No organization wants their projects to fail. Sadly, they do fail. While factors vary, we can generally categorize them into two groups. Things within an organization’s control and those which fall outside.
To increase their chances for success smart organizations focus on fixing the factors that are within their control. A common approach is by introducing new or improved ways of doing things — what I like to call a ‘do approach’. Examples include: project management methods, design processes, development frameworks, workflows, checklists, tools, etc.
The benefit of a do approach is that it provides structure and a common, standardized way of doing things. It’s also easy to implement as it usually comes with a preset checklist of to-dos and must haves. Yet, one drawback of this approach is that it’s geared towards improving group performance as a whole unit. Thus, putting heavy emphasis on doing and not so much on thinking.
The need for a different approach
The nature of projects is that they’re fluid. There are many moving parts and unpredictable events. And it is impossible to have a process or checklist for every scenario.
When things don’t go as planned, project teams need to know what to do when the checklist ends. They need to adapt and know how to work with ambiguity. Rules, processes or frameworks of the do approach do not cater for these. To address this gap, organizations need a different approach entirely.
Organizations need to shift their training focus from doing to thinking. Instead of teaching people what to do organizations need to focus on creating mindsets: how to think and make the right calls at the right times. Because, it is with the right mindset that one can discern which activities are most effective and add most value to a project.
People with the right mindset drive outcome. They make meetings productive. They rescue workshops from circular discussions. And most importantly, keep the scope of work honest.
Creating a Mindset
Below are three guiding principles that I’ve formulated, experimented with and developed over the years. I find these principles help structure my thought process. They also enable effective decision making. And most importantly, they help nurture and mold the mindset my teams and I need in order to drive outcome.
Guiding Principle 1: Define your Desired Outcome
Activities will be done. Products will be built. Projects will come to an end. In the midst of the madness, it’s easy to confuse movement for progress, or mistake completion for success.
Going through the motions will get you somewhere. But without knowing the desired outcome at the onset of any given activity, it’s difficult to know if you’ve arrived at the intended destination. This is why knowing what you want to get out of whatever you’re doing is as important as the act of doing the thing itself.
The principle of defining your desired outcome applies to just about anything. You can apply it to operational activities like organizing a meeting. You can apply it to project activities like research and workshops. And, you should apply it to the product you’re building.
Clarity on your desired outcome drives focus. It answers the question of whether you are doing or still doing the right thing.
Guiding Principle 2: Set Criteria
It’s easy to undertake an activty without first thinking it through. An example of this is a research where the findings are interesting but not insightful. Activities are worthless if they don’t return value. Like a workshop where information is accumulated but knowledge is not gained.
The best way to guarantee you’re engaging in worthwhile activities is by setting standards and employing principles to measure and judge ideas, concepts and things to make a decision — put simply set criteria.
You can set criteria to assess the successfulness of a product. Criteria can be set to determine the right candidate to fill a specific job role. It can also be set for something as basic as qualifying who is or isn’t a business competitor.
Setting criteria creates alignment and further progress.
Guiding Principle 3: Do Research
Human problems are not that unique. It is more than likely someone has already found, or tried to find, a solution to the problem you’re trying to solve. Take the time to do research and you’ll find out if there’s anything useful and relevant somewhere out there already.
Fact is, doing research sets you up to work smart. Working smart is about delegation and avoiding time wasting and redundant activities. It is about standing on the shoulder of the work done by others. Thus, freeing you up to do more valuable activities.
Besides helping save time, research has the added benefit of lessening hunch based discussions by validating or disproving assumptions.
Research is about leveraging the collective human knowledge and making informed decisions.