PM Tip #10 : Don't Re-Invent The Wheel
Matthew Evans
Health Care Project Manager. Champion of Health Technology and Primary Care Access
Welcome to #10 on my top 10 list of tips I've learned during my career in Project Management.?In my experience, the best tips you can get are learned through doing - not through books.?Take it from someone who's been there.?(That's the next best thing)?Stay tuned as I count down my Top 10.
?"Don't try to re-invent the wheel.?Just learn from the guys who have already done it well…" - George Foreman
We've seen it time and time again even within organizations.?Someone new comes in with a great idea.?It's been done before.?It didn't work before.?It starts again under a new name.?It's a bit like Bill Murray in the movie "Groundhog Day"?Same inputs = same outputs.?As a wise Project Manager who has been in the industry longer than I once advised me,?"Lessons identified are not always lessons learned."?
As the Project Manager, we're almost never the deciders but we are the influencers however we have a responsibility to vet project scopes for strength and to provide sound advice to our project sponsors.?Here are a few lessons I have learned about how to avoid re-making the mistakes of others:
Research, Research, Research
When "new" ideas come to the table, be willing to look outside the silo of your organization to look at what other organizations and jurisdictions are doing.?Has a project like this been done before??What worked and what didn't??How can you apply those lessons to your project to bring value for your project sponsor?
Project Managers are typically not the "doers" on a project so there's a misconception among some that subject matter expertise is something to be delegated, a trap which I fallen into in my early career as well.?These days, I try to learn as much as possible from others and from my own research on the subject matter of the project I'm managing.?There are limits to what we can learn about some topics without professional expertise, however there multiple avenues to gain more confidence with the material:
People who already experts: Network and ask questions of people who already know about the topic
Don't get me wrong.?Leveraging expert stakeholders is far more efficient than trying to do everything yourself, but it does help to speak their language.
Imitation is the Sincerest Form of Flattery
There's a complex that some senior leaders end up having where they always have to have the "big new idea" to drive things forward.?It may stem from a culture that rewards innovative ideas with larger performance bonuses.?It can have the effect, however, of wasted effort.?
When the Wright Brothers invented the airplane, the air travel industry largely emerged from innovations based on their original design.??In fact, the Wright brothers built on the work that others like George Cayley (1799), Jean-Marie Le Bris (1856) and Otto Lilienhal (1891) did before them.?New companies do not go back to the drawing board and try to invent the airplane over again without looking at what we done before.?That would be a massive waste of time and effort.
Finding what worked in past is not a weakness, nor (except in some specific cases) is it plagiarism.?It's a smart use of time and resources.
Providing Real Value to Your Organization
Ego tells us that coming up with the "big idea" is how to advance our careers.?In my experience what matters most, however is results.?Look at the following statements, for example, and ask yourself which a recruiter would rather see on a resume.
OR
It's not about the big idea.?It's about the end result.?Be smart with resources, leverage the experience of others and achieve outstanding results.
Until next time!