Any professional athlete will tell you that preparation is everything. The training, the right equipment and even down to the final moments before the event itself all contribute to over performance and success.

For many organisations, the excitement of arriving at the ‘starting blocks’ of a new contract implementation can soon be overshadowed by the realisation of the task ahead. We call it the ‘Oh no’ moment instead of the ‘Go’ moment. It’s the moment when organisations realise that perhaps more could or should have been done in readiness for the challenges and opportunities ahead of them. 

If you are reading this and recalling such instances, then you will not be alone. This is not that unusual, especially for those organisations who are seeing substantial growth over a short period of time. More often than not it comes down to the balancing of organisational resource investment across new business implementations and existing business activity which presents the challenge. 

However, all is not lost. If you are about to commence a new a business implementation then according to the Project Management Institute, ‘helping ensure the people on your project teams “push off” correctly, without a misstep, will orchestrate the best possibility for success’.

If you want your implementation project to be placed firmly at the starting block, and preparing to run the race to a successful finish then, if nothing else, we would suggest focusing on three key areas:  

Communication: Poor communication at the start of a project will have impacts throughout the project life-cycle. Good communication will be both efficient and effective, ensuring your stakeholders and project team have a common approach and understanding. ‘When we communicate, we are trying to establish “commonness” with someone. That is, we are trying to share information, an idea, or an attitude among the team involved in that particular project.’ Rajkumar, S. (2010).

Process: Embedded delivery process within your project act as a driving force helping you to perform project management tasks efficiently and effectively. ‘The main purpose of a project is to deliver a product or service to the customer and you cannot deliver any product or service without following certain processes’ (PMI, 2012).

People: Having the right people, with the right skills, at the right time is crucial to successful project implementation. In particular, take the time to ensure the individuals identified as responsible for project delivery have the time and capacity to do what is being requested. Identifying resource issues before you leave the starting block will prevent interruptions and possible delay, further down the track.