Determining What to Do is the Easy Part: 5 Phases of Successful Project Management

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When it comes to planning for your business, figuring out what to do is generally the easy part—it’s figuring out how to do it that’s hard.  

Business owners frequently tell me they’ve figured out what needs to happen in their company to achieve their growth goals. What they can’t figure out is how to get those important things done, especially those bigger, capacity building projects. 

The missing competency in many smaller companies and non-profits is project management. A project is generally defined as a temporary endeavor with a defined beginning and end in which constraints are scope, time, quality and budget. Bigger capacity building or game-changing projects are typically what organizations need to get to the next level. 

The process of directing and controlling a project from start to finish can be divided into 5 basic phases:

1. Project conception & initiation: determining the scope of the project

2. Project definition & planning: project outline, budget & timeline

3. Project launch & execution: task & responsibilities are assigned

4. Project performance & control: track progress to actual plan & adjust as needed

5. Project evaluation-evaluate results & identify take-aways for future projects

If you lack internal resources with competency in project management, you may want to consider training existing team members. Most community colleges have project management curriculum. Outside consultants can also provide project management support on an as needed basis.

Departments Need Mission Statements Too

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Everyone knows that companies need vision statements. 

A company vision statement paints a picture of the desired future for the organization.  It guides current decision making by providing a guidepost to evaluate decisions. What is less recognized though, is the value of vision statements for individual departments. While departmental visions need to be consistent with the organizational vision, they can further refine how the company vision statement cascades out to departments.

So for example, if the organization’s vision statement is, “To be the world’s most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they may want to buy online at a great price,” the purchasing department’s vision statement might be, “To find the very best products in the global marketplace combining high quality with value.”

A good vision statement whether at the company or departmental level should be future oriented and aspirational.  When people in the organization or department read the vision, it should resonate with them and provide the future state they’re moving toward.

Optimism Can Lead to Unrealistic Timelines

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I am as guilty of this as the next person. I set goals for the quarter, and then about half way through I wonder, “what was I thinking?!?”  

This can be especially true when the objective we’ve set involves a larger, capacity building type of project. Being optimistic is usually a great character trait but in planning it can sometimes mislead us. 

What we can fail to recognize in setting goals, is that time previously spent on day-to-day activities will now need to be dedicated to the ‘special project’. When we plan we tend to forget that those daily activities still need to get done. A good rule of thumb when planning, and especially when planning bigger projects is to take your initial timeline, and double it. 

It might sound crazy, but try it and you may be surprised at the accuracy of your next project timeline.

Sales Success Requires Solid Planning

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In a complex sale, a good tactical plan is only as good as the strategy that led up to it.  The difference between strategy and tactics in sales is important—tactics refers to the techniques you use when you’re actually face to face with a prospect or customer in a meeting.  It includes the things you learned in “Selling 101” including questioning skills, understanding buying influences, presentation skills and so on.

The strategy for a sales meeting includes a series of less recognized processes that you use to position yourself with the customer before the sales call even begins.  Strategy is a prerequisite to tactical success.  You can only succeed in sales today if you know what you’re doing and why and you’ve created a methodology or process to support your efforts. 

One of my favorite books on this subject was Strategic Selling by Miller & Heiman. It was first published in 1985, and was the foundation for the training I received selling for a Fortune 100 company.  The book was updated and published again in 2005 by the title The New Strategic Selling.  If you can’t answer the question, “why are you successful?” then you may want to consider investing the time and energy to understand and document your strategy for sales success. 

Planning is an Unnatural Process; it’s Much More Fun to do Something

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This statement was made by Sir John Harvey, a British Actor-Manager born in the 1800’s yet it resonates with most of us today! "I am always happy and fulfilled after I’ve done my planning but it is true that I’m generally more interested in doing things….I have to force myself to plan.  It takes a concerted effort and a commitment to the process for me to spend consistent time planning."

The key I’ve found is to create a plan—for your planning.  Even as a ‘solo-prenuer’ I have recognized that I need a written plans (as opposed to keeping it in my head), in order to stay focused and measure my progress.  How about you—have you spent time planning for next year? I don’t mean the budget, but the other stuff?