Cultural Change Part Three - Projects.
Projects? What is he talking about? Projects, with project managers and mulitple tiers of chat?
No. I mean where without project thinking, you get very little change. In fact, quite often you are managing for the status quo and missing out on saving money and driving turnover.
If you don't manage your business to succeed in delivering your business model, what exactly are you managing?
So for me projects are all important when it comes to delivering business change. This is to save money and drive turnover.
When I look at a deliverable, an aim or a change requirement, I naturally start with the following:
- Show me the money!.... what is the business model?
- Where are we at with the blueprints, the specifications? Where's the plan at?
- What are the aims? The simpler the better.
- Where are the powerbases in the organisation? I'm looking for potential hold ups and please do not tell me that the power lies outside of your organisation.
- Where are my guides? My people who are going to enable delivering on time and to budget. Quite often I do like it when they are external people.
- What are the terms of reference?Who's paying the money?
- Timescales.
We are not writing a book, and are definitely not working as academics, but the bottom line is that every project has a beginning, middle and an end. Each of these stages are as important as the next.
When I was trained, and trained again, and then again by PriceWaterhouseCoopers they referred back to their standard methodologies that typically looked like this:
You could place initiation and planning into the beginning, sometimes planning, then execution and sometimes monitoring and controlling into the middle, then monitoring and controlling and closure into the end.
I've lost count of how many pretty diagrams I've deployed with various words of intent and comfort. To be very clear, this methodology has never let me down.
Up until 12 months ago, I would have proudly pronounced that in my professional opinion, it is not the swish documentation that gets a project over the line, it’s the people.....
But is that still the case?
Absolutely not. The new tools that are being developed which grab the potential of AI are revolutionising project management. Quite simply they are fantastic and fundamentally allow you to deal with any issues, normally initiating from people, and get things done.
I am amazed by the power of ClickUp, in particular, their 'AI Brain' which is highly cost effective and as powerful project tool that I have ever come across.
But there are other tools, for example where companies confuse great communication through Slack Channels and the subsequent transparency it fosters, with getting things done.
It’s a good time to reconsider the three rules of tools.
The 3 Rules of Tools:
Right tool for the right job
A bad worker always blames their tools
There is always another way to skin a cat
Transparency is key when it comes to getting any project over the line. Let's not get into why people actively work against being transparent and imagine a perfect world. Take a while to check this out:
Yes, it's just another piece of tech talking up AI right? Or.... is it the final link in the chain with regards to complete transparency.
We've been able to record, transcribe, summerise and share online meetings for over a year now. Otter.ai or Co-pilot will do the trick. But what about those meetings in person, or those all important phone calls? After the scardicats in your organisation have scared you to death with regards to privacy and laws in certain US states, lets ask the simple question:
Would your project, the management of your business, or any business change including every aspect of communications within and outside of your organisation, benefit from 100% transparency?
How do you pick up a project, the management of your business or any business change when a key member of your team moves on or deals with changes in their personal circumstances?
For the last 12 months I have been looking at AI being written into all of your business contracts, and how the expectations of the business with regards to all communications pertinent to the business model need to be considered.
There's a lot of data which is saved, accessible but most importantly summerised by AI. This communication, shared with your project management tool of choice, becomes your project management. You can see issues, or ask AI to predict them.
Deliverables, actions, milestones and results finally become tangible, as the answers to the question 'why not' is accessible to all stakeholders.
I am always a fan of the weekly summary from all stakeholders. Upload what you have done or not done on the project, let AI summarise and share it.
Now that is transparency.
This is the philosophy that I have successfully employed to deliver on time and on budget the following projects:
- www.thesquaredeal.co.uk
- www.yonderlife.co.uk
- A National Property Auction
- A National Probate Service
- The biggest commercial auction in the UK
- A rather nice wine sale
- Live internet bidding
- Online payments
- Client accounts
- The Great Art Hunt
- Demolishing a culture of theft, intimidation, bullying and blame
Now.... we just have superior tools.
It is time to reconsider your project timescales, save some money and drive your turnover.
