Grassroots Projects Beware!

Do you and your colleague(s) have a great idea to improve a process, making it more efficient or customer-friendly: or both?

And, after speaking with several others who also “work the process” they whole-heartedly agree with you!

First, you are encouraged to look for and improve things when you can. That said, for an idea (as truly great as it may be) to turn into a fully resourced and funded project you will need senior leadership support. Especially if the change involves more than 2-3 organizations.

Otherwise, you’ll find yourself partway down the path and reaching a point where one of the impact areas requires a fair bit of work that wasn’t sanctioned by senior leadership of that organization. Little did we know they already had plans for the use of that person for what they consider a higher priority initiative.

At this point our “grassroots” project either dies or, if we frame it properly, may simple be put in the queue to be addressed at a future date.

To properly frame-up a grassroots project, do exactly what is done for those projects handed down to us from on high. That is, we put together a project charter and overview, obtain buy-in from ALL senior leaders who have a direct (team resources involved) or indirect (is impacted by the outcome of the process) stake in the project.

Only then is it time to kick off and execute the project.

To learn more on Project Initiation: Done Right!, click here!

In closing, if you are looking to improve PM capabilities in yourself, or organization, feel free to reach out so that we may discuss how I can help.

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