It is a wonderful wish! Hope! Encouragement! This year could be the best ever! A positive outlook!
What will help make the difference THIS year? Are we destined to repeat history, or are we positioned to learn from it and do better this time around? Many resolute decisions are made as we invoke the new year – some huge – some very small changes that will make this year better than last.
It is very much like kicking off a new project. At the onset, THIS project can benefit from every lesson we have ever learned from past projects! There is no reason that this new project can’t be the best managed project EVER!
The quintessential ingredient for this hope and positive outlook is the past. What did we do in the last project that we NEVER want to do again?! What have we experienced in past projects that we’d like to include in EVERY project from now on?! The retrospective we gain from capturing these lessons-learned is invaluable to our organizations’ growth in project management maturity as well as individual advancement of our PM careers. Best practices come from experience. Do not limit your best practices to those derived from your own experience. Learn from other people’s mistakes as well as their victories. “Go to school” on successful projects; analyze project failures to understand root causes of failure.
Each project launch or kickoff should feel like a party to celebrate in advance the successes that are sure to follow. Pass out hats and party horns that highlight the mood of
“Happy New Project!”