The Kayak Builder's Guide to Project Planning

*This is part of a series of blogs which weave a narrative retelling of a kayak adventure and links that experience to a specific leadership/ organizational principle.

It took me 350+ hours, innumerable cuts, and a budget estimate that still makes me laugh, but I finished my Kayak and named it Cedar Courage. Eight years later I named my business Cedar Courage Consulting in honour of that transformative project to celebrate the power of taking a conversation, turning it into a vision, building a plan, and executing. From building a Kayak, to building a network, workflow, or new program, the same planning principles apply: Developing a plan and schedule; Defining scope; Managing costs, resources, and risks; Creating a communications and a partnership strategy, and committing!
 
In conversation with leaders, I keep hearing about how daunting the project planning stage can be for their teams. Often, they misdiagnose this paralysis by analysis as a technical or competency barrier, a perceived lack of project management expertise, change or risk aversion, etc. However, more often than not, the issues are more rooted in team dynamics, leadership communication, and organizational culture. Project planning is supercharged when:

• Teams feel empowered to act while in a psychologically safe environment where everyone knows each others’ strengths and areas for growth.
  
  

• Leaders communicate expectations AND their adaptability as new information is discovered.
  
  

• Organizations reward Action iteration-biased approaches (a turn of phrase I stole from Amy Edmondson), while offering the safety of control risk limits and adequate resources and oversight to ensure the project team can be confident about risk levels.

Some key lessons I’ve learned about project planning process groups:

1. Developing a Project Plan

The project plan is critical but cannot be sacred. A plan is a map into the unknown created together, obstacles are expected, regardless of how long or detailed the planning process. If you put too much pressure on perfecting the clarifying or developing stage of the project plan, you will never begin to execute, or worse you will give up at the first unexpected obstacle. Alternatively, if you don’t put enough effort in, you may not get the buy-in of team members or project partners.  The key to a project plan is to do enough consultation that a clear purpose is co-identified with an agreed-upon approach, but that everyone accepts the plan as a living document and one that will be adapted as needed to deliver on the vision along the journey ahead.

2. Defining Scope

Scope creep can kill the best projects. It is the equivalent of deciding halfway through that your kayak should be a canoe. Scope should be constantly measured against your clear purpose. If there is consensus that the added scope will measurably improve the project goal, it may be worth considering. However, if newly proposed scope does not come with additional resources it risks derailing the project and should be put on hold. Scope creep is deadly, but there are many times it may worthwhile. If the project team and sponsor are all in agreement, it may be incorporated, but listen closely to dissenting voices, especially those closest to the work, because scope creep has ruined many great projects in the past.

3. Developing Schedule

Developing a detailed schedule, with milestones and deadlines is a key accountability measure to keep the project on track. With complex projects it may be impossible to measure success against outcomes that may not appear until a decade+ into the future. However, the schedule is a way to measure success against project activity itself, ensuring we are all found working towards our shared goal. Again, like the plan, a schedule should be agile enough to adapt to a changing environment, so long as your clear purpose remains in target.

4. Cost Management

Cedar Courage went 200% over budget. While a bitter pill to swallow it was my own money so I wasn’t accountable to anyone except my own credit score. In publicly funded sectors, especially if we are talking about hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars, that over expenditure is not an option. Cost management is an essential activity with much less flexibility than in previous steps. It is critical to have a governance structure that includes more than just a single person, and all expenditures must be measured clearly against your goals and objectives to ensure appropriate accountability, especially when using the public purse. Detailed breakdowns and adequate oversight are key to cost management.

5. Determining Resources

From human resources to technological ones, ask yourself at the beginning of the project what you will need to achieve success. One of the easiest ways to miss a milestone is to be ready for a new stage only to realize you lack the requisite resources. Always be one or two steps ahead to ensure you have the resources you need and be quick to ask for help from team members, partners, or even funders!!! While you may not want to admit to your funder you had a setback, don’t forget they want you to succeed just as much as you do! If they have a connection or resource you need to complete a critical task, it is foolish not to use them for the resource that they are.

6. Risk Management

Not everything will go as planned. It’s worth saying again: Not everything will go as planned. Preparation is key to ensuring that unexpected challenges don't capsize the project. Risk management is about anticipating challenges and having a plan to navigate them. Sometimes these are quantifiable risks where we can apply upper and lower control limits which if breached means we must pause activity. Sometimes these are subjective risks (such as reputational) where we turn to our project sponsor, CEO, or even Board of Directors for guidance on their acceptable risk variance. While we can do our best to prepare for risk, it’s critical to the success of the project that the team knows what level of risk the organization is willing to take on and not be punished for working within that threshold.

7. Communication Strategy

A clear communication strategy is critical for any project big or small, but this step is often misunderstood. Many project managers see their communications strategy as an external facing activity, but projects need to be communicated internally too, especially if there is a change management component involved. This strategy should include sharing updates, celebrating milestones, and addressing challenges, but also include inviting the community and/or organizational partners into a two-way conversation. Effective communication creates a feedback loop that makes your project stronger and creates the foundation for sustainability after project closing.  

8. Partnerships

The only way to do hard things is: Together. I’m not sure my kayak would float had it not been for the other more experienced woodworkers in the shop providing their input, and my humility in accepting and incorporating their comments. Especially when working in healthcare or social impact spaces, partnerships are maybe the most important step. Leading with humility and authenticity during this stage will allow you to truly hear and incorporate partner feedback, remember as a project leader your job is to be of service to your co-created clear purpose – not your own personal success. One can beget the other but not the other way around. Project impact is exponentially achieved when you: Convene the right partners; Co-create clear purpose; Cultivate trust; and Collaborate generously to create change.  

Project Planning Not-so-secret Recipe: Action Iteration, Agility, and Transparency

Successful project planning is robust, seeking adequate consultation, and creating appropriate plans and governance structures. However it should also be among the shortest of the project processes. A plan must be ready enough to execute, but malleable enough to adapt mid-project. The only way for this style of project management to be successful is when it’s executed within a team that is psychologically safe, with strong teamwork and supportive leadership. Working together, transparently, and with humility putting the project goal at the center and not organizational or team ego, true and sustainable change can be achieved.