A question I ask myself a lot — what matters at the end of the day? Is it the successful completion of a big project? Should we celebrate just because something is done? Should we be proud of the long hours that we’ve put in and give ourselves a pat on the back on a job well done? Does that all matter at the end of the day? When would a project be considered a success? To find the answer, we have to go all the way back to how it all began — with the idea.

From ideation, to planning and to execution. That’s the typical lifecycle of a project. Now let’s look deeper at the ideation stage and hopefully we’ll find the answer. What purpose does an idea serve? What motivated us to start thinking about this idea? It boils down to the fact that we want to create value for others. The notion that this idea if implemented would bring about a certain degree of impact to its target group is the heartbeat of any project.

It is imperative that before we kickoff anything, we need to evaluate the potential value that an idea would make. This is akin to measuring a return on an investment. This is to avoid wasting huge resources and man-hours on something that may end up having little to no impact. Time and resources are precious. Being more cautious would allow us to step back and scrutinize the idea. It is such a basic thing to do but this realization would have saved the company so much cost and resource constraint.

How can we ensure that we done our due diligence in ensuring that something is worthwhile to be executed? If we’re the brainchild of an initiative, we should definitely seek opinions externally. This would allow scrutinization from different angles. Similarly, if we’re the ones doing the review, we should give constructive criticisms especially if we have any reservations. An early callout may bring about a halt to something or it could aim to fine tune and polish an idea. Having an even better version of the idea as a result of inputs from many individuals inherently means that the team is convinced that believe in the vision. This is not only a good start but is a catalyst that will ensure high quality delivery and ultimate value creation.