ANR #50: HBR: “When is a Project a Project?

The S-Curve of Projects

Good Day!

Knowing when to start a project is a key factor to its success. And yet it’s a strategic talent very few companies have developed. If you begin a project too soon, chances are high that the project will fail outright. Yet, there is currently no management framework available to help executives or individuals with the vital decision of when the right time has arrived.

Creating the iPhone was first suggested to Steve Jobs in 2001. He loved the idea, especially the possibility of disrupting the telecom sector. But despite the attractive vision, he refused to launch a project to realize it. Not until 2004, three years after the initial proposal, was an official project established. Amazing, right?

I discussed this challenge during a podcast interview with Whitney Johnson, a friend, and a Marshall Goldsmith 100 coaches’ colleague. Whitney is one of the most influential management thinkers by Thinkers50; author of “Build An A Team” and “Disrupt Yourself”, and a leading expert in the application of the S-Curve of learning.

We decided to team up and use our expertise to find a solution to this strategic problem. Happy to share the outcome of our work, the S-Curve applied to Projects, just published by Harvard Business Review.

Talk with the Corporate Rebels

A few days ago, I had the pleasure to interview Pim de Morree, one of the founders of The Corporate Rebels, winners of the Thinkers50 2019 Radar Award. Together with Joost Minnaar, they are creators of a movement of individuals and organizations that inspire changes towards more engaging workplaces. By traveling the world and ticking off their bucket list of entrepreneurs, academics, organizations, and business leaders, they uncover alternative ways of working that unleash the potential of employees. Here is the youtube talk, hope you find it as inspirational as I did.