7 Recommendations for a Successful Project Environment
Most organizations are always exploring new ways to give their projects the best chance to succeed. Whilst effective project management remains an important area in doing so, creating a nourishing project environment should not be overlooked. Many companies often use business scans to assess their environment with the aim of developing action plans to improve the impact of their projects. In this article, we outline 3 scenarios that have huge implications for the success of projects and provide 7 recommendations.
Scenario 1: There is no strategic plan
It is fundamental for projects to be relevant and executed in the context of a strategic plan. Without this, an organization risks missing critical projects and executing less needed ones, prioritizing them incorrectly, and misallocating resources. In the context of the obvious solution of developing a strategic plan, we recommend the following:
1. Focus on critical projects
One of the major issues is that key projects that are necessary for the organization to succeed will be missing. Similarly, many of the projects that are ongoing may be obsolete or focus on the wrong key performance indicators. In the absence of a strategic plan, the difficulty lies in knowing which projects are critical or obsolete.
2. Sync the critical paths
A strategic plan outlines the natural order of objectives, providing the right timing for projects to start and end. In addition, it ensures that the interrelation of multiple parallel projects flows smoothly. The critical paths of projects are key for maintaining high performance and delivering the strategic goals. Without a strategic plan, the natural order and critical paths of projects are not evident.
3. Make resources available at the right time
For projects to succeed, it’s crucial that resources are allocated at the exact time that they are needed. A strategic plan makes it clear when critical projects begin and end, anticipating when specific resources are going to be needed. This supports proper planning. In the absence of a strategic plan, we are not able to allocate resources effectively, and create delays in critical areas.
Scenario 2: The organization doesn’t have the flexibility to initiate new projects
An organization that wants to pursue new goals and projects needs the flexibility to do so. They need to ensure that existing business and day-to-day work don’t take up all of its capacity. By doing so, projects get allocated the necessary assets, and people have the time to attend to their projects. Two key recommendations to ensure that an organization is flexible are the following:
4. Make key people available to projects
In pursuing efficiencies, organizations often try to maximize the work load of employees and the use of assets. This reduces costs, but it also reduces their ability to take on extra workload when demanded. Projects place such demands on organizations. Initiating a project in such circumstances becomes unsustainable, which may lead to poor project execution and lack of focus on existing job tasks and responsibilities.
5. Ensure that resources are regularly shared
When an organization and its departments’ goals are not aligned, they will each allocate resources based on their own priorities. In such cases, resources are not easily reallocated between departments. Leaders fail to see the greater good in how certain projects are critical for achieving the organizational goals, especially those outside of their department. As a result, they are not prepared to give up resources, and thus they put in jeopardy the success of the organization.
Scenario 3: Project objectives are not rewarded
An appraisal process determines how people’s performance is assessed, while providing key moments for coaching to happen. When initiating projects, the objectives of the job descriptions need to be adjusted to reflect future effort and reward. We recommend the following:
6. Prioritize project objectives
Job descriptions and setting of expectations on what needs to be delivered are key to people prioritizing their work. In the absence of project objectives being incorporated in job descriptions, individuals have no options but to ignore these and focus on their official tasks. To avoid this, when new project deliverables are added to someone’s job description, it might be necessary to manage the workload by postponing prior tasks.
7. Ensure project-driven coaching is available
Coaching raises the likelihood that people will motivate themselves in meeting their objectives and feel capable that they will be successful. In carrying out their day-to-day work, coaching tends to happen on an annual or six-monthly basis. With projects, there is a start and end date that is usually shorter term, and may require the acquisition of new skills, knowledge and competencies. Given this, the frequency of coaching needs to be intensified.
