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PROJECT SUCCESS AND FAILURE POST-MORTEM

Institute a systematic project success and failure post-mortem after every project. The post-mortem is a critical component of a project life cycle. The review should stimulate discussion around six recommended questions:

  1. What was the project’s objective, and what did we set out to do?
  2. What actually happened during the project?
  3. Why did the project go the way it did?
  4. What are the top three things we would do again in the same situation?
  5. What are the top three things that did not work in the project that we would not do again?
  6. What lessons can we take from this experience to the next project?

 

‘Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts.’
– Albert Einstein

 

FAIL FAST AND LEARN

Failure is derived from a Latin word that can be interpreted as ‘to stumble’ or ‘to trip.’ An essential capacity for individuals and companies to develop is the ability to learn from failures.

For many of us, COVID forced us to look at different ways to provide our services, manufacture our products, connect with our clients, conduct business remotely and operate under challenging restrictions.

We had to experiment and do things differently, some options worked, and some failed. Inevitably failures are a consequence of doing something new, and critical lessons can provide a complete picture of the costs and benefits related to assets, liabilities and the bottom line.

COSTS

  • What were the labor, material, and production costs?
  • What were the internal costs to the failure, the effect on morale or any fallout?
  • What were the external costs reputationally with our customers or on the market?

CUSTOMERS

  • What assumptions did we make around our customer’s needs?
  • What assumptions need to be updated?

TEAM

  • How effective were we working together?
  • What processes, structures or cultural items need our attention?
  • What skills do we need to focus on improving or gaining?

TRENDS

  • What did we learn about trends that directly affect our business?
  • What forecasts need adjusting?

BOTTOM LINE

What were the critical business insights learned?

WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNT OVER THE FIRST SIX MONTHS OF 2022 regarding your:

  • Business culture
  • Current organizational direction and strategies
  • Customers dynamics
  • Future trends
  • Processes, and
  • The changing market

 

‘ All organizations are perfectly designed to get the results they are now getting. If we want different results, we must change the way we do things.’
– Tom Northup

 

BUSINESS BOOK OF THE MONTH

CEO Excellence

 

 

 

CEO Excellence: The Six Mindsets That Distinguish the Best Leaders from the Rest
By Carolyn Dewar, Scott Keller, and Vikram Malhotra
Senior partners at McKinsey & Company

 

 

 

 

If you want monthly leadership and professional development tips, sign up for my JRC newsletter or check out my social media on Instagram for top leadership advice throughout the year. For any questions regarding conducting a project success and failure post-mortem, please feel free to reach out. Connect with me. 

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YOUR FOCUS IN QUARTER 3

As we enter Quarter 3 of 2022, it is time to reflect on how far you have gotten on your goals over the last six months, what has worked well, what has not, and what you will keep, start and stop doing. Make the next quarter matter. Continuous execution of small daily changes leads to tremendous results.

NARROW YOUR FOCUS IN Q3

As a business consultant, strategist, and executive coach, I work with successful companies and leaders who share a common practice of conducting quarterly reviews and previews.

By starting each quarter with an initial review, you are taking the time to set a benchmark and do a post-mortem on the past three months’ activity and results.

Analyze wins, identify ongoing challenges, and reflect on lessons learned. Evaluate what you will continue to focus on, what you will stop doing and new initiatives and priorities that need to be implemented.

After the review, you then move on to a preview of what is upcoming in the following 90-day period and identify priorities. These 90-day/quarter priorities ensure alignment and provide a transparent and clear focus.

 

‘You will either look back in life and say I wish I had, or I’m glad I did.’
– Zig Ziglar

 

QUARTERLY REVIEW PROCESS

  1. REVIEW your cash flow and identify your top five activities that provide you profit.
  2. ANALYSE your Key Performance Indicator (KPI) results, shortfalls and gaps. This activity will assist in the identification of areas that require your attention. Your KPIs drive your triple-bottom-line results and can often simply be viewed in terms of profit margin per:
    a.   employee
    b.   customer or client, and
    c.   production or delivery.
  3. IDENTIFY your core areas that can be improved upon to increase operational efficiencies. Quarterly process optimization goals are an excellent way to look at this with your team. Creating core processes saves time and provides standard operating procedures, combined with checklists that can reduce errors and increase efficiencies.
  4. REVIEW your long-term strategic initiatives and identify at least one that you can focus on in Q3 that aligns with your vision, will bring value to your team and stakeholders, and will add value to your customers and clients.

WHAT IS ONE THING YOU CAN DELEGATE THIS QUARTER?

Have you recently thought/said,

‘I don’t have enough time,’
‘There is too much to do,’
‘I never have enough time to focus on what is essential?’

If so, it’s time to evaluate how you spend your time and on what.

STEP 1.   List at least 20 things you do in your job or on a day-to-day basis, the more detail you have in your list, the better.

STEP 2.   Draw up a quadrant and in each box, write the topics you see on the image below.

Jenny Reilly Consulting | How To Delegate

STEP 3.   Of all the items you listed in Step 1, please put each one into the most relevant quadrant. Tally how many you have in each quadrant.

STEP 4.   Your objective should be to have most items in the top left quadrant. Everyone is more effective and productive when they work to their strengths and are engaged. If your quadrants are bottom-heavy, work towards making some changes and, when possible, delegate a minimum of one task per quarter to others where they may be a better fit.

 

‘The difference between successful people and really successful people is that really successful people say no to almost everything.’
– Warren Buffett

 

QUARTERLY THINKING

ONE:   What do you want to accomplish by the end of Q3?

TWO:   How will you unwind, unplug and recharge to ensure you bring the best version of yourself to the job weekly?

THREE:   Identify three core professional areas of strength and three core areas of weakness. In Q3, aim to work more in your areas of strengths and do some professional development work in at least one area of challenge to help you improve in the job.

FOUR:   Identify at least five areas you can say ‘no’ to this quarter. One of my TEC members, Joseph Fry, Founding Principle of Hapa Collaborative, operates under a ‘hell yes’ or ‘hell no’ system when defining where he will spend his time. I love his energy and focus on working in areas that matter to the business.

 

If you have any questions about your quarter 3 review and planning or want to learn more about the powerful benefits of executive coaching to elevate your professional success, please reach out to +1 604-616-1967 or jenny@jennyreilly.com and book a complimentary 30-minute strategy session. If you want monthly leadership and professional development tips, sign up for my JRC newsletter or check out my social media on Instagram for top leadership advice throughout the year.

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PERSONAL VISION

So many people go through life without a personal vision. If you are one of those individuals (don’t worry, I was too), it is not too late. The following questions will help you think about what your personal vision could look like. Your personal vision should guide you in all other aspects of your life.

  • If you could project ten years from today, where will you be, what will you be doing and who will you be with?
  • If you attain your vision, what would you be doing differently than you are today?
  • Will you commit to taking the actions needed to reach your vision?
  • What obstacles or challenges do you feel you may have to overcome to attain your vision?
  • What support do you need, and from whom to get started, stay motivated and keep accountable?
  • Have you shared your vision with anyone?
  • Share it, review it regularly and commit to moving it forward by continuous execution of ACTION.

 

‘Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?’
– Mary Oliver

 

FIVE EASY STEPS TO YOUR PERSONAL VISION

  1. Develop a PERSONAL VISION – what do you want to do, where do you want to go and how do you
    want to feel? See it, feel it, imagine it.
  2. Set GOALS that will help you achieve your vision. Goals will help you identify actions required for execution. Prioritize your goals and define what you need to focus on per quarter moving forward. List the goals that you will work on through to completion next quarter.
  3. For each goal, PLAN the keystone actions required for every week of the quarter (12 weeks) to produce the results you are looking to achieve. When possible, list action items that can be completed within one week. These will drive your weekly and daily plans.
  4. Commit to working on the WEEKLY ACTIONS. Don’t lose traction. Even when you don’t feel like working on one of the actions, remain true to your commitments. Continuous execution of actions will ensure you retain momentum.
  5. Every Monday, spend 15-30 minutes conducting a WEEKLY REVIEW (what you focused on the week prior) and weekly preview (what you will focus on this week). Your weekly plan will help you map out the actions required in your schedule. Do not skip this step! This will help you MEASURE your weekly success and identify areas that need your attention and improvement.

 

WHAT DOES A GREAT WEEK LOOK LIKE FOR YOU?

Our days are often taken up by items we have not planned or scheduled. To allow time in your schedule to work on priorities, I suggest you allocate three periods in your weekly schedule to increase your efficiency and enable greater focus on tasks required for goal attainment.

WEEKLY THREE-HOUR STRATEGIC BLOCK

This three-hour period is scheduled, not interruptible and prioritized in your weekly plan. During this time, turn your notifications off. Don’t answer the phone during this period, and if in an office, close your door. This time will require 100% of your focus and should never be bumped. It will help you dig deep into strategic activities and get things done.

TWO DAILY 30-MINUTE BUFFER BLOCKS

Schedule one 30-minute period in the morning and the other in the afternoon. Use this time to make/answer phone calls, return voice mail, answer/send emails, and deal with low-value activities.

WEEKLY THREE-HOUR FREE BLOCK

Use this time to get away from your computer and perform face-to-face activities. Lunch or coffee with colleagues/clients/stakeholders. This time helps you focus on priority relationships that require your full attention.

 

‘Unless commitment is made, there are only promise and hopes; but no plans.’
– Peter Drucker

 

WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?

‘Once I have a holiday, I will have more energy.’
‘When we hire additional resources, we will be more organized.’
‘When the economy picks up, things will be better.’
‘Things will settle down after our busy period, and we will have more time to work on process improvements.’

Stop waiting for things to change. Make the change. You have control of one thing – your actions.

Take responsibility for the actions you take.

Commit to focusing on your actions to make your vision a reality, be self-accountable, and consistently execute on what needs to be done.

No more excuses, demonstrate your commitment – let’s get going.

BE IN THE MOMENT

Technology is excellent. However, how often do we get so distracted by it and forget to be in the moment? Alerts pinging, social notices, text messages… all take you away from being in the present. It is almost as though the fear of missing out outweighs social interaction conventions, whether in a professional or social setting. Being continually on is exhausting, stressful, and often a factor of burnout.

How much will you miss if you don’t look at your phone when you are in a meeting or when talking to one of your colleagues, clients, or stakeholders?

I encourage you this week to SLOW DOWN, be present and focus on one thing at a time. You will be surprised by how much you get done and how better you feel.

ACTION COMMITMENTS

Choose one thing that would make a significant difference if you did it daily in your professional or personal life.

Got it? Now commit to doing it daily for one quarter. The simple act of consistently executing on a critical action item that will help you be better in your job or personal life will benefit you fivefold.

 

‘There’s no such thing as work-life balance. There are work-life choices, and you make them, and they have consequences.’
– Jack Welch

 

If you have any questions about personal visions, or want to learn more on the powerful benefits of executive coaching to elevate your professional success, please reach out to +1 604-616-1967 or jenny@jennyreilly.com and book a complimentary 30-minute strategy session. If you want monthly leadership and professional development tips, sign up for my JRC newsletter or check out my social media on Instagram for top leadership advice throughout the year.

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KEY AREAS OF RESPONSIBILITY IN LEADERSHIP

Leadership is complex and challenging. You need to set the direction, communicate your vision, and be on top of strategy execution.

Focus on a positive workplace/team culture, align and mobilize talent to ensure they are working to their strengths and effective in their roles.

You are connecting purposefully internally and externally with a timely cadence. And…all the while personally managing your effectiveness and energy levels.

How a person performs in a leadership role matters. This is an obvious statement, but one we need to ponder as the top 20% of leaders could contribute more than 2.8% of the average leader.

Working on soft leadership skills is hard – ironic, isn’t it!

If you rate yourself on how you are performing as a leader on a scale of 1-5 (1-being abysmal to 5-knocking it out of the park)

  • How are you performing?
  • Why do you give yourself this rating, and in what areas can you improve?

No matter the industry sector nor size of the business or team, a leader’s key areas of responsibility include these steps:

1. SETTING THE DIRECTION

Looking back to look forward or conducting a review to do a preview of what’s coming is an essential leadership tactic.

Think of a Venn diagram, with the overlapping circles intersecting in the middle, that central area of overlap is the core focus. In the instance of setting direction, consider what is needed (your customer/client needs), what is your superpower (what you are good at), what drives you (what you are passionate about) and the big business kicker $ (how you can make money).

Be bold when setting your vision, direction, strategies, and resource allocation. Think beyond what is needed and focus on what is required in the future.

QUESTION: Why should we exist five years from now?

2. ALIGNING STRATEGIC PRIORITIES WITH BUSINESS GOALS

When taking on any new priority, ensure first it aligns with your overall business goals. This will ensure that you stay on track and focused for the long game. Don’t forget to set performance milestones, these will motivate and keep you accountable. Eliminate activities that do not contribute to core areas of focus.

QUESTION: What strategic priorities are you working on that ARE NOT aligned with your business goals? Why?

3. LEADING TO AN INDIVIDUALS PSYCHOLOGY

Everyone has a different psychology. What they need from a leader and how they receive it can be unique. A good leader makes the time to understand how to best lead each person in their team and get the psychology and mechanics right to help the individual be the best they can be in their position. A leader applauds an individual’s wins, supports them in situations, and provides professional development to help them be more effective in their role.

QUESTION: Do you know how you can best lead each team member?

4. EXECUTING CONSISTENTLY ON THE RIGHT THING

I love this quote:

‘There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.’
~ Peter Drucker

A reminder to constantly be assessing what the right thing is to be focused on and consistent in the execution of action to get it done. Remember the 80/20 rule or Pareto Principle (80% of our outcomes come from 20% of our causes), prioritize high-impact tasks, resulting in greater productivity and results. Look at your entire task list, prioritize based on the impact level each task would have if complete on your work/business goals, focus first on those top 20% of items on your list as they will result in 80% of the impact that you can generate for the day.

QUESTION: What are the top 20% of tasks I need to focus on today?

5. FOCUSING ON CULTURE AND ENGAGEMENT

One of the most challenging things about leading a business team is not the work that needs to be done but… working with the people, navigating personalities and reframing a business culture to be more positive. Motivating and inspiring someone to improve their mindset, work ethic, or ability to work with others takes time and needs to be very intentional.

From a work culture and employee engagement perspective, I encourage you to start by working on one thing. It could be your: hiring process, onboarding, annual performance reviews, processes to address bottlenecks and points of frustration, engagement survey, revised job descriptions or the incorporation of team building activities to look forward to.

There are so many items that you can focus on, pick the lowest hanging fruit that will help you improve culture and engagement and go for it!

QUESTION: How can you inspire your team to do their best work?

6. CONNECTING WITH STAKEHOLDERS

To ensure strong relationships with your stakeholders, you need to start with a foundation of trust.

When was the last time you asked your stakeholders for feedback on any process or improvement recommendations?

Engage and share the goals you are working on, help your stakeholders understand your opportunities and challenges, harvest new ideas, and stay focused on a forward-looking agenda.

QUESTION: What stakeholders should you connect with this week?

7. MANAGING PERSONAL EFFECTIVENESS

As a busy professional, one of the most important things to focus on is your time. Take back your calendar, be conscious of every item scheduled one week out and determine if you need to be present in every meeting. Be intentional about what you want to achieve daily, weekly, quarterly and annually.

QUESTION: Can you articulate your professional areas of strength and work style? What changes do you need to make to be more consistent and effective in your role?

 

‘You have to reinvent yourself. The world changes. You have to change.’
~ Roberto Setubal, Chairperson, Itau Unibanco

If you have any questions about leadership and leader’s key responsibilities, or want to learn more on the powerful benefits of executive coaching to elevate your leadership success, please reach out to +1 604-616-1967 or jenny@jennyreilly.com and book a complimentary 30-minute strategy session. If you want monthly leadership tips, sign up for my JRC newsletter or check out my social media on Instagram for top leadership advice throughout the year.

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STRATEGIC FOCUS AND PLANNING

For our businesses to continue to thrive, we must constantly evolve and adapt to changing needs of the market and our clients. Transformation only happens when we focus on it, and at the beginning of every quarter, it is time to take stock of our areas of focus and determine if we need to change or pivot our direction. Be strategic. Consider the impact of technology, talent, and operational changes to help you continue to grow and remain competitive.

Q1 REVIEW

Strategic focus sustains and builds on an organization’s high performance and effectiveness. Set aside time to conduct a Q1 review:

Step 1: List your three biggest wins and accomplishments from Q1.
Step 2: How far did you get on your Q1 goals?
Step 3: In Q1, list what worked and what didn’t that you can learn from.
Step 4: Define what you will keep doing, improve upon, stop doing and start doing due to this review.
Step 4: List your goals for Q2 and who will be accountable for the results by when.

STRATEGIC FOCUS TIMING

Remember it takes time to define your focus, implement and execute the action.

    • 20% planning
    • 40% implementation and change installation effort
    • 40% sustaining high-performance effort on the direction and plan over the long term

NO STRATEGIC PLAN?

If you don’t have a strategic plan, it is time to work on one. There are three core phases to follow:

Phase One – Assess and Organize

    • Environmental scan and organization assessment

Phase two – Strategic Design and Plan

    • Define company positioning
    • Articulate customer focus
    • Clarify competitive strategies and critical success factors

Phase three – Operational Design

    • Plan priorities
    • Strategic budgets
    • Performance management systems
    • HR management strategies

COMPONENTS OF A WRITTEN STRATEGIC PLAN

There are core components of a strategic plan. The points below can be used as a checklist for you in the design of your plan:

    • Introduction – opening defining your ‘why.’ Include your company vision, mission and values
    • Current State Assessment (SWOT: Strengths – to build on, Weaknesses – to eliminate, opportunities and threats))
    • Environmental Scan
    • Marketplace (segments and characteristics) Analysis: key customers, main products and services, the value of segment, market share percentage, industry competitors, the life cycle of product or service
    • Organizational Goals
    • Key Success Factors (KSF) and Action Plan (Areas of concentration, actions to develop target measures and baseline data, who is responsible and due date)
    • Core Strategies and Actions for Each Strategy
    • Major Change Summary (summary of significant changes desired over the life of the strategic plan) and Change Management Structure
    • Priority Actions (key must-do actions in addition to the day-to-day operations and other stats that you can complete in addition)and Implementation Game Plan
    • Annual Plan Format – break this down into a yearly roadmap

TIPS FOR SUCCESSFUL STRATEGIC PLANNING

    1. Have the process facilitated
    2. Take an organization-wide approach and integrate all level planning
    3. Define quantifiable measures of success
    4. Include short and long-term forecasting
    5. Use transparent and straightforward terminology and language
    6. Clarify and benchmark against the competition
    7. Define strategic business units
    8. Make informed budget decisions
    9. Make tough decisions when necessary
    10. Be open to pivoting from the initial direction
    11. Implement an effective process to roll out new initiatives
    12. Empower and support staff to take action on strategic initiatives

Acknowledge that the process does not end once a document is produced. It needs to be executed on, implemented, evaluated and measured. Your strategic plan has to be a living document, one that is continually reviewed.

HOW WELL ARE YOU DOING?

On a scale of 1-5 rank (1 being the lowest and 5 the highest), your organization on the following:

    1. A culture of excellence
    2. Accountability of resource
    3. Effective and efficient business processes
    4. Collaboration and teamwork
    5. Communicated long term vision and direction
    6. Constructive problem solving
    7. Continuous process improvements
    8. Data based decisions
    9. Employee empowerment
    10. Equality of opportunities
    11. Facilities and equipment
    12. High staff productivity and performance
    13. Innovation and creativity
    14. Job design and descriptions
    15. Marketplace competitiveness
    16. Performance appraisals
    17. Profitability consciousness
    18. Quality production of products/delivery of services
    19. Resilience level to adaption to change
    20. Resources (monetary and other)
    21. Reward systems
    22. Staffing levels
    23. Team development
    24. Technology
    25. Visionary leadership

STEP ONE: Highlight any score below three
STEP TWO: Brainstorm action that could be implemented on low scoring areas to raise your rank
STEP THREE: Attain buy-in on identified actions, implement and execute

 

Plans are of little importance, but planning is essential.

~ Winston Churchill

 

If you would like more information on strategic planning, and you need someone to keep you accountable through this process, I can be contacted at +1-604-616-1967 or jenny@jennyreilly.com. If you want monthly leadership tips, sign up for my JRC newsletter or check out my social media on Instagram for top leadership advice throughout the year.

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