Jani’s Journal Issue 33: Got Project Management?
10/29/2024
Despite everyone feeling the pinch of having to do more with less, we often overlook the organizational efficiency and productivity that project management practices bring. Well, look no further! While project management practices can transform nonprofit operations by increasing efficiency, meeting deadlines, and achieving mission-critical goals, many nonprofits have yet to fully adopt these methods. Some organizations may feel that formal project management is too resource-intensive, or they may lack the necessary training and tools to implement it effectively. Others worry that it could add rigidity to their inherently flexible, mission-driven work. However, by embracing project management in a way that aligns with nonprofit values—through clear planning, structured execution, and transparent monitoring—nonprofits can boost coordination, optimize resources, and create a more profound, sustainable impact within their communities.
In this edition of Jani’s Journal, we explore project management basics that can ensure you’re consistently delivering on your mission effectively and efficiently.
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Jani’s Jackpot!
If you only have time to read one article, Jani’s Jackpot promises the ultimate payout!
🔗 Reinventing the Business of Doing Good: Project Management in the Nonprofit Sector 🔗
This classic article from the Project Management Network underscores the transformative potential of project management within the nonprofit sector, where organizations increasingly face complex challenges. While traditionally used for corporate objectives, project management can enhance efficiency and effectiveness in nonprofits, helping them achieve social goals such as reducing human suffering, improving societal safety, or raising cultural awareness.
However, many nonprofits, especially smaller ones, lack familiarity with these methods, often due to limited resources and a focus on mission rather than management processes. Key adaptations can make project management applicable to the unique needs of nonprofits, especially by simplifying planning processes, clarifying objectives, and applying strategies for volunteer-driven tasks and funding-specific projects.
Project Management Practices
🔗 Crush Your Nonprofit Project Management: More Than Just a Methodology 🔗
This NPCrowd.com article emphasizes the importance of project management as a flexible, mission-driven approach to help nonprofits efficiently execute projects and maximize impact. While project management is often found in the corporate setting, its practices require an adaptable mindset and resourceful solutions for the challenges of limited funding and diverse stakeholder engagement often faced by nonprofits. While the practices and skills may be universal nonprofit project management is unlike its corporate counterpart in what it seeks to deliver; nonprofit project management focuses on creating mission-based social value rather than profits for shareholders. Key project management practices that can benefit every nonprofit include:
Defining Clear Goals and Objectives: Set specific, measurable targets aligned with the mission.
Creating Detailed Project Plans: Outline steps, assign responsibilities, and monitor progress.
Engaging Stakeholders: Identify roles and expectations to foster collaboration.
Implementing Flexibility: Adapt to changing needs, allowing for creativity and agility.
Celebrating Successes & Learning from Failures: Recognize wins to boost morale and treat setbacks as learning opportunities.
🔗 A Guide to Project Management in Nonprofits: Strategies for Project Management in Small Teams 🔗
This article by the Nonprofit Learning Lab provides an in-depth look at essential project management practices tailored for the unique needs of nonprofits. It underscores the value of project management technology to streamline tasks, track progress, and enhance communication, noting that tools like Asana, Trello, and Basecamp can be beneficial if used effectively. Additionally, it highlights the utility of Responsibility Assignment Matrices (e.g., RACI, DARCI, and MOCHA frameworks), which clarify roles and responsibilities, ensuring accountability and minimizing role confusion.
Implementing these approaches helps nonprofits overcome common challenges, manage limited resources efficiently, and foster a collaborative, mission-aligned work environment.
🔗 How Executive Sponsors Influence Project Success 🔗
This MIT Sloan Review article highlights the often overlooked but critical role of executive sponsors in project success by outlining specific behaviors across four project life-cycle stages: initiating, planning, executing, and closing. An executive sponsor is a high-level leader who acts as a link between the project team and top management. They contribute to success by setting clear goals, mentoring project managers, fostering stakeholder relationships, and ensuring effective communication and quality. Success is measured by meeting customer needs, staying within budget and schedule, and achieving long-term benefits for the organization. The article’s findings emphasize that engaged executive sponsors are crucial to driving projects to successful completion.
Project Management Pitfalls
🔗 Your Time Is Limited So Chose Your Projects Wisely 🔗
This MIT Sloan Review article highlights the common pitfall of investing resources into the wrong projects and emphasizes the importance of deliberate, strategic decision-making to avoid errors of commission (pursuing unsuitable projects) and omission (missing valuable opportunities). Nonprofits, often resource-constrained, must carefully evaluate project alignment with their mission to avoid resource drain and maximize impact. This is especially important as grants and donors’ priorities may tempt us with “mission creep,” a gradual broadening of programs and services beyond your original mission and core competencies diluting your efforts and spreading your team too thinly. By proactively asking why a project matters, engaging critical perspectives, and listening to skeptics, nonprofit leaders can avoid missteps and enhance organizational resilience, making thoughtful choice management essential for their sustainability and effectiveness.
🔗 Five Questions to Get Your Project Team on the Same Page 🔗
This Harvard Business Review (HBR) article emphasizes the critical need for ongoing alignment within project teams, as lack of shared understanding can lead to miscommunication, disengagement, and ultimately project failure. Nonprofit organizations, often facing limited resources, must be especially vigilant about team alignment to maximize impact and efficiency. HBR suggests these proactive questions to maintain alignment and avoid common pitfalls to maintain team alignment:
“What is your understanding of the project?” ensures a shared understanding which is the foundation for commitment.
“What concerns do you have?” surfaces early warning signs and fosters transparency.
“How do you see your role?” clarifies role responsibilities and aligns team expectations of themselves and others.
“What do you need?” identifies personal and resource requirements which encourages prioritization and advanced planning.
“How would you describe your current commitment to the project?” gauges engagement and allows space for expressing limitations or concerns that supports robust risk identification and proactive problem solving.
🔗 Your Project Is Vulnerable. Do You Know the Warning Signs? 🔗
This article from MIT Sloan Review explores the "cycle of doubt," a self-perpetuating dynamic where stakeholder support for a project wanes due to specific "doubt triggers" such as shifting priorities, leadership changes, and delivery or messaging issues. These triggers can erode confidence and cause contributors to distance themselves, ultimately jeopardizing project success. Using a "Doubt Trigger Checklist" helps project leaders proactively identify and address early signs of doubt, preserving the project’s reputation and momentum:
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