Day 18 Milestones

All right, we're continuing on with project thinking, which is really my simple construct for how you can do a project at work. So yesterday we talked about objectives and starting with the end in mind and making sure that you define an objective and then get everybody that's involved in the project to agree on what success looks like. So today we're talking about milestones. And milestones are points along the way where you're going to measure progress. These are critically important. Even if you're well, especially if you're doing a project that maybe is a little bit risky. But even in a project that is just a straightforward project, having some milestones will help you to demonstrate progress. When you demonstrate progress along the way, that's going to build the confidence of others that are watching you. You can also use milestones to get feedback and make adjustments. When you solicit other people to be part of the process and they see that you're willing to adjust and make changes, they will feel more buy in and sense of support of the project, which is only going to increase the chances of success. I actually encourage what I call many, many milestones. These may not all be ones that you are publicly putting out there, but having a bunch of milestones for you can help hold yourself accountable to always making progress and always moving forward. Then you decide which ones are the public milestones that you use to get feedback or demonstrate progress. Now, we've talked about objectives, starting with that in mind and using many, many milestones to hold yourself accountable to making progress and getting buy in and support from others. Tomorrow we'll talk about a communication plan for your project. Thanks for joining in this journey about project thinking and we'll see you tomorrow.