photo by HeyThereSpaceman.
It has happened before and it will happen again: your project stalls. The obvious solution to the problem is to get the project moving again-- start moving forward towards completing the work. The secret to achieving the solution seems less obvious, but it is quite obvious. Getting the project going again is all about hard work-- it is about creating traction.
trac·tion noun \ˈtrak-shən\
a pulling force exerted on a skeletal structure (as in a fracture) by means of a special device.
Traction is the pull force that is needed to get projects back on track. The hard work of pulling projects out of a frozen state and back into forward progress is a bit like clearing some snow for your car tires to grip, putting the grippy things on the floor of your shower, or using a towel to open a jar of pickles. Projects, like these other things, need some grippy force to keep going.
As leaders, we pull projects back to life for the sake of our team. Bringing a project out of a frozen state is key to your team's success-- without it, they will fail. Success or failure does not tell the entire story however. Some leaders rarely get their elbow dirty with a stalled project.
Leaders struggle to unstick their projects because they know that the same action will be required over and over again. Traction is hard work, but the energy drain of constantly pulling projects forward is exhausting. Unsticking projects is the revolving door of project work and it potentially never ending, but the rewards are also high.
Pull a project out of frozenness this week. Do it for your team... or your boss... or a bonus, but whatever the motive, see it through to the close. When you do, compare that result with what might have happened if the project never made it. That balance-- what is different with the project finished-- is what the project meant. The project may just mean something more than you had assumed. Results of the project could exceed your expectations and pack more of a punch than you would give one batch of work credit for.
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