Success Strategies — by Michael Angier

Success Strategies — by Michael Angier

Stages of a Project

In the past year we completed an exciting book project, "101 Best Ways to Get Ahead from 101 of the Most Successful People in the World." The project was several months in the making and like many good projects it took longer than expected and had many unforeseen challenges and serendipities along the way.

Here are what I see as the stages or phases of a project:

Conception Stage – This is the idea phase. It's fun and filled with possibilities. You can start to see it as it begins to take form in your mind.

Evaluation Stage - After you've done some brainstorming and have gotten over the initial euphoria of your idea, it's time to see how it fits (or doesn't) with your mission, purpose and values. You need to also determine how it fits with other projects that are planned or in process.

Decision Stage - Before you commit time, money and people, you must decide when and if you should pull the plug.

Planning Stage - This is where you identify the tasks required, plan who will do them and the order in which they will be performed.

Production Stage - Getting it done. This involves bringing together all the resources to create the desired result. It's management of the plan and it is work.

Completion Stage - What's required to bring this whole process to a close? When is it "done"? The end result is realized.

Follow-up Stage - Upon completion, it's good to look back at what happened to learn from the process and be able to do even better with the next one. What worked, what didn't, what's next?

And remember to celebrate.

There's overlap, of course. But each of these phases seems to take on a different energy. A project has a "life" and it looks and feels different as it progresses.

As we neared completion of "101 Best Ways", we burned a lot of "midnight oil", but it didn’t feel like it took that much energy.

We learned a lot in this process. To complete it, we had to utilize many of the principles and strategies that SuccessNet and this book promote. And like the proverbial "success is a journey, not a destination", we've grown along the way.

The feedback we've received from people who’ve reviewed the book has been extraordinary. I am both proud and humbled at the same time. Sarah, Dawn and I are delighted with what we've created.

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E-mail Michael at: BeYourBest@SuccessNet.org

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