Make Better Project Connections


Sometimes we talk about Projects as if they are objects that live on their own. Projects never see a start or a completion without people working on them. Every Project ends up with at least one Customer (someone who receives or experiences the result of the project) and an Executor (at least one person who carries out the steps needed to deliver the project). Most of us, however, never work on such “simple” Projects.


Most of us work on Projects that have more than one Customer – often a group of diverse, complicated people who are expecting to experience the benefit of the Project work. Most of us work on Projects with a team of folks doing the Project work with the same issues – they are varied and complex and temperamental and all the rest. To deliver the Project successfully, everyone on the project team needs to be focused on connecting in a way that leads to the desired project results.

To connect, we have to be able to communicate. We have to be able to ask, answer, listen, observe, notice, respond, anticipate, understand, consider, and debate. Some people avoid this part of Project work. They’d rather build or code or make or write or do. You’ve probably heard that saying that “Work would be fun if it wasn’t for the other people involved.” 

But, connecting deliberately is a non-negotiable part of Project execution.

How are you doing at connecting? At doing your part to see that you and others working on the Project are asking, answering, listening, observing, noticing, responding, anticipating, understanding, considering and debating for the good of the Project?