I want to know what you will do about it. I do not want to know what you hope for. I want to know what you will work for. I do not want your sympathy for the needs of humanity. I want your muscle. As the wagon driver said when they came to a long, hard hill, ‘Them that’s going on with us, get out and push. Them that ain’t, get out of the way.’
Robert Fulghum, author of All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten
Traditional management practices focus on managing systems and responses, increasing efficiency, and creating more profit in the short term — what we call ‘left of the line’ activities.
Management in the 21st century requires much more than this. The new rules of management demand a relentless focus on implementation (creation and execution of projects). In other words, the actions that live to the right of the line. I believe implementing projects that matter is the most important thing we do personally, in our teams and in our organisations.
Wherever we look — and we will be looking in lots of places — we find that implementing important projects and doing work that matters is the key to productivity, fulfilment, engagement, innovation and success.
There is no magic bullet that managers can call on to grow profits, drive creativity, increase performance, lift engagement — or even give us world peace. But if there were, it would be implementing projects that matter.
So that we are on the same page, a project is very ...
