Beware of package theft from porch pirates

Last mile is a term used in supply chain management and logistics to describe the final step of the delivery process from a distribution center to the end user.

It’s a complex and expensive and labor intensive practice. Shippers have to deal with variables like traffic congestion, parking regulations, driver safety, storage efficiency, mapping navigation, unpacking and installation, parcel tracking, customer communications, angry guard dogs, and my personal favorite, package theft from porch pirates.

But in our world of ecommerce where same and next day delivery have become the norm, getting parcels to people’s doorsteps efficiently has never been more important.

What’s fascinating about last mile logistics is, there are profound parallels with the project management process. When you’re shipping work, so to speak, that final step is equally complex, expensive and labor intensive. There are so many variables that can gum up the system and delay, degrade and even destroy execution.

Except instead of the urban elements like traffic and parking, now we’re dealing with the emotional elements of finishing.

There’s the exhilaration at the prospect of completion, which can cause people to speed up and make careless mistakes. Like sloppy design, unclear writing or technical oversights.

There’s the stress that accumulated over the course of the project, which can reach a breaking point and cause people to snap at each other. Like when a coworker storms out of the office the night before launch because she can’t handle the pressure anymore.

There’s the arrogance of counting your chickens before they hatch, which makes people complacent and unwilling to run last minute quality assurance. Like making sure the features are working as they should.

There’s the fear around adopting something new, which leads people to procrastinate and avoid impending change. Like when team members question the validity of the entire project in the eleventh hour and send cascades of doubt down the organizational spine.

What’s your strategy for managing the last mile? Does your team have checks and balances in place to make sure execution isn’t delayed, degraded or destroyed?

There’s a project that comes to mind from one of my startups. Our marketing team spent six months building out these industry awards to be presented to top brands in our space. The initiative had the potential to earn us a lot of web traffic, media mentions and partnership opportunities. It could have done wonders for increasing our standing amongst colleagues and competitions.

But like a lot of projects that aren’t revenue generating, the award thing kept getting pushed to the bottom of the pile. Other tasks always seemed to take priority. And after a while, I pulled our marketing director aside and said:

We’ve been in the final mile for months now. I understand the energy for this project has faded, and there are other things that are more important. But this is getting ridiculous. We have to finish this thing now. Not only to avoid six months of wasted work, but to close the loop, free our minds of this albatross and clear our schedule for work we’re actually excited about.

She agreed. It was time to ship the damn thing and be done with it.

Lesson learned, if your team’s execution has been at a stalemate for too longer, zoom out for a moment. Recognize that you’re trapped in the last mile. Figure out which emotional variables are the wind in your face that’s slowing everything down.

And do whatever has to be done to get your work out of the distribution center and into the hands of the end user.

Which emotional porch pirates are stealing your packages?