Hello TOC

Games

Paper Tearing

Two urgent projects, one of you. Tear two sheets into exactly 30 pieces each, first one at a time, then with “SWITCH!” every three tears, and see what multitasking does to lead time and quality.

What you’ll learn

  • Switching is a set-up. Every time you’re pulled to another project, you have to find your place again, and under pressure that’s where errors come from.
  • Lead time is about the project, not the person. Even with zero switching cost, interleaving two projects makes both finish late: high resource utilisation, low project utilisation.
  • Work moves in waves. Multitasking upstream floods the next team with everything at once, so they start multitasking too.
  • The fix is a policy, not effort: stable priorities, fewer projects open at once, and starting only with a full kit.

Based on the paper tearing game Mohit uses to show the damage of bad multitasking in project environments. Best played with a real stopwatch mindset: go as fast as you can.