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Antipattern #13 · clarity · p. 107
Gaming Budgets
Dynamic forecasting and transparency direct money to where it produces the most value.
The Tin Man Behavior
Engaging in rigid, time-consuming annual budgeting that creates detailed projections about the future that are virtual guesses.
The Results
- ·Focus is on winning funds, not delivering value.
- ·Inflated budget requests and year-end scrambles for money
- ·Inertia tied to fixed budgets allocated months earlier
How Octopus Organizations Behave Instead
- ↳They replace static annual budgeting cycles with dynamic forecasting and flexible budget reallocation.
- ↳They fund outcomes, not departments, and assign resources to stable teams aligned to customer value.
- ↳They tie decisions to enterprise-wide thinking over functions and are transparent about decisions.