Traditional Company Scenario¶

Summary

The following document is a narrative walking through the implementation of holistic project management at a small factory which works under a traditional hierarchial structure with managers and employees.

Alice, Bob, Chris, and Daria work in a factory making widgets. They would like to implement holistic project management, so they order their favorite food and plan for a long meeting.

Defining Objectives¶

Alice: "One of our objectives for the next season should be to add two employees to every shift."

Chris: "We should also make sure to secure a redundant supplier."

Daria: "I'd like us to start having company picnics."

Bob: "I like that idea, too, Daria. Why did you suggest it?"

Daria: "I'd like to have closer personal relationships with our coworkers."

Bob: "So maybe the objective should be something like that, 'build employee friendships'?"

Chris: "I'm not a fan of that wording but it's fine for now. I realize mine should be more big-picture: we should have redundant suppliers so we can scale. So I'm changing my suggestion to be 'be ready to scale'."

Alice decides to reword hers to be grander, and writes down the following three objectives:

Objective: Hire more people
Objective: Be ready to scale
Objective: Build Employee Friendships

Determining Results¶

Alice: "So what are some results we'll be looking for, to measure if we're on track to complete those objectives? For hiring more people, one result is hiring two employees to every shift."

Bob: "I think to do that we're really going to have to show off how we're different from other factories."

Alice: "Good point - so another result will be completing a... some sort of document about our company identity? Not sure what to call that..."

Daria: "We can come back to it. For my objective, building employee friendships, one result is obviously setting up annual picnics. I'd also like to set up some sort of more casual event - Chris I know I've seen you playing the same computer game as me. We could have monthly tournaments

Chris: "Sure! I'm not very good but it'd be fun to play with people I work with. I'd love to learn who else plays video games."

Alice: "Chris, securing a redundant supplier is one result we need to achieve the objective 'be ready to scale'. Can you think of anything else?"

Chris: "Yea - 'be ready to scale' just sounds like a bigger-picture version of 'hire more people.' I guess what I meant was more, 'be ready to add more clients.'"

Alice: "I like that distinction. Reminds me that we'll need to get more prospects. What do we need for that?"

Chris: "Why not use the prospects we have? Set up some sort of referral program."

Bob: "Oh I like that."

Alice: "Me too. Let's look at what we have so far?"

Objective: Hire more people
- Result: Add two people to each shift
- Result: Write "pitch company to potential employees" document
Objective: Be ready to scale
- Result: Add a redundant supplier
- Result: Set up referral program
Objective: Build Employee Friendships
- Result: Set up annual picnic
- Result: Set up recurring video game tournament

Deciding on Actions¶

Daria: "Wow this is coming together faster than I expected."

Alice: "Well, there's still fair bit more to do, so let's stick with it. What actions do you need to take to set up an annual picnic, Daria?"

Daria: "Hmm... Well, I need to plan the event - what would happen the day of - and plan the scheduling... and... "

Alice: "That's fine for now - these actions are just a starting point for later. What about the tournament?"

Daria: "Well, I'd need to figure out what games we should play, what the structure of the tournament would be, and plan out the event. I don't have to worry as much about scheduling this one."

Alice: "Makes sense. For adding two people to each shift, we need to create a job listing, plan for their onboarding, and coordinate with shift supervisors. Can anyone else think of anything else? No? - Okay, what about writing our 'potential employee pitch document'?"

Bob: "Haha, come up with a better name. But seriously, I see it as having two main parts - write about what makes us special, and see which parts of that potential employees will care about."

Chris: "I like that - leaves us with extra material that we could probably use elsewhere."

Alice: "Yea, great approach Bob."

The conversation continues much in this fashion, until a complete list of objectives, results, and actions is decided upon:

Objective: Hire more people
- Result: Add two people to each production shift
  - Action: Create job listing
  - Action: Plan onboarding
  - Action: Coordinate with shift supervisors
- Result: Write "pitch company to potential employees" document
  - Action: Give it a better name
  - Action: Write about what makes us special
  - Action: Figure out which special things prospects care about
Objective: Be ready to scale
- Result: Add a redundant supplier
  - Action: Qualify potential suppliers
  - Action: Sign contract with new supplier
- Result: Set up referral program
  - Action: Design referral program
  - Action: Figure out referral budget
Objective: Build Employee Friendships
- Result: Set up annual picnic
  - Action: Plan picnic event
  - Action: Figure out scheduling
- Result: Set up recurring video game tournament
  - Action: Figure out which game to play
  - Action: Organize tournament structure
  - Action: Plan tournament event

Determining Responsibility¶

Alice: "Okay, this is looking like a pretty solid plan. Let's look at just our actions now:

Create a job listing
Plan employee onboarding
Coordinate new hiring with shift supervisors
Come up with a better name for the "Potential Employee Pitch"
Write about what makes us special
Figure out what potential employees like about us
Qualify potential suppliers
Sign contract with new supplier
Design a referral program
Figure out a referral budget
Plan a picnic event
Figure out picnic scheduling
Figure out which games to play at a tournament
Organize a game tournament structure
Plan a game tournament event

Alice: "Let's look back at the results we're trying to get and see what we missed - looking at it, I see we could probably add an action to budget for each of these..."

Alice, Bob, Chris, and Daria take a bit to extend the list, making sure that each new item is based on one of the results they planned for earlier. Alice reminds them they aren't trying to add subordinate tasks, but new actions which those on the list don't already cover. (For simplicity, I'll stick with the list above.)

Once everyone is satisfied with the list of actions, it's time to figure out who should be responsible for them.

Alice: "This is different than who will do them. This is the person who will make sure the necessary work gets done, and be responsible for making decisions relevant to the action. In other words, a manager."

With that in mind, the team (each a manager of their own department) picks the actions they're going to be responsible for:

Alice, who is in charge of accounting & production, is responsible for:

Budgeting for the referral program
Coordinating new hiring with shift supervisors

Bob, leader of the sales team, is responsible for:

Designing a referral plan
Qualifying potential suppliers
Signing a contract with a new supplier
Organizing a game tournament structure

Chris, head of marketing, is responsible for:

Coming up with a better name for the Prospective Employee Pitch
Writing about what makes us special
Figuring out what potential employees like about us.
Planning the picnic event.
Planning the game tournament event.

Daria, who runs human resources, is responsible for:

Scheduling a picnic
Creating a job listing
Planning employee onboarding
Plan which games to play in a tournament