Weeds Affinity Disorder

There’s an old expression about ‘getting into the weeds.’ Most people think it comes from golfers getting off the fairway into the thick stuff on the side, or from fishermen getting their lines tangled up in underwater growth.

Regardless of the origin, in meetings in a work environment, it means that the discussion gets down into tiny minutia that are beyond the level of detail necessary for the discussion at hand. Focusing on the small stuff tends to distract the attendees from the big decisions that need to be worked out.

The same can happen for individuals on projects. They focus on the small things too much. There is, of course, a need to make sure the details are in order, but there can be too much time spent on it.

The point of both situations—meetings and individual work—getting wrapped up in too much detail, is the progress gets slowed down considerably with no apparent reward for the effort and delay.

The people who do this chronically suffer from “Weeds Affinity Disorder”, one of several Lean ailments.

To treat any Lean affliction, it is necessary to understand why the person is affected by it. So, in this case, the question is why people get down into the weeds so much.

For most people, it is simply nervousness. They want to avoid mistakes, so dive into the little details to make sure nothing ‘bites’ them. For many, this nervousness is justified. When bosses are unreasonable in their expectations, people tend to work less to get things right and more to not get things wrong. There is a difference.

Think of it this way. In any project, there are some good things that come out of it and some negative things. Those negatives are either the side effects/costs of the new methods, or just plain mistakes.

The time you spend can either be used to maximize the upside or minimize the downside. So, what seems better. A project with 97 good points and 14 bad points, or one with 32 good points and 4 bad points?

From the company’s perspective, the much higher upside is probably more desirable, with the knowledge that the negatives can be worked out later. But for a person who is nervous about getting in trouble for mistakes, the lower downside is probably more appealing.

For the rest of the people who get into the weeds, this is probably related to a need for perfectionism, bordering on obsession. Some people just have trouble with ‘good enough’ and think that it is a cop out. ‘Good enough’ actually means ‘meets the standard.’ Going well beyond the standard when there are no other constraints or tasks to do is great. When those resources would be better served working on meeting a different standard where there is a deficiency, getting into the weeds to seek perfection hampers overall progress.

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