How many projects meet 100% of the performance expectations that were identified during the strategic planning process? Is even hitting 90% realistic or is the number closer to 80%? How about 70%? An article in the July 2005 issue of the Harvard Business Review, Turning Great Strategy into Great Performance, identified many reasons why companies typically only realize a little more than 60% of their strategies’ potential value. This course builds on that article to help project leaders make sure they get the most performance out of the strategy which led to their project. We will take a “here’s-the-problem, here’s-a-solution” approach to help students of this course not repeat common project mistakes and maximize the potential of their project’s performance.

Learning Objectives

At the successful conclusion of this course, you’ll be able to identify and discuss: 1. Identify eleven reasons project performance fails to match the strategic potential. 2. Develop an effective blueprint for a pre-project presentation to executives with the greatest potential for success. 3. List five sure-fire ways to insure a proposal fails. 4. Identify three essentials for a successful proposal. 5. Identify two different kinds of proposals. 6. Specify ways to justify a proposal by saving time or money. 7. Select and use “strong” words and phrases that will increase an executives confidence in the project’s potential as presented. 8. Identify the budget impact of the proposal. 9. Devise a strategy to overcome organizational silos that may block a project. 10. Devise a strategy to overcome other execution blocking effects from the organization. 11. Conduct a pre-project “post mortem” to identify potential challenges to the project. 12. Identify three effective methods of brainstorming and collecting ideas from a group. 13. Rapidly generate and rank-order a list with a group. 14. Devise a new strategy of dealing with project vendors that can help remove execution obstacles. 15. Identify the three components essential for productivity.