Looking to make an impact in your new role?
Reflecting on achievements and distance travelled leads to greater clarity on how you’re adding value, even on the days it feels like nothing gets done.
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Nick Morrison on Unsplash |
As part of searching around for return-to-work activities, I came across the idea of the 90 day plan. It’s popular as a job seeking tool, but seemed a useful framework for a returner. What I wanted was a way to hit the ground running, since I knew once I started back at work the pace would be high.
1. Get started with a generic template
I sought generic 90 day plan structures and activities to give me a starting point. I decided against purchasing a book, though my search turned up several with positive reviews. Helpfully, searching “new manager 90 day plan” offered up a few good articles with enough generic content to get me started. “General” and “Project Management” were my headings as a starting point, with 0-30, 30-60 and 60-90 day timeboxes.
2. Get your head straight
Once I’d noted down a loose structure, as a first step I reviewed the ITIL Practitioner Principles. If there’s such a thing as the Agile mindset in a box, Practitioner is it. So I refreshed my mindset with a few minutes on the Principles, and primed myself to identify compatible actions.
3. Identify pain points
During my KIT days I had taken advantage of the remote-only meetings to note down issues and conflicts. Side note: How long could you sit and write without being rude in a “normal” meeting? Not long.
For the sake of categorising them quickly, I mapped these issues against the PMI Knowledge Areas to define which area(s) of project management capability these issues were affecting.
4. Go nuts
I came up with as many ideas as possible for possible solutions to address each issue, ignoring constraints for now. In the end I had over 40 ideas mapped against 25 issues. I took a break, then reviewed the list to remove the clearly unachieveable ideas, cutting the list down to 20 Reasonably Achievable(TM) ideas.
5. Ranking
I ranked the ideas very simply at first, by Value and Effort (Low or High). The best ideas would be High Value, Low Effort. Also, High Value, High Effort and Low Value, Low Effort might also be worthwhile.
Once I’d ranked by Value and Effort, I was left with quite a long list of potential actions. To prioritise further, I added a risk rating of 1-3. This was an attempt to quantify relational (people) risk, since I’d already quantified opportunity cost (effort) in the previous step. I was looking to rank the potential for conflict and where there was increased astuteness required in successfully communicating the change and reasons for it. The interpersonal risk was highest if the idea required negotiating or persuading activity with senior stakeholders. However, since negotiating and persuading are key Project Manager skills, I was mindful that a couple of high-risk actions would be useful to include so that I can continue developing these skills.
I then categorised each idea according to whether it was task-focused, people-focused, or both. This was to make sure I was engaging with the people side of things. Since I’m a naturally task-oriented person, one of my weaknesses is to unconsciously assume that a task or process solution alone can address an issue (spoiler alert: it can’t).
6. Prioritise and select
To select the final ideas, I considered the ones which were:
- Most achievable
- Addressed an issue which at least one other person had directly expressed (i.e. not just my perception)
- Addressed a gap (if it’s not broken, don’t fix it!)
- An opportunity for me to develop and add to my skillset
Interestingly, the final list represented all of the ITIL Practitioner Balanced Scorecard areas (Financial, People/Customer Satisfaction, Processes, Learning and Growth). I took this as evidence that I’d succeeded in producing a holistic set of possible actions.
I chose two High Value, High Effort ideas for the final list. These ideas would need to be developed further in conjunction with stakeholders. I placed them further ahead in the 90 day plan, although of course I would seek opportunities for informal conversations right from the start.
The next step is to task out each idea and schedule actions, once I have a sense of weekly routines in-role.
Conclusion
The exercise was surprisingly valuable in itself, as a way for me to reflect and connect to the bigger picture. I came away feeling re-energised and enthusiastic about my ability to effect incremental change for the better. I’ve been considering adding a quarterly exercise to my regular retrospective schedule and the 90 day plan exercise has touched on some of the aspects I wanted to capture.