3-People & Process

In our previous post, we outlined a few of our most recent projects and offered to take a deeper dive into our work. After reviewing comments across a number of platforms, our followers requested more information about the project management tools we built for a large school district and the related results. We will use this post to look at the inner workings of that project.

It is important to note that no matter the project, we believe that success always depends on two key factors: People & Process.

People: Every business is a people business and success often depends on relationships. As we engage with our clients, we work to better understand every stakeholder related to the project. Talking to, listening, and learning from each person allows us to understand what has previously worked and perhaps missteps that may have already occurred. Even more important, we are able to build buy-in by truly listening to the needs and feedback of everyone involved.

Process: We continually engage with and learn from these stakeholders in order to build out the process for each project. Successful processes are always aligned to the end goal and key steps are reverse engineered from the main objective of the project. We couple stakeholder feedback with our insights and experience to build a unique process for each of our clients. This process is then open sourced (shared) with everyone involved to stay closely engaged and invested.

Back the to the project:

Our scope of the project at hand was to create a project management template and three corresponding project management plans to aid in the on-time opening of new magnet programs and three existing schools. Given the multiple stakeholders involved in this project (district officials, school leadership, multiple departments within the school district, etc.) we were intentional in connecting with the people that would be most affected by the creation of these project management tools.

We then leveraged stakeholder feedback to build out the beta version of the project management plans. These early versions were then shared with stakeholders to ensure all input was properly captured. Sharing these versions also created an opportunity to include stakeholder feedback as we worked towards the final plans.

We are happy to report that the final project template and related plans were used to launch the new programs on time and before any students entered the schools. There are multiple aspects to this and other projects but we like to focus on the simple and the effective. Talk to people; listen to people, and work hard to help them. While technology is increasing an integral part of our world, we believe the most successful projects will always center on people and process.

Action

1. If you also believe People & Process are critical elements, please share this post with your networks on social media and tag @schermco.
2. Take 5 minutes to reflect on the current people and processes that you interact with on a daily basis. Pick one thing you could do to improve each of them and make it happen within 24 hours.