Horseshoes and Hand Grenades
One of the first things you learn early on as a consultant is that it is impossible to have a precise answer to every question. There simply is not enough time in your busy schedule, and rarely is there good enough data, to get at the precision and accuracy that is needed for a “perfect answer”.
Consequently, you have to choose where you focus your time on getting precision and where you spend only the time needed to get a “good enough” answer, and the best consultants are very good at determining that balance.
I had never heard this balance described so eloquently as when a partner said (about prioritizing different components of some analysis we were doing): “It’s like horseshoes and hand grenades.”
I had no idea what he meant, and he must have sensed that.
“You know, with one [the horseshoe], you have to really get on target. And with the other, you don’t really need to be super-close to still have an impact [the grenade, obviously].”
A lovely image to explain a very basic concept in consulting. Spend your time getting the horseshoes right on target, and just chuck the freakin’ grenade kind of close and you’ll make plenty of impact and still make it home in time for dinner.
