So, the other day, I was catching up with an old colleague, just shooting the breeze, you know? And he mentioned this name, Megan Barrick. Said she had a really down-to-earth way of handling team roadblocks. Got me thinking.
At the time, my team was hitting these annoying little snags. Nothing major, but enough to slow things right down. We’d get bogged down in debates over tiny details, losing sight of the bigger picture. Felt like wading through mud sometimes.
Trying Out the ‘Barrick Method’
So I thought, what the heck, let’s give this a whirl. My buddy didn’t give me a manual, just the gist of what he heard. Seemed like Barrick’s idea was simple: if you’re stuck on something small for more than, say, five minutes, you flag it and move on. Park it somewhere visible.
Here’s what I did, step-by-step:
- First, I talked to the team. Didn’t call it the ‘Barrick Method’ or anything fancy. Just said, “Hey, let’s try something to keep us moving. If we argue about a small point for 5 mins, let’s write it down and tackle it later.”
- Next, I set up a simple board. Just a corner of our whiteboard. Called it the “Parking Lot”. When the 5-minute timer (mentally, mostly) went off, the issue went up there.
- Then, we scheduled time to clear the Parking Lot. Maybe 30 minutes at the end of the day, or first thing the next morning. Dedicated time, so things didn’t get forgotten.
Honestly, it felt a bit weird at first. Cutting off a discussion felt abrupt. Some folks were hesitant, felt like their point wasn’t heard. That was the main hurdle – getting everyone comfortable with pausing a debate.
We had a few instances where the ‘parked’ issue turned out to be more important than we thought. Had to adjust fire a bit there. It wasn’t a magic bullet, that’s for sure.
Did It Stick?
Yeah, mostly. We don’t follow it super rigidly now, but the core idea stuck. It definitely helped us stop getting sidetracked by minor stuff nearly as much. The flow got better.
The biggest win wasn’t even the time saved, it was the shift in mindset. We got better at recognizing when we were bikeshedding and consciously deciding to move past it for the moment. So, yeah, hearing about that Megan Barrick approach, even secondhand, and trying it out? It actually gave us a useful little tool. Nothing revolutionary, just practical.
