Page 102 - Harvard Business Review, Sep/Oct 2018

Too Many Projects

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Does Your
Organization

Have a Problem?

The first step in dealing with initiative overload is to honestly
executive team spent tens of millions of dollars on consulting assess and acknowledge the problem. Ask yourself the
to design the new, combined organization’s strategy, struc- questions below to gauge whether your organization is at
ture, systems, and staffing but provided no funding to support risk. Then total up the yesses—those are red flags. If you have
the critical work of transition and integration. Largely as a more than four, you may need to better manage the number
result of conflicts between “us” and “them,” the acquiring or timing of initiatives.
company lost most of the acquired entity’s best talent—the
retention of which had been a core goal. This is not an iso-
lated example: Initiatives are often launched without having Do leaders often talk about Are initiatives often started
resources dedicated to them. the need to cut back on the mid-cycle in response to
Band-Aid initiatives. When projects are launched to number of new initiatives? new external or internal
provide limited fixes to significant problems, the result Yes/No demands?
can be a proliferation of initiatives, none of which may Yes/No
adequately deal with root causes. We have seen companies Does a significant amount
make substantial investments in training programs in of work and team time Is stopping or slowing down
revolve around launching
initiatives countercultural?
response to superficial assessments of the skills required, and supporting initiatives? Yes/No
or provide limited support for integrating the new skills Yes/No
into day-to-day practice. Are legacy projects
Cost myopia. Another partial fix that can exacerbate Does the organization lack renewed without a regular
overload is cutting people without cutting the related work. a central group that reviews assessment of current need
This happens when organizations fixate on lowering head all current initiatives? or effectiveness?
count (an obvious way to rein in human capital costs) but Yes/No Yes/No
overlook the price they might pay—in employee burnout, per-
formance strain, and turnover—for expecting the remaining Does the organization lack Are initiatives launched even
people to take on the tasks of those who have left. A leader at processes for quantifying when resources are already
a consumer products firm described the problem in an inter- impact and prioritizing stretched?
Yes/No
view: “We had planned to reengineer our processes, but it did initiatives?
Yes/No
not happen. The impact is that our people are working harder Are people expected to
with fewer resources.” Are multiple initiatives being absorb new demands
Initiative inertia. Finally, companies often lack the launched simultaneously? without stopping past
means (and the will) to stop existing initiatives. Sometimes Yes/No projects?
that’s because they have no “sunset” process for determining Yes/No
when to close things down. A project might have been vital Are initiatives often launched
for the business when it launched, but later the rationale no without coordination across Are projects launched
longer exists—and yet the funding and the work continue. units and functions? without a full analysis of
For example, for decades many organizations used so-called Yes/No ongoing support needs?
mystery shoppers to gather customer feedback and evaluate Are initiatives launched Yes/No
customer service. With the internet, companies can now without business cases? Are initiatives launched
gather feedback and data directly from their customers. But Yes/No without a “sunset,” or
many have been slow to make the shift, because parting stopping, process having
with a well-oiled machine—even one that is clearly dated— Are initiatives launched been identified?
means switching to less-tested systems that require all-new without success metrics? Yes/No
competencies. The habits and the infrastructure for mystery Yes/No
shoppers are already built. Capturing, understanding, and Is the success of an initiative
valuing customer data gathered online requires time and Does the current number of evaluated primarily by the
different skill sets. So, many traditional companies follow the initiatives have a negative leaders who launched and
lead of upstarts, which do not have to unlearn old, comfort- impact on productivity and own the project?
prioritization?
able approaches: They hire new leaders with the right skills to Yes/No Yes/No
help make the transition.

SEPTEMBER–OCTOBER 2018 HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW 69