How to Carry a Project Through from Beginning to End
There are many reasons that can cause a project to fail during the implementation phase – focus, time management, and motivation are among the usual culprits.
Try incorporating these simple steps into your business to ensure that the excitement and drive of a new project gets carried through to fruition every time.
1. Refocus
Once a project has lost focus or started to miss critical deadlines, it’s important to take action. Identify the issue that’s causing it to stray from target. This may be the most difficult part of the process for a number of reasons, but it’s vital to establish why in order to put things right.
It might be useful to review the project with the objective of streamlining it. Look at how some of the trivial tasks could be removed or dealt with in some other way. They can be demotivating and can bring the entire project to a halt.
It’s important to understand that in small business, change is par for the course. Ensuring your team understands the need for any prescribed changes is essential. Constant communication within your team is the best way to overcome unforeseen obstacles.
Appoint an ambassador for the project – a point person – who can be available to field questions or concerns as well as managing a swift flow of communication between team members.
2. Revamp Your Time Management
If scheduling or time management is holding up progress, the Harvard Business Review suggests starting with these simple steps:
1. Look to the end to recover – go back to the long-term plan and make up for lost time by rescheduling missed deadlines
2. Narrow the scope – eliminate non-essential elements. This may well reduce costs and save time and allow team members to focus on the major goals.
3. Renegotiate – take time to look at alternatives including time, budget, personnel, deadlines, etc.
3. Remotivate
Your project may be faltering due to a lack of motivation or inability to meet deadlines. If this is the case it’s important to identify where the problem lies and look to offer solutions. This may call for delegation, re-assignment or incentives.
Be prepared to do what has to be done. Create a new timeline, put in more hours, increase the budget, re-energize and motivate your team–whatever is necessary. The project was started for a purpose and that purpose will remain unrealized unless the project is completed.
Often the best-laid plans will go awry. Adaptability is key in project management and, with good leadership, a slipping project can be salvaged.
What strategies has your business found to be effective in managing the completion of projects?
Feel free to share by leaving a comment below!
Copyright 2012, Bullseye Business Systems Pty Ltd. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission from http://www.ranone.com
4 comments
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Tracy
August 28, 2012 at 2:38 PM (UTC -6) Link to this comment
Hi Jeff,
Thanks for the tips. A lot of projects can get sideways and you provided some solutions for getting back on track.
Thanks!
Tracy
Jeff
August 29, 2012 at 3:36 PM (UTC -6) Link to this comment
Thanks for the comment Tracy! It is indeed all too easy for businesses to lose their focus. Hopefully these tips were useful in preventing or rectifying that!
Selling a Business Plan
September 14, 2012 at 6:44 AM (UTC -6) Link to this comment
Great tips. These tips are necessary in each and everything we do in our life.
It will help us in managing our schedule for whatever we do .
Jeff
September 16, 2012 at 11:58 PM (UTC -6) Link to this comment
Thanks, I couldn’t agree more!