Project Exhumation: Activate Those Project Zombies (Part 1 of 3)

Joe Wynne is a versatile Project Manager experienced in delivering medium-scope projects in large organizations that improve workforce performance and business processes. He has a proven track record of delivering effective, technology-savvy solutions in a variety of industries and a unique combination of strengths in both process management and workforce management.

 

Recent surveys show that there is a significant chunk of the workforce that simply goes through the motions at work: uninspired, non-participatory and non-proactive. They care little about what havoc this is wreaking on your project. Rather than dealing with the motivational issue, companies are spending most of their effort on some technology or other which hopes to solve this problem but does not. Meanwhile, the zombies multiply.

A major cause is that workers are not motivated and activated by their supervisor or other leaders. Workers have just lost the desire to be proactive. They have lost the habit of anticipating problems and avoiding them. It is likely rare that anyone asks them to be involved in improving things. These workers have just been required to perform, lurching from crisis to deadline, while numb from the effects of continuous large organizational changes.

Sounds like such a happy workplace, doesn't it? You do not have to lead the living dead, however. You can work from the beginning to establish the habit of proactive participation: continuous actions to avoid problems, resolve issues and meet deadlines.

Recall that the gantthead PACE process includes a post-planning phase with an often underestimated power: the Activation phase. Your mojo to keep the zombies out of your project is to conduct an activity that …

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