Do you need to take on an impossible project: something nobody thinks can be done? Or maybe a project no one thinks should be done!
Here are eight principles for how to do just that.
This video is safe for viewing in the workplace.
This is learning, so, sit back and enjoy
8 Tips for Delivering an Impossible Project
1. Commitment
- Commit to your project and be prepared to persevere
- Build a plan
- Make a start to win a commitment from others
2. Control
- Invest in creating good control mechanisms:
- Managerial
- Governance
- Think about uncertainties, assumptions, risks, issues, dependencies, constraints
- Create contingency in: scope, budget, schedule, resources, supply chain
- Prioritize active risk management and create a contingency plan.
3. Decision
- Work with stakeholders to build a business case that shows enough value to justify the risks.
- Work with decision-makers to create an accountable decision.
4. Scope
- Be ruthless in casting out of scope anything that is not necessary in your impossible project – it’s hard enough as it is.
- Enforce rigorous change control to prevent scope creep.
- Plan delivery one step at a time, using early steps to:
- Establish credibility
- Generate value
- Learn
- Build capabilities and infrastructure
5. Rate
- Use pilots and prototypes to learn from and make mistakes safely.
- Insert a stage gate process to encourage scrutiny.
- Use the idea of buffer zones in your project plan, so you can over-run on stages of your impossible project
6. Stakeholders
- Work with your stakeholders. Learn from their wisdom and respect their points of view. Engage positively and win their support.
- Always be in control of the messages you put out. But never put out messages that try to control your stakeholders.
7. Team
- Build a winning team of people with strong experience and positive belief. Get them working together and encourage lively debate. An impossible project is not well-served by easy agreements. Let them argue out the details with passion, then come together to implement with commitment.
- Use skilled expertise in work groups with capable team leaders. Spend your time coordinating the different work teams and motivating the group as a whole.
8. Brilliance
- Make your project brilliant. Offer a compelling vision of what you can all achieve, and treat your team like royalty. Celebrate successes frequently, and make time to learn from successes, failures, and outside influences.
- Always be smiling, confident, optimistic, and undaunted by setbacks. Stay focused on the outcome.
- Be collaborative, generous, and supportive of your team and your stakeholders. Give people the opportunity to succeed and shine, and to develop and grow.
- Approach setbacks in a courageous way, and show a passion for your project.
- And, critically, always demonstrate values-led decision-making and 100% integrity.
Recommended Videos to Help with Impossible Projects
Carefully curated video recommendations for you, to help you learn how to:
- Avoid Project Failure | Video
- Learn from Failure | Video
- Avoid Project Failure: 5 Top Tips | Video
- Manage and Lead People without Authority | Video
- Increase the Pace of Your Project | Video
- Manage Multiple Projects | Video
- Cope with Overwhelm | Video
- Keep Cool in a Crisis: Stay calm when your project goes wrong!! | Video
- Project Takeover Formula: How to Take Over a Started Project | Video
- Make Your Project a Happier Place | Video
- Become a Great Project Manager – 3 things you need | Video
Recommended Articles to Help with Impossible Projects
- Project Failure – Why it Happens
- Secret Strategies to Manage Multiple Projects
- Project Turnaround: How to Rescue a Failing Project
- Are You Overwhelmed by Your Project? What to Do
- One Day You’ll Need Our Ultimate Secrets to Project Takeover
What Kit does a Project Manager Need?
I asked Project Managers in a couple of forums what material things you need to have, to do your job as a Project Manager. They responded magnificently. I compiled their answers into a Kit list. I added my own.
Check out the Kit a Project Manager needs
Note that the links are affiliated.
Learn Still More
For more great Project Management videos, please subscribe to the OnlinePMCourses YouTube channel.
If you want basic Management Courses – free training hosted on YouTube, with 2 new management lessons a week, check out our sister channel, Management Courses.
For more of our Project Management videos in themed collections, join our Free Academy of Project Management.
For more of our videos in themed collections, join our Free Academy of Project Management.
