Hi Reader,
Is it worthwhile to invest in project management for your company? Absolutely. I’ll share a brief story to illustrate.
We had a client who provided compliance training for large corporations. They were rapidly expanding, and needed to migrate current and future clients to a new platform.
They brought us in to lead this project due to our expertise with large technical implementations. The project had been stalled for months before we arrived.
The project people
Our primary contact, Jo, was the project expert and highly knowledgeable about the training products, existing platform, and staff.
Another team member, Sammy, was hesitant to involve an external project management resource, believing they had sufficient internal capabilities to lead projects. Sammy was responsible for the budget and was concerned hiring externally could cause the project to exceed its budget.
Lastly, there was Quinn, whose specific role was unclear. Quinn was always extremely busy… though no one quite knew doing what.
The technical vendor supporting the new platform also opposed the client's decision to hire external project management services, arguing that they already had their internal project manager.
But, after a bit of investigation on my part, I found that this current project manager had contributed very little.
So, who was doing what? Who took ownership for what? That’s what I needed to find out next.
Seatbelt Session to the rescue
After our initial meeting with the project team, it became clear that the workload was unevenly distributed: some members were contributing too little, while others were overwhelmingly busy. I see this all the time.
Although some deliverables were completed, most tasks on the critical path had not yet been addressed. And the vendor was moving in a completely different direction than where the client wanted to go.
Meanwhile, we still couldn’t figure out what Quinn was doing, because we couldn't find them!
We started with one of our Seatbelt Sessions. This is where we assist company leadership and key team members to discover specific buckets of work within their company that need to get done, then create an action list to be executed right away.
In a short period, we created our migration project plan. Jo and Sammy started collaborating effectively and were both pleased and relieved with the forward momentum we were finally getting on this project.
Saving money
The team started humming (or what we call the “performing stage” in team dynamics), completing most of the work within a few months, all while refining and iterating the migration plan as we moved along.
Sammy happily noted this project was going to save the company money, because besides being ahead of schedule, they were able to begin their marketing, and new clients were interested in the platform.
Missing team member found
The missing team member appeared! In the background, Quinn was quietly preparing current clients for the new platform. Ultimately, they proved to be an excellent team member and integrated back into the team at the perfect time.
While some argue that project management is a waste of time and resources, we have found the opposite to be true. It not only saves time and money, but also helps identify engaged team members who may have been overlooked.
Want to understand more about the value of project management for your company? Please reach out and we’ll have a chat.
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