The Right Way to Finish a Project
Bonnie Low-Kramen
Award-winning trainer of C-Suite Assistants | TEDx Speaker | 2023/24 Top 100 Global HR Influencer | Bestselling Author | 32K+ followers | Movie lover | 1st job selling kid's shoes | [email protected]
Note from Bonnie: I call these meetings a "post-mortem."
From Harvard Business Review | February 6, 2015
The final stage in the life cycle of a project is the phase out, during which your team completes its work. If all went as planned, it’s time to celebrate. But if you (more likely) hit some rough spots along the way – say, the project ran past deadline or exceeded the budget – it’s still important to recognize the team’s efforts and accomplishments. Before the team moves on to other projects, debrief and document the process together so that lessons learned can be shared. Conduct a post-project evaluation – one last meeting to identify what went well and what went wrong. Make a list of best practices to help future projects go more smoothly. Discuss how to improve the process and avoid problems during the next project. Since people can lose perspective after working so closely together, consider bringing in an outside facilitator to objectively assess the information.
Adapted from “Managing Projects (20-Minute Manager Series).”
Business Owner at Choose The Right Nanny, LLC
9 年Thanks Bonnie!
Construction Mgmt/Design, Chef, Property and Grounds Mgmt. and Maintenance, Educator, and Horticulture
9 年Bonnie, Quick and to the point, but so very important. Final project analysis is so easy to put in that to do list when managing multiple projects in various stages of completion. Individual and team accomplishments definitely need recognition for their hard work and contributions. Specific strategies, vendors, materials that played a key role in the success of the project need documented and shared with all the teams. Obstacles that delayed projects and the solutions to ovecome them are key growth areas to foresee in future projects and set forth a strategy learned. Beyond individual projects, similar projects need evaluated as a group and compared to other groups. Trends can be revealed that are associated with market trends, availability of materials, and reflection of your teams strengths and weaknesses. Solutions may indicate to concentrate on bidding projects targeting team strengths or improving the teams skills to manage these projects or hire/subcontract personnel to fulfill the skill set. Stay on top of the industry trends and have a plan to keep your team on top. Kirk Foyle