PMcrunch

On your project teams over time, there surely have been “pivotal performances”.  Just like in a basketball game, there was something that the winning team did throughout the game that proved to be pivotal to the outcome of that game.  There are things that each team member, and the team as a whole, does throughout a project that are pivotal to the project’s success.  The question is, how do you find those things, and how do you get your project team to produce pivotal performances routinely.

Discovering the Pivot Points
The pivot points on a project will relate to a number of things.  We need to look at the overall plan – the schedule, the risks, the deliverables, and any other document.   Usually we will find that there are certain activities that will be crucial to complete the project on time, at the required quality level, and within budget.  It may seem obvious what areas are most important to project performance.  Those areas probably require the most talent, the most skills, and the most effort available.

The pivot points are just a little different.   It may be, for example, that having a person, or persons on your project that have very well developed database development, and management skills, is very important.  In fact, that may be the most critical skill for success on the project.  However, let’s say you’ve actually got that one covered.  Let’s assume that you’ve done the basics and that risk areas are covered, key skill areas are covered, you have the right number of people, and things seem to be on the right track on the project.  In that case, you might ask what the pivot points are.  You might look a lot deeper at some of the little things, which might make a big difference,  where a little bit of effort could be leveraged to produce a big change in results. 

Here is a list of some things to look at:

1. Are people on the team getting the most out of the project?  What are their goals and their aspirations, and what do they personally have to gain from the projects?
2. Who are the stakeholders?  Can you pick one, two, or three things, which might absolutely delight the stakeholders, perhaps unexpectedly, about the project if you would only implement it/them?
3. With jobs and roles set on your project, can you ask each individual what activity they think they could do on a regular basis that would make the most difference on the project, or at least on their piece of the project?

Gathering the Pivot Points
If you go through the simple exercise above, you will usually find at least a couple of nuggets of gold in them.  Get the project team together and get everyone focused on his or her pivot points.  Consider measuring the results of placing some emphasis and effort at those pivot points.  This might also be something that the individuals on the project do for themselves, and perhaps share with each other.  Having some pivot point meetings to share successes, and perhaps occasionally even some shortcomings, can be a real lift to the team and can provide a pivotal performance.

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John Reiling, PMP
Project Management Training Online
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