As we continue with our drive conversation, I thought it would be helpful to discuss some guiding principles to use on this journey. The first set of principles I’d like to review are the methods that I personally deploy when driving projects. I hope you will find some or all of them useful in your own work.
Not to be repetitive, but let’s begin with a reminder of the definition of “drive” I have been using in this series so we stay aligned. I defined it as “a planned effort to cause something to progress.” I also talked about the words plan, effort and progress because of their impact on drive. Finally, will – the directional energy or force behind drive – when combined with the plan to hit the targets, will provide the best way to achieve your goal. In the end, it takes effort to drive projects and scoping the work to hit targets and goals. There’s no way to get around the work it takes to achieve goals!
To make it clearer, let’s break down what seems like a daunting task into two areas: organization and guiding principles.
Our definition of drive features the word “plan.” I talked about plan in the first blog, Drive, as a way for you to think about how you are going to get something done. What are the steps necessary to achieve the goal? But a plan also has another important function – it organizes!
Planning causes you to think about the goal, outlining the steps executing a plan will take, understanding all the tasks at hand, determining what materials will be needed, identifying any obstacles that may appear, contemplating any countermeasures that may need to be deployed, understanding the team’s strengths and weaknesses as they relate to accomplishing the tasks (in other words, do we have the right set of skills on the team for the tasks at hand?) and identifying the engineering or planning required to be successful. If you don’t take time to think through each of these components, then your plan will be superficial and incomplete. Like I said earlier, you have to do the work, and thinking is a critical part of the work!
I really want to emphasize how essential thinking about these parts of a project is to organizing your work. I cannot overstate this – thinking through a project or your goals is critically important and often does not get enough attention. Visualizing what you want to accomplish helps you see the path to the goal in front of you. You cannot fly by the seat of your pants in a manufacturing environment like ours and be successful! We are a complex organization and make one of the world’s most complex objects. Getting things right takes a lot of thought up front but pays off in having a well-thought-out plan that is realistic, actionable and – most important – achievable.
Let’s shift the conversation from thinking and organizing to looking at some guiding principles that you could deploy to help you drive toward and achieve a goal. Principles that have helped me are:
- Manage the details.
- Remove roadblocks.
- Overcommunicate.
- Stay focused on the goal.
- Challenge the status quo.
- Be decisive.
- Hold yourself accountable and meet your commitments.
This list is not meant to be an exhaustive list of the steps that you could take to hit a target. Instead, it’s a guide to help you supplement the way you work today. If you are not doing some of the items above, then include them in your toolbox to become more successful in hitting the targets that you are assigned.
I’ll dive into each of these areas in the coming weeks.
See you on the deckplates!
Safely Execute High-Quality Work