Change Means Progress, Sometimes

“To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.”

— Winston Churchill

Lately my team has been getting frustrated from the shifts and changes in their projects. New constraints, priority shifts, change in project goals, and so on. When it came down to it, the team expected to be able to follow a perfect design process, without shifts.

I see this more often in young designers. Because that’s what design school teaches you: Discover→Define→Develop→Deliver. There are no curves in the double-diamond.

But, sometime change is good. Quality research should inform your direction, and yes, sometimes that means changing direction, tactic, or scope. Often times, change is a sign of progress… a job well done.

However, there are some changes that are not so great. These are priority changes—pause this project, start this one, now pause that, go back to the first one, and so on. This is a result of a lack of strategy and well-defined goals.

As a design leader, part of your role is to see around the corners and separate the good, expected changes from the bad, demoralizing, tiresome changes. The better you get at telling the difference and intervening when needed versus giving a good ol’ fashioned pep-talk will help your team stay engaged and avoid burnout.