By Dan Feely, TSI President and Managing Partner

Last month, I had an opportunity to go to the great city of Duluth, Minnesota to watch my favorite first daughter (not to be confused with my favorite 2nd or 3rd daughter) run her first marathon (shout out to Grandma’s Marathon). It was everything you would imagine a marathon to be – inspirational, motivational, emotional, and more.

After bouncing around to different marathon locations, the marathon app indicated our runner was nearing the last mile. So, we jockeyed for position in an area about 400 yards from the finish line hoping we could get a picture of and watch our favorite participant finish.

As we waited, we saw runners who were jubilant, fatigued and everywhere in between those extremes. Most, if not all runners, had their eyes fixed on the balloons marking the finish line that they’ve been dreaming about for the previous 26 miles. It was obvious that most, if not all, were using every bit of fuel they had left in their tank.

We spotted one runner, a guy who did not look well. I mean really unwell. His legs looked like they were made of rubber, and he was increasingly losing his balance with every step he took. Then he crashed. Literally, his legs gave out and he face planted on the pavement.

He did not look like he could get up, nor were any race volunteers in the area to attend to him.

Then, out of nowhere, two runners grabbed and lifted him up. One runner on each side, they grabbed his arms and lifted, dragged and pulled him along. They basically carried him the entire rest of the race.

I watched the entire thing. There were no introductions, no asking “do you need help”. Based on how quickly they jumped into action, I’m confident they didn’t talk about politics as a prerequisite to make sure they were aligned on volatile topics.

They simply helped a fellow human.

I have no idea whether these two competitors who helped this man were striving for a personal best, or simply striving to complete their first marathon. Regardless, I’m sure their stopping added several minutes to their time. With the finish line in sight, they very easily could have just run around him.

But they didn’t. They just did the right thing and sacrificed minutes on their time to do so.

Remarkable.

This event got me thinking about how divided so many of our communities, including our places of employment, are today.

But in a few easy steps, we can create a culture that rises above the rhetoric and divisiveness that it is so easy to get pulled in to.

1. Focus on what you have in common (i.e., common goals, perhaps a few shared values) with your team.
2. Pay no attention to the stuff that you don’t have in common.
3. Just help, add some value, bring something to the table, be a good team member.

The rest will take care of itself.

What perspectives can you add to this?  We’d love to hear from you and your digital transformation experiences.

Looking for more on culture? Go here and here

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Track, Understand and Manage Project Risks Before the Squeak Begins

This is proactive project management. One does not need a week-long course in project risk management to identify and plan mitigation for project risks. Grab the threats by the horns, determine if you can avoid them, plan for mitigation/remediation if you cannot. If you wait for a squeaky wheel your risk has already become an issue. Use a Risk Log to keep yourself organized.

Provide Regular Status Updates, Conduct Peer Reviews, and Engage in Milestone Checkpoints

It is key that you – and your key project constituents – understand the health of your initiative. Tracking status that is forward-looking is an excellent proactive practice that helps you and your stakeholders. Peer reviews ensure that your blinders come off and you are made aware of alternatives, issues lurking around the corner, or areas outside your expertise. Engaging sponsors in milestone checkpoints ensures that they are up to date on where you are at and are aligned on what it will take to move forward.

Assess a Holistic Portfolio of Business Initiatives and Prioritize the List Across User Groups

If you examine your portfolio in segments or as projects come in one by one, you may be setting yourself up for unnecessary project stops and starts. And, if leaders try to commit to delivering all initiatives that are labeled urgent, the organization may sub-optimize the assignment of scarce resources. Leverage a whole-portfolio assessment method that can objectively provide your decision leaders with appropriate information to prioritize.

Flexibly Adhere to an Established Governance Model That Ensures Phase Deliverables are Complete

Project life cycles vary and depend on the type of project. Establish a framework and leverage it accordingly for the type of project you are doing. Do not abandon your framework and miss key hand-offs, decision points, or phase gates. Flexibly applying your rigorous model will proactively enable you to meet the needs of each project.

Manage Expectations Proactively

Tell your stakeholders what you are going to do. Drive for alignment. Be open to course corrections. Share news, both good and bad. Keep the appropriate people up to date. That is being proactive. 

If you keep the worrisome things in the shadows, which then turn to issues, your sponsors and key stakeholders may not appreciate your management by damage control approach.

Proactive Impact Management

Stay on top of action items and issues. Know when each was raised, by whom, and by when they should be completed or resolved. Losing track of these key data points may have you back on your heels when someone comes to seek clarification. Stay out of crisis management mode and be forthright by recognizing issues and steps that may not have been in your original plan. Manage them effectively and you can be your project’s hero.

In conclusion, this is not an exhaustive list of proactive ways to manage your projects. However, this list is a good place to start if you are feeling lost.

Want to know more ways to proactively manage your projects and programs? Let’s connect!

Schedule a meeting with Carl Manello or connect with him on LinkedIn to learn more.

The post 6 Steps to Proactively Manage Your Projects + Programs appeared first on Transforming Solutions Inc..

However, change doesn’t have to be uncomfortable. It can help you gain a greater understanding of where you currently are (your current state), as well as where you are headed (your future state). Embracing this ultimately helps you and your organization foster excitement for change and opportunities to improve your organization.

Educate and Prepare through Current State Process Improvement

With any challenge or test in life, the best way to improve comfort is to educate and prepare. Change is no exception to this rule. Through exposing your organization’s pain points and preparing to move forward, your organization will gain great value. We can further understand what we do through mapping the current state. This includes what we do, why we do it, and the pieces of our process that hold us back from achieving our goals. Too often, stakeholders in current state workshops don’t understand how their actions impact an organization beyond their immediate role. On top of this, they don’t even fully understand what others in the organization do. Through further conversation, we can identify pain points, as well as their fixes. Some of these pain points are able to be fixed immediately, while others require more identification of what opportunities exist in the ideal future state.

Think Ahead with Future State Planning

Once organizations have identified pain points in their current state, the next step is to begin planning for their future state. This is done with an understanding of where you came from, the pain points and opportunities for improvement that currently exist, and the ideal manner of using the functionality of new technology to optimize your business processes. Future state mapping is a realistic representation of opportunity, growth, and area for improvement for an organization. The ideal future state is not ‘wishful thinking’, but a balance between need, resolution, and realistic thinking. These things all adding up to a positive transformation.

We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.

Albert Einstein

Communication Is Key

Using the total functionality of technology in your organizational processes will make embracing the change even more worthwhile. This may be difficult, as users can see technology as a threat to their job or out of their comfort zone. However, the objective of new technology is not to replace anyone, but make processes more efficient. This efficiency leads to more time, resources, and attention to value-adding activities. Clearly communicating the added value to users, the need for change, and a unified message can help to ensure buy-in towards successful change. This holistic approach to communication lends itself to success in implementation and powerful organizational change management.

Embracing Change and Technology to Create Future Value

What value-add activities will you be able to focus more of your resources on? Overall, understanding your current state, planning for the future state, and embracing change and technology make this value-add possible.

As your organization evaluates its current state, as well as plans for its future state, your team must be on the same page. As we discussed earlier, there can often be a disconnect in teams in terms of roles, expectations, and pain points. Take our Change Readiness Assessment and discover if your team is ready for this change. Beyond this, learn more about our offerings to determine your organization’s next step.

The post Current State vs. Future State: How to Embrace the Change appeared first on Transforming Solutions Inc..