25 Sep
Four Simple and Free (to implement) Tips to do Projects Better
Introducing change into any organisation is a challenge at the best of times. Of course, the best way to implement change is to identify and run projects to deliver on your change.
But if your projects are always a chore, constantly behind schedule, people doing things differently and the same mistakes appearing regularly, you may say to yourself well what’s the point!
Considering about 85% of corporates around the world have a project office and employ many professional project managers, the major accountancy practices sell project support services very successfully now and Enterprise Ireland is now engaging in project support services to assist start-ups, it may be that you might not be approaching it in the right way or giving it enough attention.
Many a great sports manager once said – when things aren’t working best place to start is usually with the basics.
If you breakdown project management into layman’s terms in my opinion it translates into getting things done through others. Therefore, it’s essentially about managing people, software won’t deliver your projects people will.
So here are my four tips to get you, your team and your business on the right road:
Communicate better
- Set up a simple TOR for all communications (dos and donts)
- Use face to face on a regular basis but keep it short
- Ask for positive contributions and solicit feedback
Tell your team what their project roles are
- Write it down give it to them and ask if they understand it
- Solicit feedback and act to amend if necessary
Encourage involvement and sharing
- Ask the team to suggest improvements to procedures
- Ask the team to share effective tools ideas or spreadsheets
Measure things
- Propose basic measures with the team and agree to implement
- Measure how successful they were and inform the team
- Do not persist with constantly failing measurements, work around them
As you can see most of this is about people and communications and its not scientific, no sophisticated software required or heavy process. Of course, it may take some time to see improvements in your projects but if you stick with these simple points you will be on the right road to success.