What a lot of leaders lack is the courage to say 'No!' No to the number of projects that have a tendency to accumulate within an organization and that divert scarce resources away from those projects that are critical. By critical, I mean those projects that are aligned to strategy.
It was a lesson that I learned only too well when I was heading up the Beauty Care and Nutritional Division of a pharmaceutical company. We had been asked to deliver more profit which called for a very close look at where our resources were being used. To my surprise, I am ashamed to admit, we uncovered over 150 projects that were in some way sapping the organization.
All were valid projects. All project leaders had good reasons as to why they were being done and the need for the resource allocation - but, if the truth be told, only a very few of them were absolutely critical and aligned to strategy. By focusing on the very few, we freed up resources, both financial and human; our response time improved as did our overall performance. Importantly we delivered on the revised profit target.
I spoke last week about navigating the minefields of Power and Influence and one of the outcomes of power and influence is the emergence of a project or activity and the corresponding allocation of scarce resources to support it. As leaders, we need to be true to strategy and have the courage to simply say 'No!' and to encourage others in the organization to do likewise.
In closing, review all the projects that are currently in the pipeline or on the drawing board and cull those that are not critical. Be ruthless is this task. Then, develop a culture in the organization where people are encouraged to identify projects or activities that should be stopped and where to say 'No!' is encouraged rather than frowned upon and is not seen as failure.
ian
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