Project Planning: Keep Moving

Projects can encounter trouble at times, but that doesn’t mean you can’t regain control. Let’s looks at three common trouble spots that can appear in a project and how to deal with them.

Handling Roadblocks

The #1 priority for all leaders is to keep the path clear for your team. This means you must:

1. Be aware of what your team is working on today
2. What can get in their way to prevent them from finishing their tasks
3. Identify one or more ways that you can keep the path clear and your team moving

It is your responsibility to watch what is happening and help others to make progress. This means that your time is best spent leading your team through problem areas than doing project-related work. How? By making sure your team has enough volunteers to complete the project without your direct involvement in the day-to-day tasks.

Losing Team Members

Sometimes things don’t work out the way you planned. One of your volunteers may have a family emergency and need to step away from your project. Another team member may find that the project just isn’t the right fit for them. Here is how you can prepare for dealing with this kind of situation:

1. Locate additional volunteers that want to join your team and allow them to pair up with other team members. This provides an additional set of volunteers that you can tap into when you lose a team member due to unforeseen circumstances. It also provides some redundancy should you need extra help sometime during the project
2. Keep task assignments small, so that if you lose a team member you are only losing a small amount of tasks in the short term. This can also provide for an easier transition to a new team member as they only need to take over a small task, not a huge portion of the project
3. Provide time in your project plan to cover these situations. If your project plan doesn’t allow time for losing team members, bad weather, and vacation time by some of your team, then you need to make the project smaller or plan for it take longer.

The Never Ending Project

The most common problem I have encountered with stalled projects is the “never ending project” syndrome. This happens when projects are not focused on outcomes, but rather tasks. It is your responsibility as a project leader to ensure that the tasks you assign are taking your team to the project’s final goal. Otherwise, you are just “doing stuff” rather than making progress. Here are some tips on how to prevent the never ending project syndrome:

1. Make sure your milestones are clear and express a desired goal or outcome. Milestones that are not measurable go nowhere
2. Break tasks down to manageable chunks that provide both “easy wins” along with the tougher challenges
3. Ensure that each task is focused toward the milestone, that it has a purpose, and that others will see the result when it has been completed successfully.

Remember – you are the project leader and you are the one setting the pace for the project. If you keep the path clear, plan ahead for possible lost time, and keep the project focused on the end goal, you’ll see your projects delivered on time and with great success!

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