come up. Slack allows you to shift your plans around with ease. If nothing comes up, we can use this time to focus on our most important tasks. With slack, you can decide what the best use of your time is in real-time, not what you thought weeks ago when you put things on your calendar. Slack at the individual level prevents stress and burn out, while enabling us to perform better.
The faster you go, the harder it is to change direction. Driving a car 60 mph around a corner will not work out well. Driving a car around a corner at 20mph appears inefficient and is slower than the first option. But being crashed on the side of the road is the ultimate inefficiency.
Slack balances efficiency and flexibility to allow change. The most 'efficient' system has no slack in it. Flexible systems have inefficiencies. The sweet spot between efficiency and flexibility is slack. Going fast in the wrong direction ends up being detrimental to achieving our real goals. In the long term, slack promotes productivity even while appearing less efficient in the short-term.