My blog post from last week stressed that we should not measure for the sake of measuring. The same concept goes for determining what projects to begin. I do not care whether you are an IBM or the corner mom and pop store, you do not have the capacity to take on every project that may be needed to resolve obstacles within the organization. So if we can’t undertake everything how do we make the value of the projects understood by the organization as a whole?

Taking a page from last week’s post, consider for a moment these strategies to respond to the question above. In order to conduct the best possible project efforts for your organization:

1. Consider whether the project is worth implementing – We need to choose projects, which have a clear impact on the organization. The project should be one that has a good potential to resolve the issues that most likely are being presented by a failure to meet the needs of the client.
2. Is the project critical to the organization? – The other side of the coin is not only whether the project is worth implementing but is it critical to the operation of the organization. If you chose not to undertake the project would it make a difference to the organization over time?
3. Be sure your projects are in alignment with your organizational goals – It is critical that, while the project must be important to the customers, it must also be aligned with the goals of the organization. The solutions to the obstacles need to be ingrained in the goals that management and stakeholders have established.
4. Make sure that the project fits the needs of the organization– The projects need to be based in the demands of the organization and its stakeholders. These needs are paramount to the project’s success.

Once you have determined the projects to be selected the steps of the TLS Continuum need to be implemented completely. The intent is to identify a project, carry it out to its conclusion and implement the indicated solutions. With the implementation the next phase becomes the natural path to organization acceptance. With the successful results in hand complete the implementation in a small group. Once the results are in use the success to explain the benefits of the process to other departments. With interest from other interested parties, roll out the project process one department at a time until the total organization is on board.

The key to the successful enterprise initiation of the TLS Continuum is to start with one organizational subgroup and then roll it out until everyone is not only onboard but championing it to the organizational stakeholders bot internally and externally to the organization.