To be truly successful in projects, you have to master "AND"

I’ve shared my thoughts on how I view success in projects a lot. It’s something that I’m passionate about. I’ve talked about the need to deliver outcomes, not outputs. I’ve talked about a successful project is one that delivers on the vision, not on the tasks.

But one thing I haven’t shared is the importance of AND.

This isn’t a post where I throw away everything I’ve talked about and suddenly change my mind about what success is. Success is all the things that I’ve said. Success is delivering the visions, delivering the outcomes… AND doing it the right way.

The catalytic converter

In your car’s exhaust system, there is a device called a catalytic converter. This device is amazing. This device transforms toxic pollutants like carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, and nitrogen oxides into less harmful substances like carbon dioxide, water vapor, and nitrogen gas. Still not a mix you’d like to breathe in purposefully - but it is better.

It uses a chemical process called catalysis, where a substance speeds up a chemical reaction without being consumed itself.

In order to convert the toxic pollutants, a chemical process needs to take place. That chemical process uses some chemicals in the process. In this case, precious metals like platinum, palladium, and rhodium. But during the process, those precious metals are used but not consumed. Which means they can continue to be used. And continue to be used. And continue to be used.

This is the AND you need to perfect to run a successful project.

In a project, people are your catalysis

Your project is a temporary endeavour. You are borrowing people from around the organisation to play a part in your project. When your project finishes, those people are intended to be used in other roles in the company.

You are expected to use people to deliver your project, but not to “use up” those people.

How you get your project done matters. If you deliver your outcomes, but all the people are “spent”, that is not success. If you master the vision, but half the team resign and the other half are burnt out, that is not success.

How you deliver matters.

In fact, it matters so much, you should be measuring this along with all the other things you’re measuring on your project. You’re probably measuring task progress. You should be measuring outcome progress (although few know how to do this). You should also be measuring the energy, commitment and enjoyment of the people on the project. This should stand proud, front and center in your status reports, in your governance packs. Because this matters.

I almost never see a people metric in a governance pack. That is a fail.

In the best projects, you’re a catalytic converter plus

In the most successful projects you should go even further and be a catalytic converter plus. During the project, you should be adding to the people that are working on the project. You should be adding skills, adding experiences, adding knowledge. In the ideal project, you deliver the vision, you deliver the outcomes and you return back to the organisation a cohort of people that are even more capable than when they joined the project. That’s true success.

Time to put the people metric into your project reporting?