What is a project? What if I told you that the way you think about projects could be limiting your social impact? The traditional approach to projects, with its linear planning and isolated nature, can often lead us down the path of project failure and frustration. But what if we could shift our perspective and embrace a more adaptive, dynamic, and interconnected way of managing projects?
At the heart of every social impact project lies the desire to make a difference. But all too often, we find ourselves shackled to an outdated and limited understanding of what a project truly is. We’re taught that projects are linear, with clearly defined beginnings, middles, and ends, and that we must meticulously plan every step of the way. But this approach can blind us to the intricacies and interconnectedness of the world around us, stifling innovation and undermining our impact.
What is a Project?
“A project is a temporary endeavour undertaken to create a unique project service or result.”
Project Management Institute
How do People Understand What is a Project Differently?
Whilst the definition of what is a project is nuanced, projects are typically assumed to be a straight line (linear) process, arrowing towards your goals. You do x y and z in a fixed time and you will achieve the project goals. We are told it’s all about accuracy to be successful and that the “ the overall vision and work effort must first be fully defined”. There is also a belief that projects also must be separate from everything else. However, this traditional view of projects blinds us in our thinking. Made all the worse by Red-Amber-Green spreadsheets and by the self reinforcing feedback loop of ‘tick-box’ project management software. Leading to project failure and stressed out project managers.
Don’t let these traditional ways of defining a project limit your success. Learn to adapt to the dynamic nature of the real world for greater impact.
Is Project Planning Key to What is a Project?
The traditional view of a what is a project is often seen as a linear process, with a clear unbending journey from the beginning, middle, to end. We are told that the best way to begin a project is to dream up a cunning plan with little boxes of milestones stacked on one another. It is portrayed as a ‘rational’ SMART project planning approach. The only ‘right way’ to do it.
Whilst the SMART approach does have its strengths, it, unfortunately, creates the perfect playground for our cognitive biases. They lure us, unknowingly, deep down the wrong paths and stumbling into the forests of our imagination. These cognitive biases trick us into thinking we are smart or rational. Our planning thinking is plagued by cognitive biases, common tricksters include:
- Confirmation Bias, where people only see information that supports their view. Whilst ignoring conflicting information.
- Availability Heuristics where we get fixated on the first recent solution that comes to mind. As being the ONLY solution.
- The Framing Effect where how we hear or are told a problem biases and colours are thinking.
- Belief Bias. If a conclusion reinforces your existing beliefs, you will rationalise anything that supports it.
- The Planning Fallacy describes our tendency to underestimate the amount of time it will take to complete a task, as well as the costs and risks associated with that task, even if it contradicts our experiences.
“Everyone has a plan until they are punched in the face.”
Mike tyson
Managing What is a Project in the Real World
The other major issue with this approach to what is a project is that it is simply not practical. When you put the great plan into practice all too often we either find the world is unresponsive to our needs. People have other commitments or 10 other things that need changing first. Or we find that all our time is spent fixing things that weren’t broken before we started.
When we view what is a project as being in isolation, we don’t take into account that everything in the real world IS connected. So we are confronted with unforeseen challenges and all too often, we fail to account for the complexities of the real world. Whilst it may be possible able to anticipate these problems in highly-control environments like factories. This can be particularly problematic in social projects, where the goal is to create positive change in communities.
The Plan is Not What is a Project is!
The combination of these two factors is probably core reasons why, in a report by the Standish Group 86% of big projects fail. It was a survey of over 50,000 projects, so that’s a lot of failure. It is important to remember that everyone of these big projects started with an approved, ‘big plan.’ The failure of the plans then can lead them to get stuck in a ‘Impact stress cycle‘ of more big plans and more failure.
The truth is these projects were often doomed to fail at the start by people believing they knew everything. They thought they knew in advance everything about what is a project is. The bigger the project, the more the planning, and the more the assumptions are piled one or another. We do not take into account how in the real world, everything, affects everything else. The more things you impact, the more things that will impact you.
An adaptive approach to project management recognises that the real world is dynamic. It is constantly changing. Therefore, we need to continuously monitor and adjust the project to respond to changes in the environment. By recognising that the future often cannot be predicted. We see the full impact of a change can not be known until you do it. An adaptive approach allows for a more responsive and effective project. What is a project needs to depend on what is happening in the world.
An Example of a Social Project:
Take as an example a social project aimed at reducing the impact of poverty by giving people free meals. If we start small and gradually learn and adapt to use its resources more effectively and reach the people with most need. Gradually learning and growing with each question: What will people eat? Does it need to be warm? What about allergies? Health and safety? Etc etc.
Alternatively, we can spend months planning to open a massive kitchen, to regularly cook a big meal then invite half the town in. It may feed people, but it is also going to end up with a lot of unexpected and expensive problems. And yet that’s the approach to a lot of projects. We love a big bang and a bit of drama and it is great for getting funding and management support. But it is also going to create a big mess and lots of unforeseen consequences.
An Adaptive Approach to Understanding What is a Project.
We already know from the world of design thinking to prototype, test, and then pilot. Yet, we don’t incorporate that into project thinking. We call things pilots without understanding that it is towards the end of the process not the start. Build adaption into what is a project right from the start and to start small and early then learn. We can redefine a project as a guided learning process. Where the plans adapt to the world as it is, rather than creating the perfect master plan and stressing out as you try and get the world to fit to it.
But We Need a Plan For What is a Project is.
Unfortunately, it is all too true thought that in order to get funding or executive support you must have a big plan. Despite the fact that big projects have been shown to have much lower success rates, demand for them has probably increased rather than diminished. Showing the cognitive biases are very prevalent in decision making. None-the-less we must deal with the world as it is, rather than as we would like it to be.
There are two solutions to this
- You create a plan with strong headline stages. But you leave plenty of room for flexibility, adaptation, and innovation, ‘under the bonnet’. So giving people free meals might have a high level plan to feed a lot of people, but will give your selves plenty of time and space in their plans to gradually scale up their offer.
- Only get funding once you are ready to scale an existing project. With a bit of creativity, you can prototype and try out things far more cheaply than producing a high quality finished product. So for the food project, people can start small by often some sandwiches to people. If something goes wrong, it’s pretty easy to change it at this stage. After you have shown the concept works, you are then in a fantastic position to create a bid for funding. You will have far more knowledge and confidence and a community you have built to support you. That community will also be your first advocates who can champion your early successes. (If you want to learn more about creating a successful funding proposal read my guide.)
Of course there are times when a good plan can set you up for success. When and how that is something i plan on discussing in a later post. But all too often project planning is a hammer we use to hit every problematic nail. We need to rethink of projects, less as how we can impose change on the world. Instead we need to think about how we can respond to the world to help it change.
What this Means for Social Impact Projects
Whilst traditional interventions from governments and local authorities focus on big projects with lots of planning. A top down ‘we know best’ approach to what is a project. As I’ve written in my social impact project guide. This is often not a path to success, as the needs of different communities vary and are constantly changing. We need to challenge our planning assumptions and preconceptions. This can be done by co-developing our plans and working directly with the communities we want to benefit. We need to see the front line whenever possible. This will give our projects the ability to better understand and adapt to their needs of communities, for the best chance of success.
If you would like to learn more about creating social impact projects please check the guide on my website. I also offer consultancy to help you and your organisation create a social impact and coaching for social impact. If you would like to learn more please visit my website. Getting access to funds is also often a significant barrier to creating social projects and something many people struggle with so I’ve creating a funding proposal guide. You don’t have to do it alone. I’m here to help.
Conclusion
The traditional view of defining what is a project as planning in a linear, isolated process is often impractical. It does not take into account our interconnected constantly changing world. By adopting an adaptive, relational approach, we can better respond to the complexities of the real world. Enabling us to achieve greater impact in our projects. This approach involves monitoring and adjusting the project, responding to changes in the real world. Don’t try to reply on defining predicting and controlling the future.
Learn to create change that flows: Discover more at edgeofpossible.com
Question:
How do you adapt your projects to keep pace with the real world?