3 simple yet surprisingly helpful insights from the project management field
[This is about an 8-minute read]
Do you consider yourself to be a project manager?
I’m guessing not (....unless your title is Project Manager!).
Many companies actually dedicate whole positions to project management. You can now major in project management in college and there are project management certifications you can get.
But the truth is you don't have to be a (capital) Project Manager to be a project manager. If you work on a small team with big goals, project manager is another one of many hats that you wear.
So it’s a disservice to not recognize yourself as such. We can learn from the project management field to help us organize our work and see greater impact from our initiatives.
Here are three insights from the project management field to get you started on managing the beginning, middle, and end of projects:
#1: Defining a project, or recognizing a project as a project, is step number one.
Recognizing your work in terms of projects helps with organization.
This might sound obvious, but hear me out!
A lot of us are running programs and product lines. But that’s not all. As a small and mighty team member, you might also be handling finances, outreach, grant writing, reporting, presentations, meetings, HR matters…. the list goes on. You have a never-ending to-do list with a variety of tasks that feels unorganized and overwhelming.
Your programs and operations are ongoing - they are wide in scope with no definitive end. But what makes up the activities within your programs and operations? SO. MANY. PROJECTS.
It’s easy to forget this as you get swept up in the day-to-day.
So let’s put on your project manager hat.
A project manager will recognize a project for a project - an initiative that goes through a cycle of conceptualization, planning, implementation and closure. It has an end date, a problem it is solving, and a set of expectations, or goals, of what it will accomplish. It takes intention, forethought, and focus to achieve those goals and be as impactful as possible.
If your project activities get swallowed up in your neverending to-do list of tasks, their impact gets diluted.
Instead, a few opportunities emerge when projects are named and treated as projects:
1- You can organize project activities within a project plan. The intention you put into a plan helps you more readily account for all the activities and resources needed. A clear understanding of what needs to happen when helps to declutter items from your to-do list that were on your mind but don’t actually need attention yet. It also helps to keep items from becoming an emergency because they were forgotten until the last minute.
2- You can identify activities to make your project more impactful by using best practices for each phase of the project cycle (conceptualization, planning, implementation and closure).
3- You can better coordinate projects amongst projects by identifying what part of the cycle they are in. Planning and implementation take more time and energy, so you can time the work of other projects accordingly.
4- With a project goal and plan in place, it makes it easier to prioritize your work and focus on what really makes an impact, instead of getting consumed with lesser important tasks that will come up.
You are probably working on more projects than you realize. Take a few minutes to identify them all. You’ll likely see with your own eyes why you are feeling overwhelmed. The good news: with a project manager mindset, you can take back some control.
#2: Project Management can be Agile.
The first step in project management is recognition and definition, the second step is planning.
A project plan is really what boosts your productivity and effectiveness.
Some of us resist planning efforts, though. Usually because we don’t feel like we have time for planning or we don’t want to feel trapped by our plan.
This is where the Agile project management mindset is helpful.
This project management style emphasizes planning and adapting projects through iterations. The process is informed by a whole manifesto which describes 4 values and 12 principles. The way they are written are geared towards software developers or engineers so I’m not going to list them here. But that doesn’t mean we can’t borrow some useful wisdom from them.
This manifesto and the agile project management framework promote simplicity, delivering value through iterations with constant improvement, and regular reflection on effectiveness.
This can help to cut down on planning time because it relieves pressure to identify any and all future needs. Instead, we can focus our planning for a reasonable timeframe with more known factors than unknown factors and don’t need to get bogged down writing a comprehensive but unhelpful document.
The secret sauce comes at the end of each planned time frame, where we take some time to assess how it all went, what changes to make going forward, and plan for the next reasonable timeframe. It becomes pretty natural after a few takes.
This planning flow requires more instances of planning that are likely easier to add to your workload because they don’t require huge chunks of time.
The best part is that the whole point of the plan is the process, not a final static document. The objective is to start, learn, and adapt. This means planning doesn’t have to feel rigid, either.
As a bonus, this agile mindset helped me cut down on my perfectionistic tendencies (a TOTAL productivity killer!). The whole framework is based on the assumption that you actually deliver a better product through iterating and learning along the way. It debunked my internal tendencies to try to get something to be perfect first, and that realization felt like a weight was lifted off my shoulders.
#3: Projects need closure, too
Closure in life helps you process what happened in a situation, understand and learn from it, and ultimately move on.
As it turns out, projects and your work practices benefit from the same thing.
Closure is considered part of the project life cycle. By taking a few simple steps at the end of a project, you can stay on top of file organization, practice reflection and continuous improvement, and clear your mind to effectively and efficiently move on to the next project.
Here’s what project closure can look like. It’s simple, but powerful:
Confirm with project clients that the last deliverable has been received. If it’s an internal project, making sure all team members are in consensus that the project is complete is a good alternative practice. This sends a clear signal to all involved.
Gather feedback from the client or end user on how they feel about the end product. This increases opportunities for continuous improvement.
Hold a project conclusion meeting with the team. Assess what went well, what could have gone better. Take notes to remember for future projects. This is often called a project retrospective, and I wrote a previous blog post for an effective framework for this step. This discussion helps you find new ways to innovate and continuously improve.
Organize project files. Organize, rename and file important documents and transfer ownership when necessary. I know, this sounds boring. But pour yourself a hot beverage, crank some tunes, and take a half hour for it. Think about how much time and frustration it will save later when you or a team member are searching for that one document.
Integrate. For many projects, there are opportunities to integrate the project deliverables and/or lessons learned into organizational operations. Identify those and take any necessary steps to solidify the project’s results. This helps sustain your project’s impact.
Celebrate! For real! Have an office party. Treat yourself to something if it was a solo project. Recognize the hard work that went into the project and give yourself a chance to feel proud of your accomplishments. The work doesn’t end, so taking opportunities to celebrate wins is good for morale and it helps you keep momentum to tackle the next thing.
With these six steps you can accomplish a lot of important work - you’ll reflect, you’ll learn, you’ll organize, and you’ll celebrate. You’ll likely feel good about officially closing the door on that project, and clear mental space to get started on whatever is coming next.
One more thing- even in the project management world, this closure phase is often overlooked. (hey - there’s something nonprofits, entrepreneurs, and engineers have in common!)
Since it’s easy to skip over these steps by the end of a project I recommend you include it as part of your project plan and talk about it ahead of time as actual tasks to complete. It’ll make it more likely they will happen. When they do happen, you’ll definitely thank yourself later.
If you have a bigger project coming down the pike that you’d like extra hands on deck for, I can facilitate a project managment process for you. You can focus on the work and rest assured that the project is being handled proactively, improving collaboration, communication, decision-making and problem-solving. Contact me if you want to explore project partnership opportunities.
