We’ve all been there: you are in charge of a project, or hiring a project manager to help you, and you’re excited to have the green light to push forward a change/initiative you’ve wanted. Once they are approved, a lot of individuals struggle with knowing where to start, how to begin prepping their team, etc. (for more information, see other blogs). An even more important question that needs to be asked is, how can you guarantee your project specifications meets your goals? With 30 years’ experience in managing projects across industries, we have 3 tips for you and your team to ensure your projects meet your goals and provide results for years to come.
1.) Set smaller goals throughout to help ensure you’re on track for achieving the end result
While it may seem obvious that it is important to set an end goal for your project to achieve, people often forget to put tracking in place to make sure you’re on the right path to meet that goal. A great way to do this is by setting smaller goals, or milestones, so you have more manageable tasks to complete at any given time. This not only helps to track progress, but makes your team feel accomplished along the way vs. waiting a year or more to see results.
2.) Establish internal owners for various tasks
Just as it helps your team to have smaller goals to work toward, it is also extremely helpful to break up your internal team and assign them as stakeholders to different elements of a project. This is helpful because it builds employee buy-in and gives your employees the chance to think outside of their usual tasks. Working in this manner has been proven to showcase individual strengths, to facilitate cross-team collaboration and enhance communication, to name a few. This also ensures that the smaller goals you’ve set throughout the project are more likely to be on time or ahead of schedule.
3.) Emphasize training as an important aspect, no matter the type of project
The best way to ensure that the new initiative/process you implement is success and sustainable is to ensure that training is a key part of the project. Both internal staff and external stakeholders benefit from targeted training activities. This holds especially true if you have team members who are “new” to the tasks they oversee. A qualified project manager can provide mentoring that leaves behind skilled managers to ensure on-going success. Targeted training allows the opportunity for everyone’s concerns and voices to be heard, assuring that the solutions put in place have the support they need in order to be sustainable.
While there are many more elements that play into a project’s ultimate success, starting with these three is a great way to ensure you have a solid foundation. By this you will know your project plan is well constructed, accounting for important milestones and guarding against potential problems that may arise. Projects are one of the best business tools available for companies, and now is the perfect time to get started on achieving your goals.
Interested in learning more about how project management could help your business problem? Contact us today for an exclusive strategy session! If you’re interested in learning more, and discussing other issues, email Kim West, or connect with us on LinkedIn and Facebook.