Mastering Project Success: The Importance of Effective Systems to Achieve Your Goals
Mastering Project Success: The Importance of Effective Systems to Achieve Your Goals
If you want better outcomes forget about setting goals; focus on your system instead.
👋 Welcome to The Influential Project Manager, a weekly newsletter covering the essentials of successful project leadership.
Today’s Overview:
1 Article: Mastering project success. Your project does not rise to the level of your goals. Your project falls to the level of your systems.
1 Video: A plan is not a strategy. A comprehensive plan—with goals, initiatives, and budgets–is comforting. But starting with a plan is a terrible way to make strategy.
Action Items: Help me serve you better please.
One Article:
The Importance of Effective Systems to Achieve Your Goals
Have you heard the viral quote by James Clear?
"You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems." - James Clear
Those two sentences say so much.
It's a great quote because it immediately produces a powerful understanding:
Goals are just the end product of the results you want to achieve; systems are about the processes that lead to those results.
As project managers, we're in the business of producing outcomes (achieving goals).
Here is my adapted version of the quote to help project managers:
"Your project does not rise to the level of your goals. Your project falls to the level of your systems."
Project goals (premium quality, under budget, on time, etc.) are just the results you want to achieve. Your project systems are the collection of recurring habits on the job site that lead to those results.
Harvard Business Review recently published that 35% of projects are completed successfully which equates to 65% wasted resources and unrealized benefits.
One of the most common root causes is the project management team lacking a stream of well developed systems.
Developing project systems is a critical part of being an Influential Project Manager.
It’s easy to focus on the shiny outcome and not the discipline involved in getting there. As a result, the wheels fall off as soon as things get a little bumpy.
Uncontrolled variation is the enemy of quality.
If you want better results forget about setting goals; focus on your system instead.
Start by building the habit of identifying recurring tasks.
“Once is happenstance. Twice is a coincidence. Three times is a pattern.” - Ian Flemming
Spot the patterns on your projects. Something that happens 3x (or more) is a pattern and needs to be optimized.
Here are a few examples to get you started:
Expense filing
Stakeholder reports
Distributing project information
Updating your schedule
Processing change orders
Meeting agendas
Odds are, you or someone on your team does these things multiple times per week. And every time, you’re starting from scratch.
This recurring work is using not just valuable time, but is costing you mental energy and it gets you different results each time.
Many recurring things are necessary. That means we have to do them often, do them well, and use the least amount of brainpower.
Project managers should use your head to come up with ideas, not to store them.
Deploy these 7 strategies to buy back your time and mental bandwidth:
Standard Operating Procedures (“SOP’s”)
Software
Delegate
Process Mapping
Templates
Checklists
Automation
Your goal is just your desired outcome. Your systems are the collection of daily habits that will get you there.
Putting It All Together
A project can only be successful if it delivers the predetermined business value to the stakeholders.
To achieve that you must implement systems that optimize the factors that influence project success.
Project Success Factors: Quality | Quantity | Cost | Time | Safety | Relationships
Ask yourself: How can I use SOP’s, software, delegation, process mapping, templates, checklists, or automation to support my recurring tasks to free up more time/energy?
Here are a few examples to get you started:
Communication Goal: Effective meetings that move the needle.
System: Every time you click “new meeting” in your calendar, the invite would open with a pre-filled agenda template.
Safety Goal: Adherence to the safety program.
System: Create quick reference guide that makes it simple for everyone to find the information and take action.
Quality Goal: Substantial completion with zero defects on project.
Cost Goal: Complete project under budget.
System: Change management collection, review, and process stream. Weekly forecasting updates to stake holders.
Time Goal: Complete project on time with no re-work.
System: The Last Planner System
LEAN Goal: Minimize waste, maximize value.
System: The 5S Methodology
Safety Goal: Zero incidents on job.
System: Daily all hands 10 minute safety/production huddle each morning followed by completion of a daily pre-task plan template form.
After putting it all together, you free up calendars and minds for strategic work. It shows the team what kind of work you value.
None of this is to say that goals are useless. I've found that goals are good for planning your progress and systems are good for actually making progress.
Goals can provide direction and even push you forward in the short-term, but eventually a well-designed system will always win.
Having a system is what matters. Committing to the process is what makes the difference.
The Video - Strategy vs. Planning
The other day I posted on LinkedIn the difference between a project and work.
Along the same lines, here is a useful video explaining how to develop an effective strategy and escaping the common traps of “strategic planning.”
00:00 Most strategic planning has nothing to do with strategy.
01:00 So what is a strategy?
02:08 Why do leaders so often focus on planning?
04:05 Let's see a real-world example of strategy beating planning.
06:33 How do I avoid the "planning trap"?
Action Items - Help Me Serve You Better
You as a reader deserve control over what we cover each week. What would be most valuable to you?
Productivity: how to get more done in less time
Leadership: strategies & tactics to lead and win
Project Resources: free templates + checklists for project managers
The 7 Archetypes of Influential Project Management: framework for being a top 1% PM and building the most complicated projects
Team Building: How to build a high performance project team
Vote by replying with “1”, “2”, “3”, “4” or “5”, or feel free to drop any other suggestions!
That’ll do for this week - until next Tuesday!
Have a great week!
Kyle Nitchen
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