People and Process
Over the years, I’ve had the opportunity to help teams with projects that were not thriving and needed additional support. I would often find that the problem was actually what I call a People and Process problem, which means it can be fixed with a People and Process solution.
People
Section titled “People”If a project isn’t succeeding, it could be that you don’t have the right people in the right roles.
Here’s my go-to list of roles that every project needs:
- Single Threaded Owner (STO)
- Quarterback (QB)
- Working Team
- Leadership Team
Taking these one at a time:
- Single Threaded Owner (STO): The STO is the person ultimately responsible for the project, who has the most accountability and as a result the most authority. There are lots of different names I’ve heard people use to describe this role, whether it’s the Directly Responsible Individual (the “DRI”) or (much less acceptably as) the “throat to choke.” Either way, the point is: the buck has to stop with someone, and that should be the STO.
- Quarterback (QB): The QB is the person responsible for daily project management, implementing the processes described below, and overall perfect execution. Unlike an STO (and unlike in football!), every project doesn’t need a QB. But it is best to have one, particularly for complex projects. An STO can lead a project, but they often don’t have the time or sometimes even the skillset to stay on top of the work each day and drive it forward.
- Working Team: This is the team of people doing the hard work each day. In addition to the STO and the QB, the Working Team includes representatives from each underlying function, e.g. people from: Design, Policy, Marketing, Legal and any other relevant role, depending on the project.
- Leadership Team: This is the team of senior people who oversee and give feedback on the work. This group includes leaders from each of the several functions represented on the working team.
Now that you have your key roles identified, ask yourself do you have the right people?
Process
Section titled “Process”Even if you have the right people in the right roles, it won’t make a difference if they’re not working well together.
I always create a mailing list, chat thread and meeting series for both the Working Team and Leadership Team. For example, this could look something like:
Working Team — channels for the Working team to communicate with each other:
- Email List
- Chat Thread
- Meeting Series
Leadership Team — channels for the Working Team to communicate with the Leadership Team:
- Email List
- Chat Thread
- Meeting Series
Now that we’ve established People and Process, it needs to be captured in the Canonical Doc.
Perfect Execution
Section titled “Perfect Execution”Finally, with People and Process in place, teams are more free to focus on execution. I like to aim for what I call: perfect execution. This is when the strategy is fully realized in it’s best form.
Perfect execution is critical because if you don’t execute perfectly on the strategy, you don’t know if the strategy was right or wrong. This results in the worst of all worlds — you failed but haven’t learned anything.
You can break down this dynamic into four quadrants:
- Right Strategy, Perfect Execution (you win, best case scenario)
2. Wrong Strategy, Perfect Execution (you fail, but learn your strategy was wrong)
3. Right Strategy, Imperfect Execution (you fail, but don’t know why)
4. Wrong Strategy, Imperfect Execution (you fail, but don’t know why)
I know not everyone will execute perfectly every time, but we should try 😊. Have you ever experienced one of the scenarios above?