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Most outdoor activities require a fair degree of preparation to do – whether it’s a camping trip with the family, taking the local Boy Scout troop up into the hills, or something more involved, like mountain climbing or a white water rafting trip.
Like any activity with multiple parts involved in it, outdoor activities can benefit extensively from project management methodologies and thought processes. Most of what we’re saying here is presented in project management training, wilderness survival and camping manuals, but it bears repeating for the lessons you can take from it in managing your own business.
First, start with the desired outcome and work backwards from there. In outdoor activities, the desired outcome is getting to and from your destination, having had a good time for all participants, while keeping everyone involved safe, and reasonably comfortable. In a business context, this is "defining the goal of the project, and assessing how much you’re willing to spend to meet it."
From that desired outcome, work backwards to the next step – how long will your trip take? How much gear will you need to pack along for your trip? In a business context, this is setting up your man hour budgets to complete the task at hand.
A detailed list of resources needed to complete the project
What equipment will you need to take? How much will it weigh you down? Is there a weight/price/performance optimum that you need to consider? Can you do this trip with your existing gear, or will you need to get, say, new sleeping bags rated for a colder climate? In a business context, this is the detailed list of resources needed to complete the project, including weighing trade offs between spending new money on new hardware and software, versus sunk costs in existing gear, and the need to acquire new capabilities.
Once you’ve backtracked to what supplies are needed for your trip, you’ll want to go over a list of contingency needs. Is your first-aid kit up to date? Do you have a GPS enabled rescue radio in case someone gets hurt? Have you brought the necessities of emergency preparation, such as a fire-starting kit, and water purification tablets? In project management parlance, this is "planning for disaster" – assume that things will go wrong, try to assess, from seeing what your competitors are doing, where these deflection points can come from, and plan appropriately for them. For a certain type of morbid personality, "disaster planning" is an enjoyable part of the process.
The last step is to allocate who’s bringing what to the expedition, and what’s going in what packs. If people are responsible for bringing their own gear, who checks it out for safety and suitability? If everyone is bringing one communal piece of gear that everyone uses, who’s responsible for what items? This allocation process is critical for making sure that everyone brings the gear needed to go, with no duplication and with all needs met. In project management for your business, this is assigning task leaders to tasks, and giving them the authority and accountability to use their own initiative.
Running a business looks like scaling a mountain for a lot of entrepreneurs. The trick to doing it is to do it one step at a time, with a clear plan of action for your ascent into success!
Look here for More project management training articles or for an extensive directory on related sites on: project management training.
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