Manage your projects!

Look at your desk, at your life – how many projects do you have going on?  Which are important?  Which add future value to your finances or your personal time?  Your values dictate how you organize these projects by priority.  If security is one of your values then you may focus on saving for retirement.  If beauty is important, you may want to focus on an art or a restoration project.  Your values dictate how you prioritize the many activities of your life.

In business, you and your coworkers apply the same principles and select the projects you want to invest your time into based on the potential return you can realize from the effort.  Knowing your values or goals as an organization help to prioritize and rank the projects you wish to embark upon.

Once you have the project all picked out, you will be tempted to dive right into a project plan, but slow down and consider some of the potential pitfalls you may encounter.  Look at your network of people and figure out who has tackled a similar project.  Talk to them and find out what their experience was and any hurdles they may have encountered.  Do your research.  Take the time to look on the Internet and see if others have attempted something similar.

Now that you have a better idea of what you are getting your team into, develop that plan and use the templates around you.  Don’t waste energy trying to figure out how to communicate roles and activities or discover objectives and requirements if someone else has already done that for you!  Also, make sure your team is ready to talk.  They will be repeating each other’s efforts if they don’t vocalize what they are doing and offer the information to others within the team.  Build some wiggle room into your schedule and be realistic about setbacks.  Capture vacation time of team members and factor in the unexpected. 

Figure out what your organization believes in, needs, and where it sees its future. Know your goals, define your objectives, do your research, and use your tools.