Hi, I'm Alicia McKay, a serial fast-moving thing-breaker. It's one of my best qualities - I execute ideas quickly and fix them as I go. I'm often on iteration 5 while some people still work out what they might like to do. It's great when I time it well.
...less great when I don't.
I'm on holiday and decided that first thing in the morning (before I went on a day trip with my family) was the right time to shift our main website onto a half-built platform we're pulling together.
This was dumb.
Now, I've caused unnecessary stress on my COO and my newly-hired Brand Manager, putting something in the back of my head to worry about while cuddling my nieces and nephews today.
Oops.
Obviously, I'm still working on this, but if you are also a fast-moving thing-breaker, here are three quick tips, plus a bonus, from me:
1. Run your idea past someone first
They will generally tell you if you're being ridiculous. Note that you don't need to listen to them, because sometimes people are scaredy-cats, but if you get a twinge when they talk, stop for a second.
Note: If you don't want to tell anyone, this is a sign, and you know what it means.
2. Never do the un-doable
Always leave yourself some wriggle room to undo the first iteration of your bright idea. If it's too big to undo, you're doing it wrong. Make it smaller, and make sure there's a "put it back the way it was" lever built in.
3. Be ready to fix it
Everything new and exciting breaks shortly after it's implementation in some way. That's cool, but ensure you have the time and space to fix the errors you didn't foresee.
4. Don't listen to detractors
If you're doing exciting stuff, many won't understand. The size of your ambition will make them uncomfortable. Only run your big dreams past people you implicitly trust - they should be treated with care.
(If you don't have one of those people in your life, who believe in your big dreams, then drop me an email. I'll be your dream-believer.)
A
Alicia McKay