You get a large project, and you're excited because it will be the largest project you've ever worked on. Reality sets in and you start to hyperventilate. How will you successfully complete it? Oh my God, what have I done? You've never had to manage a large project before. You know you have to step outside your comfort zone if you expect to succeed. But where do you start?
Back in the day, I worked for a large outplacement firm in corporate America. Every year, I worked on a few large research projects for my employer. I'm not sure if it was because of my computer science background, but I knew the importance of breaking down large projects into manageable chunks.
This knowledge prevented me from becoming overwhelmed and getting stressed. And I was always able to complete the projects by the assigned deadlines. As soon as I was assigned any of these projects, I started working on them right away.
How to Manage a Large Project: Never Consume Content in Isolation
Recently, on The One Problem Interview, Tetyana Dudnyk shared her insights on managing and completing large projects. And she recommended doing exactly what I did – breaking down the project into smaller chunks of work, then working on the project, one chunk at a time.
[Watch the video and/or read the transcript: The One Problem Interview: Tetyana Dudnyk, Director, Technology Project Management Office]
A step in working on any project is gathering and consuming information to understand requirements. However, when you’re consuming content, whether it’s reading journal articles or a book, listening to a podcast, or watching a video, never do so in isolation. The content may be related to the project you’re working on, but also connect it to the world around you and to what you already know. You'll be surprised by what you discover, and you’ll be able to add thoughtful insights to your project deliverables.
The interview with Tetyana Dudnyk was fresh in my mind when I read the book, How to Set Goals with Kaizen & Ikigai. So, my mind was automatically making connections between the podcast interview and the book.
Introduction to Kaizen: Manage a Large Project
I've heard about Kaizen, but frankly, I never took the time to explore what it is and how to use it. The book, How to Set Goals with Kaizen and Ikigai by Anthony Raymond had a lot of good information. And it gave me a great understanding of Kaizen.
Definition of Kaizen
Kaizen is a goal achievement technique that encourages improvements via daily incremental progress. A few steps taken every day allows you to travel a great distance in a year. Consistency plus time is very important. You can complete the most difficult tasks if you act every day. Kaizen is continuous improvement so do your best every day. Get out of your comfort zone. When you practice Kaizen, you make the impossible possible.
To understand and practice Kaizen, it’s important to understand the six underlying principles.
6 Principles of Kaizen
Principle 1: Immediately Start Working Toward Your Goal
Take the first step even if it’s a small one. Make your project real. What’s one step you can take today to get that larger project started. It could be as simple as making sure that you understand the project requirements and accompanying deadlines.
Two-Step Approach to Immediately Start Working Toward Your Goal
- Break project goal/objective into its smallest parts. Identify the challenge that’s easiest to tackle.
- When you overcome the smallest hurdle first, you build up psychological momentum.
Principle 2: Use a Continuous Improvement Process (CIP)
The Process: Observe, Plan, Do, Check, Adjust (OPDCA)
Step 1: Observe
When you face a challenging situation like a large project, and you don’t know where to start, simply observe. This is often difficult to do. Be honest and pay attention to your shortcomings.
Step 2: Plan
Identify a process to improve your situation. The strategy you develop may not yield the desired results, but that’s okay. Learn, evaluate and try again.
Step 3: Do
Implement the plan. Collect the data you need to work on the project. This could be the number of information interviews you did to get the data you need to work on the project.
Step 4: Check
Analyze the data you collected. What progress did you make against your expectations? Pay attention to big discrepancies.
Step 5: Adjust
Analyze all data points in the previous steps. If there’s a gap between the desired outcome and expected outcome, formulate a hypothesis to identify the root cause. Make changes to ensure the problem doesn’t reoccur. When you make changes, go back to Step 1. It’s a continuous improvement process.
Principle 3: Interpret Success and Failure Correctly
In Kaizen you stick to the OPDCA process indefinitely regardless of the outcome. The mindset you cultivate using this framing is critical to the success of the process. If you face a setback, it’s no reason to quit the project. Consider it a data point to evaluate during the adjustment phase. Develop the habit of framing things. View obstacles as opportunities to learn.
Principle 4: Use the 5 Whys Technique to Identify a Problem’s Root Cause
The goal of the method is to arrive at a final response that’s most likely the root cause of the problem. You do this by asking Why five times.
Principle 5: Act Daily, Not Weekly
Commit to incremental progress. Perform a project task every day of the week without fail. If you’re waiting for feedback from someone, more than likely, there are other activities you can perform simultaneously. Mastery follows consistency.
Principle 6: Measure Your Results Ritualistically
If you’re working on a large project, are you meeting the deadlines? Are you completing daily assigned tasks? Log something every day. When you record your progress daily, the task remains persistent in your mind.
How to Use Kaizen to Manage a Large Project and Achieve Goals
What small step can you take today to move your project forward? Kaizen forces you to focus on steps you can take right now. If you don’t act, ask yourself the following question.
- What’s holding me back?
- Am I motivated enough to cultivate new habits?
- What challenging obstacles have I overcome in life?
- How would I define an ideal workday (one where you complete all your objectives that you have control over)?
A few steps taken every day allows you to travel a great distance over a month and a year. You can complete the most difficult tasks if you act every day. With deliberate practice you can make the impossible possible.
In Kaizen there is no such thing as good enough. You cannot be set in your ways. And look for ways to fix inefficiencies.
Final Thoughts: How to Manage a Large Project and Achieve Goals Using Kaizen
As I’m writing this article, I’m feeling guilty because there is something that I committed to that I haven’t acted on. It’s so easy to tell yourself to commit weekly to a goal instead of daily. What happens is that a week goes by and you realize you didn’t do that thing. I’m supposed to work on Bookish Notes for my membership site, but I’ve been doing it sporadically. I committed to myself to have at least 50 Bookish Notes on the site and I have only a half of that. I let other things get in the way of achieving that goal.
Using the Kaizen approach, I can work on one small step every day to create a Bookish Note, even if it’s going through the AI transcript and making corrections. This seems doable for me and less overwhelming than creating 25 Bookish Notes.
How do you approach large projects? And how do you achieve life goals? Ask yourself this question:
What small step could I take today to improve my situation in the long run?
Now, do you see how Kaizen can help you to tackle very large projects? Read the book, How to Set Goals with Kaizen & Ikigai.
