more than one task can be done at the same time. Two or more people can be
working on two or three different tasks independently of each other.
A Typical Multi-Task Job
For example, let us imagine that you are going to be renting and moving to a
new building. The limiting factor or constraint is the decision on the space
that you are going to rent, the determination of the exact address and the
signing of the necessary rental or lease documents. Once the location has
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been determined and secured, several other tasks can be done both
sequentially and in parallel.
Some sequential tasks are the determining of the exact requirement for
furniture and fixtures in the new offices, the packing up of the old offices,
the arranging for a moving company to transfer the furniture, and the actual
moving in.
Some parallel activities could be the arranging for new telephones, the
ordering of new stationery, the informing of customers, vendors and
suppliers of the new address, and other activities that can be done
independently of each other.
12. Think on Paper
Create or acquire a simple project management form. Fortunately, because
of the recognized importance of project management, there are numerous
books, workbooks, planning forms and computer-based project management
systems. They can be used for projects as simple as an office birthday party
and as complex as the building of a shopping center or football stadium.
The simplest model is something that you can draw by hand and which you
can carry in your mind as a template for any project that you become
responsible for in the future. Start with a blank sheet of paper. Graph paper
or lined paper is ideal. Down the left hand side of the paper, you list every
single task that has to be accomplished, up to and including the completion
of the project, in the order that the tasks have to be done.
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Across the top of the page, you write the dates of completion for each phase
of the project. The times listed across the top may be in days, weeks, months
or even years. You may have one column for each week, or one column for
each month. If it is a short-term project, you may have a column for each
day, with specific tasks to be completed every 24 hours.
Planning a Party
Imagine that you were going to have a Christmas party at your home. The
most important first step is to book the caterer for the day that you have
planned. Once you have a caterer and a date, you can then proceed through
the project to select the menu, confirm the prices, send out the invitations
and make arrangements for chairs and tables. Confirming the caterer and the
date puts the project into motion.
You make a list down the left-hand column of every step, from determining
the date and the caterer all the way through to the final Christmas party.
Across the top you may put in weeks and months. Under those weeks and
months you create columns. Now you have a picture of the project with the
first step in the project at the upper left hand corner and the final completion
of the project in the lower right hand corner.
This project planning form gives you a simple picture that you can review
and refer to regularly to be sure that each task is completed on schedule.
This simple project form can be used and reviewed by everyone who is
involved in and responsible for any part of organizing the Christmas party.
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The clarity of this project management process dramatically increases the
likelihood that everything will be done on time, with no unexpected delays
or glitches.
Developing and using a chart like this, or any chart that you find in any time
management system, will save you more time, and increase your
effectiveness, more than you can imagine. This chart will show you where
all of the bottlenecks or problems may arise. It will enable you to anticipate
problems in advance, and to take steps to assure that those problems don’t
occur.
13. Delegate Responsibilities and Deadlines
Once you have the project planned, the team assembled and every task
delineated and laid out in the order in which it must be completed, you then
delegate each task with a specific deadline. Build a “fudge factor” into your
schedules and aim for the completion of each task comfortably before the
deadline. The more important the final date, the more important it is that you
build in a cushion of time to assure that the project is completed on time.
Most people aim to finish a project at least 10% of the time before it is due.
If it is a project that takes three weeks, and must be completed by Friday,
two weeks from today, set a goal to have the entire project complete by
Wednesday, or even Tuesday of that week. Expect that there will be last-
minute mistakes, unexpected setbacks and unavoidable delays. This is the
mark of the superior executive.
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It is amazing how many of the great events of history, the great battles in the
wars that determined the fate of empires, the great turning points in human
life, that have failed because a single person did not build in that little bit of
extra time that was necessary to assure that everything worked properly.
Don’t let this happen to you.
14. Practice Crisis Anticipation
One of the most important parts of project management is called “crisis
anticipation.” This is what you do when you study the overall project and
ask, “What can possibly go wrong?” Murphy’s Laws were developed by
people who worked on projects of all kinds. These laws say, “Whatever can
possibly go wrong, will go wrong. And of all the things that can possibly can
go wrong, the one thing that will go wrong will be the worst possible thing,
at the worst possible time, and cause the most amount of money.”
Another of Murphy’s Laws is that, “Everything takes longer than you
expect.” Still another is that “Everything costs more than you budget for.”
The key to crisis anticipation is to think through in advance the different
delays and setbacks that can possibly knock the project off schedule. Where
could you have an obstacle or setback that would threaten the successful
completion of the project?
Once you have determined the worst possible thing that can happen, make
sure that it doesn’t happen. Provide against it in advance.
15. Develop a Plan B
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Develop alternative courses of action. Chancellor Otto Von Bismarck, the
great European statesman, who assembled the many principalities of
Germany into a single state, was famous for his diplomatic skills. No matter
what happened, he always seemed to have a detailed backup plan as an
alternative. This became known as the “Bismarck Plan” or “Plan B.”
You should always have a Plan B as well. You should always imagine that
something unexpected will happen and that you will have to do something
completely different from what you set out to do. The more time that you
take to develop a fully functioning alternative, the greater strength and
resilience you will have, no matter what happens.
Continually Develop Options
In life, you are only as free as your options. You are only as free as your
well-developed alternatives. If you do not have options or alternatives
already developed, you may find yourself trapped into a single course of
action. If something goes wrong with that plan or course of action, you can
be in serious trouble.
Many of the greatest successes in history were made possible because the
person in charge had taken the time to think through what might possibly go
wrong, and then made provisions against it. When it did go wrong, he was
ready with a second plan.
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It is important that you never trust to luck when you plan a project. Hope is
not a strategy. Remember the words of Napoleon, when he was asked if he
believed in luck. He said, “Yes, I believe in luck. I believe in bad luck. And I
believe that I will always have it, so I plan accordingly.”
Four Problems to Avoid
There are four main problems in project management. Each of them can be
avoided by taking the time to think carefully before embarking on a new
project.
1. Not Allowing Enough Time
The first is not allowing enough time to complete a multi-task job. This is
the primary reason why projects fail and people’s careers get sidetracked or
torpedoed. They hope for the best, trust to luck and don’t allow a sufficient
cushion of time to complete every step of the project. As a result, the project
fails.
2. Assuming the Best
The second problem is assuming that everything will work out all right. As
Alex McKenzie said, “Errant assumptions lie at the root of every failure.”
Never assume that everything will work out all right. Assume that you are
going to have problems. Allow yourself sufficient time and resources to
solve those problems and keep the project on schedule.
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3. Rushing at the End
The third problem in project management is when the project team ends up
rushing at the end. When you rush to complete a project, because you have
run out of time or money, you almost invariably make mistakes and do poor
quality work that you have to go back and correct later. It actually takes less
time to finish a project correctly if you work at it slowly and steadily and do
it properly in the first place.
4. Trying to Do Several Things at Once
The fourth problem in project management is trying to do several things at
once, and ending up doing nothing well. You either take on too many
responsibilities yourself, or you assign too many responsibilities to other
people. In either case, various parts of the project fall through the cracks and
sometimes all the effort is lost. Do things one at a time, and do each thing
well before moving to the next task.
Plan Your Projects Visually
One of the most powerful methods for designing and managing a project is
called “Storyboarding.” It was originally developed by the Walt Disney
Corporation to plan cartoons and movies and was eventually used in every
part of the business.
In storyboarding, you create a visual image of the project, mounted on the
wall, so that everyone can see it and comment on it. You begin with a large
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corkboard. You then get boxes of pins or thumbtacks and stacks of 3 x 5 and
5 x 8 index cards. Get several felt pens with different colors. You are then
ready to begin.
Across the top of the board, write the major parts of the project in one or two
words, on 5 x 8 index cards, with the colored felt pens. These are very much
like the titles of the chapters of a book, and are called “headers.” You may
have anywhere from three to 10 different headers as the main parts of the
project.
Under each of the headers, you place 3 x 5 index cards. You list an
individual step in the completion of the task on each of the 3 x 5 cards.
When you are finished, you will have created a visual representation of the
entire project, showing what needs to be done, and in what order. You can
then write the name of the person who is responsible for each of the jobs on
the card listing the job.
With this layout, you can move headers and job descriptions around. You
can change their order and schedule. You can change the person who is
responsible and the deadline.
You can also use storyboarding with a sheet of paper. You can write a series
of larger boxes across the top and then write a series of steps in each of those
tasks in boxes underneath. The more visual you can make the project, the
easier it is for you to see relationships between the various tasks, and to
make whatever changes are necessary to assure that you complete the project
on time.
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Storyboarding Individual Job Descriptions
One way that you can use storyboarding is to pin a series of 5 x 8 cards
across the top of the corkboard and put the names of a team member on that
card. Below each person’s name, on 3 x 5 index cards, you write the specific
tasks that that person will be expected to complete, along with the deadline.
This gives everyone a visual representation of the relationship between
themselves and everyone else, and makes it clear what is to be done, by
whom, and by what time.
You then list each person’s tasks in order of priority, from the first thing
they will be expected to do, to the last thing.
Each time you have a staff meeting, you compare each person’s various
tasks and functions as they are represented on the corkboard. With this
visual picture, you can revise responsibilities, and move the various cards
around. This form of visual representation of a project stimulates creativity
and dramatically increases the clarity of the project to everyone who is
involved in completing it. It increases the likelihood that the project will be
completed successfully, on time and in a quality fashion.
Mailing a Newsletter
Here is an example of a multi-task job that our company completed using
this project management system. In this case, it was a newsletter. We
brought together the team in the company that was going to be responsible
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for the various jobs that had to be done to send out a newsletter successfully.
We then listed all the tasks in sequential order, and the in which they would
have to be completed.
These were the tasks that we concluded had to be done: First, we defined the
desired results, the goal that we had for producing and sending the
newsletter in the first place. What would be the ideal result? We then used
this result as our target or our goal, and everything that we did in the design
of the newsletter was aimed at achieving that result.
Second, we determined the market that we were aiming at and arranged to
acquire mailing lists for those people and businesses. We immediately
realized that arranging for mailing lists was a separate multi-task project so
we set it aside with a separate project management team responsible for it.
