This blog is a very long time in the making. Over 20 years to be exact! Since 1997, I have been self-employed doing some form of project or program management. Over that period, I have learned a great deal and I have been able to be successful at managing larger and more complex efforts.

The purpose of this blog is going to be to talk about some of those things that I have learned over time. The things that have helped me and the teams that I have worked with to be successful along the way. Please keep in mind that I will be talking about conceptual learnings and not the specific details of any given client or client project since that would not be appropriate.

I often speak about what I do as looking a lot like herding cats; and it does to a certain extent look like that, gently nudging multiple people, teams and activities toward the same end goal. The thing that this statement does not reflect however is that it is a whole lot easier if everyone knows where that same end goal is exactly in the first place.

Over the years I have found it tremendously valuable to ensure that everyone on the team has a complete understanding of where we are trying to get to, not just a two-dimensional perspective but I want them to really be able to see it in their mind's eye. What does success look like? How do thing’s function? How do we know it is successful? What happens and who is participating? If each member of the team can get that vision of the end goal in mind you have the makings of success brewing but the real magic is when that vision is shared and coalesced among the entire team so that you can get as close as possible to a single shared vision of success, this is when the magic can really happen.

Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@gtopel?utm_content=creditCopyText&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=unsplash">Gökhan Topel</a> on <a href="https://unsplash.com/photos/a-car-driving-down-a-road-with-mountains-in-the-background-hDEPW9-zzY0?utm_content=creditCopyText&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=unsplash">Unsplash</a>

When there is a shared vision amongst the entire team, it is like an accelerant of creativity gets poured and what might have been a problem that would bring everything to a standstill now has the creative force of the collective looking for a resolution based on that clear understanding of where everyone is going. Problems still come up, sure, but they are easily handled and thwarted by the team.

The other analogy that I like to use for what I do is like going on a road trip with a bunch of people, some you may know ahead of time, some you may not. The project manager is in the driver’s seat and everyone getting in the car has responsibilities. After all, you don’t want to go on a road trip without snacks! Or that person who knows where every good potty stop is along the way!

You probably would not be too excited to get into that car and go on that road trip if you didn’t know where you were going. Furthermore, as the driver of the car, how effective can I be if I steer the car onto the freeway without knowing where we are going? I could end up driving us around for hours never getting anywhere!

Here are a few suggestions for how to align a team on a single vision:

  • Ask each member of the team to write down everything they know about the final deliverable and then bring everyone together; get people to share their versions while you build a single version of the final deliverable together (what might also be referred to as defining MVP “minimum viable product”)
  • Bring the entire team together and work a definition of MVP by asking a series of questions…
    • What is it?
    • Who uses it?
    • How will it be used?
    • When and where will it be used?
    • How will we know if it works?
    • How will we know that it is successful?
    • How will we know that everyone understands our answers here
  • Of course, leadership sponsoring the initiative could always do this and then inform the team however I have always found that the team is much more invested when they have taken an active role in the defining of this destination to begin with.

The key of course to this process is the alignment of the vision with such clarity to the point at which that vision inspires the team. Bringing the energy of inspiration and vision alignment to the team is absolutely essential.

On a related note, this applies for any project you are working on where others are needed to deliver with you. The lessons in project management often apply to life in general in this way.

I blog because I love the process of pondering my experiences, sharing what I have learned, uncovering new layers, and helping others to perhaps avoid the pitfalls that are far too often made along the way to successfully delivering great programs and projects. My plan is to blog here once a month so you will not receive a ton of emails from me. If you enjoy this content and would like to work together, I offer program and project management services; organizational training on successful project delivery; assessments of effectiveness for the Enterprise Project Management Office with a plan to improve; and finally, I offer one-on-one coaching for program, project and delivery professionals who are looking to improve their skills.

Finally, if you know of someone who may benefit from this content, please share this with them. I will be forever grateful and hopefully they will be too.

May you always know where you are going!