Evan Renaerts

Project Life

October 22, 2007

Heavy rain throughout yesterday and all of last night; the city is washed and scrubbed and the autumn leaves tumble, stripping the trees to their bare branches and trunks.

Emma, my daughter, has just completed a school project (grade 7) that required her and four of her classmates to work together over a period of four weeks. Trying to get five busy twelve year-olds together was a continuing exercise in logistics, planning, phone calls and frustration.

At the half-way point it looked as though the kids were not going to succeed. They would meet and then not complete what needed doing, and come away without any plan for working independently to take things to the next stage. Kate and I became concerned and had several unsatisfactory talks with Emma – we couldn’t understand what was stopping these smart young people from doing what they needed to do.

Finally, after a particularly frank conversation Emma broke down in tears and said that she just didn’t know what she was supposed to do to get the project going. It was here when Kate and I realized that no one had given her or the others any understanding of how to approach a project.

With Emma’s permission we helped her break the project down into its parts and then to create a plan for successfully completing each of these parts. Within a half hour Emma laid out the steps she and her team needed to take; who needed to do what and when, and how they could share the various pieces as a group.

This episode in life has reminded me that, although I take it for granted that one must create a map for moving through projects, it isn’t something that we are all born knowing. In fact, I’ve been surprised since I started coaching and consulting at how few of my clients habitually step back to get the project overview and create a plan for getting where they want to go.

In project planning the first step is to understand the project; what is the purpose of the project, what is that you want to achieve, where do you want to be when it’s complete and how do you want everyone involved to feel at that time. Part of this step is to identify everyone with a stake in the undertaking and discover how they see the project goals.

Once you are clear on the goals a powerful next step is to make a “shopping list.” List each activity required to move through the phases of the project, at this point it is not essential to get them all, just be as thorough as possible. I find it useful to list things in the order they are likely to occur right from the start as this can help you to picture the “flow” of the project.
Once your detailed activity list is complete it is then important to look at each task and ask yourself (and your team if you have one), “so how exactly will I achieve this task:” what materials do I need, what resources, how much time – have I missed any steps here.
Every question of, how and when, and what about, is an invitation to think in a more detailed way. Each difficulty, challenge and potential delay that is foreseen and planned for clears the way for a smooth and successful project.

This list making sounds too simple and too boring for many people; they want to believe that there is some magic to creating great projects – and of course there is.

The most important part of any project will always be the people involved and the people who benefit from all of the work. What works best for me is to “dream” myself all the way through the project, to see the people I will work with, see their faces and know what they are feeling – and to dream the happy ending, of course.

Emma’s project? They brought it in on time and with great success.

Evan Renaerts
604 314 0835
evan@evanrenaerts.com