Strategic Roadmap: Initiatives & Projects

May 15, 2019

When looking at initiatives and projects it's very important to understand what is in scope and out of scope of the project. It's also important for organization to define its purpose in the results that they are looking to achieve. It is also important to identify all the resources that are needed to make this initiative successful.

Transcript

Matt Kerzner: It's very important when you think of projects and the initiatives you're trying to accomplish, is to look at the current state and the future desired state that you're looking to get to. One of the first things you want to look at what is the purpose of the project and initiative that you're trying to accomplish. What are the results that you're looking for? What are all the deliverables that's going to get you to the future state? Once you have a list of all the desirable outcomes that you want, it's very important to be able to measure those for success. You should also think about what is in scope and out of scope of this project. Once you do this, it's going to be important to identify the resources in order for you to do this project. Who are your key sponsors? These are normally the executives that get behind this initiative. Then you should look at all your different stakeholders. These are your internal and external customers that are going to be impacted by this project.

Then, you need to think about the project team that
will be working on this. It's very important when you're looking at projects
and initiatives, that you look at both the assumptions of all the things that are going to make this successful, and weigh all the risks if you're going to move forward. One of the most critical pieces of this whole process is how you're going to communicate. It's very important to put a solid communication plan together. When you think about the communication plan, you want to think who's responsible for delivering what message what audience is going to get the message? And when is this message going to be delivered? You need to think about all the different ways you can deliver your message to make sure that all the audiences understand the project and initiative.

About Matthew Kerzner

Matthew Kerzner is a Director in the Center for Individual and Organizational Performance and the Center for Family Business Excellence. Matt has more than 25 years of experience in organizational development with a specialization in assisting family businesses and closely held businesses.

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