How to Execute and Finish Brutal Projects

One of the biggest differences between the 35 year old and 45 year old version of myself is the ability to execute on difficult, long-range projects. Being an instant gratification sales guy at heart, this hasn’t been an easy transition. From studying others and my own experience, I’ve learned that executing well requires following a proven process as much as it requires attention to the right details and perseverance. Two years ago, Sales Talent set out to completely rebuild our online presence (messaging, website, client testimonials, etc). It proved to be a monumental task that taught me a lot more than just how to rebuild an online presence. Out of this experience, I learned a few keys on how to execute.

Have a Solid (not Perfect) Plan.

A very successful friend of mine lives by the ideal of creating “a decent plan and executing fiercely”. In my own experience, a simple plan with solid execution is more effective than an ambitious plan that proves difficult to finish. Crystallizing your goals and your purpose before starting a project also prevents the inevitable desire to create a grander vision as you dig into the work.

Time.

Executing well is impossible without devoting sufficient time. The time to: think through the objectives, plan out the steps involved, anticipate obstacles, etc. From experience, I have found that investing extra time up front thinking through each of these points is time well spent. This is a twist on the sage advice to “measure twice and cut once.” Before I start the project I make sure that I’ve blocked off the needed time in my calendar for each phase. I also make sure to add buffer time for the inevitable hiccups than any major project encounters. The alternative to devoting the time up front is to spend what usually amounts to 3x the time on the back end fixing the problems that creep up when you don’t “front load the pain”.

Positive Constraints.

Some projects are of your own creation (such as our online presence rebrand) or handed to you by others (for example, creating a complex solution for a potential client’s problem). Either way, the less defined the project, the more stressful it is. For example, a poorly defined goal for our website would have been to build the “best recruiting website possible”. What does that even mean? Where do we begin? When is it finished?

In the words of Tim Ferriss, the author of The Four Hour Workweek,

“How do I say no to a thousand things so I can concentrate on one or two things?”

Placing positive constraints on our website led us to three simple goals. We wanted to: build a responsive website (mobile, desktop and tablet optimized), increase conversions (potential client and job seekers) by 50% and utilize a format that allowed us to easily update our content. In my words, “clear goals equals a clear path”.

Stay Focused.

Our online rebrand stretched out to almost 24 months from conception to finish. Given that this was not my primary job, I found the process to especially grueling. Stealing a page from software development, we broke the project into “sprints” or smaller pieces. This allowed us to achieve “wins” and stay focused. An example of this was the creation of our client testimonial videos and the animated video found on our site here. As each piece was finished we integrated them into our old website. I can’t even imagine a company of our size trying to juggle and launch all of these assets at the same time. Once they were finished we attacked the biggest piece – our website.

“The main thing is keeping the main thing the main thing.”

Stephen Covey

Anticipate Challenges.

A big takeaway I learned from this ordeal is the necessity of thinking through and anticipating challenges. For example, building a website is a collaborative process between the client (us) and the website development team. In this example, there are multiple milestones in a project where the website development team required our input and guidance before they could proceed with the next phase of the project. We prevented multiple bottlenecks and delays by asking when those times would be, how much time they anticipated it would take us to think through our response and what we should be thinking through before hand.

Applying the Lessons.

At Sales Talent we try to live by the Russian proverb, “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.” As we learn lessons on executing we write them down and “institutionalize” these lessons in “best practice” shares. For example, the bottleneck lessons we learned creating the Animated Video were applied to and streamlined our website build. We also applied many of the lessons from our rebrand with our own clients. For example, before we start a search we talk through our client’s interview process in detail. Where has it derailed solid candidates in the past? Are there potential scheduling conflicts? Etc.

Getting back to the results from our rebrand we’re more than pleased. We achieved or exceeded all three goals we set for ourselves and we finished the project on budget. One last lesson we learned on how to execute is to take some breaks at the end of each sprint and celebrate each “win”. 2 years is a long, long time to sustain the team’s efforts otherwise.