If so, then you may need to revisit how you set goals
and plan for their accomplishment. From my years of working
in a number of organizations and on a variety of projects,
I have condensed the lessons I have learned into a simple
five step process. I call this process the Five Cs approach.
This approach does not use any rocket science, just the
basics needed for getting things done in your organization.
By using the Five Cs process steps you will improve the
chances of achieving your and your organization's objectives.
The Five Cs approach can be used for activities as basic
as organizing your team's leave calendar to the more complex
planning and rollout of your organization's annual fundraiser.
The approach consists of these five basic steps:
Create >> Commit >> Communicate >> Carry
Out >> Check >>
The steps in the process are essentially sequential, meaning
that you will need mostly to complete an earlier step before
proceeding to the next. Shortcutting steps in the process
will only increase the amount of rework that you will need
to do later on. As the well-known saying goes, “The
longest distance between two points is the shortcut”.
The arrows after the final step emphasize that the process
is also cyclic. This allows for continual review of your
plan. There will be factors outside of your and your team's
control or that could not reasonably have been foreseen.
The Five Cs approach gives you the flexibility you need
to make the necessary adjustments. I have summarized here
the most important activities in each phase.
Create
The first step is to create a plan. Write down your or
your organization's goals and in a way that achievement
can be measured objectively. A popular method of writing
goals that I recommend is to make them SMART goals: Specific,
Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time framed. Also
work out what resources you need in terms of money, equipment
and labor. Then draw up a schedule showing who will do
what by when.
As you create the plan, it is vital that you involve all
of your key stakeholders. Stakeholders are people who have
an interest in the implementation and outcome of your project
plan. Getting the buy in of the major stakeholders will
be critical to your plan's success. A disenfranchised stakeholder
may sabotage your plan when you are well into carrying
it out.
Commit
As you are working with your stakeholders in the Create
phase, identify who needs to approve your plan. You may
need formal approval and sign-off before your organization
commits the required resources. Whether you need to go
through a formal approval process or not, the objective
of this phase is to win the hearts and minds of all of
the key stakeholders. Your stakeholders may include project
sponsors, employees, customers and suppliers.
To get this genuine commitment, meet face-to-face with
stakeholders to explain the plan and the purpose behind
it. Use methods that allow free two-way communication to
facilitate genuine understanding, trust and a real agreement
on objectives.
Communicate
Send your plan out to other stakeholders, including everyone
who is expected to play a part in implementing the plan.
Use a variety of media, including email, notice boards,
company intranet and newsgroups. Make sure that you include
methods that give plenty of opportunity for people to
ask questions and for you to get immediate feedback.
These include face-to-face meetings, tele- and web-conferences.
If some of the people expected to play a part in your
plan are located in another part of your organization,
then get those people's managers to brief their people.
This reinforces the message that the plan is considered
important by the organization and not just you. This tactic
also helps to raise the commitment level of all managers
involved in the implementation. The objective here is to
have everyone involved reading from the same page.
Carry Out
If you conducted the previous three steps conscientiously,
this implementation phase will be off to a good start.
If you rushed through one or more of the previous phases,
trouble will show up sooner or later. You will find yourself
missing deadlines, overspending your budget or delivering
poor service or product quality.
As you carry out your plan, record what was done and what
is yet to be done, resources used and the products or services
delivered. Doing this now will ensure an easier time in
the next phase. Record also any issues affecting the implementation
of the plan as they arise.
Check
This step involves comparing your actual progress against
your plan at regular intervals. Hence the importance
of you recording activities, expenditure and products
and services delivered during implementation. The idea
is that checking as you go will help you expose problems
and potential problems as they arise. Identifying them
and resolving them early will save you much time, energy
and disappointment down the track.
You can make your progress checks with your team and your
key stakeholders at major points along the way, such as
at the conclusion of each large piece of work. Or you can
check in at regular intervals, such as weekly or monthly.
This is also a good time to identify and resolve issues
that have not as yet come to the surface. Keep in mind
that problems ignored never go away.
You can handle stumbling blocks in either of two ways.
One option is to create a corrective action plan to get
the project back on track. You may need to call in extra
resources, reassign tasks, and so on. Alternatively, if
minor tweaking will not be enough to salvage your current
plan, you will need to revise and agree a new plan.
Whichever way you tackle issues that surface, the Five
Cs cycle begins again. Your corrective action plan will
become a new mini-project that you will create, gain commitment
on, communicate, carry out and check on progress. Where
you have revised the existing plan, you will progress through
the next iteration of the Five Cs of the project cycle.
Right at the end of your project, conduct a final check.
Your objective for this post-implementation review is to
learn what worked well and what did not work well so that
you and your team can use these learnings in your next
project. Gather your team and your other key stakeholders
together and get each to listen openly and honestly to
the others' feedback. Avoid laying blame. The goal here
is to build relationships and to look to the future.
The Five Cs approach is an excellent tool for guiding
the review discussion. For each of the five steps, ask
your team and stakeholders how efficiently and effectively
each was performed. Get them to look at the hard measures,
such as resources used and time to complete, as well as
the soft measures, such as degree of co-operation and clarity
of roles and responsibilities. Have one of your team record
the results. If your project was a success, don't forget
to reward yourself and your team for a job well done. Next
time you start to embark on a new project, don't forget
the Five Cs approach to achieving your goals.
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