The Three Envelopes

I heard this years ago while I did contract work at MCI.  We had a project that didn't make a lot of sense and where partner teams joined in case it was successful without any commitment that would risk their other work if it failed. One of the senior people said that our project would never be a failure.  The company would reprioritize and put the software on the shelf for later use. That use would never come.  6 months later that happened. They did the right thing by ignoring the tyranny of sunk cost but did the wrong thing with the face-saving action plan that wasn't necessary.

The Joke ran as follows.

 A new executive takes over.

On their desk is a box with a note on top.

Inside the box are three envelopes.

The note says 

In case of trouble - Open This

 

Some Amount of Time Later

They start to understand the scope of the challenge

They open the First Envelope

The note says

Blame your predecessor

They do this 

That buys some time


Some Amount of Time Later

They see the issues and need to change

They open the Second Envelope

The note says

Reogranize

They do this

That buys some time


Some Amount of Time Later

The problems and challenges continue

 They open the Third Envelope

The note says

Make Three Envelopes

Silent Video on YouTube


Revision History

Created 2023 02

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