Strategic Objectives and Hamsters - part 2

Last week I told a personal story about the loss of Ginny our pandemic pet while explaining a simple and effective technique for identifying strategic objectives - future mindset approach.?There are of course other methods, but this is in my experience the best.?If however, the team is finding the future mindset approach difficult, then my fallback is simply to pick apart the high level performance requirements and ask the question “what about that is important to you?” along each thread until the project team starts to get annoyed with me - the right answer was usually the one just before that happens.

Regardless of the method, four things are critical to success in this process:

1. Get an outsider to facilitate your objective setting process.?It is extremely difficult to do this on your own while remaining unbiased and curious enough to see it through to the end.?And a good facilitator with a toolbox full of elicitation techniques is worth their weight in gold.?My friend and mentor Mike Ross is one of the best. ?
2. Gather the right group of stakeholders.?You need to consider your agents of change (those who will action the project), targets of change (those who will be affected by the project - especially important when including socio-economic benefits), and of course the users.?One question I often get is how many to include in the objective setting workshop.?Between 8 and 12 is the response I give.?Less than 8 and you’re almost certainly missing someone.?More than 12 and it becomes unproductive.
3. Write it down.?I really can’t stress this one enough.?If you don’t write it down, it will be like it never happened.?Poof - gone with the wind; lost to the winds of time.?An outside party can be especially helpful in this regard as they will be free to listen without worrying about contributing.?And the busiest stakeholders will need to move on quickly to the next meeting while an expert facilitator can take the time to sift through the whiteboard and sticky notes to cross-correlate themes and capture meaningful findings. If you can't afford an outside consultant, survey a parallel part of your organization for someone who is naturally inquisitive, can hold a room, and writes eloquently.
4. Get it approved by the highest level authority that provides governance or oversight to your project.?Now, here is the important bit: once your objectives are approved, publish them, memorize them, celebrate them.?Put them on t-shirts and mouse pads for your team.?Make a banner and string it across the project team office.?Add it to your signature block - write a jingle!?Let the objectives permeate your team in a way that you and they simply can not ignore.

The strategic objectives must become for your and your team what we call in the navy a lead mark - that star to steer by.?Because there will be those people and circumstances that will try to blow you off course.?Establishing your objectives gives your team purpose and direction as you design your procurement strategy, contract structure, bases of payment, industry engagement strategy, evaluation criteria, weights, and value for money algorithm (“MEAT” method). ?

The procurement elements on the most complex projects are often designed and implemented by different stakeholders.?Without a clear set of common (and agreed) objectives, these stakeholders will put their own spin on the design. This results in a Frankenstein’s monster of an RFP/ITT that is bound to disappoint everyone.

One final point about strategic objectives - they need to transcend your project documentation and become truly inculcated in the culture of your team and ideally into the culture of the delivering supplier.?

Back to our beloved hamster…?I mentioned last week about our strategic objectives.?And so through our procurement process selected a hamster that was cute, sweet, and not prone to biting, but we also selected a cage that was easy to clean and pet toys that delighted.?Furthermore, Mrs. S and I worked hard to change our family’s culture to include nurturing Ginny and spoke with the children regularly about what her end might look like before it happened.?The procurement process wasn’t enough to guarantee success - it never is.?We had to make every decision/action along the way with our objectives in mind. ?

The point I’m trying to make is that clear objectives will not only help you design the procurement process you need to buy the right material and services, but it will help you act in a way that makes it much more likely that the imagined future state will become reality.