Economic Growth | Vertabase Blog

Jan 6, 2011
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Budget for Innovation & Economic Growth in Your Project Goals

Innovation is critical to economic growth.

To budget for innovation, include the following items a part of your project charter and as part of your project goals.

Increased team flexibility
Increased team cohesion
Increased knowledge sharing

All three of these are important components in having high functioning, high performing teams. High functioning teams, with a high degree of knowledge sharing, are a basis for innovation and for surviving in today’s innovation-driven world.

By including these goals in your project charter, you assure that even if the project gets canceled midstream or fails to meet other goals like the scope, budget or schedule, if it will have met those three goals, the project will not have been a failure.

This is different then picking “innovative” projects as part of your project portfolio selection process.

When you allocate resources to “innovative” projects you are making a determination that you are willing to accept a higher degree of risk on these projects because you anticipate a higher reward from the successful delivery of the project’s goals. However, you are still counting on the successful completion of the project, and if it fails, you would judge the project to be a failure.

I would argue that the probability of failure on “innovative” projects is similar to that of less innovative projects. At least 50% of them will fail.

By adding team cohesion, flexibility and knowledge sharing as goals for the project itself, you create a culture where projects can “fail” according to more traditional metrics (delivery to scope, budget or schedule) but where the expenditure of effort on trying to accomplish the goals is still worthwhile.

This creates a radically different approach to being innovative.

It gives an organization the strength, creativity and organizational skill-set to continually innovate and continually try new things. Your efforts become focused more on value creation rather than on cost control and the illusory management of outcomes.

Dec 1, 2010
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Project Management and Economic Growth Podcast

I was recently interviewed by Cornelius Fichtner’s Project Management Podcast on the topic of how Project Managers are Agents for Economic Growth.

From Cornelius’ blurb:

Mark claims that all project managers are agents for Economic Growth. Really? Cause I’ve managed mostly small and medium sized project throughout my career and I didn’t see myself as an economic growth agent. And most of the companies I’ve worked for also didn’t have the appropriate corporate culture to make me one.

So you can guess that I was a bit skeptical, when Mark first suggested this topic. Let’s hear what he has to say about these arguments and what skills and mindset such a Project Management Agent of Economic Growth needs.

This is a premium podcast but here is the transcript in PDF.

If you have never listened to it, the PM Podcast is an outstanding source for project management information. I highly recommend subscribing to the podcast so you can catch all the great content they produce.

My previous interview on the PM Podcast on Customizing and Contextualizing Your Project Communications is now available to non-subscribers. (The interview starts at around 9 minutes into the program.)

Jul 14, 2010
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A 6 Step Guide for Successful Change

To move your organization forward you have to manage change.

Change can come from outside the organization, like a change in the laws or the economy. It can come from inside the organization, like a quality improvement initiative. Or, it can come from the market. Often, you need to proactively make changes to succeed.

These can include changing the way you do things, changing the products or services you provide or changing how you market those products.

Here is a six step guide to managing change successfully. It connects the dots from the previous two posts (with a philosophical p.s. on the importance of change and good project management).

First, a definition. At its core, change is about going from where you are to where you have to be.

1. Create a work-flow. A good work-flow gives you a picture of your current state. Analyzing the work-flow can help you decide where you want to go. Use data on the effectiveness of the current work-flow as a baseline against which to compare your future work-flow.

2. Create what you want your future work-flow to look like. This is your target work-flow. It should be driven by your goals. That is, figure out what it is you want to improve (customer satisfaction, profitability, job satisfaction, costs, etc.) and build a target work-flow that should deliver those improvements.

If change is being imposed from outside your organization (e.g. because of the economy) your target work-flow is about figuring out how to do what you currently do in a different, but equally effective, way.

3. Build a project plan that maps out how you are going to get from here to there. It should tell you the road you’re going to take, who’s getting you there and how to keep moving forward when you hit road-blocks.

4. Once you get there, once the target work-flow is implemented, measure its effectiveness to see if it meets your goals. Did it improve what you wanted it to?

5. If it didn’t meet your goals, figure out what else has to change and go through the process of creating that change.

6. If it did meet your goals, find another area to improve and do it again.

It has been said that change is inevitable. All things change. Having a process in place to manage change makes it more comfortable and increases your chances of have a successful transition.

On a Philosophical Level:

Economic growth depends on change. If that’s the case, a good project manager, one that can manage change and make positive changes a reality, is an engine for economic growth.