Don't bury your projects alive
Have you noticed that around this time - mid October - the stores are already starting to push the Christmas decorations? They may even have stopped stocking the Halloween items, and the inventory is just dwindling?
Last year I tried to buy my son a Halloween costume the week before the holiday, thinking that was plenty of time. I was wrong. The ghouls and jack o'lanterns had been switched out with Santa’s sleigh, and in the very back was a measly group of deeply discounted costumes in either size XXS or XXXL. The holiday was deemed over before it even began.
But… was it?
If you looked at the commercial world, there wasn’t much more money to make on the new, shiny things. People had seen them, bought what they wanted, and if you hadn’t, then too bad for you - you should’ve been out earlier.
But to millions of kids and their parents, we were still working the process of planning. We were carving out our pumpkins, and hemming the costumes, preparing for the day that hadn’t even arrived yet before the commercial world had decided it was over.
Just because the perception may be that there’s no more money to make (or not enough to make the board happy with the analytics) does not mean that it’s time to stop refining, preparing, planning, and executing.
I think oftentimes there’s a tendency for people to look to the new thing before they’ve even realized a successful execution. If you don’t complete your project and reflect on the journey, you don’t know where you went wrong - or where you went right! If you don’t identify and learn from your failures, how do you make sure you don’t carry them into your next project? Likewise, how can you identify standards and efficiencies that could easily be repeated in future work?
Stop for a moment and consider how we often rush to the next “shiny object” before fully embracing the current one. Just like the commercial shift to candy canes before the kids have even collected their sour vampire bats, many businesses find themselves chasing the next project without even making sure that the last one was executed to its fullest potential (or even executed at all!).
When wrapping up your current initiatives, think about these strategies to ensure you don’t miss the true spirit of your projects:
- Reflect on Your Halloween: Just as families cherish their Halloween traditions, take the time to celebrate what you’ve accomplished. Gather your team to discuss the successes and challenges/lessons learned of your recent project. This reflection can reveal valuable insights that will guide your future endeavors.
- Document the Process: Create a “Halloween diary” of sorts—a place to record what worked, what didn’t, and the lessons learned. This documentation is vital for ensuring that the knowledge gained from one project informs the next, helping you avoid the fate of rushing into a new venture without proper preparation.
- Celebrate the Season: Just as we celebrate Halloween with never-ending candy and decorations, make it a point to recognize the hard work of your team. Acknowledging their efforts fosters a sense of pride and motivates everyone to carry that energy into future projects.
- Plan Your Next Adventure: When you finalize your current efforts, start plotting your next steps with care. Outline clear objectives and timelines, ensuring that your next project is well thought out rather than a knee-jerk reaction to market trends.
- Stay Agile: While it’s crucial to plan, be ready to adjust your course based on the feedback you gather. Just as the sheet ghosts might need last-minute hemming and eye-hole adjustments, your strategies should be flexible enough to incorporate new insights.
While the rush to the next big thing can feel tempting it’s essential to take a moment to fully embrace and analyze your current projects. Reflecting on your work, documenting your insights, and celebrating successes, means you won’t just move forward because you think you should, but do so with purpose and clarity.
As you prepare for the upcoming months, focus on closing out your current initiatives effectively and analyze the successes as well as the failures, so you’re stepping into the future equipped with valuable lessons learned, ready to create a successful next chapter.
