Underused Common Sense in Project Management

Horse sense

My grandmother, may she rest in peace, always talked about how important it was to have horse-sense.

When it comes to common sense, some people have it, and others don’t.  If you don’t have it - know that you don’t have it and act accordingly.  All of us have our areas of strength and weakness.  It’s a mark of honor to know and work around the areas in which we are less than strong.

Find someone you trust with common sense and make a habit of seeking out and listening to their advice.  The embarrassment you save will definitely be your own.

Use it

Fair or not, the responsibility of applying common sense goes to those who have it.

Is common sense being used in your business?

I believe that consistently applied common sense will ensure a greater than 60% success rate on all projects.  Looking from the other side, a lack of common sense will over time result in the failure of at least 80% of all projects.

A lack of common sense is a dangerous achilles heel.  Most of us believe that we have common sense.  Here are some simple questions to ask yourself:

• Do your team members consistently say “Yes” to anything you propose?
• Do your projects/efforts consistently exceed budget by more than 25%?
• Do your projects/efforts consistently take more than double the time expected?
• Do you consider your customers hard to please?

Customer satisfaction is a crucial test.  Clients may say that they are pleased, but if they don’t use what you deliver, or don’t talk about it again, your project failed.  Metrics lie.

Best Practices

There’s a lot of talk about industry best practices in project management circles.  True common sense usually agrees with best practices.  Indeed, focus on best practices can be very helpful whether you consider yourself strong in common sense or not.

Project management best practices say that any project which does not meet the business need for which it was designed is a failure.  Common sense goes much further than this to say that any delivered project which does not meet current business needs at the time of delivery is a failure and a terrific waste of scarce talent and financial resources.

Why your team members with common sense may not be telling you everything

• They are too busy
• Shoot the messenger syndrome
• It takes courage to stand up to your manager or customer and say that they are missing something.  In today’s environment - brains are power.  Speaking up is often perceived as a power play - even if they are just trying to do what’s best for the team and the company.

If you are a leader, supervisor or entrepreneur at any level, you would be wise to pay less attention to numbers, and more energy in creating an environment where truth-telling is accepted, respected and welcomed.  This will spread the fresh air of common sense through every part of your organization.  And that can only help your business prosper.

(Image by lharkness on flickr)

Tagged as: common sense, energy, horse sense, Management, Manager, Meetings, messengers, People, Play, Power, project management best practices, Respect, Success, Teams

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