Who doesn’t love a fast and furious game of Whack-a-Mole? It’s the perfect way to relieve stress and take out your frustrations! Banging away at those pesky moles as you race to beat the clock with maximum mole destruction is surprisingly satisfying, even for adults.
That is, unless you’re already doing it all day long. For many project managers, their entire workday feels like a giant, never-ending game of Whack-a-Mole as they race against the clock, tamping down a constant stream of pesky project issues that pop up. Whack one down here, and it creates another issue over there.
Have multiple projects to manage? Congratulations! You get to play an entire arcade full of Whack-a-Mole games! And in the pharma space, that’s just standard operating procedure. When every drug and every lot represents a separate, individual project, there’s plenty of opportunity for mayhem moles to pop up. Supply chain issues, clinical trial challenges, product testing and quality assurance delays…it’s a minefield of moles that multiply overnight. And, just to up the ante on the stress, your career depends on whacking all those moles.
It’s no wonder so many project managers are overwhelmed, burned out and struggling to maintain their sanity. Especially when the tools they have to work with don’t make it any easier. Spreadsheets and Gantt charts make navigating the dynamic projects nearly impossible. Changes are inevitable, and when they occur, it affects the entire portfolio in a cascade, shifting dependencies, timelines, and workloads.
Making adjustments across the entire portfolio in these traditional tools is extremely tedious, time consuming and potentially error-prone. And, it means your project plan is virtually never up-to-date with real-time changes. At best, it’s a snapshot in time–at worst, it’s a lookback, making it impossible to adapt to changes or predict hurdles coming down the line. As a result, the project management approach becomes perpetually reactive, putting projects–and your competitive edge–at risk.
If this sounds like your daily struggle, you should know it doesn’t have to be this way. Modernizing your project management strategy with real-time tools that help you gain visibility, structure and agility can help you break the cycle and manage projects with clarity, control and the ability to adapt as priorities, demands and expectations change.
Here’s how to shift to a more adaptive project management approach that gives you a winning strategy to manage change in a dynamic environment.
- Create a process for prioritizing. Sometimes things just happen—issues pop up unexpectedly that are completely out of your control and you have to figure out how to prioritize on the fly. But creating a framework for prioritizing can help you determine which to focus on first—and which you can let linger a bit. First, it’s essential that every project or shift in scope or priority that you make must have a direct tie to your overall business strategy. Establish criteria for which issues will be top-tier priorities, which you can tackle next and so on. Creating this framework can help you clarify with stakeholders when and why certain issues get priority treatment and help you to manage expectations.
- Gain better visibility. The problem with using Excel or Gantt charts to track project status is that they’re constantly outdated. The PM is on the hook for making updates to the timeline by wading through hundreds of emails and Slack messages, and that doesn’t include the endless stand-ups and status meetings. Meanwhile work on the project is ongoing, so there’s virtually no way the PM can keep up.
To stay on top of project status, you need real-time visibility into who’s working on what to plan ahead and be ready for the next task or phase. With a clearer, graphical view of project status, PMs can spot hurdles before they create bottlenecks, and adapt quickly—even proactively—before the entire project falls apart.
- Maximize reporting efficiency. Who has time to turn spreadsheets and Gantt charts into pretty PowerPoints when you’re in full-time crisis mode? PMs can spend hours compiling data from multiple sources to report on progress to stakeholders. And of course, by the time the report is delivered, it’s already old news. This is not only inefficient, but it also means leadership never gets a clear picture of project status. They have no idea problems have popped up until the entire project is in jeopardy.
Establishing systems for efficient, real-time reporting can keep stakeholders up to date and save the entire organization time and money. Reporting is a critical part of project management, so addressing it up front can prevent a huge hassle and headache down the road.
- Implement realistic resource planning. Not only are PMs putting out fires all day, but employees are waging their own battles as well. When too many projects and tasks on your plate combine with unexpected hurdles and challenges, it’s a recipe for overwhelm, burnout, disengagement, and turnover. And no organization can afford to lose great talent now (or ever).
Efficient resource planning is essential for preventing burnout and making sure projects actually get completed. By prioritizing projects around business objectives and gaining clarity into who’s working on what, your team can be much more effective at managing workload, dealing with issues that pop up unexpectedly, and ensuring projects get over the finish line on time.
If it feels every day is a never-ending game of Project Management Whack-a-Mole, it may be time to change up your strategy. Pivoting to a more adaptive approach to project management and implementing real-time tools that give you clear, graphic-based visibility can provide a winning combination to help you defeat those mangy moles once and for all.
