Key ingredient for a successful project - your war room

You are about to kick off your project. You have hired your external consultants. You have pulled in your best internal resources. You want them to work together, learn from each other and move the project forward. Their time is precious. You are burning thousands of dollars a day. You want the best from this team. You may be surprised by how important their working environment is to their success.

The project room - often referred to as the war room - can determine how much cooperation you get from your team. It cannot be a dungeon. It cannot be an ivory tower either. Let me provide some guidance.

First, collaboration is our starting point. The environment needs to facilitate collaboration. The team will make several decisions along the way and need to exchange information easily. I suggest an open environment with a lot of whiteboards. It should be easy to conduct multiple meetings at the same time. You are going to need multiple projectors or large screen TVs for presentations. A high bandwidth internet connection is critical. Don't forget to have a printer nearby. 

Next is location, location, location. The war room cannot be far away from the business. It cannot sit in an ivory tower disconnected from the operations. It should be near the business where people can have easy access. The project team should be able to walk to the operational environment (call center, assembly line, picking station, etc.) and see the process in action. They should be able to interact with the business people in their natural environment. Face-to-face communication is much better than web conference calls or e-mail exchanges. The location should encourage social interaction to build trust between the project team and the business. The team cannot afford to be thought of as outsiders.

Also, do not underestimate the soft points. You may have a collaborative environment located near the business, but it must be welcoming as well. Keep some snacks around. Have soft music running in the background. Post your project achievements on the board. Have regular celebrations in the war room when you achieve your milestones. Provide late-night access to the war room for extended sessions. Have a couch around for relaxing. Bring some food from time to time and invite the employees over to see progress.

Finally, set the tone for what is acceptable/desirable behavior and what is not. I have seen consultants sending e-mails rather than talking to each other, even when they were sitting just a few chairs apart. Why would you spend hundreds of dollars to fly them over to sit in the same room? That should not be acceptable. Also, tuning others out by putting headphones on and staring at laptops all day is not conducive to collaboration. Try having a quiet area to get “heads-down” work done but keep the open environment as an area for discussion.

If you are interested to learn more, please connect with me on LinkedIn, follow me on Twitter, or watch me on YouTube.

My name is Cem and this has been another gem.