Principle First:
Project /prä-jekt/, noun. A temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service or result. It has a specific objective, a defined start and end date, and employes human and non-human resources. (Project Management Institute – PMI)
David Allen, father of the Getting Things Done methodology, describes a project as “any outcome you’re committed to achieving that will take more than one action step to complete.”
| 🧠 Today’s Framework: The Project Charter 📚 Today’s Story: The Transformational Team that Failed to Transform (because it didn’t have a charter) |
You plan and execute projects all the time
- Thanksgiving Dinner
- Who to invite?
- Where to host?
- What to cook? Who to cook it?
- Vacations
- Where to go?
- Where to stay?
- What to do?
- Transportation/flights
- James Webb Space Telescope
- Design rocket to put telescope in orbit
- Design a telescope that looks into deep space
- Design radio system to send images from space to Earth
- Launch
A project to a novice may be an action to a professional.
Ask me to make a pumpkin pie, I’ll consider that an action (assuming I have the groceries).
Assign that same objective to my 8 year old and it will look more to her like a project as her egg cracking and measuring abilities are still developing.
As in all delegation, you’ve got to know your team.
📚The Story of the Transformational Team that did not Transform
Here is what happens with a team that has no charter.
There was a business project that had been going poorly for a couple years according to several metrics.
A new Functional Leader was put in place. He started to generate some interest in improving team communication . If it went well, it would define the a new way of working for a long time.
He started off very strong. He could see the problem fairly clearly. He visited stakeholders one-on-one to get consensus and to build potential solutions.
He then assembled this group of stakeholders in a meeting. But people were unsure of their particular purpose in the meeting. Some had been spoken to before, some had not.
There were several strong opinions in the room. It was unclear how they were to be incorporated, or who’s job it was to do so.
No meeting rhythm was established as there was no leader assigned to establish it.
Most people left that meeting confused. Some left energized and started several activities which were towards a vague goal. This group never met again.
Imagine you are making a lasagna and you need garlic.
You go to the grocery store and spend a lot of money on several things. But you forget the garlic.
You didn’t actually achieve the objective that initiated the grocery store trip.
This is an activity without achieving the intended result.
This transformational team was full of such mishaps: activities without results.
The major miss was the functional leader’s failure to write a charter. Had he done so, he would have assigned a leader, define objectives, established a timeframe.
He could have assigned a leader and tasked them with writing a charter.
The group failed to transform the project in a meaningful way. The project team was simply burdened with additional tasking which drove the cost up.
To give an idea of the scale of this, I hired or retitled 12 employees to support this transformation.
The project continued to limp over the finish line over the next 3 years, 2 years late.
Recall our definition of a team:
We gain alignment by documenting the Objectives. The objectives are the basis for the group’s “interdependence”.
We create stability by defining a team’s membership and the team roles. This includes defining the team leader.
He failed to get the group aligned on a “shared goal” that is the basis of the group’s “interdependence”.
By not documenting the membership of the team, he failed to create a “stable group”.
Here’s what should have happened.
🧠The Framework: The Project Charter
I gave you a delegation framework in last week’s newsletter:
- Describe the vision
- Provide resources
- Definition of done
Because of the long term duration of a Project, it makes sense to delegate this in a more formal way. A Project Charter defines everything the Project Manager will need to be successful.
Here are the components of a Project Charter:
- Name of the project
- The project sponsor (delegator)
- The name of the project manager (delegatee)
- The benefits to the organization
- Objectives
- Time frame
- Resource (human and non-human)
- Project manager’s authority
- Signatures of the sponsor and project manager
Keep it simple! Just answer these elements as concisely as possible.
The signatures ensure alignment. Both the Sponsor and Project Manager have read and agree on the project as defined by document.
This can usually fit on a single PowerPoint slide.
📚Counterexample: The Major Project with a Charter
I ran a major project defining the Post-COVID business campus for a 1,600 employee 1,000,000 Square Footage facility.
It took 6 months and required approval of a corporate president who runs a $4B business. The project was a complete success. The recommendations will be implemented over several years.
That major project was delegated to me in a 4 page Word document. It was written by my VP/GM in 2 hours.
Keep this as simple as possible.
Conclusion
If you are delegating a project, write a charter.
If you are being delegated a project without a charter, write it and get your boss to sign it.
This will ensure everyone is aligned on the project requirements from the start.