Fergus O'Connell is one of the world’s leading authorities on project management and getting things done. He is the author of eight novels and sixteen business books, including Simply Brilliant, a book about common sense and how to use a power you already have.
Even if you only have a nodding interest in WWI history, you may be familiar with the idea that when the war broke out in August 1914, the view on all sides was that it would be ‘over by Christmas.’
The same thing happened in WWII when, towards the end of 1944, the view was that Nazi Germany was defeated and that the war would be ‘over by Christmas’. As it turned out, the Allies had to fight the Battle of the Bulge and the war ground on for another six terrible months.
‘Over by Christmas’ is an idea that’s deeply rooted in our psyche in the West.
How many times have you been handed a project and told it has to be done:
‘This year’, or
‘In this calendar year’, or
‘Before the end of the year’, or
‘Before Christmas’, or
‘Before the Christmas holiday
‘By December 20’ [The last Friday before Christmas this year. Really???
And yes indeed, there are many projects that have to be completed ‘before Christmas.’ If you work in retail, for example, there are things which have to happen in the months leading up to Christmas to meet the expected demand.
But there are many, many projects to which this doesn’t apply.
So, if, when you’re handed the project, you’re told it has to be ‘done by Christmas’, be suspicious. It may be that this is nothing more than some tidy-minded boss or project stakeholder wanting to cross it off a list, to say that we got it done this year rather than next.
It might even be that delivery of the project in the run up to Christmas could be hugely disruptive to an organisation that is trying to wrap up a lot of its own operations ‘before Christmas’; that they’d be far better off with a delivery sometime in the New Year.
Questioning the date in this way could well result in converting an impossible deadline into an achievable one.
And wouldn’t that be a fine thing?
For all the tips you need to make your projects successful, there’s The Project Management Masterclass.
Read more from Fergus O'Connell
Fergus O'Connell, Novelist, Project Manager, Teacher, Speaker
Fergus O'Connell is one of the world’s leading authorities on project management and getting things done. He is the author of eight novels and sixteen business books, including Simply Brilliant, a book about common sense and how to use a power you already have.
He founded his first project management company – ETP – in 1991. His disruptive, common-sense project management method, The Ten Steps, has influenced a generation of project managers. In 2003, this method was used to plan and execute the Special Olympics World Games, the world’s biggest sporting event that year. Fergus’ new company, Fast Projects, is again disrupting the project management space by focusing on speeding up projects / shortening time to market.
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