How to avoid Project Handoffs
A few years into my career as a project manager I was asked to accomplish a task that if I followed the standard approach wouldn't work. For some they would have agreed with the tried and true practices and told the requesting plant it isn't a feasible project. Being na?ve, arrogant, over confident,... any one or many of those things I jumped in and spent months on the technical challenges.
I still remember how thrilled I was when the plant manager approved of the overall project plan and it was installed during the end of year shutdown. Watching the system startup and function as designed was amazing. My left arm got so tired of patting myself on the back I had to switch. Still walking on cloud nine I somehow managed to make it into the operations breakroom. It was late and I was the only one there or so I thought. In the corner was a couple sanitation workers animatedly discussing something. As I listened to what they were talking about the air swooshed out of my sails. Many of the functional aspects pertaining to their jobs were now extremely difficult. They were not very happy. Needless to say that area now struggled with staying clean. I had solved a number of problems but created a few as well.
In my eyes I handed them the keys to a new custom hot rod. In their eyes / words I just handed them a steaming pile ...
It is not easy for technical experts to adjust their mode of thinking from 'drive to the optimal solution' to 'provide a number of plausible solutions and let the team select'. There is still another level of patience needed to hold your tongue and let team members improve on said solutions and make them their own. But, in the end, after the project is installed and running a great thing happens. No project handoff is needed because the team took ownership ages ago.
I am grateful for those that helped a young engineer open his eyes to this possibility.
I help entrepreneurs grow personally & professionally. Digital Marketer, Real Estate & Crypto Investor
1 å¹´Dan, thank you for sharing this. I really appreciate what you're doing. If you're interested in connecting, feel free to send me a request.
I agree - sustainability is just as difficult if not more so than other aspects of continuous improvement. Learning the servant leadership approach to projects took a long time. One story of mine always seems to hit home for when it clicked for me. I designed this tool with one of my projects that would accurately get a hood into place. With the tool the process took about 10 minutes. After the operators had this tool and process in their daily routine for a few weeks I got to come back and review the project. I found the tool and it was all banged up. I asked the operator and they told me they found a quicker way to get the hood in place. Only takes about 30 seconds and involves banging the 'special tool' in the right spots. They looked at me with a smile on their faces and said - "how do you like that continuous improvement? You're welcome."