Project Liftoff

  Agile   Communications Management   Stakeholder Management   ProjectsAtWork  

“The sum of the whole is greater than its parts.” — Anonymous, from Gestalt psychology

For ages, humankind has watched birds soaring and wanted to fly. We stayed earthbound until we learned about the effects of gravity and how to overcome them. Now we defy gravity with a launch or liftoff. We generate sufficient energy at the start of flight to give us the momentum to overcome gravitational pull and boost ourselves skyward.

When projects start, a liftoff generates the momentum teams need to overcome the inertia presented by lack of common purpose, unclear communication channels, undefined working relationships, and other areas of ambiguity. A liftoff also provides the positive force that moves a project toward its destination — successful delivery.

Every project has many parts: a visionary with a Big Idea; people who are directly and indirectly involved in achieving the result; a particular physical space and psychological climate; process tools and techniques; and more. The first time all of these parts come together sets the tone and lays the foundation for everything to come later in the project.

How you start a project is not the whole answer for a successful end. However, we’ve never experienced a project begun in disarray that was able to end well, at least, not without a reset to clarify the core intention and essential …

Please log in or sign up below to read the rest of the article.