The devil is in the execution details

"Yeah, we've tried that before."

--- Cringe ---

The devil is in the execution details.

When I'm working with businesses ready for change...

It's pretty common to hear, "We've tried that before."

Which is great, because they've testing things before.

But when I hear that, I also want to know...

- How was it tested?
- How was it planned?
- How was it executed?
- Who executed it?
- Did you test alternatives?
- What data do we have on the results?

Having tried something before that didn't work...

Doesn't necessarily mean it was the wrong thing to do.

How something was tested.
Who tested it.
How it was measured.
How it was adjusted along the way.
And all the other execution details...

Influence the outcome.

So one question to ask if something you tried didn't work is...

Was the thing we tried flawed...

...or how we tried it flawed?

The devil is in the execution details.