Failure to launch
Jessie Larsen and Kate Clark from MartinJenkins have some practical advice for project leaders on how to get stuck projects unstuck.
More than a cute movie starring Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew McConaughey, failure to launch is a common problem for many organisations, when prioritised initiatives fail to get lift-off or stall soon after. We’re all focussed on getting more done with less right now, and here we’ve got some practical tips for getting off the launch pad and well under way.
Tell-tale signs of a team that’s stuck
Some tell-tale signs to watch out for are:
· little or no progress on actions from week to week
· a sense of waiting to act until the path forward is clear
· “analysis paralysis”, or overcomplicating things
· poor visibility of the work being done and the value it’s adding, and
· burn-out, churn, and low engagement.
If any or all these indicators sound familiar, it could mean the time is right for a restart or a reset. Our simple formula for getting unstuck involves answering three simple questions that apply the fundamentals of good project management.
What have we set out to achieve?
Can you and your team clearly articulate why the work is important and the positive difference it will make? This is the most important question to answer up front, as it will guide every other aspect of the work and inspire your team and stakeholders to commit.
It’s important to invest time with the senior leaders sponsoring or steering the work to develop a shared vision for your initiative – this will help to build alignment and buy-in.
For even greater impact, ask the people who will benefit from your work to help build your vision by describing how their world will be better as a result. This is where the gold is!
To help you get started, here’s a great example of a clear and compelling vision that in a few words describes the high-level scope, outcome, and benefit the initiative will deliver:
“We will free small business owners from the burden of tax administration, giving them more time to focus on their business.”
Once you’ve landed your vision, keep it front and centre during delivery. Not only will it guide decision making, it will also inspire your team to keep going when challenges emerge, as they inevitably will.
Kate Clark is our Lead – Strategy, Design, and Performance at MartinJenkins
Have we got the right crew?
Getting off the launch pad can be the hardest part of a project, and it’s often because of feeling like there are infinite choices to make about how you’ll get the job done. Assembling the right team can really help here.
Projects are all about problem solving, and evidence suggests that “Teams solve problems faster when they’re more cognitively diverse”, as Alison Reynolds and David Lewis argued in Harvard Business Review in 2017. Cognitive diversity isn’t directly related to differences in gender, ethnicity, or age, but instead to differences in how individuals think about and engage with new, uncertain, and complex situations.
Your team needs a mix of:
· big picture thinkers – the people who can generate new knowledge or ideas when facing new situations
· experts – the people who can deploy existing knowledge to a problem, and
· orchestrators – the people who can tease out the ideas and expertise of others.
You’ll also need a guardian of the vision, often referred to in Projectland as a “business owner”, who is responsible for ensuring the vision is delivered. And you’ll need someone to maintain focus on how you’ll get there, often referred to as a “project manager”.
One of our consultants saw the power of the cognitively diverse team in action on a complex, multi-year technology programme. Whenever hard problems came up, and they did almost weekly, the project manager (as the orchestrator) called a huddle to throw up creative solutions (from the big picture thinkers), and then to figure out what could be implemented (which is where the experts came in). One of the solutions this approach generated was to “Build a robot”, and when successfully implemented this became a significant component of the project’s success.
What’s our first waypoint?
At the beginning of any project, it’s normal for there to be more questions than answers. But often teams stall because they’re not sure where to start, or they can’t see their way right through to the end of the project. It helps to begin by focussing on your first waypoint: when you get there, you’ll see a clearer path to the next one.
The “Now, next, later” template on Mural, a useful cloud-based application, is a great tool for helping you achieve consensus on what you should prioritise now, and what you can leave until next week or next month.
Doing this exercise with your whole team helps to quickly create an understanding of the work. Once you know the work packets and their relative priority you can move on to sequencing them, figuring out the dependencies between each and how you’ll need to collaborate to get things done.
Let’s kick the tyres and light the fires!
You’ve now successfully completed your launch checklist, and you’re ready for lift-off.
Meri Kirihimete to you and your whānau and all the best for a restful break.
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