Starting a New Project: The 4 Pillars of Success
When many of our clients are starting a new project, it’s often accompanied by an energised, anticipatory feeling with a strong motivation to ‘just get going’.
Helping them to harness their enthusiasm before it runs away with the ball is a critical way we support them to give their projects the best chance of success, and of remaining an enjoyable process instead of descending into a chaotic and stressful hot mess 😅
There’s a lot of truth in the saying that ‘Failing to plan is planning to fail’, so at the start of a project we have to hold our horses just long enough to create a compass and a map that will guide us from concept to realisation in one satisfying sweep.
We have found that the key to planning and starting a new project begins with getting 4 essential pillars in place before we begin.
These pillars are set by asking 4 indispensable questions:
Pillar 1: WHY
The first question to ask yourself when starting a new project is ‘Why?’
Why do this at all? What specific gains will this project deliver?
Sharpening up our notion on the purpose and value of the project lays the strong foundation that every project needs. You’re tapping into the emotional motivation to get started and to keep pushing on with it when it runs into any challenges.
Asking those who will be affected by the project these questions can reveal insights that you on your own might miss. The answers will help us to clearly state our objective, which serves as a north star we can keep our eyes on throughout, and keep heading towards.
Pillar 2: WHAT
The next set of questions to answer are the ‘Whats?’
Starting a new project requires that we take a step back before the start line and consider what actions will need to be taken to move us towards that goal.
Do some research to get insight into how to best approach your goal. Using guesswork because we are too impatient to spend a bit of time becoming informed is a common and deadly mistake that many make when planning and getting started on a new project.
A project is far more likely to succeed when we take the time to:
Read relevant studies, articles or books
Talk to people in our organisation or related ones
Talk to experts in the field
Talk to people who have done similar projects by contacting other companies. (Which is usually an absolute goldmine and helps you to avoid pitfalls by learning from others mistakes).
Don’t be afraid to ask questions!
Then, when we’ve come up with an informed list of all these tasks, we break these down even further...
For example, we might have identified one of the actions as ‘host an online event for 20 decision makers from other organisations’.
The subtasks, or ‘milestones’ for this event could include:
Event research
Event design
Creation of branding and marketing materials for the event
Gathering direct contacts for 100 decision makers
Sending invitations
Following up non-responders
Hosting the event
Gathering event feedback
Following up with contacts
Having all these tasks and milestones laid out does two very important things:
The benefit of subtasks: your weak link revealer
It helps us see clearly where any ‘weak links’ in the project might lie. It shows us which bits are at risk of running over time or budget or failing to get done.
We’ve then got the advantage of foresight and can sketch out our back up options, our time buffer zones and create plan B and C so when we encounter snags along the way we’re totally ready for them, minimising stress.
For example, if there’s technical expertise needed for a critical task that only one person in our team has, what do we do if they are ill? Where can we find external backup or is there a manual they could create for others to follow in the event of their absence?
The benefit of subtasks: establishing project scope
Secondly, subtasks help to establish the scope of the project. When we are starting a new project we have to establish how much territory it has to cover, and, importantly, where its boundaries and limits lie. If something is beyond the scope of the project, no matter how compelling it might seem, the rule of thumb is to not to do it!
When we’re planning and getting started with a new project, having a hard border in mind from the beginning means we can avoid the dreaded ‘mission creep’.
When we are starting a new project, mission creep is something to be very wary of. It is basically uncontrolled expansion of your project and it can prove fatal to even the most promising projects because it stretches budgets and timelines to breaking points, starving critical aspects of the project of the resources they need.
Mission creep also disrupts the focus of the project by creating additional complexity and diluting efforts across numerous areas. Stress levels skyrocket and efficiency plummets. It’s a big no thank you to that!
Pillar 3: WHO
Once we have the goal and the scope established, the next question to ask is ‘Who does what?’
When we are starting a new project we have to have a good grasp on who is responsible for making sure the various tasks and milestones are achieved.
How much time, money and other resources will these people need to do this?
Involve the people who will be allocated parts of the project with this discussion. It’s important to know how much capacity they have, the resources that they know they’ll need, the risks they can identify around their tasks.
“Assumption is the mother of all f**k ups” and too often project managers assume they know the answers to these questions instead of actually consulting the people involved.
Pillar 4: WHEN
Finally we take all of these assigned tasks and create a schedule. To do that, think about:
Which tasks need to be done before others are possible to execute? Which are the highest risk tasks? Schedule these ones in as early as you can in the timeline, where possible.
Which tasks can be done in parallel and how do we avoid bottlenecks (doing too many tasks at the same time) and minimise things getting overstretched and overloaded at certain points along the way?
Where do we need extra contingency time because there is a higher chance of complications?
Again, involve your collaborators as much as possible at this stage and encourage any objections to be raised at this stage rather when you are all knee deep in the work and the tensions will be harder to resolve.
There can be a temptation to bang out the timeline and not consult too much with others about their views on it because starting a new project can have that urgent feeling of just wanting to get going and not being held back.
Resist this temptation though, because a timeline that everyone feels comfortable with and can commit to gives your project its best chance of success. When people feel rushed you’ll get subpar results.
Also, set out clear, frequent milestones on your schedule that will let you know whether you are ahead of schedule, falling behind or on track so you can prevent minor delays from becoming major setbacks that unravel interdependent tasks.
Similarly, schedule regular opportunities for feedback and support so concerns can be shared and information flows freely.
Most importantly of all, the schedule needs to be a living, shared document that everyone can access and update with their progress updates.
The schedule we agree upon when we are starting a new project is unlikely to stay the same as we progress through all the stages towards completion. With any project, it pays to expect the unexpected and not hold rigidly onto how you thought it would unfold.
Having good, simple communication channels with others involved ensures that everyone can keep track of the changes and adjust to them. Make sure that at all times ‘the left hand knows what the right hand is doing’ without reams of separate emails around the clock diverting attention away from the work.
Project success is within your grasp
By taking the time to answer all of these four questions before we are out of the traps, we have set a strong intention to succeed and paved the way, in practical terms, for that success to happen.
When starting a project, the first and most important step is the planning, so give it the time and attention it deserves.
We can afford to be flexible and update the plans along the way - being dynamic and responding to changes is almost as important as having a plan in the first place. But the plan must always come first!