Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work.
Stephen King – Writer

Managing by projects is not new. Earliest homo sapiens had to gather food, hunt for food, build shelter, and propagate their clans. Each activity had a beginning and end with a specifi life-driven purpose – hunt and gather food for another day. Sounds like a project to me.

COVID changed project boundary conditions, rules, tools, and expectations. Remote work is now projectized with a focus on deliverables. Architecture, accounting, engineering, and consulting have been doing projects for years, but, what do these project look like in FOW:

• Specific objectives (new work expectations). The project outcome, objective, or deliverable (think execution) may be reducing nonconformances by 50%, building a bridge, making 10 cold calls a day, taking the kids to the zoo, designing an ad, or planning a party. VUCANs are held accountable for meeting project objectives.

• Risk managed projects (new work rules) Project management will emphasize risk management, specifically problem solving and decision making around meeting schedule, cost, quality, cost, and scope project objectives.

• Satisfy global stakeholders (new work boundary conditions). Satisfying the project customer is not good enough in many of today’s projects. The project must satisfy global customers, banks, and regulators.

• Specific start/end date (new work expectations). Managers will manage projects based on a critical path. Project teams and professionals deliver based on project start date and end date. Intentional Self- Management is a prerequisite of project team members.

• Risk assurance (new work rules). Projects will entail continual real time, project monitoring to assure risk controls and management. Key project factors including schedule, cost, quality, and technology will be monitored, assured, and executed in real time. Projects evolve into an ongoing processes of continuous improvement.

• Risk monitoring (new work tools). Project resources, such as VUCANs(R), equipment, technology, processes, and experts will be monitored perhaps intrusively to minimize work and project risks. Monitoring will entail blockchain, Internet of Things, cyber risk management, CCTV, facial recognition, and other technologies.

Work Lesson Earned: Companies are going to have to justify their high stock prices and enhance their earnings. Project work will be tougher. More VUCANs will be working@ home. Each project member will be responsible for a specific deliverable. Companies will want things done faster, better, and cheaper. Managers will have a tougher time mentoring, supervising, and helping remote workers. There will be fewer place to hide for bullsh*t work.