Time and again projects end up costing WAY more than they should. People get exhausted. Project fatigue sets in, and any momentum forward on a project begins to sputter.
This all happens for a reason, and it’s a simple one.
Good news is, there is also a simple resolution.
All you need to do is find relevance in a project.
Relevance is about finding and preserving project meaning. One thing you’ll probably hear us talk about a lot, and is important in assessing a project, is the relevance gap. It’s a time-related phenomenon that presents itself as the gap between what a project team knows about the value of a project solution and what clients believe is possible in a project, or understand as the value of a solution.
Think about two ships passing in the night. They never see each other and fail to realize how they could’ve worked together for the betterment of both crews. The relevance gap increases, and the goal is to eliminate it so the client understands the project potential just like the project team does. As time increases without this knowledge sharing, so does the relevance gap.
Here’s why you may experience a growing relevance gap as time goes on:
- You may lack the background or resources necessary to fully understand technologies or tools that serve as productivity enablers.
- A project team deepens their understanding of what you need to find success, but the understanding and value isn’t communicated to you.
- The most efficient solutions aren’t identified as technologies evolve or the subject matter becomes more complex.
- Your supporting project team doesn’t set it as their responsibility to discover all the possible solutions or innovations for a project.
- Project teams supporting you begin work without really understanding the right outcomes.
The relevance gap occurs in almost every project, and the ideal relevance gap is one that is eliminated completely. Talking about processes and workflow right from the start is critical in reviewing a project’s needs. Skipping this step could result in clients falling beyond their maximum capable productivity and a big, fat relevance gap will rear its ugly head. The two ships once again pass each other in the night, going in completely separate directions reminiscent of the separating lines on the relevance gap graph above.
Want to learn how you can eliminate the relevance gap? See what questions you can ask to help identify the gaps in Chapter Two of The Relevance Path: 7 Steps to Give Your Organization a Decisive Edge.
