Saturday, June 15, 2013

Why Organizations and Teams Undertake Projects

Why Organizations and Teams Undertake Projects


People embrace change when the value to be gained makes the pain worth
risking. Thus a project is formed. The assumption is that if a project is
formed, the value of the results will be achieved, and the pain everyone goes
through will be worth the effort. Implicit in project management is the concept
of commitment to change and the delivery of results. It is not always a
good assumption that the people on the project team favor the change or
even support it. They receive it as “duties as assigned” in their job description.
The project manager takes on the role of leader and shapes the commitment
and motivation of the individual team members. If the assumptions
made about the project and its ability to deliver are not realistic and achievable,
it is the project manager’s responsibility to validate or change those
assumptions before embarking on the project. Part of the value set of a professional
is not to take on work that is beyond one’s means to deliver. Sales
and management sometimes “sell” a concept because of its appeal, without
a full understanding of the challenges involved in achieving those results.
After all, nothing is impossible to those who do not have to do it.
If you happen to be the individual selected to implement change, it
feels a lot better if the change is desirable and people support the effort. But
having support at the beginning of a project does not guarantee acceptance
later, when the discomfort of change sets in. And popular support seldom
delivers the value of change over time. If change were that easy, someone
already would have done it. People usually support the comfort and familiarity
of the “old way” of doing things before the project came along. In
some cases the project changes things that people rely on, alters their familiar
data, or replaces their old product or service with a new one. Engaging
and managing the risk of human attachments to their familiar methods is
one task of the project management professional. It takes conscious, dedicated
effort on the part of the project’s sponsors, project managers, and
project teams to deliver change that meets expectations. Increasing the
chances of a successful outcome is one element that gets the team working
together on project management activities, methods, and practices.
Delivering on the project’s commitment to results that have value in a challenging
modern context is what gets people inside and outside the project
to work together toward success.

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