Just as there are many ways to manage a project, there are many ways to cook a turkey.
We all have our favorite way to do it: Oven-baked, Bar-B-Cued, Deep fried, or even Outsourced. And we choose the best technique using various success criteria:
– Results
– Taste
– Moisture content
– Effort
– Expense
– Convenience
– Novelty
– Familiarity
All these factors impact what you end up doing: the techniques you choose to use. And as with turkeys, the results are never exactly the same.
So what success criteria do you use when deciding how to manage your projects? Here are a few guidelines to help you choose:
- Watch your budget. There are a lot of over-priced birds on the market that are just a bunch of hype, and they taste just as good as the more reasonably priced brands.
- Beware of the latest new fangled fads. Adding the latest new project management software or a fuzzy touch-feely technique may be cool, but will include a learning curve, elements of trial and error, and worse yet could go up in flames like some deep fried turkey techniques I’ve heard about.
- Don’t knock yourself out with unnecessary meetings or paperwork. You’ll need the extra time to entertain guests, supervise the side dishes (sub-projects), and sip a little wine along the way.
- Keep customer satisfaction front-and-center. In the end, your guests won’t care about the format of the Gantt chart, so long as the meat is moist and tender.
In summary, your key ingredient to successful project management is the ability to choose consciously and wisely the criteria and techniques you use.
What’s your choice?
(1) Baked in the oven (traditional and proven)
(2) Deep fired (high-risk, rave reviews)
(3) Bar-B-Cued (high maintenance, good R&R)
(4) Smoked (exceeds expectations)
(5) Outsourced (maximum convenience)
(6) Other…
Happy Turkey Day!
Doug Bedinger / Consulting for Results / (925) 947-5726
“Helping project teams work better together”
