Why most project kick-offs stay a formality

Preparation is decisive. The project lead who walks into the first meeting on Monday morning unprepared sets the tone for the whole project: improvising is fine.

Prepare three things. The first is a brief of no more than two A4 pages that every participant reads in advance. The second is an agenda for the kick-off with blocks on content, collaboration and commitment. The third is a list of the most important choices that need to be made on the day, not deferred.

Send the brief 48 hours in advance, not a week. Earlier and it is forgotten. Later and it is not preparation. In the invitation, ask for one question or concern per person. Those questions are the real agenda of the day.

A project kick-off has four blocks. The first block is the why. Why are we doing this, what is the goal, what changes if we succeed. No more than twenty minutes, sharp and without corporate jargon.

The second block is the content. What is the scope of the project, what is in it, what is explicitly not in it. This is the block where misunderstandings later come from, so make it painfully concrete.

The third block is the approach. How are we going to work, who does what, how often do we meet. Which tools do we use and how do we make decisions. Make this as specific as possible.

The fourth block is the risks. What could go wrong, what can we already see coming, what needs extra attention. A project without this block is a project with blind spots.

A project kick-off in the same meeting room as every other meeting unconsciously steers people towards ‘just another meeting’. People do not switch into project mode. They nod, think about their email and move to the next appointment.

For a project of any size, it always helps to hold the kick-off somewhere else. An off-site meeting venue. A day in a museum or by the coast. A half-day at a neutral spot where nobody is checking email.

The distance from the normal work is a statement: this project is different, this deserves our full attention. It does not need to be expensive, but it does need to be a deliberate choice.

A project kick-off without clear agreements is a good conversation. A project kick-off with recorded commitments is a starting point. The difference lies in what gets physically captured on the day itself.

End the kick-off with three visible outcomes: an action list on the wall that everyone has seen, a calendar with the most important milestones on the table that day, and a conversation about which risks the team as a whole will keep watch on.

Schedule the first and second follow-up moments in the same session. Do not do that vaguely (‘we’ll meet up when needed’) but concretely (Thursday in two weeks at 2 pm). Anyone who walks out without those two dates in the diary has not yet committed to the project.

For most project kick-offs inside your own team, you can do this yourself. But when the project is complex, an external facilitator helps. For instance when several departments or parties are involved, or when interests pull in different directions.

An outsider asks questions you no longer dare to ask. They hear things that stay unsaid inside your organisation. They make differences visible that would otherwise only blow up in week six.

At larger project kick-offs it also helps not to put the production and the programme on the project lead. Think of fifty or more people and several stakeholders with high stakes. They have better things to do at the kick-off than check whether the tech is working. We think with you on the content and make sure the kick-off pays off.

For a large project kick-off with multiple parties: get in touch. We think with you on the content approach and arrange the delivery, so you can be sharp where you need to be sharp.

Call us on 085 401 40 14 or email hello@live-impact.nl. We will make sure your project gets off to a good start.

Seriously fun.