Obesity as a result of too many (too large) projects and the associated abundance of communication.
An essential element of projects is communication. Many projects require a lot of communication. Too many projects leads to too much communication and actually hinders progress. With 1–on–1 communication between two people, there is only one communication, directchannel, With three people, there are three channels; with four people already 6. You can imagine the effect when people work on multiple projects. Doing nothing is not in the nature of people; people are looking for “new“ tasks that put, filling there agenda’s. Whenpeople are not available, planning constraints (free spots) cause project delay, and put even more strain on the communication system.
What are the symptoms?
- Full agenda’s, difficulties in planning.
- Frequently bump into the same people at different meetings every day
- Obstructing projects instead of working together
- Arguing “We have too few people“, Pulling on the same resources
- Projects run late, exceed budget, do not meet expectations.
What are the causes?
- People work on multiple projects at the same time, with little time left and availability to book appointments
- Organizational priorities are hardly there and are insufficiently coördinated
- Activities are not aligned with organizational priorities.
What can you do about it?
- To reduce weight, you need to go on a “project diet”, strategic buckets and sound decision making
- You need to determine the business priorities (what is, what is not)
- Smaller parts (not too much, only what is necessary)
- Reduce in size (agile and sprints) have proven to be more likely to succeed
- Measuring your results, monitoring progress; in the absence of results, adjust (adjust diet)
- Time Management. Slimming down requires discipline.
- And, ask for external help if you experience difficulties in completion.
What is the result?
You will get rid of the projects excessive weight. Your organization becomes fitter and therefore more agile. Flexibility increases and projects are completed. The organization feels proud and committed to the results, rather than accepting a culture of delay. And YES, better organizational fitness has a positive effect on absentism, project cost development and the amount of work that can be done.
What not to do!
Add More people, without a plan, before strategic projectbuckets and decisionmaking . This puts even more strain on the communication system.
Do not take on new tasks (not urgent, not important) to pretend busy, when there is time remaining in your agenda. This reduces your freedom of movement in agenda’s, decreases flexibility.
