Best Practices: Stretch Projects
Departments
Saturday, 01 March 2008
How would you react if someone told you there was a way to increase your organization’s profit by several hundred percent? You would probably say, “Show me the money.” But such a performance improvement is exactly what can happen when company projects are managed well.

Unfortunately, studies have shown that as many as two-thirds of projects underperform, and up to 20% are cancelled altogether. This is a serious problem for businesses because effective project execution is a fundamental way to implement strategy.

Often, projects struggle because the most widely taught and implemented methods for managing projects assume a stable, predictable, controllable work environment—plan the project, then execute the plan. When used on projects in the complex, ambiguous, high velocity workplace, these techniques falter. One can call such demanding projects stretch projects because they stretch the capabilities of team members and the organization.

More and more, the stretch project has become the norm in business, whether it involves accelerated schedules, new technologies, new markets, or use of virtual teams. Stretch projects need an approach that is adaptive and agile, one that harnesses the limitless abilities of people when they are motivated.

The human brain has two different, yet complementary, processing styles, commonly called left-brain and right-brain. The left brain operates with rationality and logic, and it follows known patterns.

Right-brain project management works because it is the right brain that makes sense of a complex and ambiguous environment, creating useful patterns for novel situations. The right brain also processes emotions that are critical to success on a stretch project: when team members feel enthusiastic about a project, they will overcome any obstacle to accomplish the project objectives. Here are the principles of right-brain project management:

Find the compelling purpose. Conventional project management identifies project objectives and deliverables. Although this is necessary, it is also critical to distinguish the compelling purpose for the project. What is it about this project that is so important that people will drop everything to see it through? What would cause others to volunteer their efforts or support to make the project succeed? This principle capitalizes on the ability of people to accomplish whatever is truly important.

Make sense of the project. A project is much more than a group of tasks—it embodies something meaningful. It is important to see the forest and not focus overwhelmingly on the trees. Making sense of the project means understanding and fulfilling the big picture. By remembering that a project is about pleasing the customer and doing something special, we can channel project decisions in the right direction. The ultimate deliverable is the smile.

Experiment and adapt. If the environment is ambiguous, it is folly to expect that a project can be planned in detail and that such a plan can be followed exactly. It is far better to accept the ambiguity and experiment to answer unsolved issues. The greatest financial gains in project management  come from experimentation to weed out poor project ideas. What better way to separate losers from winners than a conscious and thoughtful program of experimentation early in ambiguous projects?

Create the new reality. The stretch project demands that we identify new and useful patterns in domains such as technology, customer behavior, faster execution, and new organizational teams. Success depends on creativity and a culture that values it. Major breakthroughs in all these areas, and others, requires new ways of thinking. By using tools for creative thought, teams can accomplish outstanding results.

Establish and deliver trust. Any project that stretches the capabilities of an organization necessarily tests existing patterns of behavior and the policies of the bureaucracy. Accomplishing phenomenal results requires a high level of trust throughout the organization. With trust, leadership can be distributed appropriately among all team members, enabling them to resolve issues with agility.

Improvise within the project framework. When we think outside the box, we cannot discard the box. Just as a jazz performance is a pleasant mix of variation and structure, stretch projects require a balance between the novel and the familiar. This balance will depend on the need at hand; it is guided by the compelling purpose as well as the overriding project deliverable of the smile.

Leave a legacy. If the left-brain approach focuses on deliverables and fusses over budgets and schedules, the right-brain approach seeks to create a set of lasting, positive emotional images and memories. These form the project legacy. The Sydney Opera House is a striking landmark with an outstanding legacy, the prominent feature in Australian tourist brochures. Yet the project was an abject failure by conventional measures: it was nine years late and 14 times over budget! Although it is important to get the budget and schedule right, it is more important to create a worthwhile legacy. Just as one can place a value on goodwill as a traditional asset of a business, we can emphasize the financial benefits of the goodwill of a project.

Be a hero. The stretch project challenges our character—when faced with our limitations, we may feel inadequate or may doubt our ability to accomplish the improbable. While executing the organizational project, we must also attend to the internal project of stretching as a person and growing in character. This is what it means to be a hero; on the stretch project, we must grow the hero in us all.

Right-brain project management offers a fresh and powerful way to work successfully on the challenging projects demanded of organizations. It is a great way to add life and power to project teams, enabling them to accomplish the phenomenal.

Michael Aucoin is president of Leading Edge Management in College Station, Texas and author of Right-Brain Project Management: A Complementary Approach (Management Concepts, 2007). He can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
 
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