How to - Improve Project Success It’s often the things that don’t get talked about that create the most damage and that is especially true on project teams.

A recent report found that fewer than one in five project leaders effectively engage in the critical conversations needed to solve the problems that most often derail projects. And there is a big difference between speaking up and speaking up well.

The five areas that derail a team’s success that need to be discussed include:

§ Planning that is pulled from thin air – A project that has resource limits and deadlines set with no consideration for reality. They are pulled magically from tine air!

§ Invisible sponsors – Leaders who fail to provide any leadership, political clout, time, energy or interest in seeing a project through to completion.

§ Going around - People work around the priority-setting process and no one hold them accountable for doing so.

§ Silent dare - This is when neither the leader nor the team members admit that there are problems with a project, and they wait for ‘someone else to speak up. .

§ Absent membership - Team members are unwilling or unable to support the project, and the leaders are unwilling to talk about their failures candidly.

To speak effectively about these issues:

§ Don’t water down your concerns. You want to really air the issue, not hide it from view.

§ Use phrasing that minimizes people’s defensiveness. Talk about what is wrong, not why or who should be blamed.

§ Create an environment conducive to holding these difficult conversations. Repeatedly send a clear and public message that these conversations are crucial and that those who initiate them are highly valued. Those who take a chance on the new behavior or bringing up a difficult topic should be seen as heroes

Labels: planning, Project management

  12:56 PM •  0 Comments •

How to – Insure Goal Success When a spacecraft gets off of its trajectory (it’s route through space), it must be put back on the right path. The location of the spacecraft is determined and its course vector (the speed and direction of its flight) is calculated. This is compared with the path it should be on. A new vector is computed that will put it back on course. The ship's attitude thrusters aim the ship and the main thruster pushes it along the path.

The summer is a great time to make course corrections for those goals that were set at the beginning of the year. Taking the time now to review and possible amend goals set in January, determine priorities, review possible changes, additions or deletions and create realistic milestones can go a long way to lessening the flurry of activity that often comes in the fall. It also can help you sidestep the panic and last minute crunch people experience in December.

SIMPLE STEPS

• Block out a few hours one day this week. While it actually may not take you a few hours to get this done, it’s good to have the block of time if it’s needed. This is especially true if you will be talking with others about goals and objectives set. People find that true discussion takes longer than they estimate. Better to have enough time to delve into matter well. If you don’t need the time, everyone will get the ‘gift’ of unplanned time that day (which people can always use!).

• Have the goals and objectives that were set at hand.

• Eliminate those objectives that have already been accomplished.

• Eliminate the goals and no longer makes sense or apply for the rest of 2007.

• Add any new goals, projects, assignments or initiatives that have materialized since the lost of objectives was written.

• Prioritize. This can be done in terms of dates due, importance, lead time needed, impact on the organization, or degree of difficulty.

• Create realistic milestones so that you start with plenty of time to successfully achieve the result, deal with potential delay’s and give people plenty of time to do their part.

• Look ahead to next year. Are there any goals that you might be able to start during the last quarter of 2007? If so, write them down as possible goals to add during the 4th quarter should you have the time. This will give you a head start on next year’s goals.

While no one has a crystal ball to predict exactly what the last six months of the year will bring, take time now to plan how your time will best be spent.

Labels: goals, planning, success

  1:08 PM •  0 Comments •