Setting out on a quest to improve how your business works is admirable. Getting the results, that’s the real goal.
In this short article I’m going to share with you three skills that can make a massive impact on getting those sought after results.
One – Define the end of a project properly
The first skill is being able to lay out what needs to be achieved. Too many improvement projects start off half baked and not thought through. We don’t advocate spending all your time planning and never taking action, quite the opposite. A fast planning process that is accurate, precise and specific is what you need.
The question ‘when will it be done?’ is a good one to ask.
What do you need to see, feel and hear to know that your improvement project is done? What results do you need? What tasks will have to have been completed? This should give a you a good idea of what needs to occur during the project’s life.
It is likely that your improvement project will result in some new processes, how will these be embedded? What needs to be embedded? These questions add context to your improvement planning.
What about results? What tangible outcomes do you need to experience to say that this improvement is done?
To help our users with the above points, we have built in a PID (Project Initiation Document) format into our projects module. This guides the user to specify what they want so that the outcome is never a surprise. Plan precisely for what you want, get what you ask for. This is our simple mantra!
Two – Track progress
Once you have a plan that will work, monitoring where you are up to is key.
Regular team catch ups is a simple and effective method to handle this. PDCA Complete has both a standard agenda function within the project module and a separate meetings function.
All of your teams’ tasks flow to their My Tasks page. This is a one stop shop for all of their tasks across all of their projects, meetings, workflows and audits. There is no excuse for them to not work on their tasks between catchups.
The project list inside PDCA Complete works as a great way to have a helicopter view of all of your live projects. No more forgetting that you wanted to do something. Capture the projects’ name as a minimum, or use our bucket module if you don’t have the capacity to handle another project at that moment in time.
Never lose track of your improvement opportunities and journey again.
Three – Sign it off when it’s done
Having clear project ownership is needed to make everyone’s lives easier. Our PID covers that one off.
Managing the project’s status is another. Only the project owner can define when the project comes off the list. In PDCA Complete we have another key function that can help you manage this final sign off.
Approver tasks are built in as an option to every task within our system. This means that the person assigned the task can’t tick off a task unless the approver agrees. This is optional but a great tool to reserve for a handful of key tasks during a project.
The final sign off of the project’s status is down to the project owner but a handful of key stakeholder sign offs can be built into the project’s task list if you want that extra level of confirmation and buy in.
Also, when a task is completed in PDCA Complete it doesn’t disappear. The completed tasks sit at the bottom of the main task list so that you can review them at any time (I did ask you to do that, didn’t I?….).
Use the combination
So, using the three steps above we have:
- Plan the right results
- Know what is actually happening
- Ensure that a project is only signed off when it is done
Putting these together will put you in a better position than most people running improvement projects.
Free account
As I hope you can see, using PDCA Complete naturally helps you to get better results from your improvement projects.
You can get started today as we offer a free account. It is free for up to three users and is a great way to start realizing benefits from your improvement projects.
If you need to expand your team inside PDCA Complete, you can do this at anytime with a paid account.
Enjoy getting the most from your improvement projects.
