Project Managers, how do you stay focused on long projects? I'm thinking over a year? Any tips for planning over that longevity?
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- Big projects are a long journey. Starting out with the end in mind helps you focus on the big goals. Putting in place the processes to manage the processes keeps you focused on the day to day and week to week activities. I find that clear communication structures help let everyone around know what is happening. Make sure you have clear ownership for issues, actions, risks, and tasks. You are probably aware that any action or task without a name is owned by "project manager". Find the right homes for these items.Should you celebrate success? Absolutely. Difficult at the moment. Holding a Zoom call watching others eat cake is weird.You could try to create a culture of "Early Exit Fridays". Have a weekly team catch up at 3pm and then let the team logoff early. This helps with morale and becomes a ritual that people look forward to.Happy to chat more on this topic if you would like.
- I'm not sure what field you're in but what @Matt Wheal suggests works really well in my studio. The longest project i took on lasted 5 years. i sat the team down and explained that we needed to look at it like a beast that would need taming. You may want the beast but your arms get tired. So planning things out in chunks or project stages means you can clearly identify your deliverables, price them accordingly, and not have to wait for years to tick them off. We used Gantt to structure this and tried to keep a record of everything we did week by week, assignment by assignment. This also meant i had a very clear picture of the tasks at hand each week/month/stage and which members of the studio needed to deliver.
- @Matt Wheal Thanks that is really helpful! The idea of having an umbrella of idea of a high level road map vs more granular ones as you go, complete with updates, especially.Maybe also making to celebrate milestones/wins along the way to keep morale up?
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