Just Start Your Project? No Way!: Flagstones For A Solid Project Launch 1 Of 3

Have you ever worked on a project where someone in charge said, “Start. Just start.  We need results as fast as we can.  Pull a team together and get moving.  I’ll check back with you in two weeks to look at your progress.”?  I have.

We all know – well, all but the person who said this – that this is not the right path to success for anything but emergent situations.  It may be a way to get quick action and involvement, but it does not include those ingredients that are the magic for sustainable results:

• Engagement of top leaders
• Sufficient planning for effective project execution
• Earned commitment of team members

This three-blog series will offer tactics – flagstones – for a path forward for your organization change journey.

Engaging Senior Leaders

Who is sponsoring your change initiative:  a member of the C-suite or a middle manager?  No matter who is assigned to launch the initiative, in all but the flattest of structures, having a senior executive champion your work means it will get attention and support.  If your project is a key component of the strategic plan, tap that status for visibility and resources. 

Executives can demonstrate their sponsorship using a range of methods from highly visible to “leading from behind.”  Highly visible means keeping the project top-of-mind for decision-makers and key stakeholders.  In other words, the senior leader sponsor leads the execution of a well-framed communication plan.  This plan covers every stage in the project’s development.  

The executive personally champions the effort and makes the team leader and members prominent in the project’s results.  Some ideas for standing up for the project and the team:

Highly Visible

• Kick off the project’s launch
• Check in regularly:  ask for weekly updates, attend team meetings on a scheduled basis, do weekly “walk-arounds” to review progress boards posted throughout the facility
• Invite the team – all members – to present their work at executive meetings, board meetings, or all management conferences
• Attend team celebrations

These are such effective ways to create pride, accountability, and recognition and to share the limelight.  What productive people want most are attention and appreciation.  Executives can easily use their roles to provide these top motivators.

On the other hand, executives and middle managers alike can be extraordinarily effective by working  behind the scenes to keep the project on track and moving forward.  Understand that this means providing support – not doing or undermining the work of the team leader or the team itself.  Here these organization leaders tap the power of their status to unclog barriers and keep the project active.  Some ways to keep the team on track:

Leading from Behind

• Provide required resources:  staff, time, funding, space, training, technology
• Send the letter inviting subject matter experts to join the team
• Talk about the importance of the project in regular communications to stakeholders:  newsletters, blogs, meetings
• Nominate the team for recognition, such as an award, a presentation at an industry conference, or coverage in the media
• Remove barriers to progress when they occur
• Address conflicts:  competing priorities, competing requests for resources, interpersonal issues among colleagues who impede progress
• Send notes of support and encouragement when the going gets tough
• Give the team the time it realistically needs to deliver results while continuing to drive urgency
• Offer guidance when the project slides backward
• Accept failures as learning opportunities; then redirect the team toward its goals

This is the quiet work of true leadership.  Staying connected and involved while keeping accountability for results with the team itself.  I recently watched such a leader in action.  When energy for the project lagged and team members started missing meetings, he went to work championing the project among colleagues.  That’s not all.  He also moved his own meetings to be with the team, reported on the impact of its work to date on other projects, and clarified the team’s mission when they veered off course.  In the end, his burst of energy gave them new momentum.

It has been reported that only 50% of IT projects reach their goals. ( Top 10 Reasons Why Systems Projects Fail:  Paul Dorsey, Ph.D., Dulcian, Inc. @Harvard.edu site 26/04/2005. Accessed 8.15.12) The gap is typically due to "people problems." (More on this in future posts) After all, it is the people who develop apps that work, design the infrastructure that supports the systems, train employees to use them and attention in a project's people, executives can instill a sense of criticality, meaningful support and an expectation of success.

So the next time someone asks you to “just start” your project and get results right away, tell them you first must do three things to meet their expectations:

1. Engage the senior leaders to actively advocate for the project,
2. Plan sufficiently to get the job done well, and
3. Earn the commitment of your team members.

Then talk about the timeline.

Stay tuned for more on planning…

- By Laurie Davis, MSOD, Manager, IT Consulting