Getting Sh*t Done

progressSometimes you have to go slow to go fast. Sometimes “going slow” looks like going backwards.

A while ago I published on our YouTube Channel a video inviting people to participate in the growing Payer Organization. The Payer Organization is a volunteer body whose job it is to fairly reward producers for benefits they produce in Copiosis.

The idea of convening the Payer Organization now is to support our demonstration projects.

It’s been a while since I sent that invitation. If you expressed interest in being part of the Payer Organization, you may be wondering what’s going on. Why the delay?

The answer is, there’s no delay. There’s just a lot of work going on to get things set.  And we’ve had a change occur in our strategy driving resources in a different direction. The Payer Organization consisted of five people. Two of those people formed around the Chico project. Two others (including myself) were supporting the Kenton Project. The last person is more in the background supporting the software. But since the software is currently not being used, he doesn’t have that much to do. He also has a full time job and a family he supports.

We’re going slow with a bias for getting things done. Sounds like a contradiction. In a way, it is.

With the overwhelming numbers of projects declared worldwide, the demand immediately outstripped the ability of our team to handle. There’s a lot more to that story, but essentially, the demands having nearly 20 demonstration projects of four different types running at the same time was daunting for a volunteer team of less than 10 people. It was necessary then to put the demonstration project strategy on hold. And that’s why we currently aren’t following up on our call for Payer Organization members.

Everything takes longer than we initially think. Progress is sometimes a two-steps-forward, one-step-back dance. I go to bed with 10-20 things I could still do for Copiosis that are not getting done. It’s thrilling to think that there is always something interesting to do each day that can move Copiosis forward. But we can only move as quickly as there are resources to get the work done. And I do need time to recoup.

That’s why this fall we’ve been focusing a lot of our time on fundraising strategies.

I’m developing others to work with me so we can expand our capacity. This too is slow going, but in the end the innovation will be better served by people who really understand what we’re doing, why, what needs to be done in what priority, and how.  We already have people who are contributing extreme value already. New people are joining all the time asking for ways they can contribute. Just yesterday I spoke with two tech guys in Finland who are eager to help with their programming and project management backgrounds. We’re already making progress on an NBR simulator which may find its way to our website soon.

Good stuff.

I heard a saying once: to go fast, you have to go slow.  We’re going slow with a bias for getting shit done. Sounds like a contradiction. It is in a way. But this is the paradox that lies at the center of our work. Looking at our results so far, I’d say it’s working pretty well.

 

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