4 Steps To Start And Run Your Next Project

We hear lots of complaints that the new workplace puts stresses and strains on traditional project management models:

• Global teams and remote work arrangements = Less face time with staff.
• Expectation of instantaneous response = Hasty decision-making.
• Ready access to information + more tech savvy staff = Weakened assumptions of management value.
• Problems and obstacles not in play-book = Solutions improvised rather than time-tested.
• Role-definitional lines between “leaders” and “followers” = Hidden and untapped leadership skills within staff ranks.

In a previous post, Sometimes It Helps To Think Like A Film Producer, we described how getting work done in today’s workplace resembles the making of a feature length movie, and that managers can benefit from borrowing from the ways producers approach their job:

• Focusing on the needs of the project rather than organizational structure and job titles
• Sharing staff across organizational lines and making use of temporary assignments and Work Agreements (like contracts with cast and crew)
• Offering frequent feedback.
• Linking Performance Management to Project Management

Here’s a model managers can use that incorporate some of the features of this approach:

STEP 1: Describe The Project — Specs, Time And Budget

• Do it — right away.
• If you can’t do it yourself, find someone else to help you right away — on board staff, borrowed, consultant, temp.

STEP 2: Make A Quick Inventory Of The Skills You Need And Where You Can Find Them

• Already on board?
• Available elsewhere inside the company — in another silo — to borrow for the duration of the project?
• Outside the company that can be brought in on consulting or temp basis?
• Available to be hired if project is part of a larger, longer-term initiative.

STEP 3: Identify The Best Person To Lead This Project

• Already on board?
• Available inside the company to borrow for the duration of the project?
• Outside the company that can be brought in on consulting or temp basis?
• Available to be hired if project is part of a larger, longer-term initiative.

STEP 4: Determine The Best Use Of  Your Own Skills And The Role You Should Play

• Inventory tasks
• Review DiSC or Myers-Briggs results — yours and team members.
• Look at past performance

You don’t need to reorganize your company or your group when your structure doesn’t lend itself to the demands of projects you’re taking on. Let the needs of the situation guide the way you set up and run your next project.