More Projects Delivered with Less Stress – Part 2: The Practicalities

Prefer to watch rather than read?   Click here, five minutes, with captions.

Last time I went through the principles which simply let you deliver more projects with less stress.

Yes, totally true.  Read it here.

The super-short summary is that by lining them up and focusing on finishing instead of starting, you get benefits earlier which lowers stress and interruption, while also reducing switching cost.  It’s one of the key aspects of the method I call The Project Factory.™  

Here’s a picture of the principle:

I finished by saying: “I know what you’re thinking – ‘great, but that’s not how the real world works’. 

I know – I live in it too.  Which is why there’s a Part II to this article coming soon…”

Which is what you’re reading right now.

More Projects Delivered with Less Stress? It’s True! (Pt 1)

Prefer to watch rather than read? Click here, five minutes, with captions.

There’s so many projects on, it’s overwhelming.  Yet, when we look at the total work and the total salary budget…we should be able to get it all done!  We get the seemingly absurd situation of not being able to spend that very capital or project funding we worked so hard to get!

What’s going on here?  Luckily…it’s something quite natural…and quite simple.  And it’s also one of the key aspects of the method I call The Project Factory ™

Goes like this:

Line ‘em Up!

We’ve got three projects, Blue, Red and Green.  All equal value.  All due the same time.  All break down into four parts, each part takes one month.  This isn’t a trick, they’re all equal.

How to make your organisation more adaptable WITH your hierarchy.

(Would you prefer to watch me explain this on video?  Just click here!)

This time we’re going into “fluid, flexible, task-based structures”.  Very fancy sounding words.

First, a quote.  This is from a KPMG report on the things that will change from COVID that was titled with great importance: “Our New Reality: Predictions after COVID-19”.

Remote work will break traditional management structures

As we shift from managing inputs to managing by outcomes, current organisational hierarchies won’t make sense. A shift to flatter and more fluid task-based structures will follow and require new management skills and changes to performance measurement and reward programs. Company culture will also need to be re-examined.

Hierarchies “won’t make sense”.  Come on!