Shipulski On Design

Archive for February, 2026

The marathon is a two-to-three-hour race.  The training plan is specialized and designed to get the athletes ready to run twenty-six miles.  And the marathon runners are lean and light because the physics of their event demands it.

The 100-meter sprint is a sub-ten-second race.  The training plan develops explosive power to accelerate quickly and strength to hold on for the last twenty meters.  Sprinters are muscled all over – shoulders, chest, glutes, quads, and calves – because that’s what’s required to win their event.

The decathlon is a multi-day event.  The training plan includes jumping, vaulting, throwing, sprinting, and distance running. Decathletes are strong, nimble, fast, robust, and multi-skilled because they compete in a wide range of events.  They do it all, and they do it on their own.  They are often called the best track athletes because they are highly capable in ten diverse events.  But they cannot outlast a marathon runner or out-accelerate a sprinter.

The 4 X 400-meter relay is a three-plus-minute race in which each of the four teammates runs 400 meters carrying a baton and passes it to their teammate.  They train as a team for their specific distance and build the right amount of strength.  They are muscled all over, but a little less so than the sprinters.  And they must work together with their teammates to time and coordinate a high-speed baton pass within the pass zone.  If they drop the baton, they all lose, so teamwork is a must.

Some questions for you.

What are you built for?

Does your sport fit you?

Do you have a good training plan?

How much time will you spend on your training?

Do you want to work on one thing or ten?

Do you want to run solo or with a relay team?

Image credit – Steve Austin

When you have more projects than people, you have far more activity but far less progress.

Pro Tip: Activity doesn’t pay the bills. Progress does.

Would you rather make lightning progress on two projects or tortoise progress on four?  I prefer lightning.

But isn’t four projects better than two?  It is, if you get compensated for the number of active projects. But it’s not, if you get compensated for finishing projects.

Pro tip: There’s no partial credit for a project that’s less than 100% done.

But how to protect your resources from four projects when you have the resources to deliver on two? This is not a complicated answer: block the extra project from entering the pipeline until you finish one.

Pro Tip: Finish one before you start one, not the other way around.

But what about the efficiency that comes from shared resources that can be spread over four projects?  Don Reintertsen would say “Shared resources create waiting and waiting is the enemy.”  I agree with Don, but I think his language is too reserved.  I say “If you’re focused on the efficiency that comes from shared resources, you don’t know what you’re doing.”

Pro Tip:  Waiting kills progress.  Don’t do it.

Here’s a process to consider.

1. Define the resources you have on hand to work on projects.
2. Choose the most important project and fully staff the project. If the project is fully staffed, start the project.
3. Define the remaining unallocated resources.
4. Choose the next most important project and fully staff the project. If the project is fully staffed, start the project.  If the project is not fully staffed, don’t start a project until you finish one, or you can hire the incremental resources to fully staff a project.
5. Repeat.

Image credit – KIUKO (Elephant Tortoise)

Reduce the energy cost of virtue so it’s less than the energy cost of sin. (Dave Snowden)

Said another way – make it easy to do the right thing.

Don’t push through.  Move obstacles out of the way.

Don’t tell people about their problem. Ask people about their problem.

Try small experiments and do more of what works and less of what doesn’t.

Don’t tell people they have a problem.  Volunteer to help them.

Instead of Ready, Fire, Aim, try Ready, Aim, Fire.

Before trying to improve things, define the system as it is.

When two competing theories cause disagreement, agree to try both.

Slow down to go faster.

Say no so you can say yes.

Give praise in public and give criticism in private.

Say nothing negative unless you’ve exhausted all other possibilities.

Build trust BEFORE you need it.

These are good ways to create the conditions for good things to happen.

Image credit — Peter Addor – The monkey that makes a monkey of us.