Impact. Ownership, humility, objectivity, empathy and support
What gives a project a shot at being successful? Is it agile, waterfall? Is it Salesforce or SAP? Is it fixed price or t&m?
It’s none of the above. You can combine any of those variables and a still have no idea if a project will be successful or not.
There is only one variable that changes a project outcome. The individual. You. Me.
A project is a group of individuals. We’ve all seen the tremendous impact one person can have both good or bad. It’s the engineer that is worth 10 others, it’s the BA that is ridiculously inquisitive leaving no question unanswered. It starts with putting the interest of the project ahead of yourself. It’s the leader that reads the expression of hopelessness on someone’s face and realises they are lost and offers support. It’s the CIO that’s realises they have made a wrong decision and decides to make a big change, potentially costing them their job, to put them in the right direction. It’s the engineer that realizes all their code needs to be rewritten, and works all night to get it done. It’s a power that the offshore tester holds on their first day like a force of potentiality that they choose to use or to let die.
What makes a project successful? It’s when people take complete ownership of their work, they see things as they are, not as they’d like them to be. They accept that theory and practice are different, that no battle plan survives first contact with the enemy. They care for those around them. They ask for help. They offer help. They realise that what’s good for the hive is good for the bee, that their own interests need to be put aside for the good of the project.
What makes this concept even more compelling is that’s where meaning comes from. You’ll feel meaning in your work if you own it, if you make it your art. If you see things as they are.
I can’t stress this enough. How much ownership the most junior person on a project feels about their role, no matter how trivial it may seem, can change the course of a project.
We all hold that power, in fact, maybe that’s the only power we truly hold.
