Later the following week, I was attending a meeting group as part of Six Sigma discussions. As the head of PMO and as part of my continuous quest for learning, I took part in local discussions. Some were strangers and we discussed challenges with processes and other ideas. One of them discussed the principle of "Rule of 7". This is a principle that talks about consistent observations that are either increasing or decreasing within the upper and lower threshold levels indicating that a problem is about to happen. My inner voice started asking if anyone knew of this Godzilla principle.
Lo and behold! It seems that it is in fact a principle that stands out for not monitoring certain activities responsibly and taking appropriate actions to address them. As the person said, "Don't let the problem grow to be a monster and destroy your project." In the context of the "Rule of 7," perhaps, this means that a series of 7 occurrences probably indicate that a larger problem is brewing warranting attention. It is also a principle that people seem to have used to identify the biggest contributing force to a planned delivery. I guess, this then also contributes to the Pareto principle of 80-20 rule! To me, this Godzilla principle also indicates how much we must apply careful proactive reasoning to look for things that could go wrong and build contingencies.
Now, I am not too sure if this has anything to do with the Godzilla character that roamed the movies destroying anything in its way. I don't know if there is any connection to this character being so huge due to man-made experiments gone awry requiring us to think through the impact of what we do or do not do. However, I learned of a new Godzilla principle as another approach to inculcate preventive and corrective actions as part of risk management thinking.
Have you heard of such a term? Have you heard any other such principles? Please share.
