“The Project Economy Has Arrived,” and as former Project Management Institute (PMI) Chairman Antonio Nieto-Rodriguez writes, projects have displaced operations as today’s economic driver. This has huge value creation implications. The PMI forecast is for project-oriented economic activity to hit $20 trillion by 2027.
There is more than economic growth at play. Nieto-Rodriguez points out that the shift to the project economy requires a change in organizational focus, from running the business (i.e. operations) to changing the business (i.e. projects).
To make this shift, organizational leaders are changing how they think about the roles people play, as well as the capabilities they need, to successfully manage change and economic growth through projects.
At Consequent, we’ve spent 20 years helping clients increase revenue and reduce costs better and faster through their most important cross-functional projects. The most successful projects share a few common traits:
- The most successful initiatives start every project with the key stakeholders in the same room (virtually or physically) to educate one another and align on:
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- Where they intend to go and why by a specific date
- What top three priorities are most important
- How to implement those priorities most productively
- Who is the best person to lead each step
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- The best cross-functional teams adopt a simple, shared project management framework, language, and lifecycle
- High performing teams are better at identifying where people get their energy and building upon natural strengths
- Great cross-functional projects embrace change as a constant and revisit implementation plans regularly and adapt as needed
High velocity cross-functional projects have become the most important economic driver in today’s digital age and the best ones do these things differently. It’s worth it. As Nieto-Rodriguez writes, “Great projects don’t just make work better––they make the world better.”
