Are you a home cook or a chef?

“Shit, we’re out of thyme”

With those 5 words, Christmas dinner took a turn for the worse.

Mom stressed. Me breaking my brain and trying to help. The rest of the family in the living room, blissfully unaware of the drama unfolding in the kitchen.

I hear you wonder:

What does Christmas dinner have to do with project management?

Let me explain…

Recipes vs principles

Let’s take a professional kitchen instead.

Clean and bright stainless steel everywhere. Hot as hell.

The occasional f-bomb from the chef.

If this place runs out of thyme, they wouldn’t break a sweat.

They’d work their way around it, substitute it, or turn the flavor of the dish around in no-thyme (I’m proud of that one).

They’d serve it with a confident smile, and you’d never notice.

Why?

Because they master the fundamentals.

They know the core principles of cooking. And that allows them to adjust for context, or for a missing ingredient.

Back to Christmas dinner

With kids living abroad (sorry mom), an evening full of laughter around the dinner table is all my mom wants for Christmas.

But she’s not a chef, and follows recipes to a T.

And what happens if you miss an ingredient when you’re following a recipe?

Shit hits the pan.

Especially with a high-stakes dinner like Christmas evening.

Project management & core principles

Project management is just like cooking. A recipe will get you a long way.

But here’s the problem:

If it doesn’t work out, you have no idea why.

And that’s why relying on recipes is a dangerous game to play. Especially in today’s world, where the context of your project changes every day.

Change requires adaptation, and strictly following recipes won’t allow for that.

First principles do.

You need a fundamental understanding of the working mechanisms. Some frameworks to guide you, and a way to think.

That allows you to model them and make them work for your project.

No fancy Gantt charts or 30-tab Excel templates that “guarantee project success”.

Bogus.

The fact that it worked for someone else, doesn’t guarantee it will work for your team, company, or industry.

Instead, we’re starting by asking the right questions. Having the right conversations. Gathering people, doing the analysis, and breaking down big goals into small steps.

And the first question you should ask when you start a new project?

Why?

The golden circle: what, how, and why

Simon Sinek made millions with three words: start with why.

He explains how most teams reason from the outside in:

1. First, they decide what to do

2. Then they'll figure out how to do it

3. And if you're lucky, there's is a justification for it

What Simon suggests instead, is to turn the order around:

1. First, find out WHY you're doing a project

2. Decide how you'll reach that goal

3. Start executing in small steps

Project management is all about doing things right, but this is useless if you're not doing the right things.

And how do you decide what the right thing is? You guessed it: know the why.

Knowing your why is the lead domino for your entire project, from planning through execution and closure. It helps you align teams, take decisions, and move with confidence.

How to determine your project’s why

Projects are a way for organizations to make a change. You’ll do a project for one of these two reasons:

1. Solve a problem

2. Capture a new opportunity

When you’re starting a project, this is a great starting point. The next question is seemingly obvious: why?

• Why is this problem worth solving?

• Why are we chasing this opportunity?

Don’t settle for the first answer; really drill down.

Everyone wants to do X cheaper, faster, or better. That’s too easy. Why should it be cheaper?

Remember that annoying toddler that asked why at least 5 times, while you thought the first answer was clear enough? Be that kid!

A good why is clear, relatable, and realistic.

It connects a project to company strategy and aligns the benefits with the company's overall mission.

And it will help you communicate your project using that alignment.

Let’s make it practical

Want to do something with this today?

Here’s a fun one for your next project meeting:

Ask everyone to write the reason for doing the project on a post-it.

Put them on the wall, and brace yourself. If you've ever wondered why decision-making has been tough, the writing will literally be on the wall.

Don't be fooled by the simplicity of the question. It's a simple but powerful concept that will transform the way you manage projects.

Don't just do things right, make sure you're doing the right things.

And the best way to do that, is to start with why.

What’s next?

This was the first of a series on the core principles of project management.

Next week, you’ll see how you can use the why to define success for your project. Once the why is covered, we’ll move on to question number 2: who?

Oh, and the Christmas dinner? We used oregano instead. Crisis averted.

That’ll do for this week - until next Tuesday!

Cheers,

Jasper

PS: Know your project’s why and you’ll deliver on time. Know your customer’s why, and you’ll get them to buy. My friend Brian is a pro at differentiating your business so it aligns with your customer’s why. Join 12,593 others reading his free newsletter here.

PPS: here’s Simon Sinek’s full Ted talk. 61 MILLION views, and counting!