Strategic Project Management Made Simple, 2nd Edition

3Speaking a Common Language

And the nicest thing about not planning is that failure comes as a complete surprise rather than being preceded by a period of worry and depression.

—Anonymous

Collaborative project design involves developing a shared Vision of the future state with a clear plan to get there. While this may seem elementary, many project teams that thought they were all aligned towards common goals find out later, when breakdowns occur, it was not the case. In this chapter, we will provide language structures and templates to create that shared Vision by constructing strategy maps.

This chapter introduces a simple vocabulary grounded in meaningful design principles.

We will look at how the popular practice of “SMART” Goals and Objectives can be improved. We also introduce a master list of verbs to get your project design humming. Then we discuss the concept of “chunking” to artfully divide a project into manageable parts. You will see how every project can be designed using just four levels or types of linked Objectives.

Communicate with Clarity

If you have ever been to a country where you did not speak the local language, and they did not speak yours, you know the problem. Repeating yourself did not help. You spoke louder and they still did not understand. Despite a mutual desire to communicate, you just could not. As a result, you may have ended up with the wrong directions, hotel room, or … worse!

Project teams, especially newly formed and cross-functional ...