Cycle of success

Winston Churchill once said To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often. Change often, it sounds simple enough. As project managers we change projects all of the time deliver, reset and go again. But are we edging toward perfection by changing our delivery often enough?

It is easy to improve against poor results of the past, especially if they are not your own. But changing the way in which we deliver by embracing the best elements of successful projects of the past, is surely the only way we can truly achieve perfection.

If you have come on to a project and made the change you need to succeed, you may well feel your work is done. But it is at this stage we need to ask: what else is here? How can we improve on this even more? Where are the opportunities?

In the past month I met with academic Jon Whitty and Stephen Adjaidoo, project manager at Macmillan Cancer Support. Both of these professionals live by the code of continuous improvement. Jon believes strongly that project managers need to shed the tools and techniques that do not deliver success, evolving to a future where success in a part of the professions DNA. Stephen is an evidence library project manager at Macmillan and understands that embracing the successful traits of the past and creating a culture which constantly adapts will not just deliver successful projects, but will even save lives.

For both of these men it is all about evidence-based research. The winning formula is to review and alter, again and again. The cycle of success is to change often.