How we maintain momentum. That can be difficult because now we're,
we're looping and we're iterating and we may try something that doesn't work.
We try something else that doesn't work, we try something else doesn't work, we
try something else doesn't work. And in that, sense of, sort of, many many
set backs, or many set backs, maintaining momentum can be hard.
People can have a sense of hey, we're not going anywhere because keep hitting these
set backs, we keep hitting these set backs.
Maybe we should go all the way back to the very beginning and choose a new
concept and that could be really difficult.
So, maintaining that momentum is important for people, and then also, who
can pull the emergency brake. And so here what I mean is that if there
really is a project is, is, you know, needs to be, is going to stop there and
needs to be stopped there, who can do that.
Who is in a position to say, hey, wait a minute, this direction we're going really
is not a good direction, we need to sort of back up.
And restart or back up and try and go down a different path as well.
So these are really important things people are going to be carrying with them
and we need to answer them. This fifth phase, and by no means is this
the last, and these things can happen out of order.
And they can, I'm getting the idea of what needs to happen in each of these
phases. And so here in the implementation, we're
interested in our project sponsor and champion.
Who is the sponsor of this project? Who is the champion of this project?
Who is going to help us sort, push through, through the hard hard difficult,
expensive you know, hard work of implementation.
And we need someone outside the team or someone who's very powerful in the
organization to help us push through. What resources are required?
Do we have access to those resources? And the people on the team go out and
find the things that need to be done in order to basically push implementation
along. How do we stop scope creep?
So, scope creep is this problem where we are pretty close to done, and they say,
why don't you add another feature? Why don't you just add this too?
Oh it will only take a few more weeks if you put this thing is as well.
So this kind of scope creep where the project gets bigger and bigger and bigger
is problematic. Especially when the scope creep has been
driven by outsiders. First, and so how do we stop that?
One thing we start, way we stop that is at the very beginning I said, how do we
know we succeeded, is to go back to that. And say okay.
This is what we, this is what we're trying to do.
This is what we, how we know we're done. We had the question of is the project
still valued and valuable in the organization.
So you may have been working on this thing but something in the landscape has
changed to make this project no longer valuable.
or maybe something has changed inside the organization, where this thing may not be
as valued as it has been in the past. And then these very two last important
questions. First of all, how do we know when we're
done? How do you know when to stop?
How do you know that you've gone that far?
And sort of the corollary is, how do we know we've succeeded?
How do we know that we've actually succeeded in doing the project that we
set out to do? And solving the problem in a way that's
meaningful ? And so again here the succeeded part is
ties back in with scope creep that is that if we sell, this is how we're going
to succeed, we're going to raise sales by 2.3%.
So when you get to 2.3% you're done and if someone says well why don't we give a
2.5%. We'll say last version too, we just said
this time we're going to do 2.3% and so let us get that done before we start to
do other things. Because then the team knows what the goal
is, they know ow to measure their behavior.
They know how to measure their effort, they know how to manage their emotions,
they know how to manage knowledge. May be they have to work late at night
and they have to tell people and their peoples like how close are you, how are
we doing in this project. Now these are very important things to
understand, that people need answers to as they go along with you in a project.
So, managing innovation, we talked about , sort of, planning, coordinating, and
developing strategies. There's this is a planning part, but
there are also we talked about the leading part.
Which is the emotion, the motivating, the mission work.
So hopefully you've seen through those project phases that I just stepped
through the difference in the need to do both of those things.
Both to inform people but also to make feel people informed.
So it's not only the information but also the emotion what you're doing as well.
And if you can do them both together that's where, that's where success comes
from, that's what you really want. So as you go through these, this
information that would be provided, and so people are going to ask these
questions. They're going to have these questions
anyway. And if you don't answer the questions,
they're going to be standing around the water cooler.
You know, gossiping and rumoring, and there's an information void.
And they're going to fill it because people need to feel like they are in
control. People need to feel like they understand
what's going on. And if you don't give them the
information to do that. They're going to make it up.
Or other people are going to make it up. And they're not going to make it up in
ways that necessarily positive or constructive or that move the project
forward. And so really is up to you, they actually
stepped in and say, okay. Here's the kind of questions you should
be having, and here are the answers to those questions, that you need to have.
Next I want to talk about the innovative organization.
So let's take these things and say, okay, I know how to do my project.
I now understand certain things about, the kind of constraints of what my target
is. How I set my organization up to be
routinely innovative.
David A. Owens, PhD, PEProfessor
Jim RosenbergIndependent Consultant and Senior Advisor at NAS
