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Home > For Free > Articles > issue12vol5
How Project Management can be Made more Simple
By David Brewster June 2006
On a recent holiday I organised an activity of significant daughterly desire: the dreaded horse ride. Once again, my steed was the old, slow one. In fact he was fully automatic. I didn’t need to do anything but hold on and enjoy the view. Strangely, the jaunt got me thinking about managing projects. Come for a ride and I’ll tell you why.
We all have numerous projects on the go. Business projects of our own making and others imposed on us. Voluntary projects. Personal projects ranging from sorting out all those old photos in boxes to making that box of a house more photogenic.
If you were to list all your projects you might be surprised at how many horseshoes you are currently trying to toss.
Our challenge is to keep all these projects moving. While some seem to gallop along of their own accord, others struggle to break into a trot. Some never make it out of the stalls. Wouldn’t it be satisfying to see more progress on these?
I believe a key reason for a lot of project inertia is this: we get stuck behind an expectation that projects should be planned in great detail before we get started. This supposedly reduces the risk. On time, on budget – way to go!
It’s a noble concept, but trying to do this often holds us up unnecessarily. First, planning in great detail takes significant time. As this is time we seldom have, even a pony-sized project comes to look insurmountable. Secondly, the underlying assumption that we can predict what will work and what won’t is simply fantasy.
So get up on this giddy old horse with me. (Don’t worry; I have no right to laugh at your awkward mounting technique.) As we set off, you’ll notice that our well-worn equine takes one careful step at a time. Unable to see his own feet, he makes sure that each hoof is safely planted before lifting the next.
He knows exactly where he’s going; he’s followed this route hundreds of times before. In management-speak, he is clear about his desired outcome. Nevertheless, he plans the detail of his progress one step at a time.
Importantly, rather than plan the detail too far ahead, each step is guided by what he learnt from the last one, and what he can see just ahead. If the surface is loose and unstable, for instance, he’ll be extra careful. If it’s firm, providing more certainty, he’ll move faster.
If this four-legged friend could speak, I’m sure his message would be something like this: Next time you are struggling to get a project started, try the simple approach. Identify the first step and do that. Then decide on the next step. And so on. There’s a good chance you’ll reach your feedbag sooner.
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'Success with Simplicity' strips management back to basics. The book offers a fresh perspective on the challenge of management plus insight into how you can use simplicity to have balance and success.
