This is an age old question that baffles alot of people some of the time and some people alot of the time. The answer though is quite simple. You eat an elephant one bite at a time. Eating the elephant whole would be hurtful and can injure you. It would then make sense that when it comes to productivity and tackling a big project or task, you would want to take small bites and enjoy the small achievements along the way.
The benefits are enormous when you take this approach. Teamwise, moral increases (progress is seen immediately); there isn't much re-work if a problem is found; and from a customer perspective, they see immediate value.
Let's take something else like an organization's vision. This oftentimes is too big to achieve in the short term. It usually takes a long time. A really long time... and what I mean by long is 10-20 years. NAAAP-Seattle, for example, was founded in 1979 starting as the AsianMBA. It is an organization dedicated to the improvement of the Asian American community promoting leadership, career development, educational exchange, professional networking, social networking, and civic responsibilities. This is an elephant in my view. While 20 years has passed, I can tell you that we're still working on it.
Each year we have an election of new Board members to take a little bite out of our Vision. Individuals taking on a leadership role at NAAAP Seattle go on to other leadership roles and for me that's just the start and signs that we're making progress on our vision. Thank you to all that's served to make NAAAP Seattle a great organization and for those serving now keeping the pathway to leadership clear and unobstructed.
Regards,
Gil Gido
NAAAP Seattle
President
