Most of us don’t get the luxury of redefining how our organization builds strategy. We’ve got to work with what we’ve got. So, what should you do if you are the manager of a strategic project? How do you bridge the gap between strategy and execution?
Improving Project Selection
Project initiation decisions live in the space between strategy and project management. To ensure the right strategic initiatives are supported, organizations need to reframe how these decisions are made, be it politics or processes. Here’s an executive-level roadmap with critical questions to begin a reality check.
Evaluating Project Opportunities
What should executives and other decision-makers look for when evaluating a proposed initiative? Three ‘C’s’ — comprehensiveness, confidence and consultation — are helpful guidelines in making project initiation decisions. Here are eight questions that can be used to assess their presence in new opportunities.
Exercising Agency
When it comes to project initiation decisions, does your organization follow a rational, considered process? Most projects are beholden to politics, proceeding as the result of advocacy, persuasion and bargaining. And it is often the committed actions of an individual project “shaper” who wields the greatest influence on any given project’s approval.
Why Sponsors Don’t Want to be Sponsors…and What to Do About It
Absentee sponsors are a significant problem within the project landscape. Finding a good project sponsor has always been hard. Finding any project sponsor, however, often feels like it is becoming almost impossible. What has happened that has led us to this predicament? And just what should we do about it?